The university is seeing students who are 'much more optimistic' than others think — they're 'hungry for connection and community'
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An associate vice president at a Christian university told Fox News Digital that he believes college students today are hungry for a robust spiritual life — and it is up to schools to ensure that their needs are being met.
"For a lot of students that come to college and really struggle spiritually, we want to do everything we can to make sure that this is a place where they find their faith, if they're open to it, or maybe return to the faith, if they've kind of strayed from it," Tim Spivey told Fox News Digital in a phone interview.
Spivey is the assistant vice president of spiritual life at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles County, California.
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Alternatively, students who are already Christians can use college "to build a stronger, more vibrant faith," he said.
Spivey said he "believes that what we offer our students here in terms of spiritual life is second to none — and the Worship Summit is a key piece of that."
The sold-out 2023 Pepperdine Worship Summit drew more than 3,000 people to the campus on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023. The event featured performances from Christian artists Phil Wickham and United Voice Worship, as well as author/speaker Jonathan Evans. The college's website referred to it as "a special evening of praise, prayer, and preaching." (Elyse Jankowski/Peppardine University)
Pepperdine recently hosted its annual Worship Summit, an event that drew more than 3,000 people to the school's Malibu campus for a night of worship, music and spirituality.
On its website, the college referred to the Sept. 16 event as "a special evening of praise, prayer and preaching."
The event was open to the community, Spivey said — and roughly half the people who attended were not Pepperdine students.
The school as a whole has roughly 3,600 undergraduate students.
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Spivey said he's hesitant to believe popular claims that the current generation of college students is rapidly losing faith.
"We're seeing the next generation is very hungry and thirsty for spiritual life on this campus," he said — something he found extremely encouraging.
About half the attendees of the Worship Summit on Sept. 16 were not students of the college, said Pepperdine University's Tim Spivey to Fox News Digital. (Elyse Jankowski/Pepperdine University)
"I have a lot of exposure to college students" he said. "I believe that the current group that's on our campus, this generation, is far more hungry spiritually than what I've seen historically in my 30 years of association with this school and others."
Pepperdine, he said, is "unabashedly Christ-centered," something that University President Jim Gash expressed as a goal when he assumed the role in 2019.
That year, 2019, was also the first year of Pepperdine University's Worship Summit.
Gash wanted a commitment to Christianity "to be known as something that was going to be a cornerstone of his presidency," said Spivey.
Christianity, "is not ancillary — it's not a hobby that we have or something like that. It's central to what we do here at Pepperdine."
At Pepperdine, Christianity "is not a hobby," said Spivey. "It's central to what we do here at Pepperdine." (Ron Hall/Pepperdine University)
Spivey described the current group of students at his school as "a very vibrant, hungry generation."
He added, "They're much more optimistic than I think people think they are. I think coming out of the gate, they're hungry for connection and community."
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One way that Pepperdine facilitates this is through service, said Spivey.
The school offers more than 100 service projects every year.
"Every time we do those things, students are able to connect with each other and build relationships that are rooted in Christ," he said.
"And that is something that that changes their lives forever in many cases."
"We see the hunger and thirst among this generation for things, the things of God," said Spivey.
"And so we're capitalizing on that opportunity."
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Christine Rousselle is a lifestyle reporter with Fox News Digital.
