As always, Warner University remains committed to not only being a place of academic excellence, but also being a place of true, fruitful Christian faith. As such, we are excited to once again highlight what Spiritual Growth will look like on campus this semester. I sat down with the Spiritual Growth team: Austin Morgan, Warner’s Director of Spiritual Formation and Chapel, James Flaming, Coordinator of Spiritual Life, and Aly Croy, Student Life Program Coordinator, to discuss their plans for the Fall 2025 semester.
The theme for chapels and Spiritual Growth this semester is Imago Dei. It’s a Latin phrase that means, “in the image of God,” and comes from the idea found in Genesis 1:27: “God made humanity in His image, in the image of God He created it; male and female He created them.” The Spiritual Growth team is working to establish within students a firm foundation of what their identity is in Christ and how to live out that identity. The team believes that the issue of identity is a central one for our future graduates; with increasing societal struggles of self-worth and insecurity, learning how to ground one’s identity and worth in the image of God is crucial. The team also pointed out how this biblical idea is one that has historically been a unique focus of the Church of God (Anderson) movement, so they were glad to make this theme the focus for this semester.
Each chapel will build off of one another in order to teach the message of the Imago Dei more effectively. Chapels earlier in the semester will focus on what it means to be made in the image of God, whereas later chapels will focus on how to live out the image of God in practical matters. Other Spiritual Growth events that are being planned throughout the semester will tie into the topics being discussed in chapel.
Last academic school year, we experienced a great move of God at Warner University. Many students’ lives were changed because of Jesus and the gospel, and we are glad to have been used by God to be a part of that. The Spiritual Growth team has reported seeing the results of that in the student body, even this early in the semester. They were amazed at the quality and quantity of student leaders working with Spiritual Growth this semester. These student leaders have taken on a lot of responsibility voluntarily, eager to serve others however they can. The Spiritual Growth team looks forward to fostering these relationships and seeing how these leaders will contribute to the continued growth of spiritual life on campus.
During move-in weekend, the semester’s first chapel saw seventeen students come forward to commit to a life of following Christ for the first time. Please join Warner University in prayer as we hope that God will continue to bring forth fruit from the student body of Warner. We are excited to see what He does next on our campus!
You can read more about how God moved at Warner University last year here and here.
