[Tribute to former university president]

Pass through the Gates

“Pass through, pass through the gates, prepare a path for the people...Isaiah chapter 62, verse 10. It was a charge that the college had always taken to heart but one that took on new life under the leadership of President Jim Bond. As a former pastor and missionary, the call to service and evangelism had taken hold of Dr. Bond’s heart early....It was a call he instilled in the entire institution during his 14-year tenure as president.

It was under Dr. Bond’s leadership that the spiritual well being of students was brought into even greater focus with the formalization of the office of Spiritual Development. With great intentionality, students are nurtured to reach upward in worship, inward as they grow in their personal relationship with God and outward in service to others.

It was 1987 when the LoveWorks Center for Compassionate Ministry was born and students began going...into the city, the country, the world around them…to minister wherever there was need. In the years since, going out to serve has become a hallmark of Point Loma Nazarene University. Thousands of students have traveled, some across town, others across oceans to be the physical and loving presence of God.

At the same time, other facets of the promise given to Dr. Bresee, began to be made manifest. The Bond years brought an increased spirit of collegiality among faculty and staff and the optimism of a bright future. The campus underwent something of a construction boom with the addition of ten major facilities, including Nicholson Commons, Cooper Music Center, Ryan Learning Center, to name only a few. The quality of academic programs began to soar, the faculty only got stronger and new programs like the Wesleyan Center for 21st Century Studies were developed to help PLNU clarify its Wesleyan identity.

Jim Bond’s story is fresh but it is already a legacy. It is his emboldened and grace-filled leadership that has set the stage for the destiny that is to come.