Fuller Theological Seminary’s unique contribution to the Church is reflected in the union of its three faculties. In this union, psychology and intercultural studies join with theology to effect the biblical mandate of bringing persons throughout the world to maturity in Christ through every language and culture. As an educational arm of the church, Fuller’s three graduate schools seek to serve the Body of Christ in its worldwide ministry, combining these emphases in the type of training they provide.

The trustees and faculty of Fuller are committed to achieving and maintaining the highest academic standards in teaching, research and writing. In the quest for academic quality, we assume that there will exist:

1. A commitment to increase and strengthen the quality of teaching in the classroom
• through funding and supporting innovative programs
• through varied teaching models
• through careful evaluation and feedback;
2. A rigorous program of research and writing to provide literary leadership for the church;
3. Interaction with nonevangelical viewpoints;
4. A commitment to maintain the highest possible standards of responsible academic
freedom;
5. A commitment to flexibility in curriculum design
• to allow room for innovation and growth
• to recognize individual needs and specialized ministries;
6. A commitment to the best of theological traditions;
7. An academic program which will encourage and foster the spiritual formation of the individual;
8. Recognition by regional and professional accrediting agencies
• Western Association of Schools and Colleges
• Association of Theological Schools
• American Psychological Association
• Commission on Marriage and Family Therapy Education.

The Seminary is committed to an academically and professionally qualified faculty whose appointments and advancements are dependent upon potential and acknowledged competence in teaching, writing and professional practice. These standards assume:

1. A willingness to invest in the growth of persons both within the context of the Seminary and outside its walls
• personally
• professionally
• spiritually;
2. A commitment to relate productively with local congregations
• in support of local pastors by offering workshops and other services to enhance their ministry
• in a continued and expanded use of local churches for fieldwork experience
• in keeping local churches informed of Fuller’s ministries
• in listening to the local churches’ articulation of their ministry and needs;
3. An ability to serve the Church in the area of research
• by keeping abreast of the times
• by initiating new programs in order to meet present and future needs
• by coordinating efforts within the three schools to optimize the application of their unique resources;
4. A commitment to provide professional training of the highest quality for the varied ministries within the Church
• incorporating practical “in-ministry” experience
• stressing the importance of preaching and other means of communication
• recognizing the effect of culture on the ministry of the Church;
5. A concern for the highest standards of professional competence for men and women engaged in ministry outside of the organized church
• in the healing ministry of clinical psychology
• in the caring ministry of social agencies
• in the teaching ministry of educational institutions.

The trustees and faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary are pledged to serve the entire Church of Jesus Christ in its various expressions whether congregational, denominational or multidenominational. While maintaining a multidenominational structure, Fuller encourages its students to work within existing church organizations. In reflecting this approach, the Seminary assumes the following:

1. Strong denominational participation by individual trustees and faculty members;
2. Encouragement for students to serve the church organization that nurtured them;
3. The preparation of men and women for ministry in their own church organizations, recognizing the distinctives of each denomination or organization;
4. A commitment to be ecumenical in church relationships;
5. An emphasis on preaching, evangelism, Christian nurture and Church discipline through which unity is expressed.

In order to meet the demands of the Church today, the trustees and faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary take seriously the apostolic description of the Church’s nature—one body, many members. For this reason, the programs of the three schools and the continuing education programs are designed to provide training for a wide range of Christian service. This attitude toward diversity assumes the following:

1. A diversity of gifts and ministries to be exercised with awareness of the unity of the Body and dependence upon the head, Jesus Christ;
2. A variety of programs designed to prepare men and women for the general and specialized ministries identified by the church
• pastors
• staff ministries
• missionaries
• clinical psychologists
• youth ministers
• administrators
• research psychologists
• professors
• chaplains
• campus ministers
• Christian educators
• counselors
• evangelists
• marriage and family therapists
• social workers;
3. A correspondence between the enrollment in each program and placement opportunities
• responding to the church’s request for ministers with specifically defined training (e.g., preaching, Christian education, family ministries, administration)
• observing the growing need for mission training, particularly at the professional level
• addressing the continued need for clinical psychologists and marriage and family therapists;
4. The offering of extension courses in theological education to allow laypersons, many of whom are already involved in vocational service, to strengthen skills in Christian ministry;
5. The opportunity for in-service training which provides both academic stimulus and spiritual growth.

The trustees and faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary believe that the church of Christ must minister to the whole person. Emotional healing in Christian perspective is the particular goal of the Graduate School of Psychology, but the aim is shared by the two other faculties as well. The ultimate objective is that every Fuller graduate be equipped to model, as well as foster in others, a personal maturity which is demonstrated by loving service to others and responsible Christian discipleship. In developing and nurturing spiritual and emotional maturity, we assume there will exist:

1. An investment by the Seminary in the personal, the professional and the spiritual development of each of its members
• in time and availability
• in resources
• in services provided
• in participatory governance;
2. The opportunity for all students to participate in supportive community
• for social development
• for spiritual formation;
3. Easy accessibility to the counseling services offered on campus;
4. A commitment to strengthen marriage and family life while affirming the value of those who are single.

The trustees and faculty of Fuller Theological Seminary have a deep-seated concern to demonstrate and to evoke a quality of discipleship which applies the biblical norms of love and justice in all human relationships. This regard for social justice assumes that the following will be evident:

1. A biblically shaped perspective in the question of the relationship between evangelism, social concern and the Christian’s mission in the world;
2. Course offerings which encompass cross-cultural studies, problems of church and state, and aspects of social ethics, as well as social work, family guidance and mental health services;
3. Opportunities in internships and field education that confront students with the massive problems thrust upon them by our urban society;
4. A reflection in all areas of seminary organization of a significant minority involvement
• in the African-American and Hispanic Ministries programs within the School of Theology
• supported through a central office organized specifically for women’s concerns
• undergirded by the office of the associate provost for ethnic and cultural concerns.

Fuller reflects the multiethnic and cultural richness of the Body of Christ. Through its setting in Southern California and its international student constituency, Fuller Seminary is faced with the challenges and opportunities of multicultural ministry in a badly divided and broken world. This situation assumes for a theological seminary that:

1. Christ has broken down the dividing wall of hostility that separates people and races (Eph 2:14). But redemption does not efface the created cultural differences of people, but rather enables God’s people to enter more deeply into a fellowship of mutual understanding and love;
2. Since each cultural group has unique gifts to offer the church and its life, each one must be given a place where it can feel safe in the academic community and empowered to make its contribution to the upbuilding of the Body of Christ;
3. Through a broad ranging discussion of all parts of the community, programs will be developed that welcome and affirm the cultural diversity of its students both in providing faculty and staff models and a curriculum that develops a multicultural perspective on theology and ministry.

The seminary community is dedicated to the task of proclaiming the gospel both in its local setting in Pasadena and throughout the world. This commitment assumes that there exists:

1. A need for an evangelical, multidenominational seminary on the West Coast
• with a continued location in Pasadena
• ministering in the changing multicultural population of Southern California;
2. A concern not only to share the gospel with those outside the seminary but also to implant a missionary vision within the life of every Fuller student;
3. A dedication to the growth of the Church in every culture of the world confronted with rapid change and unrest.

The faculty of Fuller is committed to an integration of ideas, research and programming in the areas of theology, missiology and psychology. The faculty assumes that there will be:

1. A need to strengthen the theological foundations of such an integration to give it an enduring viability;
2. A need to strengthen the social science foundation upon which integration rests to give it greater scientific credibility;
3. A growing recognition that the resources of psychology and theology may, if combined, provide new and more effective remedies for many human problems that exist;
4. A commitment to the integration of theological and social science insights in the development of missiology;
5. A need for academic, professional and personal preparation for training in these new disciplines;
6. A requirement for an academic community in which scholars from all three disciplines can generate, through research and theorizing, a new body of literature to promote integration.

The seminary community is committed to a responsible stewardship of its intraorganizational processes, facilities and financial resources. This assumes that there will be:

1. An endeavor toward development into an organization that accomplishes its mission while it fulfills the lives of its members;
2. Continued leadership training by the seminary to meet the needs of the Church;
3. A periodic reconsideration and refining of the seminary’s intraorganizational processes to ensure greater efficiency and fulfillment of its goals;
4. A recognition that all planning for facilities should take into consideration that our needs will change
• the scale of our operations will change
• the situation in which we work and live will change
• we will change
• there will be an intermingling of user functions on campus.