Our Mission

Columbia International University educates people from a biblical worldview to impact the nations with the message of Christ. We pursue this mission as an academic community modeling, mentoring, and motivating students to cultivate spiritual vitality and character formation, acquire knowledge in biblical content, gain interpretation skills, to develop competence as critical thinkers and communicators, formulate a comprehensive biblical worldview for themselves, and explore and initiate experiences that are ministry-focused.

Both the curriculum and the community life at CIU are intentionally designed to stimulate a dynamic context in which each student is assisted and encouraged to:

• Know Christ by learning submission to His lordship and dependence on the Holy Spirit, thus making progress in conforming to His image.
• Know the Word by gaining mastery of its content and understanding of its meaning, by assimilating and applying its truth, and by developing skill in the use of study tools.
• Know oneself by an increasing awareness of spiritual gifts, personality types, and personal potential.
• Know people by becoming sensitive to their needs and the contexts in which they live, improving communication with them, no matter their culture.
• Know the skills required in a particular area of ministry. By “ministry” CIU consciously and intentionally includes those who are called by God to minister in and through professional disciplines-whether in communication, education, business, psychology, or other professional disciplines where training programs are being developed.

In addition to the faculty, the university provides resources for learning and curricular guidance necessary for progress toward these goals. CIU expects students to be active participants in the spiritual, academic, social, and physical dimensions of college life. As they do, they come “to know Him” better and are able “to make Him known” more effectively. We believe God’s purpose for CIU institutionally and for its faculty and students individually is achieved only by the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit through yielded believers.