What is your mission?
I have dedicated my life to helping people grow.
That has taken different forms in different seasons, but the thread has been remarkably consistent.
I did it as a parish minister, walking alongside people as they grew in their knowledge and love of God. I did it as a husband, taking on extra work hours so my wife could study full-time at university. I did it as a maths tutor, helping high school students gain the skills and confidence they needed to do well. I did it as a university lecturer, and I do it now as an educational leader.
Along the way I’ve also been shaped by a commitment to learning. I’m not interested in learning as a qualification to display. I’m interested in learning as a way of staying alive—curious, attentive, responsive—so that I can keep growing, and keep helping others grow too.
Over time I’ve come to see that “growth” needs to be holistic. It isn’t only academic progress or professional competence, important as those are. It’s character. Maturity. The capacity to live well with others. The ability to carry responsibility. The slow work of becoming the kind of person who can be trusted with influence.
There’s a phrase that has helped me name what I’m reaching for. I first heard it used by Edwin Judge, retired Ancient History professor from Macquarie University: the wisdom of Athens and the wisdom of Jerusalem. It captures something I want to hold together—intellectual rigour joined to moral and spiritual depth for the good of others.
That’s why the mission statement of our college—Forming the Person, Transforming the World—aligns so closely with my own sense of mission. I don’t think the world is changed mainly by slogans or platforms. It is changed, steadily and quietly, by the kind of people we form: people who can think clearly, act ethically, love generously, and find their place in meaningful vocations.
This is what I seek to do with my life: to help people grow academically, grow in character, grow in maturity, and step into lives of influence that serve more than the self.
And I don’t expect that to stop when I cease paid employment. The roles will change, but the mission will remain. I will simply find other ways to pursue the same ends. In that sense, it’s not a phase of life so much as a lifelong vocation—one that has directed my working years, and will continue to direct whatever seasons come next.
The Afterword 
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