By Dr. Stan Norman

President, Williams Baptist University

At Williams Baptist University, we believe a new academic year should begin with more than schedules, syllabi, and the excitement of students returning to campus. It should begin with prayer.

As our faculty, staff, and students gathered for the beginning of the 2026–27 academic year, we did so with a renewed conviction that prayer must occupy a central place in the life and mission of Williams Baptist University. We are committed to cultivating Christ-centered leaders who make a difference through their life work, but we also recognize that the work entrusted to us cannot ultimately be accomplished through human effort alone. We need the wisdom, provision, protection, and power of God.

That conviction is renewing our campus in a profound way. We are intentionally seeking to cultivate a university community in which prayer is not merely something that opens a meeting, begins a chapel service, or accompanies a special occasion. We want prayer to characterize who we are.

Our desire is to become increasingly a campus of bowed heads—a community in which faculty pray for students, students pray for one another, employees pray for the mission of the university, and churches and friends across Arkansas join us in seeking God’s blessing upon the work He has entrusted to Williams.

This emphasis is particularly appropriate for a Christian university because every dimension of university life belongs to God. The classroom belongs to Him. The residence hall belongs to Him. The athletic fields and ball courts belong to Him. The laboratory, the stage, the farm, the workplace, and the chapel all belong to Him. If Christ is truly Lord of all, then there is no part of the educational experience that stands outside His authority or beyond the reach of prayer.

One of the prayers offered as we began this academic year with our first prayer chapel captured that conviction beautifully. Dr. Chris Hair (Associate Dean, Division Chair for the Arts and Sciences, and Professor of English) prayed specifically for our academic life—for professors and students. His prayer expresses something fundamental to our understanding of Christian higher education: the pursuit of truth should ultimately lead us toward the God who is Truth.

A Prayer for Christian Education

Our Father in Heaven,

We know that all truth is Your truth because reality is grounded in You.

Our examinations of the natural world we live in lead us to Your beautiful design.

Our explorations of the stories of the humans that have come before us, the societies they have built, the cultures they have fostered, the social maps they have drawn, the theories and practices they have launched, the stories they have told—all these things lead to and have meaning only in Your grand story, the story of Your plan from the beginning of time.

I pray that as we pursue our individual disciplines that we see the unfolding of Your grand tapestry, Your work leading us to flourishing.

I pray that the professors and instructors who have dedicated their lives to their individual disciplines and to teaching others those disciplines would not grow weary in doing good but would be reminded of their part in groping toward the ultimate Good, which is You.

I pray that they would be renewed with energy and love for the Truth so that they may impart that Truth to others, and that they would see their part in God’s design and in His kingdom.

I pray for the returning students, who are no longer in the foothills of their disciplines, that they would see the value of the climb when the slope gets steep.

I pray that they would see in the peaks of the mountain as they climb not only their future success but You and Your hand reaching down to aid them as they climb.

I pray that they would see their own work (in the tough times) as building not only their own story with God but also building Your kingdom—on earth as it is in heaven.

 Give us our daily bread through the daily routine—each day what we need. And guide us through the valleys and the hills so that the journey with You becomes as blessed as the destination.

All of this I pray in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Dr. Hair’s prayer beautifully expresses what we hope happens every day at Williams Baptist University. We want our students to discover that the Christian faith is not something merely added to their education. Rather, Christ gives meaning and coherence to everything they study.

Whether a student is studying biology, business, education, agriculture, history, psychology, music, ministry, or another discipline, we want that student to recognize that truth ultimately belongs to God. We want our professors to understand their teaching as a calling and their classrooms as places of Christian vocation. And we want our students to understand their learning, their work, and eventually their professions as opportunities to participate faithfully in God’s purposes in the world.

Dr. Hair’s prayer also acknowledges something that every college student and professor understands – sometimes the climb becomes difficult. There are demanding classes, long nights, difficult assignments, disappointments, uncertainties, and seasons when perseverance is required.

Christian higher education does not promise an easy journey. Instead, it reminds us that we do not make the journey alone. The God who calls us also sustains us.

That is why prayer matters so deeply.

Prayer acknowledges our dependence upon God. It reminds us that our plans, strategies, programs, resources, and abilities are insufficient apart from Him. Prayer also reorients our hearts. Before asking God to bless what we are doing, prayer teaches us to ask whether what we are doing is aligned with what He desires.

As Williams begins another academic year, this is the posture we want to assume: 

Heads bowed, hearts surrendered, and hands ready for the work God has given us to do.

Our aspiration for Williams Baptist University is not simply to produce successful graduates. We want to develop men and women whose minds have been renewed by truth, whose character has been shaped by Christ, and whose lives and work become instruments of His mission in the world.

Such a calling is greater than anything we can accomplish ourselves.

So, we begin where Christians have always begun when confronted with a calling greater than their own strength.

We pray.

As this new academic year unfolds at Williams Baptist University, our prayer is that God will make us increasingly a campus of bowed heads—and a people ready to rise from prayer and faithfully accomplish the work He has given us to do.