This year’s BFCGI Symposium will take place Friday September 13th from 2-5 in Harper 3023, with a reception to follow, as a final conclusion to Mission Week here at Creighton University.    Various entrepreneurs motivated by their faith will be speaking at the event.  Stay tuned for more details.

Mission week is a week to focus on Creighton’s Mission, which is captured in its Mission Statement

That statement begins by focusing on our Christian educational tradition:

Creighton is a Catholic and Jesuit comprehensive university committed to excellence in its selected undergraduate, graduate and professional programs.

As Catholic, Creighton is dedicated to the pursuit of truth in all its forms and is guided by the living tradition of the Catholic Church.

This is reflected in the dictum, ‘all truth is God’s truth’– so as we seek truth in the sciences, history, philosophy, theology, and practical fields of study, we are, in a sense, pursuing God.

As Jesuit, Creighton participates in the tradition of the Society of Jesus, which provides an integrating vision of the world that arises out of a knowledge and love of Jesus Christ.

We can never take the “Jesus” out of JESUitS, and Jesus, as savior and redeemer, is central to the mission and gospel of our faith.  Jesuits, known for their broadminded and rigorous pursuit of knowledge, see the pursuit of knowledge as the worship of God.

As comprehensive, Creighton’s education embraces several colleges and professional schools and is directed to the intellectual, social, spiritual, physical and recreational aspects of students’ lives and to the promotion of justice.

The Business College is an essential part of this educational mission, and one of our most important goals in the Heider College of Business is to help form men and women for others, who will use the gifts God has given them to their fullest, and to bless the world through these gifts of God which they have received.

Creighton exists for students and learning. Members of the Creighton community are challenged to reflect on transcendent values, including their relationship with God, in an atmosphere of freedom of inquiry, belief and religious worship. Service to others, the importance of family life, the inalienable worth of each individual and appreciation of ethnic and cultural diversity are core values of Creighton.

The Business, Faith and Common Good Institute exists in part to help students and other see how faith can direct business practice, and how business can contribute to one’s spirituality– and how business is not simply about an individualistic self-concerned pursuit of wealth, but of communion with others.  As Pope Francis has said,

• “Economy and communion. These are two words that contemporary culture keeps separate and often considers opposites. Two words that you have instead joined, accepting the invitation that Chiara Lubich offered you 25 years ago in Brazil, when, in the face of the scandal of inequality in the city of São Paulo, she asked entrepreneurs to become agents of communion. . . . With your life you demonstrate that economy and communion become more beautiful when they are beside each other.” (Pope Francis to the Economy of Communion group at the Vatican, 2/2017)

Finally, the Creighton Mission states that,

Creighton faculty members conduct research to enhance teaching, to contribute to the betterment of society, and to discover new knowledge. Faculty and staff stimulate critical and creative thinking and provide ethical perspectives for dealing with an increasingly complex world.

Business is constantly changing and evolving.  And while this presents challenges to keep up with, it also produces a wide spectrum of new opportunities to pursue.  We faculty are the stewards of faith, and it is our work to impart to students an understanding of their lives and their actions in the world which will bring about their flourishing, and the flourishing of society.