Jose Bourget, ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ University’s lead chaplain and assistant vice president for faith engagement, will be leaving the university and the Center for Faith Engagement (CFE) in March. Bourget has worked for ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ in various ministry capacities over the past 15 years and actively sought to foster meaningful spiritual engagement with students and other community members. In addition to working as a university chaplain, Bourget also served at the Center for Youth Evangelism in the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary and was the executive pastor at Pioneer Memorial church (PMC) for a few years before being asked to be the lead chaplain at ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ in 2020.
Bourget first came to ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ as an undergraduate student in 1999 and would soon make his first mark on the campus. He and a group of other students helped start “Fusion,” a monthly worship service on Friday nights where all ethnic groups were invited to enjoy culturally blended worship programs. An important lesson he learned during his time as a student was to “do it for yourself.”
“Don’t wait on anybody,” Bourget said. “You have to take initiative. You gotta create the experience that you want. You have to advocate for the care that you need. And that’s what we did. We wanted more than what was available and being offered, so we created it.”
Bourget went on to explain that the creation of Fusion and other student-led religious initiatives led to a turning point for campus ministries at ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ. He also mentioned that support from Frances Faehner, ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ’ vice president for Campus and Student Life, student leaders and the chaplains at the time went a long way in nurturing the spiritual environment at ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ and “propelled” student efforts forward.
Bourget’s call to chaplaincy at ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ was a complicated one since he strongly did not want to join the chaplaincy staff at the time, nor did he feel called to do the work initially. He shared that he specifically did not want to work with one of the other chaplains in campus ministries, Tim Nixon. Ironically, God had it work out that Bourget would learn to work well with and befriend Nixon, which led to Bourget also befriending Nixon’s son, Michael. Michael Nixon’s friendship with Bourget became well known within the ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ community for several years after Michael joined ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ as its vice president for Diversity and Inclusion in 2017.
“God moved my life in such a particular way that it [becoming a university chaplain] became the only choice that I could make, and it was the best choice that I made,” said Bourget. “It launched me into 15-plus years of working on this campus with students, faculty and staff. And the reason I didn’t want to go ended up being one of the best friendships I’ve ever made.”
As the lead chaplain, witnessing students develop spiritually and grow closer to Christ has never gotten old to Bourget. Some of his favorite moments during his tenure as an ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ administrator have been witnessing students thoughtfully make the case for a need to be satisfied.
“I have loved and respected the Student Movement over the years,” he said. “I have loved and appreciated it when students have marched or engaged social media to be their advocates for what they [need].”
Bourget clarified that this does not always mean he agrees with certain opinions or methods that students may use; he named the infamous Instagram account “AU Confessions” as something he does not necessarily approve of. However, that does not dampen his pride for students when they effectively create meaningful change. Bourget also thinks that while it is a difficult time to be an ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ administrator in a time of political and social division and radical change, he believes it is as important a time as ever for ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ to embrace a message that reflects our true beliefs as Christians and Seventh-day Adventists warmly to our communities.
“I wish we could be better at being unpopular when it relates to the current political climate,” said Bourget. While he does not think diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies are perfect by any stretch, he strongly believes that a lot of its virtues are called for based on the Bible. “The core principles of diversity, equity and inclusion are Biblical. They’re core principles. Go to the Bible and you are going to find these principles. There are more Bible verses about how we should treat foreigners in our land than they are [about] gun rights. … I wish in the last couple of years we [¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ University] had done a better job of being unpopular but biblical.”
Bourget is departing from ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ to work as a chaplain for Beacon Health System, reuniting with Michael Nixon, who serves as the company’s director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging. In addition to this, Bourget hopes to get more into mentoring and strategic planning, aspects of ministry that he is particularly passionate about, and he has already seen God open doors for him in these areas. Another desire of his is to have more spiritually engaging interactions with those on the proverbial “outskirts” of the church.
“I have a lot of friends in this community [the Michiana area] who are not engaged in church, and I want to try to find a way to build community with them,” he said. “… I don’t know what God is asking or calling for, but if I could expend some energy and creativity to find ways to create spaces for them to share faith with others, I would be very excited for that opportunity.”
Bourget will officially leave his ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ post on March 8. He expressed confidence in the plan and process that John Wesley Taylor V, university president, has for hiring a new lead chaplain. Bourget also stated that he has no worries about the remaining chaplains and CFE as they continue the work of spiritual engagement on campus. Prescott Khair, who is an associate chaplain at CFE, will serve as the interim lead chaplain for the university. In addition to the CFE team, he gave special shoutouts to many people he’s had the pleasure of working with at ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ, including Dwight Nelson, former head pastor of PMC, and Andrea Luxton, former president of ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ.
Bourget is now the third CFE administrator in less than two years to leave ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ, with Danielle Pilgrim resigning in late 2023 and Teela Ruehle also leaving this semester. When asked what may be contributing to this trend coming out of CFE, Bourget cited a , which ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ participated in, that found that a growing number of people in the workplace seek other employment when they believe their professional development has “plateaued.” While acknowledging that he did not want to assume on Ruehle’s behalf and that Pilgrim’s circumstances for leaving ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ were very different, he does believe that his transition allows for him to grow further after all of his experiences and development while at ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ.
Bourget hopes to see more advocacy for students in university matters from CFE and other students so that further growth at ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ can occur. He mentioned that he and other chaplains often acted in a positive “agitation.”
“Some of the pushback from outside stakeholders [for ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ] to be more conservative,” he said, “is probably in part because of how the chaplains have not taken on traditional roles, but grounded themselves in more biblical roles.”
Bourget expressed that a lot of the work CFE did during his time was data driven and formatted around what needs students expressed. His hope and prayer is that strong experiences for students continue to be built based on what students express and the university’s commitment to enhancing their experiences.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, ¶·Å£ÆåÅÆ University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.