Six Houghton students, who are part of the Kingdom Initiative, standing with professor Peter Meilaender.

Kingdom Initiative

Houghton University launched the Kingdom Initiative to provide students with a distinctively and authentically Christian approach to discussions on race, diversity and identity. Where conversations on these topics are often marked by grievance and accusation, Houghton's approach focuses on understanding and reconciliation, grounded firmly in Biblical truth and the equal dignity of each person in Christ.

After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.
Revelation 7:9

What does the Kingdom Initiative do?

Houghton's approach emphasizes humility and charity as students and faculty encounter one another before Christ, recognizing that God has composed His body with beautiful diversity, "giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body."

The Kingdom Initiative regularly plans and hosts opportunities for campus engagement in these critical conversations. This includes:

  • The Kindschi Faith and Justice Symposium—hosted annually as a multi-day, interdisciplinary symposium focused on key issues of global justice.
  • The Center for Global Humanities—delivers curricular and co-curricular programming aimed at bringing a range of global voices into the study of humanities at the university.

“A Distinctly Christian Perspective underlies everything Houghton is about [...]We start from the understanding that all people are created in the image of God, and because of that image bearer status, we all carry a beautiful worthiness, and that is where we base all our conversations from.”

Anna Lloyd '26
Kingdom Ambassador

Kingdom Ambassadors

Five student Ambassadors are brought on board each year to help plan and facilitate campus engagement on these vital issues. selected annually to help plan and facilitate campus engagement on these vital issues. These paid positions offer students the opportunity to promote conversations both inside and outside the classroom.

Interested in becoming a Kingdom Ambassador? Contact Dr. Peter Meilaender.

"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ... God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another."
1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 24-25