College is often a season when big questions come to the forefront as students encounter challenging ideas or begin adopting ideas they’ve heard as their own. At Geneva College, that reality is not avoided — it is expected.

This aligns well with a distinct opportunity at Geneva. While Geneva requires testimonies and statements of faith from all faculty and staff and remains assured of its convictions, students are not required to sign or make a statement of faith to attend.

At first, this may seem like an odd thing to be excited about. Why wouldn’t it be good to have a campus where every attendee has proclaimed themselves to be a Christian?

Yet, here, there is no incentive to say you are convicted of something that you are not. This also means that if you have a genuine question about something you have been taught or something that you are curious about, you are free to investigate and wrestle with this question in the open, even engaging mentors on campus.

The alternative can also make doubt feel risky. If a student begins to question part of the statement they signed, they could worry about who they can safely work through those doubts with, or even whether they can stay at the school. At my alma mater, a Christian college that required signed statements of faith, there were many times that I had questions that felt too risky to share with a professor or even with another student.

When all students are purported to believe the same thing, conversations about faith may feel private, surface-level, or risky. At Geneva, that’s not the case.

Requiring a statement of faith may be well-intentioned, but it can create an environment where students assume everyone believes exactly the same thing.

Schools without this (like Geneva) provide more opportunity for genuine, inquisitive conversations. Students learn how to think more deeply, rather than just mimicking ideas, bolster a personal faith, and can clarify and defend what they believe. These situations more faithfully mimic real life and prepare students for faithful engagement. Additionally, students have to be grounded in the reasoning for what they believe and grow into individuals who are curious and thoughtful rather than dismissive of others’ beliefs.

Geneva recognizes that college is often the season when students begin owning their faith. Instead of assuming every student has already reached the same conclusions, the College encourages honest questions while being guided by faculty and staff who take both faith and scholarship seriously.

Two points of clarification: First, just because students can question well here does not mean that Geneva does not know what it believes — our beliefs, rooted in Scripture, are clear. Second, just because it's exciting that students are wrestling with good questions does not mean we want them to leave unsure. We want them to make use of this time, resources, and relationships to grow in their knowledge of a defensible worldview.

As Geneva’s president often reminds both staff and students, these college years are exciting precisely because students regularly ask rich questions. While this wrestling doesn’t always feel good, it is a privilege to be entrusted with this time in a student’s life. In a culture where students often feel pressure to appear certain about everything, Geneva offers something rare: a place where honest questions can be asked without fear.

Learn more about my top six reasons on how Geneva stands out in the world of Christian higher education.