MEGAN WILLIS
Staff Writer
In the summer of 1996, Sprite launched its “Obey Your Thirst” ad campaign. What the soft drink executives didn’t know was that someone had beaten them to the idea. In preparation for the ‘96 to ’97 school year, near the end of hi MDiv program at Pepperdine, Carl Flynn and other leaders of Campus Ministry at the time, met at McDonald’s in Malibu to collaborate on ideas for a running ministry theme.
Feeling that many students were struggling with controlling their desires, the fast-food-fueled collaborators decided to base their theme on submitting their desires to God. Thus the slogan “Obey Your Thirst” was born, at the same time Sprite launched its famous ad campaign. Instead of trying to think of a new theme, Flynn and the rest of Campus Ministry worked out new ways to use it to their advantage.
Flynn said he has always thrived in creative and collaborative environments. He said he “loves working together with others on ideas,” and it carries over into nearly everything he does.
From student to professor to staff member, Flynn has taken a variety of roles at Pepperdine University and has found a niche in them all. He is now the director of Student Administrative Services and an Adjunct Professor of Religion.
Flynn will leave Pepperdine in May, along with his wife Chantal and son Logan, and will serve as an Information Technology Specialist in the Client Services Department at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He had worked at Baylor toward a Ph.D. starting in 1996, but after realizing he did was not “personally invested in the dissertation process or the Ph.D.,” he moved back to Pepperdine in 2001.
Flynn has been using his interest in graphic design and art to create brochures or other visual advertisements for numerous Pepperdine projects. When the “Obey Your Thirst” theme was developed, he used the first version of Photoshop with layers, and was thrilled at being able to extend his graphics abilities with new tools. He also used his design sense and his love for computers to create the Web sites for both the Malibu and Crestview Churches of Christ.
Flynn’s love for both art and computers carried over from his middle school and high school days, when his first computer was a Commodore Vic 420 that boasted a whole 20 kilobytes of memory. But even this limited technology Flynn used to his advantage, as he wrote a computer program to help him learn vocabulary words for school. He saved it on a tape before disks were widely used. He said his father always told him he “knew how to put things together.” He has kept pace with computers as they’ve changed, and even worked to fix these new machines at both Pepperdine and Baylor.
As if working with computers in IT and graphics ideas with Campus Ministry wasn’t enough, Flynn has taught religion at Pepperdine. With theology as his newfound passion, Flynn said he hopes his classes help students see “God, their world and themselves differently.”
While an undergraduate, soon after he became a Christian, Flynn was forced to change his perception of religion. Just as he was beginning to get deeper into his faith and focusing on Scripture, he took several classes that included reading texts by authors such as Nietzsche, Kant and Reimarus. He discovered that “they were using the same logic about the Bible as me,” and he experienced a crisis of faith. He said religion professor Dr. Ron Highfield helped him to see Scripture “less as a proof text and more as a theological text.”
How Flynn came to spend so much of his life at Pepperdine to use all of his various skills was a strange journey in and of itself. Having studied theoretical physics in high school, Flynn said he wanted to develop his own theories on the origins of the cosmos. He also said he had a “bad high school counselor” who didn’t provide much help in sending kids to college, much to his disadvantage. Flynn said he pursued the idea of studying math and physics at Cal Lutheran anyway. However, after serving at Pepperdine during the summer after graduating high school as a counselor for a leadership seminar and was later struck with the realization that he “needed to be” at Pepperdine. Without stopping to mull over the decision, Flynn talked with the director of the leadership seminar, Chancellor Charles Runnels and was accepted at the last minute.
But Flynn’s first year at Pepperdine was anything but smooth. He said he felt “not in tune with who I was,” even with so many different interests and skills. He was introduced to Christianity through his suitemates, who invited him to Care Group meetings and retreats. Although Flynn refused at first, the summer after his freshmen year he spent time thinking about who seemed to be happiest at college. The next year he joined these friends at their gatherings. Flynn said he felt these were not “antagonistic” Christians, and that there was a sense of “genuine love” that he wanted to share. Flynn then went on to participate in weekly Care Groups and became so interested in Scripture that he began studying it his junior year as a new minor. Through these friends he met his wife, Chantal.
Flynn first met Chantal by scaring her to death, when he burst into the Campus Ministry office after a tough final proclaiming, “I’m finished.” He spent his summer taking trips to her house particularly for her birthday and said he “knew there was something there.” They broke up their senior year for 40 days, then got back together. They married Dec. 12, 1992, after graduation and have a son, Logan. Flynn says he’d like to send Logan to Pepperdine, if he was willing, because he felt it was a great, nurturing environment for his son to study.
Although Flynn has spent much of his time and skills at Pepperdine, first receiving a B.A. then going on to receive a Master of Divinity in 1996, he said he feels called to new places. However, Flynn said that this would always be home to him and that he would “always be a Pepperdiner.”
No matter where he goes, Flynn will find some way to “obey his thirst” for studying theology, working with others and coming up with creative solutions.
04-06-2006
