Dallas Willard (19352013) graduated from college and was ordained as a Southern Baptist minister. In graduate school, he received a prophetic message: "If you stay in the churches, the university will be closed to you; but if you stay in the university, the churches will be open to you." Dallas was offered an Associate Professorship at the University of Southern California in 1965. His battle with cancer brought about his retirement from USC in 2012. Dallas found common ground between philosophy and Christianity in this simple question: Who are you going to become? He often told people who were pursuing truth, "If you could find a better way to live, Jesus would be the first one to tell you to take it." Dallas emphasized the importance of choosing to live your life in ways you believe Jesus would live it if he were you. He considered prayer, service, study, worship, solitude, and fasting as important means to growing in Christlikeness.
