Since 2021, Mr. Jon Tutton has been the director of Guest Services, a new position that oversees the Pensacola Christian College guest experience on campus. Before transitioning to this position, Mr. Tutton had been the director of Student Activities since 2014, where he used his love for ministry and people daily. Now, his integral role helps prospective students and their families become familiar with the College through tours and courtesy shuttle rides, leaving them excited to join the PCC family.
1. What is the heart of Guest Services?
We have all been the “new person” who visits a place for the first time. Most first-time guests are unsure of where to go or who they can ask their questions to. Guest Services is privileged to be the warm smile and reassuring answer to guests as they come to PCC. Our team strives to serve in a personable, knowledgeable, and accommodating way.
The goal of the Guest Services team is simple—to create a guest experience by being intuitive listeners, anticipating the needs of each guest, and helping them accomplish their goal of visiting campus so that after each guest visits PCC, they leave as our lifelong friends.
2. What is it like to work with the Guest Services team?
As I have discovered this past year, the Guest Services team is not only knowledgeable of the ministry but hard-working as well. From taking calls at the Information Desk or hosting a campus tour for a group of prospective students and their families, the students and staff of the Guest Services team strive to give each guest the experience they need. Guest Services is truly here at PCC to serve or facilitate—connecting people with the answers or next steps that they need.
3. How did your position in Student Activities prepare you for your current role?
As prospective students come through for their first look at the campus, I am able to share experiences they can look forward to through the efforts of the Student Activities team. Because of my time spent working with collegians, Christian Service, student leaders, and Eagles Athletics, I can answer questions or paint a picture of what college life can look like for them. Student Activities also collaborates with many other departments. Knowing the right contact for parents to find answers is helpful in my current department.
4. What are your daily responsibilities?
Whether registered guests or walk-ins, all are welcomed and greeted by our PCC Guest Services team. Our team provides 17 tours per week and assists guests in receiving the answers they need. My daily routines consist of meeting guests in the Administration building first floor hallway or at the Information Desk, providing courtesy shuttles for VIP guests, hosting VIP guests on campus, and providing special tours for event guests or potential employees.
5. What are the students like that work under you and what is your interaction with them?
We have twelve students that work at the Information Desk, and they would all be on some level of student leadership. They love the College, and they give tours of campus. I mean, I love giving the tours, but listening to a 20-year-old who has really been impacted by Campus Church and PCC, or a Proclaim group that came through, and they felt a calling to one of our degree programs—they’re just happy to be here, and they want to work here. We have our challenging days, but ministry really drives what we do. Our student hosts and hostess are truly student ambassadors of PCC. When our students represent PCC, they are not selling something, we’re showing something. And we’re showing not just buildings, but what happens in the buildings.
And then, I have a ton of interaction with all the student volunteers during Welcome Weekend. We have weekends in the fall and spring from Thursday to Sunday afternoon, welcoming students back and getting them checked in. We have a meeting with all of the volunteers and train them on what to do, and they get a yellow T-shirt that identifies them with the event. And the student volunteers really make the event exciting—they’re greeting in the airport, several GAs are driving airport shuttles, and as soon as arriving students are on the main concourse, they’re seeing us with our yellow shirts on, waving.
6. Can you share a favorite memory from a tour you gave?
Probably my favorite tour experience was with a parent who had been searching for a Christian liberal arts college for several years for their teenager. A colleague at their work was an alumnus who referred them to visit campus and check out PCC. With great emotion, the parents explained that PCC was an answer to their prayers and they would be praying about their student possibly attending here. My favorite stories are the ones where it is very obvious the Lord has orchestrated the introduction of our college to a potential lifelong friend.
7. How did God lead your family to PCC?
I applied for an opening I saw online for an Abeka representative. At the time, I assumed that the “Midwest region” mentioned in the job description meant the area I was already living in. I was not expecting to relocate. After flying to Pensacola for an interview, I was offered a different position that would have us working at the College. My wife, Linda, and I prayed about moving our family and felt the Lord was leading us to do so. It was a step of faith for us both, but especially for my wife, who had spent her entire life in the Chicago area.
God prepared me as a young child and teenager for a position where I needed to meet new people and make quick connections. God used my family’s ministry experiences—pastoring, starting Christian schools, and administrating existing schools and colleges. As a result, my family moved many times. Those experiences created opportunities to meet new people and quickly build relationships. Every step of our path is designed by God to help us become just what He needs.
8. Can you talk about your brief experience going to Pensacola Christian School (PCS) and what it was like being around PCC in the ’80s?
My father met Dr. Arlin Horton at a Christian educator’s convention. Dad was a recent college grad who was starting a Christian school in the mid-seventies. Our family moved to Pensacola for a short time while my dad worked in the administration. My older sisters and I attended PCS during those years, and my mother worked for Mrs. Beka Horton. We lived in staff housing in Norwood, attended Campus Church in the Taylor Chapel (previously St. John Chapel), and ate dinners together with the staff in the high school cafeteria. It was a great experience for my family. My dad eventually went on to pastor a church and start Christian schools both here in America and on two mission fields, China and West Africa.
9. Besides working at the College, how do you and your family get involved in the PCC community?
Our three children have attended Pensacola Christian Academy (PCA), and we support them at cross country and track events. It has been a wonderful experience and created countless hours of time together as a family, as well as fellowship with some of our closest friends. It has also been an opportunity to meet people from the community and be a Christlike friend to fellow athletes and their families.
10. What advice would you give to someone interested in visiting PCC?
Follow the Lord’s leading in your life. PCC is a wonderful place to discover more of the calling God has for the life of a college student. From the Bible-focused preaching of Pastor Jeff Redlin at the Campus Church to the biblical worldview that’s echoed from our classrooms—PCC is equipping future Christian leaders to change our world for Christ.
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Each day brings new opportunities for Mr. Jon Tutton and his hardworking service team to provide a positive experience on campus for guests. Questions are expertly answered, and kindness is shown whenever an opportunity arises so that visitors no longer feel like guests but like friends.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.