This post was written by Mark Hansard on July 23, 2008
Christianity Today recently interviewed Pastor and author Tim Keller on his book, The Reason for God, and how he approaches conversations with intellectuals who don’t believe in Christ. We have already posted a positive review of Keller’s book on the blog here.
I believe Keller has some excellent practical wisdom in this interview that is quite applicable to reaching academic colleagues for Christ.
First, notice that he discusses the plausibility of the Gospel, and how it differs from culture to culture. Some in Eastern cultures will have different intellectual barriers to coming to Christ than others in Western cultures, (or university cultures, or scholars in a particular field, for that matter). Since the plausibility of the Gospel varies for different groups of people, we ought, with the guidance and help of the Holy Spirit, to adjust our God conversations accordingly. And we can see the Apostles did this in Scripture, as they related the Good News to various groups of people. For example, if we compare Peter’s speech in Acts 2 with Paul’s speech at the Areopagus in Acts 17, the speeches are quite different because the hearers came from different cultural backgrounds (pious Jewish backgrounds and Greek philosophical backgrounds, respectively).
As well, Keller has some wise practical advice on keeping certain political and theological issues out of a conversation about the Gospel, because they are peripheral to the issue of the acceptance of Christ and who he was. Certain political ideologies, or particular views on creation and intelligent design, for example, while important, are not essential for a person to know the Lord.
This post was written by Mark Hansard on July 16, 2008
Along with Ken Elzinga’s presentation (see last week’s post), I found Greg Ganssle’s lecture on “Thwarting Cynicism and Discontentment” at our National Faculty Conference quite refreshing and convicting. Ganssle’s presentation was part of the graduate student seminar on June 27, and he has graciously allowed us to post the text of his lecture here.
Ganssle, a philosopher and lecturer at Yale, made a particular observation about the Academy that hit close to home: he said the academic world trains us to be cynics. The graduate seminar or the dissertation committee is the “seat of scoffers,” the place where it is comfortable to sit back and criticize a colleague’s work, which sometimes took many years to formulate. Instead of seeing the work as an extension of a person, we tend to see the work as an obstacle, or as merely a chunk of information to be dissected, with no regard for the author at all. Or, if the paper/dissertation is particularly well done, we may have trouble rejoicing with the author’s success because we see him or her as a competitor.
I must confess over the last few years, I’ve found myself growing more and more cynical as I’ve studied different academic topics and found much misinformation about them on the web, or worse, misinformation in books written by scholars who are speaking outside their field. It is sometimes discouraging, and at other times has made me pessimistic, about the public ever understanding the true nature of the topic at hand. At other times I’ve found myself reading about a new book, or hearing about a book published by a friend, and wishing I had published it myself. Ever been there?
Ganssle says that this kind of cynicism can affect our spiritual lives: that soon we are simply tearing down our colleagues around us rather than building them up. As well, he says we become spiritually blind to seeing and enjoying the good, the true, and the beautiful.
The solution to this, of course, is not to stop thinking critically, rather it is the Discipline of Affirmation. Ganssle’s idea is that a spiritual discipline of affirming what is good about a paper or presentation before critiquing it will bring balance to our spiritual sight and allow us to encourage our colleagues, as well as critique their work. Imagine what a different atmosphere there would be in your department if you, and perhaps others, always affirmed what is good about new research before critiquing it? The whole atmosphere of the seminar or committee could change, creating a pleasant and encouraging workplace. I’ve decided to try the discipline of affirmation in my own work and study, to see if it makes a difference in my walk and outlook. Won’t you join me?
This post was written by Mark Hansard on July 7, 2008
It’s been a little over a week since we returned from our National Faculty Conference in Washington D.C., and I am struck by how refreshing, encouraging, and challenging the content of the conference was.
One of the most memorable talks was given by Ken Elzinga, the Robert C. Taylor Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia. Elzinga is one of the more popular teachers on his campus, for good reason. Years ago in his walk with the Lord, he decided to “wash the feet” of his students: to look for ways to serve the students in his classes, even though the university would not reward him for good teaching or the time he took to help them.
Early in his career, Elzinga said he saw his office hours as an unfortunate interruption to his research. But as he began to pray about it, he sensed God leading him to view his office hours as an opportunity to minister. He began praying before every office hour that God would bring students to his office for whom he could pray. Over the years, God did just that.
Often, Ken says, when a student has a problem with his grades, it’s not that he doesn’t have the “mental horsepower” to understand economics; there is something else going on in his life. When appropriate, Ken asks the student if he can pray for him right there in his office, and he says that whether the student is a Christian or not, the answer is always “yes.” Over the years, Ken has prayed for many students, including Jewish students, Muslim students, and others, many of whom come back to his office later and ask for more prayer. Some students make up questions to ask him about economics, just so they can go to his office and have him pray for them. You’d think the other professors in his department would notice this. They have.
As I listened to Ken’s talk, I remembered a crisis in my own life as a student and how a professor (not a Christian) reached out to help. Even though it was nearly 20 years ago, I’ll never forget it.
At the time I was leading a Bible study on campus with several other students who were leading Bible studies of their own. One night, one of the students in my study called me and asked me to come over to his place to talk. He seemed very upset over the phone, and I came right over. He proceeded to break down and weep over a serious moral failing in his life–one that would prevent him from continuing to be a Bible study leader. As a young leader myself, I was in shock and quite upset. I really didn’t know how to help him, so I called my own Bible study leader to discuss it and ask for advice. I went to bed praying for my friend that night.
In the morning when I walked into my classical mythology class (a class of over 150 students), I noticed the screen wasn’t down as it normally was and students were flipping through their notes. It took me a minute to realize that there was an exam that morning, and in my distress over my friend, I had completely forgotten about it. For a split second I panicked. What was I going to do? Then a tremendous peace flooded over me from the Lord. I realized that he was with me and he would take care of this, even though I didn’t know how. I took the exam as best I could, and thanked God that he was in this. About a week later, the exam came back, with a grade of “54″ or something equally abysmal on it. A note at the top said, “This is not your usual work. Please come see me.”
When I showed up at my professor’s office hours, she said, “This grade isn’t as good as you normally do. Your other two exams were A’s. What happened?” I told her exactly what had happened the week before: how one of the guys in my Bible study had confessed this moral failing, and he probably wouldn’t be able to continue as a leader in our ministry. My professor (I can’t even remember her name!) listened thoughtfully and said, “Well, here’s what I’ll do for you. If you make A’s on the rest of the exams, I’ll give you a ‘B’ in the class. Normally, a grade this bad on one exam would ruin your grade for the course and require you to retake it. But I believe your story and I want to help you.” I walked out of her office grateful to the Lord for this professor who had noticed the grades on my exams and taken the time to help me. Because of her generosity, I was able to graduate Phi Beta Kappa a couple of years later. I know I would have been even more encouraged if she had prayed for me and my friend.
Ken knew it would be risky to pray for his students at a secular institution. Everyone in his department knows he is a believer (one grad student who designed his university home page told him she would put “Jesus Christ” under his interests on the webpage, because she knows that is important to him. A little afraid to let her do this, he went with it anyway. Today “Jesus Christ” is listed under his interests, right above “water skiing.”) Ken took a risk, and God has used it to minister to hundreds of students. What risk might God be calling you to take to minister for him on your campus?
You can order the audio of Ken’s talk, “The Professor as Servant,” or you can read his article based on a similar talk he gave at our 2000 conference, God and the Academy.
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