Category Archives: Ministry Updates

Updates about Micheal’s ministry to colleges and universities.

Good Things Happening at Ohio State

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Henry F. "Fritz" Schaefer, III

Henry F. Schaefer, III

Yesterday, I drove up to Ohio State for a luncheon hosted by OSU’s Fellowship of Christian Faculty and Staff. The guest of honor, Dr. Henry F. “Fritz” Schaefer, III, was delivering the first of three lectures in Columbus. Dr. Schaefer is one of the world’s foremost chemists, the author of hundreds of journal articles, and the director of the University of Georgia’s Center for Computational Chemistry. During his talk, he mentioned that one of the benefits of growing older was seeing more and more of your friends win Nobel Prizes. No offense to my friends, but I think Dr. Schaefer travels in different circles than I do!

Dr. Schaefer is also a committed Christian. At this luncheon, he spoke to Christian faculty and staff about “The Worldviews of Great Scientists,” highlighting how many scientists throughout history have been committed believers. The list includes great historical scientists like Michael Faraday (whom Schaefer called “the greatest experimental scientist of all time”) and William Henry Perkins (the inventor of the world’s first synthetic dye – at the ripe age of 18!), but also important living scientists, too, like many of the Nobel Prize winners he mentioned.

Later in the evening, Dr. Schaefer spoke at a student event sponsored by the Veritas Forum, for whom he has often spoken. This talk was organized by Jonathan Weyer, a campus minister with the Coalition for Christian Outreach. I met Jonathan when I spoke at OSU in this spring, and we had a chance to chat a little bit more. Jonathan has developed a ministry among OSU’s atheist and agnostic students. He has the right personality and mind to address their hard questions and, perhaps more importantly, gain their trust and friendship so that the Gospel earns a hearing. Pray for his efforts.

Dr. Schaefer’s third talk, however, was the real reason he came to OSU. Today, he was speaking to OSU’s Supercomputer Center and Department of Chemistry for their annual Pitzer Lecture. His topic? “From Charge Transfer Complexes to Gallium Nitride Nanorods.” Dr. Schaefer exemplifies the kind of Christian scholar that ESN seeks to encourage and equip. I’m not talking about his accomplishments – few of us will count Nobel Laureates as our good friends – but the combination of his love for science and his love for Christ.

After the luncheon, I was able to have coffee with Seth Aldridge, the campus minister for OSU’s Student Christian Fellowship. SCF has attracted a number of honors students and high achievers to its ministry. Seth and I brainstormed about ways that ESN can connect students with Christian faculty at OSU.

I hope that Columbus will become a regular stop for me in the spring. All of the right elements are there – committed Christian faculty, campus ministers like Seth and Jonathan, a critical mass of Christian students heading to graduate school – but it will depend greatly on my level of financial support. If you’d like to make a year-end gift to my ministry, click here. All new or increased gifts, up to $4,000, will be matched in full, so this is a great time to increase your impact.

InterVarsity in Kentucky

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Christian professors can be found on every college campus – in fact, there are usually more than you might expect. However, they often don’t know more than one or two other Christian faculty, and they usually aren’t connected with Christian student groups on their campus. Part of my role with the Emerging Scholars Network is helping students and student ministers build relationships with Christian faculty. If students have a “working friendship” with a few of their professors, they’re more likely to see academia as a possible career path. For student ministers, professors can be great allies in serving and transforming the campus.

This past Tuesday, I traveled to Louisville to meet with InterVarsity’s campus staff team for Kentucky. They serve on campuses across the state – the Universities of Louisville and Kentucky, Bellarmine, Berea College, Eastern Kentucky University. I shared with them ESN’s vision of raising up the next generation of Christian professors, gave them some tips on identifying and working with potential ESN members, and suggested key books that they can read with their students. We also talked about Christian professors they know on campus.

Bonnie Lecompte, who works with international students at UofL, gave me a new insight about the importance of Christian professors: they bring credibility to the Gospel. Most international students are working on PhDs or Masters degrees, which brings them into close contact with professors, and most of them come from cultures that give a great deal of respect to elders, scholars, and people in authority. A professor who is also a Christian carries a lot of weight with them when they are considering the Gospel.

Over the next few months, I’m going to be working with these campus ministry staff to connect the professors they know with ESN and to introduce them to the ESN faculty on their campuses. On November 17, I’ll be making my first trip, to Berea College, to speak with students and faculty there about ESN.

Please pray for these trips to be successful in building strong partnerships between Christian professors and campus ministers around Kentucky. Pray also for “divine appointments” as InterVarsity staff and I meet with Christian faculty and staff.

Why Is Collins Controversial?

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The NY Times this week ran an article about Francis Collins headlined “For NIH Chief, Issues of Identity and Culture” focusing on possible areas of conflict for Collins. The top one, of course, is Collins’ Christian faith. Collins, the former head of the Humane Genome Project, is also author of The Language of God, founder of The Biologos Foundation, and well-known speaker on the connections between science and religion.

Here’s how the Times begins its discussion of Collins’ faith:

First, there is the God issue. Dr. Collins believes in him. Passionately. And he preaches about his belief in churches and a best-selling book. For some presidential appointees, that might not be a problem, but many scientists view such outspoken religious commitment as a sign of mild dementia.

The irony, in my view, is that Collins believes in evolution, supports embryonic stem-cell research, and even supports therapeutic cloning, a process by which human embryos are created for the sole purpose of using them of medical treatments. He has pledged not to let this religious beliefs influence his scientific work. What, exactly, is the concern of his opponents?

As far as I can tell, their sole concern is that Collins is an evangelical Christian. No one disputes his ability as a scientist or administrator. No one disputes that he is eminently qualified for the position. His critics cannot point to a single instance in which Collins’ private religious beliefs negatively affected his research or other work, yet they oppose his appointment. Collins’ views are clearly controversial from a theological or philosophical standpoint; I can’t even begin to imagine why they matter with regard to science or medicine.

If Francis Collins – one of our country’s premiere scientists, the man who decoded human DNA, someone who has proven his qualifications again and again – faces this kind of criticism, just imagine the pressure Emerging Scholars Network members face. Simply by admitting that they believe in Christ or think that the Bible is true, they open themselves up to all kinds of threats to their career. Many university departments have the good sense to realize that people from a variety of religious backgrounds can do excellent academic work. But the threat is always there, and that threat is usually enough to keep Christian academics “in the closet” regarding their faith. Several of the faculty I met at Vanderbilt admitted that they kept very quiet about their Christianity until they received tenure.

Few things are more damaging to one’s faith than sealing it off so that it doesn’t affect the rest of your life. Please join with me in praying for the careers and spiritual growth of ESN members. Pray especially that they will have the courage and wisdom to be open about their faith in the appropriate manner. And, if you would like to make a financial contribution to support my work with the Emerging Scholars Network, click here.

Vanderbilt Faculty Dinner

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One of the pleasures of my work with the Emerging Scholars Network is meeting Christians who are making a difference on their university campus. Last week, I spoke about ESN at a potluck dinner for about a dozen Christian professors and their spouses at Vanderbilt. They included faculty from medicine, engineering, the sciences, and the humanities, ranging from recently hired faculty to retired senior scholars.

One of the faculty I met, Dr. Ward, had taught French literature and humanities at Penn State, Wheaton, and Vanderbilt, succeeding in both secular and Christian environments. She told me that, when she first arrived at Vandy, some other professors had viewed her with suspicion because she had come from a Christian college. She won them over by proving her ability as a scholar, but also by treating her fellow faculty with respect and integrity, even when they disagreed with her on important issues.

The humanities have one of the lowest rates of Christian faculty of any academic discipline, but there are signs of hope. Several years ago, leading postmodernist Stanley Fish declared that religion would be “the next big thing” in the university. Dr. Ward sees more openness today for professors who want to bring religion into their research.

Gatherings of Christian faculty like this one help build community among Christians on campus. Several of the faculty told me that they knew few, if any, Christians in their department, and getting together with fellow Christians is a great encouragement to them. For others, a dinner like this can the first step toward joining a campus Bible study, becoming an ESN mentor, or thinking more seriously about their faith. Since the early church “breaking bread together,” eating with fellow Christians has been used by God to build up his people.

Pray for these Christian faculty at Vanderbilt as they work on their teaching, research, and service. Pray especially for faculty in “besieged disciplines” like the humanities for openings to bring their faith in Christ into the classroom and their scholarship.

Preparing for Urbana

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Urbana09

Every three years, just after Christmas, over 20,000 college students gather for Urbana – InterVarsity’s student missions conference. Missionaries, missions agencies, and Christian leaders from around the world share their vision for bringing the Gospel to the world world. Every year, students commit their lives to Christ for the first time, renew their commitments to God, and hear God’s call to join the mission field.

This year, at Urbana 09, the Emerging Scholars Network will be calling students to a different kind of mission field: the university. Continue reading →