What's Next??

In 2008-09 I REBUILT my sister in law's house. Some parts required tearing out from the sills on up and the studs on in.

These days, I am RESTORING four kitchen chairs we have had for 20+ years. The finish was fading and peeling from exposure to the sunlight over many years.

I am also RENEWING our recently purchased condo which was probably last updated in the mid-80's.

Those three words are the words the prophet Isaiah used to describe the ministry God's people in Isaiah 61:4 where he writes that those who are delivered by the Lord's Servant will go on to

"…rebuild the ancient ruins
and restore the places long devastated;
they will renew the ruined cities
that have been devastated for generations.”

At the last Summer Fellowship gathering this past Friday, I shared with the group pictured here that this mission is one that we, along with all of God’s people, inherit as part of what it means to follow Christ. We are to use the resources, the education, the talents and the passions that we have to bring out the fullness and goodness of the places and institutions which we inhabit. That’s part of the even older calling of God to Abraham to be a people through whom “all the world will be blessed.”

As the school year resumes at Yale and other schools around the country, may this be the mindset with which Christian students, faculty, administrators and staff approach their work. We are not just to “use” this place for our own purposes. We are not to try to “escape” from this place because of the problems it has. We are not to “avoid” people here who are difficult for us. Instead, as Christians we are called to bless and be a blessing; we are called to contribute to the rebuilding, restoring and renewing of wherever we find ourselves.

What that means in our context and how we go about it is surely a matter of discernment and prayer and none of us will be able to do all that is needed. My examples above of rebuilding, restoring and renewing are all short range, clearly defined projects; the restoration of the world to reflect the glory of God is quite a bit more ambitious! But… we have a part to play; according to Isaiah, that’s the purpose of God’s people!

As we start a new academic year, let’s pray and work towards this end with the energy and insight that God’s spirit gives us.

Our God,

who blesses your people with the call

to rebuild what’s broken,

to restore what’s been lost, and

to renew what’s been ruined,

may we respond to your call,

turn from other loyalties and distractions, and

commit our energy, creativity, talents,

education and power

to your purposes in the world.

In the name of Christ we pray,

Amen.

This will be my last posting for a while. This summer was a time for reflection on the “why” of grad/faculty ministry; now is the time to put those reflections into action!

Systems Witness

Years ago I was introduced to the concept of “family systems.” In summary, what that means is that families are not just a collection of individuals, but a unit in which the actions of each member impact and influence the whole. When a member of the family seeks counseling for some presenting issue, it often leads to the whole family being changed. We are not autonomous individuals but rather live in a “web of relationships.” Society as a whole is like that too. We live in a network of systems which either enhance or diminish our lives personally. They can be agents of"good news" or "bad news."

I’ve been thinking of this because of two gatherings this weekend.

One was on Friday night at our Summer Fellowship gathering. Enping (pictured here with his permission!) shared about why he has chosen to study medical engineering, designing the tools doctors need to advance their work. Right next to Enping was Mike, a PhD candidate in economics whose focus is on models for reducing health care costs. Two seats away from Mike was Samantha who is in medical school. Across the circle was Evelyn, a recent Nursing School graduate whose story I shared in an earlier blog. Together, these four are all working in the same system though in very different aspects. Yet the work of each will impact the others… and all the rest of us as well!

On Sunday, I was at a reception for new students entering Yale’s School of Management. We had met some of them at a Welcome Weekend last April so this was a chance to invite those who had expressed interest in the Christian fellowship to meet one another during their orientation program. As they talked about why they have come to Yale, I was struck with the vision several of them have. Two want to be involved in financial systems that will benefit poor urban communities. Another spoke about her desire to better serve social service organizations.

The common denominator between these two gatherings is that these Christian students are involved in “systems witness” in that they are seeking to incarnate the values of God’s reign in the context of their work. As Enping said, what he sees himself involved with is a ministry of physical healing that echoes the ministry of Jesus. The focus of Mike’s health care cost study is what happens when an adversarial model of dealing with medical mistakes is replaced by a model that actively seeks to amend the situation (i.e. reconciliation rather than litigation!). Samantha and Evelyn seek to bring compassion as well as competency to their work. Personally, but even more so collectively, they are bearing witness to the reign of God to the whole system of healthcare. Likewise, the School of Management students are positioned to bring their witness to God’s priorities into our economic system. In other words, they want to make these systems carriers of "good news!"

Evangelical Christians most often think of witness in terms of “personal witness,” verbally sharing one’s faith with somebody. That’s a critical aspect of our witness, but the call to impact institutional systems with the values of God’s reign is likewise critical since it displays the working out of God’s shalom to the whole of society.

As I continue to consider what is similar and what is different in terms of ministry to undergrad and graduate students, this is surely one of the differences. By virtue of where they are in life, graduate students are positioned to have impact on systems that deeply impact us all. Part of our calling in ministry to graduate students is to keep encouraging them to let their Christian faith shape the way they do their work such that the reign of God becomes more and more visible in the world.

I read somewhere that C.S. Lewis wrote the Narnia Tales at least in part to create an imaginary world for children that would open their hearts and minds to receive the gospel when they heard it. “Systems witness” is like that; as we contribute to the formation or renewing of systems that are healthy and just and life enhancing, it contributes to the believability that indeed God is at work answering the prayer that his will may “be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

What do you want me to do for you?

“What do you want me to do for you?” Luke 18:41

I’ve been reading through Luke’s gospel this summer and today came across this question by Jesus to a blind man. The context makes it pretty clear why the man came to Jesus so it caught my attention that Jesus actually asked him the question. Jesus doesn’t ask that question in other healing stories.

“What do you want me to do for you?”

I’ve been thinking about that question today. My first responses ranged from family concerns to “your kingdom come.” I also got focused on work issues and thought about what did I want to see happen in the various fellowships etc. I think I was reacting to the question as though I had obtained Aladdin’s lamp and needed to make sure I got the three best choices!

“What do you want me to do for you?”

Soon the “…for you?” became my focus. We are certainly called to pray for God’s kingdom to come and wanting the best for the fellowships is fine, but there is a personal tone to this question. “What do you want me to do for you?” What do I really want God to do in my life? Not in my family, not in my work, not in the world...but in me.

“What do you want me to do for you?”

It’s mid-afternoon now and I’m still working with question. The opening prayer in the Episcopal worship service comes to mind:

“…cleanse the thoughts of our hearts

…that we may perfectly love you,

and worthily magnify your holy Name.”

A clean heart would be good.

The closing prayer of the service also is also impressing itself on me:

“…Send us now into the world in peace,

and grant us strength and courage to love and serve you

with gladness and singleness of heart.”

Strength, courage and joy would be good too.

How about you. How do you respond to Jesus’ question, “What do you want me to do for you?”

Maybe we aren’t even limited to just three wishes either!

Persistence!

Romina, a friend I knew from Bates College, is working on a PhD and recently posted on her Facebook page, “Sometimes, like today, I wonder what the heck I'm doing in academia. So much work, and for what? ...really. Are we really making that much of a difference?”

A couple days later I read in Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World by John G. Stackhouse,

“We see the marks of the Kingdom of God…wherever light penetrates darkness, wherever good makes its way against evil or inertia, wherever beauty emerges amid ugliness or vapidity, and wherever truth sounds out against error or falsity.” (p. 21). Kindle Edition

We could extend that as well to say that whatever leads to the well-being of people and the creation as a whole, whatever brings joy, beauty or a more truthful understanding, and whatever increases our scope of insight about humanity, nature and culture are also marks of the extension of the reign of God. This infuses meaning into the whole realm of studies and projects.

As Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:20-21, truth, for the Christian, is best represented not by principles or statements, but in a Person, namely Jesus. Anything that is in accord with his creative, redeeming, renewing character is worth our pursuing…but, as Jesus’ own life exemplified, it’s not always easy!

Given the number of “likes” generated by Romina’s post, it’s clear she is not alone in wondering whether the effort, money and time expended in gaining a PhD is worth it! I suspect she may have more of an activist’s than a researcher’s bent, so this stage of her work may be particularly frustrating for her, but Stackhouse talks about the need for us not to get distracted by visions of making rapid transformation (“cultural conquest” is what he calls it), nor to throw up our hands and withdraw from efforts to bring about social change. Instead he calls us to embrace a “cultural persistence” that works realistically with the opportunities and challenges before us.

The Christian grad students I have met are seeking God’s reign; they want the world to “be blessed” because of their work but sometimes it is hard to see how it will lead to that either because of obstacles they encounter or because the work itself does not seem immediately relevant. But persistence presses on in faith that there is more going on than we can see at the moment.

Inviting us to a way of living that is not given to the Enlightenment pride of human prowess nor to the Postmodern despair of the denial of any ultimate meaning, Stackhouse calls us to a Christian Realism wherein “We must not assume that we can completely remake anything in our world, but we also must not assume that things must remain as they are. Instead, we must make the best of them, neither in proud confidence nor in slothful acquiescence, but in hopeful faithfulness to, and in, the command and power of God.” (p. 105).

“Hopeful faithfulness” is a great posture for students to take as they go about their work. We don’t know ahead of time what the results will be; no farmer is guaranteed crops and no PhD student is guaranteed to find the ‘breakthrough” that radically alters her discipline or clearly impacts the world. But as we persistently move on, working and praying, our effort, offered to God whether it looks successful or leads to a dead end, is enfolded into the ongoing work of God.

Thanks to Romina for permission to share a bit of her story!

A Question from Hong Kong

Last week I received this email from a School on Management student working in Hong Kong this summer. He wrote:

“….the root of the spiritual conflict I feel here is that Hong Kong represents the apogee of modernity. Consumerism, materialism, secularism, the surrender of individual liberty to state power, it’s all been essentially perfected here. Luis Vitton and Prada stores displace sandwich shops in my neighborhood because rents are so high, personal worth is intimately tied to salary, parks once filled with people studying the Bible are empty, and substantially all rights to local sovereignty have been eroded by Beijing. And basically no one cares, because they’re rich. Or they hope to become rich.

I realize that this modernity is the enemy of souls, but what’s the alternative? Modish post-modernism has shown itself equally destructive. The vanguard of people who tried to blend post-modern ideology with evangelicalism [McLaren, Tony Jones] have basically ended up very uncreatively re-treading the road liberal Protestantism wore out 120 years ago. The reactionary response of my Catholic and Orthodox friends doesn’t seem viable either since modernity has meant longer lives, less suffering, and substantially more freedom for human beings. It doesn’t make much sense to go back to medieval guilds and the divine right of kings/czars.

So (as I think about coming back here to work after graduation) what really makes me sit and think is the question of ‘What good can I do here?!’”

How would you respond to this question by a committed Christian who wants to be an influence for Christ in the setting of global business?

This note highlights two out three alternatives often presented as to how Christians should interact with the prevailing culture:

- Accommodate by letting the culture set the agenda for us

- Resist by trying to ‘take back’ what has been lost

- Witness through creating a counter culture that embraces Christian values

I’ve thought a lot this week about this note and how I have responded to the challenges of our society’s values. Mainly, I have at least theoretically opted for the third alternative.

The first alternative gives up too much of our Christian particularity.

The second option looks to be too concerned with gaining power to enforce Christian values.

The third alternative is what I profess, but in actuality I confess it has led me and others I know to not so much bear witness by embodying an alternative vision, but rather to more or less withdrawing from the struggles of the day in favor of being involved in our Christian community. The fact that Jesus came into the world and dwelt among us tells me that this is not the way he wants us to live.

A different vision is set forth in a book another friend put me on to this week called “Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World” by Jonathan Stackhouse. It’s about Christians living in the midst of the difficult challenges and opportunities of the day. He even refers to the business environment of Hong Kong as an example as he questions how to counsel a Christian businessman required by the nature of such jobs in that city to work long hours six days a week regarding the Christian values of a healthy family and church life.

Stackhouse also rejects the options of accommodating to the culture, attempting to conquer the culture, or withdrawing from it, but, by reviewing the thought and life of C.S. Lewis, Reinhold Neibuhr and Deitrich Bonhoeffer, he advocates for what he calls a revived Christian realism. This is a call for us to do what we can to work for the shalom of God’s kingdom in light of the actual realities we face.

It’s a long, rich book but since its focus is on how we are to integrate our faith, life and work, it’s very relevant to our ministry with graduate and professional students. It’s also speaking to me so I’ll be sharing some quotes and reflections on it over the next couple of weeks!

Which Path To Choose?

Last night at our summer fellowship, one of the recent Law School graduates spoke about his reasons for choosing that route and how his faith impacted that. For him, essentially, it didn't. He spoke of having made a "prudent and respectable" choice of pursuing a "prudent and respectable" career that would provide financial security and social status. The "prudent and respectable" version of Christian faith in which he had been raised played little or no part in his choices and certainly raised no challenge to them.

However, just prior to entering Law School, he began reading the gospels and was struck by the way Jesus often challenged the "prudent and respectable" way of life!

"Sell what you have and give it to the poor..."

"No one can serve two masters... You cannot serve God and Mammon..."

As he has completed Law School and is moving on, he very much feels the tension between " the prudent and respectable" life and the call to follow Jesus.

His story resonated with lots of us (including me as we were meeting for the first time in our nice new condo!) and generated thoughtful reflections and prayer.

After everyone left, I thought of two people from history who likewise were raised in settings of financial security and social prestige and how they responded to that context when the Holy Spirit upended their life by a call to follow Jesus: Francis of Assisi and Wilbur Wilberforce.

Francis, to the horror of his family, really did sell all and give to the poor, literally walking away naked from the expectations his "prudent and respectable (and wealthy)" family had for him.

Wilberforce, a member of the British parliament and also a man of great wealth and social power, remained in his role but embraced it in a radically new way that ended up deeply impacting the
political and economic life of the nation as he used his position to advocate for the abolition of the slave trade and other moral reforms.

These two men, deeply devoted to Christ, took very different paths when faced with what it means to follow Jesus. Had they been contemporaries I wonder what they would have thought of each other?

Would Wilberforce think Francis was simply being escapist, running away from the social responsibilities and opportunities his status as a wealthy merchant's son had opened up for him?

Would Francis have seen Wilberforce as being a compromiser, remaining part of a tainted institution and holding on to his wealth and position instead of obeying Christ's call to be fully devoted to him?

Yet in hindsight Christians of all stripes greatly admire the very different lives of both these men in light of the legacy they left. Both are seen as examples of committed faith. But...which example should these Yale students in my living room follow? Which should I follow?

Four things are clear to me.

One is that there is not just one path that is faithful. Maybe some of these students in the room will decide that that the call to faithfulness for them is such that they need to walk away from the expected trajectory of where their degrees should lead them to a very different sort of life. Others will decide that their path is to embrace the position they have but infuse it with faithfulness to Christ (that's certainly the implicit assumption that underlies IVCF's ministry as we talk about integration of faith and life).

Second it's clear that both paths involve risk, faith, the possibility of failure, and courage. Neither Francis nor Wilberforce had any guarantee that things would eventually develop as they did. Both experienced times of deep struggle and disappointment and the "daily grind" of just doing what needs to be done. Both had to undergo a radical reorientation of their lives. I suspect there are many, many other unknown disciples of Jesus who made similar choices who left no such public record and perhaps ended their lives wondering if the choices they made really mattered after all. Hebrews 11 makes it very clear that not all people of faith see the fruits of their faithfulness in this life.

Third is that it's critical to keep making the choice to follow. Luke's gospel calls us to "take up the cross daily" (9:23). In making that choice daily, we will be walking the right way. The fact this Law School grad is asking these questions is a good sign that the Holy Spirit is indeed leading him along even though he is not clear what that means right now. It'll be clear when it's needed.

Fourth, as several people commented last night, the vocational choices we make are secondary to the choices we make regarding our character and relationships. Whatever we do regarding work, we are to be holy, loving, and just. That is clearly God's will for us whether we become monks or senators!

I love the closing prayer used in Episcopal worship services and it's very relevant here:

"... Send us now into the world in peace,

and grant us strength and courage

to love and serve you

with gladness and singleness of heart;

through Christ our Lord. Amen.."

May that prayer be the background for the choices we all make for the long term and for today.

Subversives and Priests

For the last time, I need to go back to Newbigin’s “Truth to Tell” as a lens through which to see what we are about on campus.

When Christians lack influence, one way they “speak truth to power” is simply by continuing to worship. Newbigin cites the example of the Orthodox Church under Soviet Communism and the Confessing Church in Nazi Germany. He could also have drawn on the Biblical example of Daniel when he and his people were deported to Babylon. Daniel, recognized as a young man with great potential, was relocated to the major university where he was to learn the language and the culture of the Babylonians, and, by implication, leave behind his Jewish ways. Of course, that’s not the way the story goes as it turns out that the king of Babylon himself ends up worshiping Daniel’s God!

However, Christian faculty and students in U.S. universities, while they may feel marginalized at times, are not in a situation where they have no voice or influence. Instead, as participants in the university we are all partly responsible for shaping the cultural environment of the institution just as all US citizens share in the responsibility of shaping the national agenda.

Newbigin says that one role of God’s people in a pluralistic environment like our nation or our universities is to affirm our identity as “subversive agents” of God’s kingdom (p. 82). By this he means that we do not accept that the structures and forces of the day that seem to be dominant (e.g. academic and professional success regardless of the relational price to one’s health or family, endless productivity as the chief measure of identity) are “some sort of eternal order that cannot be changed” (p.82). The goal of such an agent is not to deny the value of success, hard work or productivity, but to “bring them back under the allegiance of their true Lord.” (p. 82). For instance, the ideology of unlimited individual freedom needs to be subverted by the duty to love our neighbor. The demand of productivity needs to be subverted by the practice of Sabbath rest. The “bottom line” of economic gain needs to be subverted by the “bottom line” of what makes for human flourishing. Changing metaphors, he says that this is what it means to serve as a “royal priesthood” proclaiming God’s reign in all dimensions of life.

What caught my attention is that he says that figuring out how to do this in the context of the various disciplines “cannot be done by the clergy” but by “the vigorous development of … programs in which those in specific areas of secular work can explore together the possibilities of subversion” (p.83).

I am thankful that this is precisely the work we are about in GFM. I saw it this past semester as doctors led medical students in conversations about living out their faith in their work and at the Believers in Business conference where new visions of how the skills developed in business schools can serve God’s purposes in the world. I see it this summer in the Friday gatherings where students talk about the issues they are dealing with and finding insight from one another.

This brings me to the end of Newbigin’s book. He packs a lot more into the four lectures and 90 pages, but I have appreciated how he has given language to the aspirations of our ministry!

What do you want in a doctor? (or lawyer...or a CEO...or...)

Today's NY Times had an interesting article about a developing trend in medical schools to try to assess a prospective student's ability not simply to master the material required in med school, but to be able to relate well with people. It's at http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/health/policy/11docs.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23 Yale Medical School does not use this model yet, but in the article a Yale faculty member commends it.

The upshot of the article is that a person's success as a doctor is strongly related to their ability to relate well with a wide variety of people. Technical mastery is simply not sufficient.

It strikes me that this is true for for professionals in all fields and is a value at the heart of the ministry of GFM. We GFM staff cannot offer much to our students in terms of the content of their studies, but we offer a lot in terms of spiritual and character formation, building multi-ethnic and cross disciplinary communities, and a perspective of life lived in light of the reign of God which contributes to their success in their work and all of life.

Yesterday I read Luke 18:9-19:10 which includes five stories of unlikely people receiving God's favor (a tax collector, children, the poor, a beggar, and another tax collector!). Even Jesus' disciples were surprised that the children, the beggar and Zacchaeus were received and the rich man was not, but one common factor in all those who were welcomed by Jesus is that they were humble. They did not rely on their status, wealth or power like the rich man did.

The NY Times article says that it's important for doctors to be able to really listen to nurses and patients, being open to learn and careful to communicate well. That's a product of humility which as Christians is a quality we are shown is critical for those who wish to relate to God. May our ministry create environments in all the professional and graduate schools where we nurture both educational excellence and the human qualities of humility, gentleness and love so that students move on to embrace both realities in their lives.

Personal Fears and Public Faith

Last week, New York state approved of same sex marriage. Regardless of what you think about that, it is astounding how the general public perception has changed in just 20 years.

In 1991, only about 18% of people in the US approved of same sex marriage. Polls show that 50% approve of it now. The work of a relatively few people who refused to be intimidated into silence by majority opinion has radically changed what two decades ago was an entrenched cultural assumption.

I thought about that as I read a recent study titled “Integrating Religious and Professional Identities: Christian Faculty at Public Institutions of Higher Education" which you can read here.

The study shows how these faculty members are working out how to integrate their faith with their public life which is one of the major values for Grad/Faculty Ministry.

It also gets back to some of the themes in Lesslie Newbigin’s book Truth to Tell, with which I started this blog.

Newbigin rejects what he calls the “false objectivity” sought by the Enlightenment, and he also rejects the “empty subjectivism” that reacts against it “where there are no criteria but anything goes” (p. 56). He calls that an "agnostic pluralism" in that no one claims that anything is true.

Instead, he calls for a “committed pluralism” which follows the lead of how science is done.

A scientist may commit to a theory or view she has come to believe is really true, yet she must present her findings to public scrutiny and testing against other viable theories in order to gain broad acceptance of her work. In the same way, Christians also must “bring our faith into the public arena, publish it, and put it at risk in the encounter with other faiths and ideologies in open debate and argument....” (p.60).

This approach acknowledges the personal, provisional nature of our understanding of what we believe is the truth “out there” and commits to engaging with it in the pluralistic environment of our culture. In doing so, we are open to the critique of others who may help us see the “excess baggage” we are carrying along with our faith, and we also open the way for others for whom religious ideas in general and Christian faith in particular have not had an influence to begin to see reality in a different way.

Unlike those comfortable with an "agnostic pluralism", Newbigin writes that Christians do have a truth to be shared and "we have to proclaim it as part of the continuing conversation which shapes public (life). It must be heard in the conversation of economists, psychiatrists, educators, scientists, and politicians…” (p. 64) in that our faith shapes and influences how we understand and how we do our work and life.

In short, our personal commitment to our faith has a public dimension. The basic Christian conviction is not “Jesus is my Lord” but “Jesus is Lord of all.” The reign of God involves all of life. As the faculty study shows, how we actually engage with this public dimension will differ in light of our personality, circumstances and opportunities, but all the faculty agreed that their faith is not just a private, internal matter.

Back to the same sex movement... At present, the faculty study shows that many academics feel silenced and fearful that their faith will be perceived negatively by peers and thus block their career progress. Perhaps another lesson should be drawn going back to the Civil Rights movement... are we participating in our own oppression by keeping silent??? Even though we are experiencing a major cultural shift regarding something as critical as marriage, do we presume that academic culture regarding its perception of religious faith cannot change???

________

I’ll not be posting for a few days as we have two granddaughters visiting with us for a week starting tomorrow!

Laura's Questions

We have a summer fellowship with students from all the various professional and graduate schools. At these gatherings, we have one student share about why they have chosen the program of study they are in, what they have learned about God's work in their life in the process, and how is it challenging them.

This past Friday, Laura Hoover*, a PhD candidate in Chemical and Environmental Engineering shared. It was a very thoughtful and powerful time as she raised some critical issues, like:

Where do we find our identity?

How do we deal (can we deal?) with failure?

What does it mean to operate in a context that requires constant self-promotion?

How do we express our faith in an academic context where many people consider it irrational and irrelevant?

It stimulated a lot of discussion and prayer. Another student shared that the message he gets from his department is that his research is all that matters. The alternatives presented to him are to work 24/7 on the research or be a failure. There is no time to “waste” on developing a relationship with God … or with anyone. Marriage and family are off the table; there is just no time for those things. If your research is not always your #1 priority, someone else somewhere else is going to beat you to it.

Yesterday, I visited with a Yale medical school faculty who told me that just recently (she is in her 40’s) she is coming to realize that being “the best” is not actually all that important. Her realization came when she received the honor of being asked to present her research at a major conference. Her colleagues were congratulatory, but she noted that her internal response was pretty neutral. A short while later she received a note from her high school daughter’s teacher who commented on how much the teacher appreciated her daughter. Her internal response to that note was joy. That’s when she began to realize afresh that it is the relationships in her life that most matter, and that’s where she wants to place priority. She’s still a busy doctor; she’s still teaching, and she’s still doing research, but she’s had an internal re-orientation that plays out in her way of life.

Also related to this theme, a couple weeks ago a student sent me a link to a sermon by Tim Keller, pastor of the Redeemer Church in NYC*. The theme is the Sabbath, and in it there is one line which, while it is not a major point in the sermon, would be heard as hugely challenging – maybe outrageous - in the Yale context. He says something like, “If you want to follow Christ, you may not be able to be at the top of your career.”

Is it that stark?

How do we deal with the desire to do our best and contribute to our field, yet not let that be something that becomes self-destructive?

How do we keep the perspective that the goal in our work to bless the world, not to advance our reputation (or that of our advisor!)?

One thing I know for sure, it is these questions, as well as the others Laura raised, that are part of the “why” behind having Christian fellowships in the grad and professional schools!

* Thanks to Laura for permission to share this story. Info about her work is at: http://www.yale.edu/env/elimelech/People_Page/laura_hoover_page/laura_hoover.html

*The sermon is at http://sermons2.redeemer.com/sermons/work-and-rest

Evelyn's example

I’ve been writing in this blog about living out our faith in the context of our work and academics. Newbigin calls us to learn to do this from the starting point of God’s new creation in Christ which means we will view the world differently than from the viewpoint of the Enlightenment project. That was about objectivity, efficiency, calculations, technology, and cost benefit assessments that all too often has had the effect of marginalizing or oppressing actual people. As Christians, we know that pursuing those values alone can’t be the best way to operate.

Evelyn Lai, a May 2011 alumna from the Yale School of Nursing, gave the student commencement address to her class. In it, I think she models at least one dimension of what pursuing that profession from the perspective of God’s new creation is like. In so doing, she also sets an example that others of us can follow in our disciplines as well. In reflecting on her time at Yale she said:

“We’ve seen a number of infants and teenagers, moms and dads, grandparents and grandchildren, siblings and cousins…friends, best friends, partners. We’ve seen them cry in front of us out of fear and frustration, apprehension and anger,… and we’ve seen them cry with relief, delight, joy. We’ve smiled bravely, put a hand on their shoulder, plunged forward with our days. And gone back to our roommates and friends sniffling and crying over wine or tea.

Because more than assessments and plans, differentials and diagnoses, nursing is about relationships - is it not? It’s not only about health promotion and disease prevention, improvement of patient outcomes, and engagement in clinical research and policy-making. It’s not only about health disparities, hunger, homelessness, poverty. But about people. About communities. Families. Family members. Individuals. A person. You. Me.”*

I think Evelyn’s words apply to all manner of professions. We can and must use the best tools and resources available (using the best work of the Enlightenment project), but we also must go about our life and work in light of our conviction that every person we meet is an image-bearer of God whom we must honor and seek to serve as best we are able. The tools, theories and resources we have exist to serve people; people do not exist to serve them. It's a modern day parallel to Jesus' statement that "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath." (Mark 2:27)

How might that impact the way grads teach the undergrads entrusted to them, the way lawyers serve their clients, the way managers run their departments, the way ministers relate to their congregations?

“So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view.” 2 Corinthians 5:16

*Thanks to Evelyn for permission to use this!

Speaking a new language

“We do not have all the truth, but we know the way along which truth is to be sought and found…” p. 34

“….most of us who are Christians have been brought up bilingual. For most of our early lives, through the accepted systems of public education, we have been trained to use a language which claims to make sense of the world without the hypothesis of God. For and hour or two a week we use the other language, the language of the Bible. But…the incarnate Word is Lord of all, not just of the church. There are not two worlds, one sacred and one secular. There are differing ways of understanding the one world and a choice has to be made about which is the right way, the way that corresponds to reality….” P. 49

Part of really learning the language of the Bible is living in the community of those who seek to live faithfully to the Lord it professes. Just as any language is best learned when one lives in the midst of people who speak that language, so it is with the language of Christian faith. So part of scholarship that seeks to be faithful means a committed involvement with a community of others who are seeking to live faithfully as well. Because of our bilingual existence and because of the dominant voice of the “no-God hypothesis”, we will need to set a priority on cultivating the language of faith in our lives.

Grad/Faculty ministry emphasizes four values: witness and service, spiritual formation, community, and integration of faith and academics. Newbigin would see them as inter-related, flowing into and out of one another, but they require an intentional choice on our part to develop them. Often, people think that matters of faith or spirituality ought to come ‘naturally’ as a response to an overwhelming sense of God. When that doesn’t happen, the assumption is that “I tried Christianity, but it didn’t work for me.” However, there is nothing in the Bible that gives us any reason to think that faithfulness comes easily! It’s not that Christian spirituality is difficult actually; it just calls us to a live by a radically different set of values than the dominant culture practices.

For example, in Luke 6:27-28, Jesus tells his followers to “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” This is “how much more” rhetoric in that if we are to treat even these sorts of people in this manner, how much more are these qualities to mark the way we live in general?

Using this as a guide, Christian faithfulness is not very complicated to describe: love, do good, bless, and pray. Yet choosing to live in this way will lead us along a path that will be markedly different from that which places top value on things like efficiency, power, financial success, and prestige.

Living Jesus’ way will deeply impact the way we relate to those with whom we work, the career choices we make, the priorities we set, the way we view the purpose of business, etc. Our starting point that the new creation has begun in Jesus guides us in this direction. The community of faith can help us live it out more and more faithfully. Living this way – personally and especially as a community - is what will offer to the world an example of an alternative way of life that reflects the light of Christ.

Living on the edge

When Newbigin talks about the need we face now to think in new ways in light of the demise of the Enlightenment agenda, he reminds us that past eras have presented similar situations and that Christians provided the intellectual resources to re-vision reality. His example is the classical Roman period in the 4^th century. Its internal conflicts had imploded such that cynicism and skepticism were the predominant approaches to life. Although the Classical period had generated much that was good in science, art, and philosophy, it no longer provided a coherent way to understand and live in the world. Newbigin credits St. Augustine as the person who opened the way for the Christian faith to become the new “plausibility structure” that would shape the future centuries of Western thought. Augustine, trained as a Classical scholar, did not reject classicism, but planted it in the new soil of his Christian faith. The tools of reason and rhetoric, so developed under classicism, were now put to the service of Augustine’s Trinitarian faith, the new starting point.

In the same way, Newbigin sees that the Enlightenment project has run its course. It too was the environment in which great gains were made especially in science, but it’s inability to speak meaningfully about the purpose of humanity and the abusive use of technological gains against the environment and against humanity itself has shown that The Age of Reason does not provide sufficient resources to produce a society that people actually want to live in. According to Newbigin, Christianity, with its starting point of God’s fresh creation through Christ, can incorporate the great gains of the Enlightenment without being bound by its limitations. The new starting point of the gospel opens the way for these gains to be rooted in new soil, just as had happened with Augustine.

That means that Christian scholars today live “on the edge;” we are living at the end of an era just like Augustine experienced. Given the widespread acknowledgement of the limits and failures of the Enlightenment project (even more recognized now then when Newbigin spoke 20 years ago), the way is open for Christian scholars to be like Augustine as we think afresh about how the story of the gospel opens the door for us to think and live that in a way that, while using the good tools and insights of the Enlightenment, moves beyond the limits of the stifling philosophy that marked it.

Perhaps the fact that we are at the end of an era is one reason the backlash of the “new atheism” has sprung up in the past half-decade. Richard Dawkins and company are concerned that the reaction against The Age of Reason is leading people to incredulous superstitions and an anti-intellectual way of life that will hamper scientific and social advancement. Of course, they see Christian faith as one of the most popular (and therefore most dangerous) of these superstitions and so especially weigh in against Christianity.

But as Newbigin writes, the way forward is not by becoming anti-intellectual or anti-science. Thoughtful Christians are right to share the new atheists concerns about religion and spirituality when used as a rationale for believing whatever one wants to believe about the world. One of the good things about Enlightenment science is that is rooted in the conviction that there is reality “out there” to be discovered; we are not left with simply subjective ideas. The Christian is likewise committed to the conviction that other sorts of truth about reality are also “out there,” truths in the realm of the spiritual dimension, of morality, and philosophy which today are widely considered to be hopelessly subjective and simply a matter of social conditioning. So, how do we live out our conviction about this truth “out there” without being written off as either being mindlessly subjective (“I feel it in my heart…”) or bound by dogma (“my church teaches….”)?

Living in the mix

" The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful.” Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. I, ch. II:

Leslie Newbigin alludes to this quote as reflective of the situation in Western culture in our own day as well.

Spirituality is quite popular and accepted as long as it’s about how one attains some measure of interior, personal peace in a chaotic world.

The academic culture studies religion as a human phenomenon but is skeptical of the intellectual integrity of anyone who actually shapes their life by a particular faith. As one humanities professor at Bates College told me as he reflected on his conversion at the age of 50, “To acknowledge to my peers that I was now a Christian felt like I would be wearing a big sign on my forehead that said ‘I am stupid!’”

Politicians are glad to make alliances with religious movements that support their agenda with no intention whatsoever of actually endorsing the religion as uniquely true or becoming a committed member of that religion.

This is the mix in which we live. Many of us have a rich prayer and worship life and find strength, guidance and comfort from that. Yet we study and work in an environment that denies the reality of that core experience, or at least our understanding of its reality in terms of an actual relationship with the Living God. In light of the questioning we might receive when we speak of this experience, Newbigin writes, “What is really being asked is that we should show that the gospel is in accordance with the reigning plausibility structure of our society, that it accords with the assumptions which we normally do not doubt; and that is exactly what we cannot and must not do. ….we have to offer a new starting point for thought. The starting point is God’s revelation of his being and purpose in those events which form the substance of the Scriptures and which have their center and determining focus in…Jesus.” P. 28 Truth to Tell

So it is a question of where we ultimately place our trust. Will we lean on the current assumptions of our social and academic environment as expressing what is really true about the world and try to somehow fit our faith into that framework? Or will we lean on the assumption that in Jesus the new creation of God really is at work in the world and makes all things – even our approach to academics - new? As Newbigin says, we are not the first generation of Christians to face that sort of choice! Next time… a 4^th century cased study…

The New Creation

“….the opening words of the ministry of Jesus include the word metanoete. At the very beginning we are warned that to understand what follows will require nothing less than a radical conversion of the mind.” p. 9

“Some happenings which come to our notice may be simply noted without requiring us to undertake any radical revision of our ideas. The story of the resurrection of the crucified is obviously not of this kind… the simple truth is that the resurrection cannot be accommodated in any way of understanding the world except one of which it is the starting point… for a new way of understanding and dealing with the world.” pp.11-12

Truth to Tell, Leslie Newbigin

Professional and Graduate school programs live within a closed system. They all have a set of assumptions which they embody and pass on.

The sciences assume a purely naturalistic reality. As Newbegin writes, they focus on the matter of causes, but have no categories to talk about purpose.

Economic theory is based on entrenched assumptions about markets, the validity of which are questioned even from within the discipline itself (see http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-economist-has-no-clothes).

Evidence based medicine isn’t interested in stories of healing prayer, ruling them out of bounds since there is no way they can be measured or tested.

Even divinity students live in a world where the miraculous and supernatural are by and large rejected as plausible categories. Thus the feeding of the 5000 becomes not a story showing Jesus to be the one who provides manna in the wilderness, but a moralistic tale about how the little boy who offered his loaves and fishes is a model for sharing.

But we are called to live life from a different starting point. Our starting point of understanding reality is not the closed system of naturalism, but the in-breaking of God’s new creation, demonstrated in the first place by the resurrection of Jesus. Paul writes that in Christ, “…the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (1 Corinthians 5:17). We often read this individualistically, but the point is not that the former sinner has now become a new creation, but that the fact of the sinner’s conversion is yet another sign of God’s new creation at work.

So what does it mean to go through graduate or professional school with a belief in God’s in-breaking presence in the world as our starting point for life? How will that impact why we study? How will that shape the way we approach our work? Those are questions I hope we explore.

Starting from “new creation” does not negate the insights of science, economic theory and the like that we inherit from the “old” way of life, but it places them in a new context. Just as Revelation 21:24 says that the kings of the earth will bring the splendor of the nations into the City of God, so too we now offer these disciplines to God in worship. The “closed system” of naturalistic assumptions becomes open to God. Who can tell what new life his Spirit may breathe into our work as a result?

This blog is about why...

It's about reminding and encouraging us to remember why we are here and why we are involved (as students, faculty, ministry staff, financial partners, or prayer supporters) in ministry on campus, specifically ministry at the level of graduate, professional, post doc and faculty.

I've been involved in campus ministry for almost 40 years, but only started with Grad/Faculty ministry this year and it's pushed me to think a lot about the "why" question. I hope these occasional postings will help us all keep that question alive and motivate us to keep "moving on" in the calling God has given to us. In the next couple of weeks I will be posting some reflections on this question as a result of reading a brief book by Leslie Newbigin titled "Truth to Tell: The Gospel as Public Truth," a collection of four talks he gave 20 years ago which are powerfully relevant for why we go about campus ministry today.

Why do we have Christian fellowships at the professional and graduate schools at Yale? Why try to form a faculty fellowship? Newbigin's insights suggests we do this because the gospel must address the public spheres of education, science, politics, law and business. Our default position is often that that fellowships are mainly for personal encouragement and mutual support during a stressful academic program. They do serve those roles, but God calls us to be about far more than that!

More next time...