Undergraduate Corner: Praying for First Impressions

On this blog, the first and third Tuesday of each month are dedicated to presenting discussion geared toward undergraduate students, in a series called, "Undergraduate Corner."


As you've probably guessed from the time of year and the lateness of this blog post, the Spring semester is about to begin! Mine begins tomorrow morning at 9:00 am.

And that means that I and other Christian professors get another chance to make a good first impression for the sake of the gospel. We know that a student's first impressions of a professor and the course largely determine his experience the rest of the semester. I often realize all too late into the term that I failed to show my students an honest representation of myself, and that my public witness has suffered because of it.

It's also a time, of course, for Christian students to make a successful first impression on their professors. It's very easy for a student to stand out at the beginning of the semester, simply by asking a question, visiting office hours the first day, e-mailing a question to the professor, or (as one of my students has already done) getting a head start on the first homework assignment.

So, let's pray for each other this week, as we all begin to learn new faces and names, as we forge new relationships that could serve as conduits for the gospel. Let's pray that we'll bear in mind that we don't want to ultimately be remembered as someone who got all the questions right, or spoke up every class, or wrote a killer term paper, but as people who are in love with a living savior, who respond eagerly to His call.

Doubly Marginalized, Part 2: How the church is marginalized

Christians in the university very often feel like outsiders in both their churches and their institutions. In this series, I take a look at the different aspects of this situation of being doubly marginalized.

I admitted in the last post that it might not seem like the university is marginalized because there are so many higher education institutions. The same could be said about the church. In most parts of the US, you can't swing a cat without hitting a Baptist church, a Methodist church, and some kind of "Christian Fellowship" or "Christian Life Center" that seems averse to the word "church."

But, just as with the university, I think this plethora actually speaks to the church's marginalization. The rest of the culture looks at us and asks, "Why does our city need fifty Baptist churches?" or "What the heck is a 'Christian Life Center?'" Most of the onlookers seem to come to the conclusion that Christians can't get their act together---and in a very real sense, they're right.

Ever since the split of the Roman empire, local congregations have been getting more and more divided. Sometimes, divisions have been for good reasons; sometimes, the reasons are so petty that the rest of us are ashamed. But I think the main source of divisions among Christians today is feeling a false sense of having to choose between faithfulness to the gospel and relevance to the rest of the culture.

Those who sacrifice relevance for the sake of faithfulness claim they're trying to preserve the purity of the gospel, because if they make a mistake with the gospel, they themselves will be cast into hell forthwith; they very much enjoy quoting Paul's letter to the Galatians.

Those who sacrifice faithfulness for the sake of relevance rarely state outright that they want to water down the gospel, but feel they should have a commonality with others first and then (at some undetermined future time) get to the gospel; they very much enjoy quoting Paul's sermon on Mars Hill.

(Yes, I did just say that both these camps enjoy quoting Paul. Interesting, eh?)

So, this is what the rest of our culture perceives when they look at the church: One the one hand, they see crabby doctrinologists who frown on everything while telling everyone to believe in God; on the other hand, they see smiling people who rush to every opportunity to help and serve but who can't tell needy people much about their God other than that He loves them.

As a Christian in the academy, I feel the need for faithfulness and relevance every day. If I neglect to develop my understanding of the gospel, God, and the Christian worldview that comes with them, I look like a fool; if I neglect to remain relevant and "in" the university culture, I look condemning. Either of those will cost me my witness and my usefulness to the kingdom in the university.

Where do you think this dichotomy between faithfulness and relevance came from? How do you see the need for both in your sphere of influence?