Two of my favorite movies are Ever After and The Dark Knight, and for the same reason: At some point during each movie, I say, "Oh, yeah; this is a {Cinderalla|Batman} movie." I honestly forget that each film is based on a modern-day mythological figure/story.

The interesting thing is that I don't forget what each movie is based on because they stray from their inspirations, but because they take a familiar story (a wicked step-family, a fairy godmother, a criminal clown, and a criminal hero) but because they take those elements and make them so compelling (an overlooked stepsister, Leonardo DaVinci, an ameture anarchist, and two vigilantes) that I feel like I'm seeing them for the first time. My "Oh, yeah" moment is filled with a new appreciation for a story that has grown familiar and commonplace in my mind.

I wonder if Christians' lives are supposed to be the same way. Perhaps it's a good thing when our coworkers & friends say, "Oh, yeah; [s]he's a Christian," not because we've strayed from Jesus's calling but because we've lived out that calling in a way that hasn't been seen before, and that brings a new sense of wonder.

Struggling with Service

This Sunday, my church's senior pastor presented a great challenge about service and hospitality. He made some great comments, including (paraphrased)

1. Burnout is not a result of doing too much but of wrong motivation.
2. Availability/life station should be a factor in our service, but not an excuse for not serving.
3. We should not let our gifts pigeonhole us into a certain venue of service.
4. Our gifts need development through use.
5. The best way to discern our gifts is to start serving and see what people notice about us. (Could this be considered a genetic algorithm? But I digress provocatively...)

It occurs to me that, not only does the church struggle to put these truths into practice, but the university does, as well. Service is one of the "Big Three" when it comes to faculty expectations (along with teaching and scholarship), and faculty (Christian and non-Christian) also struggle with motivation-based burnout, a sense of unavailability, pigeonholing themselves, lack of development, and lack of self-awareness.

If Christian faculty proactively learned to adopt these principles in serving the church and the university, one can only imagine how it would revolutionize our example to other believers and our witness to the academy.

How have you struggled with service? How have you dealt with motivation, availability, self-awareness, and development?

Augustine & Setting up for Success

Augustine made a great statement about the dichotomy between God's sovereignty & man's responsibility, in the form of a prayer:

Command what Thou will, and grant what Thou commandest.

Paul said it another way:

It is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work according to His good pleasure.

In a very small, but very scary way, professors & teachers imitate God in this way. We set up the requirements for a course---never entirely on our own authority, but usually with a lot more freedom than we recognize---and our preparation of our students is a necessary requisite for their success in meeting those requirements.

It makes me appreciate how perfectly God fits together His particular requirements of my life and His preparation of me to meet those requirements. He always sets me up for success, which makes it even more hurtful to me & others when I don't live out that success.

Are we setting up our students (or employees, or children) for success? Are we spelling out our requirements clearly? Are we providing them with the tools & time they need to meet those requirements? If we're not, what does that say (to us and to them) about our view of God? If we were to set them up for success, how might that set us apart from our colleagues, and give our students a glimpse of the gospel?

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.

The Terminology of Talking About Humans

In teaching The Parables of Matthew last Fall, I ran into an interesting question while discussing the two parables found in verses 44-46 of Chapter 13:

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

The question comes from the two possible interpretations of these parables.

One interpretation (the standard interpretation) is that the searcher in these verses is Jesus' followers and that the treasure/pearl is Himself. This makes sense, given the suffering that the disciples were beginning to encounter (thereby "selling all that they had).

The second interpretation is that the searcher is Jesus and that the treasure/pearl is His people. This interpretation also makes sense, given that the rest of the parables in Matthew 13 feature Jesus as the active party and His people as the passive recipients.

(Of course, there's no reason they can't both be correct, and one astute member of the class---thanks, John!---noted that, given the wording that follows, "The kingdom of heaven is like," in each parable, one could argue that the first interpretation is true of the first parable, and that the second interpretation is true of the second parable!)

I'll admit, that second interpretation is attractive to me. I like reading about Jesus being the hero in a story, and I like envisioning the lengths to which He went/goes for His people.

But that interpretation does lead to an interesting question: What does it mean, in the second parable, for the pearl to be "of great value?"

Proponents of the first interpretation say that, because of our sin and His self-sufficiency, God has no need of us, and therefore doesn't view us as valuable; Jesus, after all, in John 17, clearly indicates that He is going to the cross because the glory of God & His relationship with the Father is so valuable to Him. One of the key points in the gospel, to them, is the emphasis of the centrality of God in the gospel, and the supremacy of grace and mercy. While these are invaluable points, these folks run the risk of devaluing humans (and sometimes appear quite cantankerous).

Proponents of the second interpretation say that of course humans have value to God because they are created in His image; Jesus, after all, in Matthew 6 assures His disciples not to worry because God considers them valuable. One of the key points in the gospel, to them, is to help other see how valuable they are in the scheme of things, and to inspire them to turn to God to live out their created & redemptive purposes. While these are also invaluable points, these folks run the risk of inflating the value of humans (and sometimes appear no different than the world's self-esteem gurus).

I'm not going to claim to answer this dilemma! However, I think it's important to note that these two camps seem to be attaching a different meaning to the word, "value."

When this debate emerged in my class, I asked the debaters to consider what they meant when they used the term, "value." Did they mean worth? significance? importance? worthiness? worthwhile-ness? loveliness? When we realized we were at a terminology impasse, the debate died down, and everyone seemed to have something new to think about.

I think it's important that we pursue a clear understanding of our terminology when we talk about human beings. We are, after all, finite beings somehow created in the image of God and one of the greatest paradoxes (a la Pascal) in the universe. No wonder it's very easy for our statements about ourselves to be misunderstood!

When have you run into this terminology problem? How can seeking a clear definition of your terms help you understand what truths the Bible claims about humanity? How can seeking a clear definition of your terms help you communicate those truths to others?

Is service part of our "morality?"

I've been in Matthew 25 a few times in the last couple weeks, having taught out of it in an adult education class at my church last week and hearing my pastor refer to it this past Sunday. In it, Jesus describes how the evidence of saving faith in a person is loving service to others as if they were Jesus, Himself. (Not that the loving service earns their way into God's grace, but that they inevitably engage in loving service because they have received God's grace.)

We often summarize this concept by saying that saving faith leads to obedience, or a godly morality.

But when we think of "morality," aren't we usually concerned with negative concepts, such as sexual purity, or not watching "bad movies," or not associating with "bad company" (which, even Paul affirmed, "corrupts good morals")?

Is loving service part of our "morality?"

Do we see feeding the hungry (literally and figuratively) or tending the sick (again, literally and figuratively) or visiting the lonely as "moral" actions?

After all, in Matthew 25, Jesus doesn't say, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For all your friends went to see every Harry Potter movie, and you refused to go."

And isn't this positive morality of service what the world needs to see, far more than our restrictions on ourselves? Isn't this the kind of attitude that makes the difference for a university to be a welcoming place to students (who are very often hungry, sick, and lonely) instead of a standoffish wall of intimidation?

I'm off to Maryland for the American Association of Physics Teachers New Faculty Workshop! See you on Tuesday!

Doubly Marginalized, Part 5: The Importance of Networking and Support

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'd like to close this series of posts with a few practical thoughts for Christians in the university and their churches. I think the greatest need that we have right now is for networking and support. Even though we are in the corner, we are by no means alone. There is a growing desire among Christian graduate students, post-docs, and faculty to learn how to pursue their studies and teaching to the glory of God and to the benefit of others (the concept of shalom in the Old Testament). Organizations like the Emerging Scholars Network or Christian Study Centers are providing networking opportunities for us to engage in this conversation and encourage each other.

It can feel awkward, sometimes, networking with those outside of your discipline; it's easier to feel like you have more in common with non-Christians in the same department than you than you have with a Christian in another (even related) department. And in a very real sense, that's the way it's supposed to be; Jesus builds His church out of all kinds of stones, and we need the support of other Christians who are not like us. (By extension, that means we need the support of those not in the university, but I'll talk about that next time.) So, here are a few thoughts that I hope will encourage us to seek fellowship with other Christians from other disciplines.

1. There's a big push for interdisciplinary collaboration---why not work up a collaboration with a fellow believer, especially when a successful interdisciplinary project would be promoted and cheered by your institution?
2. How many times have you discovered the solution to a problem in your field while you were thinking about something else? Maybe listening to that Christian physics professor drone on about femtosecond infrared laser pulses will give you the key insight into rewriting everything we believe about Mr. Darcy.
3. You might actually learn something about another field!
4. We can help each other learn how to serve Christ faithfully with our teaching.
5. We can model Christ-exalting community to our non-Christian colleagues. Isn't that part of how Jesus wants us to evangelize?
6. The struggles we face as Christian scholars are universal. I may have different conversations with my colleagues than a Christian art professor would, but we can help each other learn how to pray for our colleagues.

When have you had helpful opportunities to network with other Christian scholars? How have you found it to be helpful to your walk with God?

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?