Christian

Campus Ministry at Vanderbilt: Seven Years After Derecognition

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 14:41:45 +0000

Gordon Govier

Campus Ministry at Vanderbilt: Seven Years After Derecognition

Seven years have passed since ��ñ�� chapters were among almost a dozen campus ministries that were derecognized by Vanderbilt University. Students who are graduating this spring have no memory of what it was like before derecognition, and yet ��ñ�� staff at Vanderbilt report their work continues with both challenges and successes.

When ��ñ�� chapters are derecognized—kicked off campus is another way of describing it—the chapters don’t disappear. Chapter leaders adjust to operating without the official stamp of approval and the benefits that official recognition provides, and stay the course with Bible studies, prayer meetings, and evangelistic outreaches.

Derecognition has most typically affected ��ñ�� when colleges and universities institute nondiscrimination policies mandating that membership, or more specifically leadership, in recognized student organizations must be open to all students regardless of religious belief. ��ñ�� welcomes all students into chapter activities but believes leadership should be reserved for students with demonstrated leadership qualities, including adherence to traditional Christian doctrines and standards of morality.

“God is still at work, even if the situation is not ideal,” said Rachel Harmon, an ��ñ�� Campus Staff Minister with Greek students at Vanderbilt, and a recently launched Black Campus Ministries chapter. Colin Fagan, who works with graduate students, agreed. “The many frustrations with regard to the policy change I would say are minor grievances,” he noted. “It’s nothing that would be a significant hindrance to our ability to do ministry.”

One of the main reasons that campus ministry continues at Vanderbilt—despite the derecognitions—is that the Office of Religious Life kept the door open to all groups without regard to status. “We told the Christian derecognized groups, ‘We’re here to help you. We’re sympathetic and we want you to succeed,’” said Mark Forrester, who directed the office as chaplain for six years, and served as the Methodist chaplain for 18 years before that. He left his job at Vanderbilt late in 2018.

Mark said that the office realized that a fair assessment of most of the derecognized groups showed that they had been good citizens on campus; they had not violated past policy. “We didn’t want them to go away,” he said. “They were still serving the significant need of a wide range of students.”

The derecognition was difficult, but Mark maintains that religious life on campus is vibrant. “There is a significant presence of religious devotion, including Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and otherwise,” he said. He supports Vanderbilt’s nondiscrimination policy, which was behind the derecognition, but doesn’t like the way it was implemented. He said his office was not consulted on the policy change; it looked to him like the university administration viewed religious life as more of a liability than a gift to be cultivated.

Kristen Wilkinson, who works with the Asian American Christian Fellowship (AACF), ��ñ��’s largest chapter at Vanderbilt, says students who are now far removed from the original derecognition decision are sometimes confused over the current situation, particularly when the rules change, such as room reservation requirements sometimes do. The AACF chapter hosts small group Bible studies and has a regular large group meeting.

“I see the campus status affecting them in more subtle ways,” Kristen said. Their unrecognized status “feels like confirmation of a common issue of Asian American voices being stifled and their needs not being taken seriously.”

Rachel came to Vanderbilt four years ago with the goal of planting a chapter for Greek students. Fifty percent of Vanderbilt undergrads are involved with a fraternity or a sorority. However, as some of the Black students she was working with discovered the broad scope of ��ñ��’s campus ministry, they told her, “We love being Greek, but the huge need at Vanderbilt right now is something reaching Black students.”

So after a semester of Bible studies and other preparatory steps, a launch night for a Collegiate Black Christian (CBC) chapter was held on campus last spring. The room filled up and then there was a line out the door. The chapter got off to a strong start.

The CBC chapter continues to grow, without official recognition. Specifically, that means they are allowed to reserve rooms and meet on campus. However they have to wait until all of the recognized student groups have made their room reservations and then pick from what’s left. They cannot use Vanderbilt’s name in the name of their chapter. They cannot participate in student organization fairs or apply for funding. And they cannot co-sponsor an event with a recognized student organization.

So, for example, when Veritas Forum, an organization that sponsors campus dialogues exploring truth and other philosophical issues, brings an event to Vanderbilt, all of the cooperative support from ��ñ�� chapters is unrecognized. Only officially recognized campus groups are listed in the program.

“We have to be careful how we market that,” Colin said about ��ñ��’s involvement. “Some of the boundaries are clear, others are not so clear. Navigating the grey space can sometimes be tricky.”

��ñ��’s grad chapter at Vanderbilt is currently in a rebuilding stage and Colin said it would have been helpful to have access to a student organization fair. Rich Zeigler, another ��ñ�� Campus Staff Minister who works with international students agreed. “The main thing that has changed is our ability to go to the Religious Life Fair and meet students who may be looking for a Christian group on campus,” he said.

Colin said ��ñ�� staff have countered that situation by partnering more robustly with local church communities. Students inviting other students to get involved, either personally or through social media, has also been effective. And grad students appreciate the opportunity to meet off campus, since they spend so much time on campus. “When it comes to an opportunity to do something off campus, they’re like, ‘Yes, please, let’s be away from here for some period of time for our own sanity,’” Colin said.

Brian Pugh, another ��ñ�� Campus Staff Minister who works with medical school students, also meets more frequently off-campus than on-campus with his students. “The only annoying thing about the policy is the advertising prohibition,” he said. But once he has student email addresses, it’s easy to stay in contact.

All in all, ��ñ�� has seven chapters which continue to meet at Vanderbilt, including a faculty chapter. Don Paul Gross, a Regional Director for ��ñ��’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries, who lives in Nashville, said, “God is not limited, and we see him continue to work at Vanderbilt.”

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In the Crucible of the Workplace

AD-16225 — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 20:57:56 +0000

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In the Crucible of the Workplace

On the first weekend of April, 252 students and business leaders from around the country gathered in New York City to learn about good business practices and following Jesus, and how to connect the two.

It may seem an unusual connection but it’s not. “Most of Jesus’ miracles occurred in the marketplace, so the marketplace is a valid mission field,” said Henry Kaestner, a successful entrepreneur who was one of the main speakers for the weekend. As former ��ñ�� Vice President Pete Hammond used to point out, most of the people God used in the Bible were not professional clergy.

This was the 12^th annual Believers in Business conference. Planned by MBA students who are involved with ��ñ��’s MBA Ministry, the goal is for them and their peers to learn from more experienced business leaders who apply their Christian beliefs to their business practices.

Henry was a co-founder of Bandwidth.com, a communications technology company. He left the company to get involved in philanthropy but then felt called to return to the business world. Now he mentors entrepreneurs whose projects have a connection to their Christian faith.

During the conference Henry used stories from his own experience to encourage students to be faithful business leaders. “You’re being commissioned to be able to do God’s work in his marketplace,” he told attendees. “Lord willing, you’ll be a part of the cultural transformation that’s bringing about God’s kingdom.”

Business mentors participating in the Believers in Business Conference also included the Dean of Pepperdine University's MBA program, the head of Women in Technology at GE, and leaders from finance, marketing, entrepreneurship, and management fields. Students appreciated the opportunity to hear from business leaders who had not only a depth of experience but also a faith perspective.

In comments afterward, one student said, “The conference gave me more clarity for my calling to missions in business.” Another commented, “The conference allowed me to rededicate myself to following God's plans for my life. I am at a position where I will be making important decisions about my life and career. This conference reset me on the path of obedience and faithfulness.”

The significance of the workplace focus was summarized by one speaker: “Work is the primary crucible where God sanctifies you, where he makes you more like Christ, where he makes you more of a disciple.”

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"I Was Once a Witch"

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:04:17 +0000

Alumni Profile

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Lauren Anderson

"I Was Once a Witch"

After finally saying “yes” to her persistent roommates’ invitation to an ��ñ�� large group, Sarah Sumpolec heard a striking message about altars and sacrifices. She knew about altars and sacrifices. As a practicing witch, she had once set up an altar in her room. But the speaker talked about a different kind of sacrifice. Explaining Old Testament passages about the sacrifices of Elijah and Isaac, the speaker discussed what it means for Christians today to be living sacrifices to God.

“You mean God wants all of me?” she asked herself. That night, she prayed to God for the first time, “I don’t know why you want me, but if you’re real, I’ll be yours.”

Ouija boards, séances, hypnotism, and spells were all part of Sarah’s experience growing up. At a young age, Sarah was introduced to witchcraft by her father, from whom she learned two things: that the occult was truth and Christianity was false. While Sarah’s mother believed in an ambiguous form of deism and would occasionally take Sarah and her sister to church, her father dismissed church as “a crutch for weak people.” Instead, Sarah’s father taught her that she had special powers and was called to follow in his footsteps by pursuing witchcraft. When she was 13, Sarah’s father handed her an old hardcover book of witchcraft from a basement bookshelf, initiating Sarah into the occult.

The occult – which teaches its followers they can change circumstances by invoking spirits and casting spells – was attractive to someone with a home life like Sarah’s. Throughout her childhood, she and her family moved so frequently that, by eighth grade, Sarah had attended 13 different schools up and down the East Coast. Her nomadic existence contributed to feelings of instability, which were exacerbated at home by absent parents. And at the age of 14, Sarah’s father engaged in an affair and became addicted to cocaine, turning her father’s behavior erratic and threatening. Meanwhile, Sarah’s involvement in the occult deepened.

World of witchcraft

As a young teenager, Sarah began exploring witchcraft on her own by reading books on spells and buying crystals and incense. By high school, witchcraft was an integrated part of her life. Sarah set up an altar in her room, routinely invited spirits to guide her, and cast spells to change circumstances in her life. In her early years of witchcraft, Sarah considered herself a “white witch,” meaning one who does not cast spells to inflict harm.

But as time went on, things turned dangerous. At the end of her senior year, Sarah felt a spirit was telling her that her only chance at a new life was to take her own life as a sacrifice. So Sarah attempted to commit suicide. Sarah drove her car, waiting for it to fill with leaked carbon monoxide. The next thing she knew she woke up lying on the ground next to her car, where she breathed in enough fresh air to survive. Today, Sarah still doesn’t know how she made it out of her car, but believes the Lord saved her.

After her near-death experience, Sarah continued on a destructive trajectory. The summer before she left for college, Sarah moved out of her parents’ house and into a boarding house. She drank every day and prayed to spirits on the beach every night. Having failed a second suicide attempt, Sarah began looking to college as a potential solution to her problems. That fall, Sarah left for Mary Washington College with hope for what her new life at college would bring.

Bible study: a strange culture

When she arrived on campus, Sarah was placed in a room with two other girls, Kim and Stacy. Not long after meeting them, Sarah decided they were strange. For one, they had Bibles. And not only did they own them, they always seemed to be reading and bringing them wherever they went. “That was the weirdest thing in all my life,” Sarah later said.

Early in the school year, Kim and Stacy started hosting their freshmen ��ñ�� Bible study in the dorm room, where the group would sit in a circle on the floor to discuss the Bible. To Sarah, it was like an alien culture – one she tried to avoid every week. Meanwhile, her roommates persisted in inviting her to every ��ñ�� event they attended, only to be turned down each time.

And then one week, Sarah stuck around for Bible study. She kept a safe distance from the discussion circle, but she listened while pretending to study. Sarah didn’t understand anything that was being said, and yet she was fascinated. “All I knew was that those people had something I didn’t. I was seeing peace in their life. There was absolutely no peace in my life, but they had true peace.” Intrigued more and more by her roommates, Sarah finally agreed to attend an ��ñ�� event right before Thanksgiving break.

At the ��ñ�� meeting Sarah listened to a visiting pastor speak about biblical sacrifices. It became clear that her sacrifices and altars were a perversion of something much greater. God was asking her to lay down her life as a sacrifice because he loved her, and in laying down her life, Sarah could have the new life she had been searching for. The message was entirely different than anything Sarah had heard before – this God cared about her and wanted her to know him. Moved by the message, she found a quiet place outside, knelt in the grass, and prayed. After that night, Sarah never turned to witchcraft again.

A new life

In the first year of her faith, Sarah faced obstacles. Her parents were angry at the news of her becoming a Christian. She had to confront an old lifestyle of drinking. She didn’t have any background in Christianity as a foundation to build on. Even as Sarah struggled in her understanding of how to live as the new person she had become, she never doubted that her faith in God was real.

From the moment she made a decision for Jesus, Sarah soaked up everything she could that had to do with to her newfound faith. As a sophomore, Sarah burned every remnant of her witchcraft past. “It was me putting a stake in the ground, saying ‘I don’t belong to that world anymore,’” Sarah said.

In her last two years of college, Sarah experienced a shift from simply exploring Christianity to surrendering her whole life to Jesus. By the end of her time in college, Sarah had come into a deep relationship with the Lord. Her life was rooted in Jesus, and she knew it wouldn’t go away when she left campus.

Sarah found herself drawn to working with youth. Upon graduation, she worked in the adolescent wing of a psychiatric facility. Two years later, Sarah returned to school for her teaching license and started teaching. But soon after, God would call her to yet another career involving teens.

Telling stories

While teaching, Sarah was also involved with her church’s youth group. There she met a young girl who caught her attention. Sarah could tell this girl was putting on a façade. The girl knew what to say and how to play the role of a Christian, but it was fake. As Sarah began to wonder about that girl’s life, she felt God telling her to write the girl’s story, the inspiration for what would become a book series entitled Becoming Beka.

Sarah spent that summer off from school writing her first novel, which she finished later that year. Without any experience to draw on, Sarah entered into the new world of writers’ conferences and book publishing. Sarah has since published four other books in the Becoming Beka series, which follows fictional high school student Beka Madison’s experience dealing with family, friends, and faith.

A greater calling

Sarah’s story of transformation as a young adult has put her in a unique position to speak truth into the lives of teenagers during some of their most formative years. “Teens are considering big questions. They’re deciding who they are going to be apart from their parents, who they’re going to spend their lives with. The Lord has so much wisdom to offer in all of these things.”

Sarah’s books resonate particularly among teenage girls, who will often tell Sarah that they, like Beka, just act the role of a Christian. Sarah has hope for teens recognizing God’s call on their lives for a greater purpose. “Who has time for being superficial? God has a mission for us,” Sarah said. “Things will be different if we do what we say we believe. If teens got serious, they could really change the world.”

Sarah’s story is a testimony to the power of students getting serious. She attributes much of her testimony to her roommates living out their faith, loving her, and simply making an invitation. Today, Sarah encourages Christians to live authentically and missionally, because just one invitation can change a life. It did hers.

“I’m grateful for ��ñ��, and I’m particularly grateful for Christians who choose to go to secular schools. If those girls and ��ñ�� hadn’t been there, I don’t know if I would have been able to do everything I’m doing. ��ñ�� creates the possibility for someone like me to become a Christian.”

Today, Sarah feels she is fulfilling her calling by telling stories. In addition to publishing novels, Sarah writes screenplays, speaks to teens and college-aged youth about faith, and even makes appearances on talk shows – from The 700 Club to The Tyra Banks Show – to share her testimony. With each platform she’s given to speak, Sarah uses the opportunity to point to the God whose love extends to all people – including teenage witches. “I’m content to say to God, ‘Anytime you want me to share your story or my story to give you glory, I’ll do it.’”

“Even a Witch Can be Saved” – Sarah’s guest post on ��ñ��’s blog

A naked faith is Sarah’s blog.

To read more alumni stories, go to http://www.intervarsity.org/get-involved/alumni/alumni-stories.

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Witchcraft

Witch

Christian