Graduate and Faculty Ministries

Faculty: The Key to Revival on Campus?

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Wed, 18 Dec 2019 18:20:32 +0000

Nathan Peterson

Faculty: The Key to Revival on Campus?

“God has assembled quite a few Christians here. I don’t know what he wants to do, but I would love to discover it with you.”

George Stulac found himself saying that a lot after joining ��ñ��’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries (GFM) as a Campus Staff Minister. It felt like each new Christian faculty he met in the St. Louis area would recommend another faculty contact he hadn’t known about before. Since starting back in 2015—after investing 38 years as a pastor—George has been able to connect with over 50 Christian faculty at his alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis.

The odd thing was that many of them didn’t seem to know each other.

George came to recognize this phenomenon as the silo effect. Simply put, many professors find it difficult to build relationships with other faculty outside of their department.

Dr. Jill Pasteris, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, speculated about the reason for this, saying, “We just get too focused and don’t reach out enough to other faculty, in part, because we are not sure of what common interests might bring us together.”

Several professors shared with George some of the challenges that come along with the silo effect, with the first, most obvious one being isolation. It’s also easy to compartmentalize, to see faith and academics as separate. Even when professors seek to integrate their Christian faith into their work, navigating university structures can be quite demanding. Others admitted to George that the influence and authority they held on campus set them up for temptations they were sometimes not prepared for.

Discovering Community

In all this, George recognized an opportunity to serve and help. “When I began to introduce [faculty] to each other, they began to meet together and build relationships,” he said. “I saw opportunities for collaboration and mutual help to blossom naturally among some faculty whose paths otherwise wouldn’t cross.”

George invited a group of faculty to Urbana 15, where they met together to hear from Bobby Gross, the Vice President of GFM, and Dr. John Inazu, a Washington University professor and ��ñ�� Board Member. “When they attended Urbana sessions, they heard about being missional people,” George said. “That seemed to stir a desire to do that together on campus and not be content with the silo-ing and isolation. [They believed] that there was more that could be done to have a redeeming influence on the university.”

Some faculty at Washington University in St. Louis returned from Urbana inspired to form an ��ñ�� Faculty Fellowship and begin meeting twice a month. “I enjoyed watching these faculty form friendships and initiate cooperative ventures together for a Christian presence and witness on campus,” George said.

After that initial fellowship was planted, he has continued connecting faculty and has helped to establish three more fellowships in the St. Louis area. George now meets with a number of professors individually for spiritual formation and also leads faculty Bible studies. “I learned so much,” one professor described their time spent in the Word. “I felt better equipped to understand the passages and got insights on how to approach Scripture.”

“George has supported my desire to be an example and share Christ in my academic work life,” said another.

Discovering Opportunities

More and more faculty have sensed the call to be more active in their faith. “Because they’re in positions of influence, [their openness about their faith] affects the thinking, the ideas of the university,” George said. “The gospel becomes more a part of the campus-wide discussion of what is true and real and good.”

At Lindenwood University, several professors have designated their offices as prayer stations, public places where anyone can come to pray or receive prayer. And when one philosophy professor finished his PhD, the fellowship decided to throw a party, inviting all faculty, both Christian and non-Christian. Around 30 professors gathered to hear about and discuss his dissertation on the existence of God. “They had a great time,” George said. “They loved engaging with each other.”

In many ways, the ministry taking place within these four ��ñ�� Faculty Fellowships parallels the greater work God is doing among St. Louis faculty.

“There are a lot of Christian faculty members who want to engage more deeply with ministry,” said Washington School of Medicine’s Dr. S. Joshua Swamidass. “When we [as faculty] can actually integrate what we’re thinking and doing, we can actually change how a whole field thinks about things.”

For much of his childhood, Dr. Swamidass admits he focused on “building [his] faith on the sinking ground of scientific arguments,” as he writes in his article “Finding Confident Faith in Science.” But over time, he began to realize there was someone bigger than science: Jesus, whose presence and power was greater than what he found in science.

Alongside his scientific work, Dr. Swamidass launched Peaceful Science to find common ground around questions of origin and science. He has spoken at many venues, like Urbana 18 and Veritas Forums, founded the nonprofit, and wrote the ��ñ�� Press title The Genealogical Adam and Eve.

Dr. Swamidass also is one of the faculty fellows at another nonprofit, The Carver Project (TCP), founded by faculty to “empower Christian faculty and students to serve and connect university, church, and society.”

TCP continues to gain momentum with faculty dinners and discussions across departments, professors coteaching and developing new classes together, and reading groups being hosted for students as well as mentoring opportunities being offered. The past two years, they have hosted Carver Conversations for the larger community, inviting guests like Tim Keller, Lecrae, Sara Groves, and Makoto Fujimura to discuss topics like “Christian Witness in an Age of Fracture” and “Baptizing Our Imaginations: Art and the Divided Church.” The next Carver Conversation is scheduled for April 3, 2020.

George has been thrilled to witness TCP’s development and serve them through leading Bible studies, providing pastoral care, and helping plan their annual faculty retreat. “George has been an indispensable partner to The Carver Project: his words and actions demonstrate again and again that he knows faculty, he knows Washington University, and he knows Jesus,” said Dr. Inazu, who is also one of TCP’s founders.

Reflecting on the future of his own ministry and God’s greater work in St. Louis, George has begun to gain a clearer sense of what the Lord may be doing by gathering so many faculty together.

“I’ve come to believe that faculty are perhaps the key to all the things ��ñ�� does on campus,” he said. “With their longevity on campus, compared to students who graduate, and by their positions of influence and respect on the campus, faculty have the potential to be the greatest influence for revival on our campuses.”

News Keywords

Faculty Ministry

Graduate and Faculty Ministries

St. Louis

Washington University

The Carver Project

Going First—Keeping Step with Christ & Community

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Fri, 06 Sep 2019 20:49:58 +0000

Nathan Peterson

Going First—Keeping Step with Christ & Community

First in her family to go to college. First to earn a bachelor’s degree. First to earn a master’s. Ruth Castro has a history of going first.

Throughout her childhood, going to college wasn’t ever really discussed. “Everyone’s expected to work right after high school,” Ruth said. “That’s been the mentality culturally. It’s kind of the stereotypical Mexican American family.”

But college readiness courses in high school sparked Ruth’s desire to pursue higher education. Just a few weeks after graduating from the University of Chicago (UChicago) with her MA in Social Work Administration, Ruth reflected, “It’s empowering to pave my own path and set the example for future Mexican American leaders. It’s been a really good journey so far.”

Putting Faith First

Though it’s empowering, going first is harder than billboards and bumper stickers let on. As she began applying for colleges, Ruth discovered one of the many challenges that confront an aspiring first-generation college student: a need for guidance. “I don’t have the luxury of going to family members and asking them for advice like, ‘What do you think of this career path?’” she said. “I’ve had to scramble for resources on my own.”

Fortunately, mentors and high school teachers came alongside Ruth to help her navigate this process. After earning her BA in Psychology from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 2015, an even bigger challenge awaited Ruth: making the cross-country move from California to Illinois for graduate school.

Exchanging balmy afternoons on the beach in Santa Monica for the Windy City’s blustery winters would have been challenge enough. But Ruth faced even greater obstacles. “I missed my family,” she said. “We’re very united, so it was very, very hard on me mentally and emotionally to start from scratch and build a new community. A lot of the time, to be honest, it felt lonely.”

In those still moments of sitting alone in her apartment, Ruth sensed that she needed something beyond just a new set of friends. She needed God. “I grew up going to church, but it was more of a chore,” she said. “It felt like I needed to do it because my parents made me. I never felt it internally.”

With these things on her mind, Ruth began her first quarter at UChicago. Receiving an invitation to a Friendsgiving and then a Bible study with ��ñ��’s Graduate Christian Fellowship chapter, she went, a little nervous to meet so many new people. Looking back on those first moments, Ruth is grateful she took the risk.

From evening bonfires on the shore of Lake Michigan—helping Ruth feel a bit closer to the beaches of Santa Monica—to final exam study sessions and regular home meetings, the UChicago Graduate Christian Fellowship was exactly what she needed. “We’re able to empower and uplift each other during hard times in graduate programs,” she said. “We create an environment of trust, where we’re able to be inclusive and nonjudgmental, where we’re able to create long-lasting friendships with each other and with members in the community.”

Ruth’s perspective on her faith has completely changed as well. “The difference now is that I feel it in my heart to go to church,” she said. “I feel it in my heart to praise God. I feel it in my heart to read the Bible and pray. That’s the huge difference. It’s the drive, the motivation, the passion to commit and live a Christlike life. Being part of ��ñ�� has given me an opportunity to connect more with God.”

First for a Reason

As Ruth continued in her studies at UChicago, going first just for the sake of going first wasn’t enough anymore. There needed to be something more, a purpose behind it. Attending Urbana 18 with three other friends from her chapter, Ruth discovered a key part of that purpose.

Of the many insightful Urbana seminars she heard, Ruth particularly resonated with Women of Color in Urban Ministry. After it was over, she talked with one of the speakers, Janet Singleterry, who shared more about her ministry with Servant Partners, a nonprofit dedicated to community transformation by walking alongside the urban poor.

Returning to UChicago, Ruth stayed in touch with Janet and began looking into an internship with Servant Partners. Through these programs, interns join Servant Partners in gathering and equipping leaders and also identifying other ways to partner with local communities. “I told God I wanted to work in a faith-based organization and work in church planting and community organizing. That’s exactly what Servant Partners does,” Ruth said.

This summer, she will begin a two-year internship in San José, California, with the nonprofit. She looks forward to moving to the inner city and helping to serve the Latino immigrant community—a community close to her heart, being a child of Mexican immigrants. “I want to do everything and anything I can to help that community just because it hits close to home,” she said.

Reflecting on her journey of firsts, Ruth said, “I always feel like God has been guiding me ever since I was a little girl.” And even as she looks ahead to possibly being the first in her family to earn a PhD after her internship, her focus has never strayed far from them: “I think that I would want to further my studies as a way of combining my educational skills and personal disadvantaged struggle to create broader social change in my own community. One of my long-term goals is to create a nonprofit that assists low-income students struggling with academics. I hope to encourage them to find their passions while also taking pride in their own identities.”

Are you starting graduate school this fall or know someone who is? ��ñ�� ministers to not only undergraduate college students, but graduate students, like Ruth, and faculty as well. Find out more about Graduate and Faculty Ministry (GFM) and find a community at your campus by clicking the button below.

Learn More about GFM and Find a Community

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LaFe

Urbana 18

University of Chicago

Spiritual Conversations that Change Lives

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 21:46:57 +0000

Gordon Govier

Spiritual Conversations that Change Lives

The atheists on the other side of the room at New York University (NYU) were not happy when the Christians sang their worship songs. And that was the beginning of Mickey Sanchez’s journey to becoming an ��ñ�� Campus Staff Minister.

“NYU put us in the same room together, with just a little dividing wall between us,” he recalled. “We bothered them when we did worship. We didn’t know they were there.”

The Christians turned down their music when they realized what was happening, and the two groups continued to meet in the same large room, as assigned. Later, Mickey crossed the dividing wall to talk with the atheists. He was curious to know why they believed what they believed. They shared back and forth, and the atheists invited Mickey back the following week.

At the same time Mickey was struggling with his biochemistry lab work. It was more tedious than he expected. “From that point on, I realized I was much more interested in having conversations with atheists than running DNA trials,” he said.

As the philosophical discussions continued, Mickey switched his major to political science, a field that he perceived as applied philosophy. After graduation he found a job at the New York City Council office but stayed connected with the Christian fellowship and the atheists’ club at NYU because he wanted to continue the conversations. “Eventually I realized I should be doing ministry and not politics, if that’s where all my energy is,” he said. Both he and his wife decided to go to seminary.

Seminary took them to Boston and it was there, while on staff at a church, that several people told him he would be a good fit for ��ñ��’s campus ministry. The opportunity to lead an Alpha course with veteran ��ñ�� Campus Minister Jeff Barneson in the Harvard Business School, during which two people in the class were baptized and two others came to faith, clinched it.

“I saw that as God’s confirmation that I should be doing campus ministry,” he said. As Mickey joined ��ñ�� staff at Harvard and began to work with the various Graduate School fellowships, he discovered each school had a different culture. When it came to Bible study, for instance, there were similar passions but varying applications.

“In the Business School they didn’t spend a lot of time analyzing the text,” he noted. “They went straight to application. In the PhD world they analyzed the text most of the time and probably didn’t get to the application enough.”

Mickey expected to stay at Harvard long term, but after just four years there his wife landed a job at the national office of the Evangelical Covenant Church in Chicago. So three years ago he began working with the graduate students at Northwestern University.

Instead of overseeing several different chapters and having a fellowship of ��ñ�� staff to work with, Mickey is now staffing one single grad chapter that numbers over 50 students. But like at Harvard, ��ñ�� grad student ministry has a long history at Northwestern. They had been praying for a staff minister for a number of years. Mickey is pleased that the group has a missional focus to reach every corner of the graduate school campus.

Adjusting to the Midwest after living on the east coast for most of his life has been easier than he expected. He’s been working on getting acquainted with other groups of Northwestern graduate students, building connections, and finding ways to cosponsor events with them.

Recently, one of the chapter’s small group leaders bumped into a huddle of students in the Physics Department, who were talking about Graduate Christian Fellowship. They were complimenting the fellowship’s activities, in particular a dialogue that had been held with the Queer Pride group.

“What we’re doing here at Northwestern is creating bridges for people to consider the gospel,” Mickey said. “We’re trying to remove obstacles that are unnecessary. Our dream of reaching every corner of the campus is starting to happen.”

Grad students tend to be more isolated than undergrads, and connecting about faith issues can be difficult. But Mickey believes that opening up dialogue and having spiritual conversations among grad students and faculty can change the culture of a campus. “It’s easier for undergrads to be open to faith when there are spiritual conversations among grad students and professors,” he said.

From biochemistry to politics to campus ministry, it took a few turns before Mickey found his calling. As ��ñ�� embraces the 2030 Calling to reach out to every corner of every campus, he is looking forward to seeing how ministry to graduate students and faculty can lead the way.

News Keywords

New York University

Graduate and Faculty Ministries

Harvard

Northwestern

Alpha

Choosing the Path that God Leads

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 19:42:23 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Choosing the Path that God Leads

The Chicago Public Schools’ February decision to make computer science a graduation requirement is a victory for a group of visionary teachers that includes University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) professor and ��ñ�� alumnus Dale Reed. Dale has a history of helping to launch new initiatives. He helped start one of ��ñ��’s first Graduate & Faculty Ministries chapters at Northwestern University.

After growing up in a missionary family in Ecuador, and getting an undergraduate degree, Dale arrived at Northwestern in 1985 ready to begin graduate studies and find fellowship with other Christian students. ��ñ�� was the second campus ministry he tried, and ��ñ��’s undergrad group was still not the best fit.

But he met other Christian grad students and veteran campus staff member Dave Ivaska suggested they pray about forming a graduate chapter. Soon a group of about 30 Christian grad students were meeting in resident adviser Kathy Tuan’s living room. “It was a dynamic and vibrant group,” Dale remembered.

The bonds that were formed in that fellowship were strong. A few years later, when Dale was despairing of completing his computer science PhD, some of the same people formed a dissertation support group to pray for each other. “That was the impetus, both spiritually and through tangible emotional support, to help me finish my degree,” he said.

The Fellowship frequently discussed how each of their vocations could further God’s redemptive work in the world. Dale recalled a Bible study of the book of Daniel by Dave Ivaska, which Dale referenced years later when he was invited to speak to some ��ñ�� students at the University of Chicago.

Dale saw firsthand how God could use a Christian professor to influence others when he worked with Eric Hamilton, a professor at Loyola University Chicago. With Eric’s guidance, Dale applied for education grants to reach out to high potential/low opportunity students in the Chicago public schools to help them understand the types of careers that are available in the computer science field.

He continued his outreach to public school students when he became a professor at UIC. Over a period of six to seven years Dale spoke to more than 10,000 Chicago high school students about computer science careers.

“This is both a justice issue as well as important economically in the U.S,” Dale said. “What we are trying to do for every CPS student is to give them a sense of the breadth of what computer science is about.” Students would be less likely to choose computer science as a career if all they understood about computers was learning typing skills, how to browse the web, play video games, and master Microsoft Office.

In 2007, Dale joined with some other educators to form the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) to improve computer science education. They realized early-on that the lack of a curriculum was a major problem. Their efforts started to gain traction when they discovered a UCLA-developed class called Exploring Computer Science (ECS), which turned out to be exactly what they needed.

“My involvement with ECS has revolutionized my own teaching as a university professor,” Dale said. Before ECS he would often pause to ask, “Any questions?” The response was usually a long pregnant pause. “Currently, if I'm explaining something in my class and getting some blank stares, I would say, 'take 20 seconds with your elbow partner and discuss your level of understanding from 1-5.'" The comments that follow give a much clearer idea of where the class is at in its understanding.

Dale calls ECS a “sandbox” for teaching students how to think better; it’s more than just about computers. Now the biggest challenge is how the cash-strapped CPS will be able to move forward with implementation of the computer science requirement. Dale often prays with Brenda Wilkerson, the CPS computer science program manager: “Lord, you can figure out a way to do this. We certainly don’t know, but we think this is really important for our kids to have this option in the future.”

Dale’s missionary-family background has made him a strong proponent of education. “I saw firsthand how an education could make a big difference,” he said. “Education can open doors that might otherwise be closed to people who grow up in a low economic opportunity environment.”

Dale’s achievements have led to his appointment as a clinical track full professor at UIC, not an easy accomplishment for someone who chose the teaching path instead of the research path. But he recognizes who actually has guided his career, starting with the fellowship of other grad students in ��ñ�� at Northwestern University: “The Lord orchestrated this because a person couldn’t make a plan to do something like this.”

News Keywords

Northwestern University

��ñ�� alumni

Graduate and Faculty Ministries

Education

computers

Connecting Christians on Campus

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Mon, 08 Feb 2016 19:12:18 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

Connecting Christians on Campus

Texas appears dry and dusty. But Leon Fillyaw has found Texas to be fruitful for chapter planting twice in the past. In his current job he hopes to plant more chapters in and around Texas.

Twenty years ago Leon drove his 1966 Mustang from North Carolina State University in Raleigh to Texas Tech in Lubbock. He’d worked as a volunteer staff member with ��ñ�� for a year at NC State, and was about to give up on campus ministry. But a friend on staff told him that the Texas Tech chapter needed replanting and some of the faculty had raised enough money to support a campus staff member for one year.

“It felt pretty risky to drive out to Texas,” he said. He knew no one there. His experience at NC State had not convinced him he could cut it in campus ministry. But as a volunteer, and before that as a chapter leader and during a summer mission trip, he had experienced the fulfillment of taking risks for ministry. He was ready to take another risk.

Replanting the chapter was slow going—a lot of trial and error. “I kept being faithful in doing what I knew I could do,” Leon said. Four years later the chapter had grown to about 60 students, which is close to average size for an ��ñ�� chapter.

Then he moved to San Antonio, got married, and began replanting another chapter at Trinity University.

“I loved the work; I found it very rewarding, challenging, and stimulating,” Leon said. “At the same time those were lean years in Texas. Our ranks were decimated and we were struggling. But I had a strong sense from the Lord that I wasn’t finished yet.”

Leon nurtured the Trinity chapter for six years, and then nurtured Trinity campus staff for another four years as area director. The chapter continued to grow—even after Leon moved his family to Africa to join a church planting mission for a while—eventually peaking at around 100 students. The Trinity chapter also became known as one of the most consistent sources of new ��ñ�� staff in the region, year after year.

Today, he is area director for Graduate and Faculty Ministries (GFM), covering Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, a job he’s held for the last three years. Leon’s passion for campus ministry has not diminished through the years. His main charge is to recruit more staff to work with graduate students and faculty members at the key research universities in the area. Only one campus currently has GFM staff.

He’s met with Christian faculty at Texas A&M, and hopes to have a chapter operating in College Station soon. There are a couple of other schools where grad students have organized chapters but a lack of Christian community is common. “Being faculty and being in grad school are isolating experiences; you might not know any other Christians,” Leon said. “We’re seeking to build outposts for faithful presence throughout academic departments at these institutions.”

Leon was inspired by the story of a group of grad students at the University of Texas who met together several times to discuss how the Christian faith influences the development of virtue. Through the experience of reading a book with some fellow PhD students, one student who had been an atheist began to embrace the Christian faith.

“Because everybody is so busy, they only met three or four times, but some relationships formed out of that,” he said. “People weren’t as isolated as they were before. It was a light in a dark place, and it was beautiful to watch.”

Leon is hoping that as the number of campuses with GFM staff grows in his area he will get to see many more lights emerge from the darkness.

News Keywords

Texas

Oklahoma

Graduate and Faculty Ministries

Arkansas

"Why Would God Want Me to Have a PhD?"

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Thu, 30 Apr 2015 15:26:17 +0000

News

Gordon Govier

"Why Would God Want Me to Have a PhD?"

Kathy Tuan-MacLean is one of the few staff members who were involved with ��ñ�� in high school. Growing up in Hawaiʻi, she was a leader of the InterSchool Punahou Christian Fellowship. Hawaiʻi was the “mission field” and not a state when ��ñ�� was planted, and high school ministry was included in our mission.

Despite her early involvement with InterSchool, a call to ministry at age 14, and peripheral undergraduate involvement at Northwestern University, Kathy didn’t really plunge into ��ñ�� until she began her PhD program in human development and social policy at Northwestern. Veteran campus staff member Dave Ivaska invited her to help him plant graduate ministry there. “Northwestern Graduate Christian Fellowship met in my living room for those first two years,” Kathy said. Conveniently, as a resident hall coordinator, she had an exceptionally large living room.

Kathy’s goal to study faith and moral development was foiled before she even began the program, due to her advisor moving away, resulting in a struggle to understand why God had called her to a PhD program. She attended ��ñ��’s Urbana Student Missions Conference in 1987, asking everyone she met, “Why would God want me to have a PhD?”

Because her program focused largely on urban poverty issues, she wondered whether God was calling her to serve him in the city. At that point she knew she didn’t really love the poor, so she gave God the opportunity to change her heart by signing up for ��ñ��’s Chicago Urban Project (CUP). “It was a dangerous prayer—God always says yes when you ask him to help you love the poor,” she said.

The following summer Kathy served as an on-site staff member for CUP and discovered her unique gifts in helping students process the experience, leading her to finally join ��ñ�� staff (after five years of being recruited by Chicago area director Jeanette Yep). She wanted to serve campuses in Chicago, work with CUP, and finish her dissertation.

However, her love life (and God?) led her instead to join staff in New York City, serving Columbia and New York University, with the goal of also starting the New York City Urban Project (NYCUP). She not only was supervised by Bobby Gross, the newly minted regional director, but also shared an apartment with him, his wife Charlene, and their son Evan for three-and-a-half years. After suffering through the worst first year on staff of anyone she knows and the breakup of the relationship that brought her to New York, she met Scott MacLean, a new staff in Boston, at Orientation of New Staff. They married two years later, after Scott moved to New York City and joined her at Columbia.

While in New York, Kathy planted the first Metro New York graduate student fellowship; designed, launched, and directed NYCUP in partnership with fellow staff member Orlando Crespo; and, working with Scott, saw the Columbia fellowship triple in size.

In 1996, Kathy gave birth to their first child 13 days after turning in her PhD dissertation, “The Interracial Friendships of White and Asian College Students,” and two months before moving to Boston so Scott could attend business school. She joined the Harvard Graduate & Faculty Ministries (GFM) team, serving PhD and policy students over the next eleven years, as a part-time staff member while she bore and raised two more children. “I’m grateful for the flexibility ��ñ�� gave me as a mother to both do meaningful work and parent,” she said. “I especially appreciate ��ñ��’s long memory—so that when I was ready to re-engage more fully, I was welcomed and encouraged to step up.”

In 2007, Kathy became the area director for Boston GFM and planted the Boston Faculty Fellowship, a city-wide ministry with faculty from nine campuses. “We noticed God was bringing missional faculty to Boston, many of whom had been student leaders in our Fellowship,” she said.

Now, as the newly appointed associate director of GFM (beginning July 1), she will be working closely once again with her first supervisor, GFM director Bobby Gross.

“Kathy brings so many strengths to our leadership team from her own personal journey,” Bobby said. “She earned her PhD as a working woman, she led GFM teams at the campus and area level, and she has thoughtfully achieved a balance between her roles as a minister, wife, and mother. Her wisdom, experience, and leadership in the area of multiethnic ministry will be strategic for GFM as we aggressively pursue our goal to see multiethnic growth and ministry effectiveness.”

Kathy, for her part, relishes the opportunities she will have to advance GFM’s mission in her new position. “Figuring out how to grow the ministry—that’s what I’m excited about,” she said. “There’s so much room for growth. And working with ��ñ�� means working with the best colleagues in the whole world.”

News Keywords

NYCUP

Northwestern University

Graduate and Faculty Ministries

CUP

Boston

A Family Legacy

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:37:23 +0000

News

Craig Gartland

A Family Legacy

When I went off to college, I knew very little about ��ñ�� Christian Fellowship. All I really knew was that I was to try and find it and that my aunts Marian and Margaret had both served on campus staff with ��ñ�� in the late 1950’s (see photo).

A Legacy of Prayer

It was two years ago that Margaret passed away – her twin sister Marian only a few months before that (my mom, their younger sister, passed away three years ago last December). All three of these Sharp sisters left an incredible legacy of prayer. It is sobering to think that we no longer have each of them praying for our family and ministry daily.

As I had the honor of officiating my aunt Margaret’s funeral two summers ago, I was struck by the legacy my wife Sharon and I are left with as we serve on the staff of ��ñ��’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries. To say my aunts were “campus” staff is a bit misleading – Marian was given the states of Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas and Margaret, Oregon and Northern California (including Stanford and Cal Berkeley).

Margaret, who never married, went from ��ñ�� staff to attain her graduate degree at Syracuse U., to accepting a long-term appointment as Dean of Women at Redlands University (Calif.). Margaret particularly loved the university and spent her entire career mentoring students and being a redeeming influence among fellow faculty and staff, as well as the university’s ideas and culture.

A Legacy of Renewal

At the heart of the vision statement of ��ñ�� is to see campuses renewed – something my aunt Margaret was committed to and knew could not come about without prayer. As Sharon and I work with the gifted grads and faculty we have the privilege to disciple and mentor, we are extremely grateful for Margaret’s legacy.

Our Midwest Graduate and Faculty Ministries team has grown to 30 staff (from less than half that seven years ago), working with over 1,300 grads and faulty (almost 350 faculty). The network of Women in the Academy and Professions has grown to over 650 members. We know the crucial role that prayer plays, and we are so grateful for the prayers of those who support us.

Craig Gartland is Regional Director for the Midwest for Graduate and Faculty Ministries. His wife Sharon directs Women in the Academy and Professions for Graduate and Faculty Ministries. ��ñ�� is currently observing its 70^th year of ministry in the U.S.

News Keywords

Prayer

Graduate and Faculty Ministries

Campus Renewal

Older and Wiser: Faculty Advisors Minister to Students

webteam@intervarsity.org — Tue, 27 May 2003 05:00:00 +0000

News

Kristine Whitnable

Older and Wiser: Faculty Advisors Minister to Students

The mission of ��ñ�� is to bring the Gospel to the entire university. Faculty members can be very helpful in the fulfillment of this mission. Each ��ñ�� chapter should have a faculty advisor to act as a liaison with the university, but faculty can minister to students in a number of ways, and in so doing can grow in their own Christian faith.

Dr. Brent Nelsen and Dr. Laura Feitzinger Brown are two examples of faculty members who serve as advisors to the local ��ñ�� chapter. Dr. Nelsen is a Political Science professor at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. Dr. Brown is an English professor at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. They both have had a long history with ��ñ��.

Dr. Nelsen was a student at the University of Wisconsin at Madison. Dr. Brown was involved with chapters at Williams College, Williamstown, Massachusetts and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during her undergraduate and graduate years. The experiences of Dr Brown and Dr. Nelsen in discipleship and leadership as students in ��ñ�� help them to minister to today’s students. They serve their chapters by ministering to individual students, organizing prayer meetings, and speaking at Large Group meetings.

Some faculty members at the University of Wisconsin at La Crosse are learning of other ways they can be part of the ��ñ�� ministry on campus. Paul Hemenway, the ��ñ�� campus staff member in La Crosse, is facilitating this exploration of ministry opportunities. He became concerned about the role of faculty in the lives of students. He realized that while ��ñ�� can offer students training in the Christian life outside of the classroom, their experiences in the classroom are often decidedly non-Christian. The faculty set the tone in the classroom, and Paul hopes that the professors will be transformed by God’s Good News.

Such a transformation is slowly taking place. Last autumn Paul wanted to read The Recovery of Mission by Vinoth Ramachandra, but felt he needed help understanding some of the ideas. So he asked several of the faculty at UWLC to join him in a discussion of the book. Seven people responded. A number of academic disciplines were represented in the group, including English, Philosophy, Continuing Education, Science, and Allied Health. The discussions were lively and thought provoking. The faculty members were challenged to think in terms of how they are living out their Christian faith in the university.

After they had completed the book, this group continued to meet. They came up with several projects, which would serve the mission of the Gospel on campus.

1. Develop a list of Christian faculty. This would point students to Christian faculty in their discipline or area of study for support and guidance as they study at the university.

2. Organize Why I Am a Christian lunches. Here faculty can share their testimonies and discuss how faith in Christ intersects with their discipline.

3. Invite other Christian faculty members to speak during the year at the ��ñ�� undergraduate Large Group meetings.

4. Ask a faculty member to mentor the members of the ��ñ�� leadership team.

5. Ask faculty members to “adopt” a Bible study or small group. The faculty members would pray for the students and invite them to their homes once during the semester.

Faculty members are uniquely positioned on campus. They can create an atmosphere of open discussion in their classrooms, as well as have some influence on the policies of the institution. The power of God is evident as they develop their own witnessing community that takes the Gospel to the whole campus.

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Graduate and Faculty Ministries

GFM