multiethnicity

Bible Studies Transforming Meredith College

ashlye.vanderworp@intervarsity.org — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 19:39:19 +0000

Ashlye Vanderworp

Bible Studies Transforming Meredith College

Meredith College is a small, all women’s college in Raleigh, North Carolina. It’s a unique campus that functions much like a sorority, full of traditions that foster community and empower the women who attend.

Much like the campus itself, Meredith’s ��ñ�� chapter is also unique. It is the only Christian organization that actually meets on campus, while others only have chapters at North Carolina State University down the road. It is also the only organization on campus, religious or non-religious, that is majority non-White.

A Life Devoted to Bible Study

Robin Bolash serves as the ��ñ�� Campus Staff Minister at Meredith College. Having worked with ��ñ�� for over 20 years, Robin leads in ways that significantly shape the women in her chapter who are shaping the campus.

But when she was a college student herself, it was through ��ñ�� that Robin truly learned who Jesus was and what he had planned for her life.

“I grew up in church, and I was curious about the Bible, but I had no idea how to study it. When I got to college, we learned how to do the ��ñ�� Bible study method, and it was the best thing that happened to me. In that moment, I decided this is what I wanted to do for the rest of my life—I want to help people unlock the Bible,” Robin said.

This is why Robin focuses all of her chapter’s activities on Bible study. She has seen firsthand how studying the Bible can change a student’s life and how many want to just, as she says, “have the keys.”

Robin also disciples many students in her chapter herself—students such as Tori and Indyah.

World Changers Developing World Changers

When Tori and Indyah were assigned to lead a Bible study together two years ago, they had never met. However, as they began to lead together, they became close friends.

They prepared for small group each week, studied Scripture together, and discussed the questions they had about the passage, helping them form a close bond. That bond then flowed into the rest of the group.

“The way we study the Bible with ��ñ�� impacted our small group because it really allowed everyone to state their opinion. . . . Everyone’s on the same page, like no one knows more than someone else. We’re all starting off at the same level,” Tori said.

So, Tori decided to share that with a Sunday school class for high school students she taught at her church back home.

“I printed off manuscripts for them, and they really enjoyed it just like I really enjoyed it!” she said.

The pastor of the church Tori taught at regularly checked on all of the Sunday school classes. She noticed, though, that when he came into her classroom, he stayed for a while, watching what she was doing.

“I would think to myself, Am I doing something wrong?” Tori said.

The next thing she knew, at a churchwide Bible study one Tuesday night, Tori’s pastor distributed printed manuscript passages to the congregation. He then began to lead the church in Bible study the way Tori led her class—the way ��ñ�� does Bible study.

“Now, my whole church is doing Bible studies how we do [in ��ñ��]. I have definitely seen a lot of growth in my Sunday school class, in my church, and in myself,” Tori said.

As Tori led her class at church, her and Indyah’s ��ñ�� small group continued to grow closer and fall more in love with Scripture. This past school year, every new leader of the ��ñ�� chapter at Meredith came out of Tori and Indyah’s small group.

“I think most of it came from them seeing how community actually works and seeing how comfortable it can be,” Indyah said.

One of those new leaders was Essence, a member of Meredith’s track team.

Essence

When Essence began school at Meredith as a freshman, she had never experienced Bible study before. She joined Indyah and Tori’s small group and was soon invited to Beach Retreat, an annual event for the chapter.

As the students read the story of the Samaritan woman, Essence saw herself in the story and realized she was pursuing stagnant, stale water, rather than Jesus’ living water. In that moment, she decided to give her life fully to Jesus.

“I had never studied Scripture like that before,” Essence said. “I was able to write on the text, ask questions and observe, you know, interpret what the text means and how to apply it to my life. . . . Everything started making sense at that point.”

Today, Essence leads a Bible study for her track and field teammates. Though she’s faced difficulties with many members leaving the Bible study—because many athletes and minority students leave Meredith College after only their first year—she is committed to sharing with her team what she experienced.

“Bible study is amazing. You build so many relationships, so much love for people, so much love for God. It’s something that changed my life for the better.”

Bible Study Fostering Community in Corners of Campus

��ñ�� at Meredith believes the best way to reach the students on campus is through Bible studies where they feel like they belong and can be themselves, making them more open to Christ.

“These women are with each other, and they’re just having conversations. They’re doing observations together, then they’re asking all their questions together, and then they’re talking about applications together. And so, you’re getting to know each other while exploring the Scriptures together. You’re beginning to identify yourself in the story while sharing yourself with people. There is something very communal about this method,” Robin said.

Though their chapter is small, that communal environment centered around Scripture is what the women of ��ñ�� at Meredith spread to many parts of campus, from athletes, to freshmen, to art majors. Their Bible studies are multiplying because these women jump in when Robin encourages them to lead where they already are involved on campus, where they are already influencing, with the people they are already praying for.

“I’m looking at what Meredith needs and where there are gaps. I want to see where the Lord wants small groups to be, who are the students he’s bringing into this tiny, little fellowship, and how far can we reach—how far to the corners can we go,” Robin said.

To hear more about what the students at Meredith College have to say about Bible study, watch the video below.

Do you have a desire to reach people on your campus or in your life with the love of Jesus? Consider starting and leading a Bible study. For more information on how to lead a Bible study, click the button below to visit Howto.Bible, a new project from ��ñ��.

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Small Group Bible Studies

Every Campus

inductive bible study

Racial Difference Without Division

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Wed, 15 Nov 2017 17:47:45 +0000

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Racial Difference Without Division

Sarah Shin, ��ñ��'s Associate National Director of Evangelism and an ��ñ�� Press author, contributed this article to Change Makers, Christianity Today's special focus on women who are influencing the church, their communities, and the world.

Read the article here.

Learn more about Sarah's ��ñ�� Press book Beyond Colorblind here.

Learn more about ��ñ��'s Beyond Colorblind Campaign and resources here.

____________________________

In a similar vein, ��ñ��'s Brenda Wong has just posted the story of her own multiethnic journey, The Painful Gift of Cultural Displacement, on ��ñ��'s weblog.

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Grief, Hope, and Our Mission

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Thu, 10 Nov 2016 20:58:43 +0000

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Grief, Hope, and Our Mission

��ñ�� president Tom Lin sent this post-election reflection to all ��ñ�� staff and volunteers on Thursday, November 10, 2016.

Friends, it’s been a long couple of days. I’ve been on the road this week. I’m physically and emotionally spent, but I wanted to share a bit of my thinking.

As a Taiwanese American raising two half-Taiwanese/half-Korean daughters, I spent yesterday processing and grieving the divide in the society where my girls are being raised. I remember growing up in a society where others made it clear that I didn’t “belong” and that I should “go back to where I came from,” and then committing myself to changing this for the next generation. The U.S. presidential election leaves many of us—particularly women, people of color, LGBTQI staff, and immigrants—feeling vulnerable, devalued, and without hope.

I am troubled by the fact that evangelical voters split between the candidates along racial lines. The racial divide within the church seems as clear and as stark as ever before. This leaves me grieving, weary, and sobered.

Many of us are genuinely struggling, wondering where God is in all of this. What should we do?

As followers of Christ, I hope we will attempt to heed Scripture’s command to pray for the leaders of our country. Some of us will do so with hope. Some of us will do so only by faith. All of us will need to pray how Jesus taught us to pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done.”

As members of the global Church, I hope we heed voices from the majority world who stand in solidarity with our challenges and have experiences to share. Church leader Duncan Olumbe from Kenya wrote yesterday:

May God walk with citizens of the USA and especially those who are Christians during this interesting phase of your history. Whether celebrating or dumbfounded, do not box God into your interpretive grid, theological or otherwise…. I sense the Golden Rule – love your enemy – will be severely tested over the coming days. Speak and post less, be more reflective, and pray even more.

As ��ñ��, we must resolutely affirm the good news we bring to campus, to every corner of the campus, including the most marginalized corners. I believe the church and our country need us to live out our commitment to multiethnicity and ethnic reconciliation now more than ever. Let us grow in entering into the discouragement and despair of our students of color. Let us continue challenging White students to renounce cultural idolatries and racism, while also trying to better understand White anger and alienation more deeply and empathetically, coming out of this election. Let us continue challenging all students to embrace God’s invitation to be ambassadors of reconciliation.

Furthermore, I believe we need to live out our commitment to women in ��ñ�� leadership. When we do so, we model what it means to treat women with the dignity and respect they are owed as people created in God’s image. We demonstrate what it means for men and women to work as partners together.

I believe we need to learn advocacy for the religious freedom of others, particularly Muslims. Thanks to our campus access initiatives, we have a good relationship with the Muslim Students’ Association. We are talking with their national executive director next week.

This election reaffirms the strategic importance of our mission. It reaffirms that we must work together to make ��ñ�� a place where women, as well as staff, students, and faculty of color, thrive, where our multiethnic communities are salt and light in the midst of darkness and hopelessness. We yearn to see this, but we cannot carry out God’s mission in our own power or own strength. This is something we can only pull off with the power of the gospel.

Brothers and sisters, we have good news to bring to the campus in this fractured and polarized time. We are people of hope! And the thirst for hope is at an all-time high. Amazingly, the early church grew and matured under leadership whose debauchery, sin, and ethnic divisions outstrip our own. So we will continue to engage the campus with the gospel, even with hope.

With gratefulness for you and our partnership in the gospel,

Tom

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A Campus Ministry Response to Ferguson

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 21 Nov 2014 18:27:15 +0000

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Gordon Govier

A Campus Ministry Response to Ferguson

The issues in Ferguson, Missouri, resonate with many students on college campuses across the country: racial tensions, discrimination, abuse of power, and historical patterns of oppression. And these same issues affect many across the country. So as the grand jury looking into the Michael Brown shooting prepared to announce its findings, ��ñ�� staff and students sought a response that constructively connected with our biblical concerns for ethnic reconciliation and justice.

For ��ñ��’s campus ministry, as well as for the Ferguson area institutions, this is a significant moment. “The events in Ferguson, and the broader social discourse, serve as a test for our core value of ethnic reconciliation and justice,” said Paula Fuller, ��ñ��’s Vice President and Director of Multiethnic Ministries. “As a ministry committed to establishing and advancing witnessing communities on our university and college campuses that are growing in love for people of every ethnicity and culture, how we attend to the events unfolding in the public square will either lend credence to our commitment or cause our words to have a hollow ring.”

��ñ�� staff have assembled a package of resources designed to help college students engage with their campus communities in a proactive manner, with approaches that range from a prayer gathering on campus, to a student survey, to an artistic display that probes the issue of police brutality. Some ��ñ�� staff are working closely with church and community leaders in Ferguson as agents of reconciliation and advocating more broadly for awareness and understanding.

��ñ�� alumni are also active in planning constructive response to the events in Ferguson. Several serve on the Ferguson Commission, appointed by Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to study the issues underlying the Ferguson incidents and issue recommendations. Members of the Commission include T.R. Carr, Professor of Public Administration at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and former mayor of Hazelwood MO. He is an ��ñ�� alumnus and longtime ��ñ�� volunteer. Also on the Commission, Brittney Packnett, Executive Director of Teach For America and alumna of ��ñ��'s Harambee Christian Ministries chapter at Washington University.

We lament the death of Michael Brown, and the wasted lives of all who suffer under racist structures that sap their potential. We confess that we have not worked hard enough to change those institutions which perpetuate some of the sins that began centuries ago in the days of legalized slavery. We are called to work to reform unjust systems and pursue racial reconciliation.

^{Image: Flickr}

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Justice

Connecting Multiethnicity to Chapter Growth

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Fri, 14 Feb 2014 17:18:36 +0000

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Gordon Govier

Connecting Multiethnicity to Chapter Growth

The first day of classes for the fall semester at Occidental College (Oxy) in Los Angeles was on August 28th, 2013, the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior’s I Have a Dream speech. The speech was on everyone’s mind, as students re-enacted the March on Washington and a faculty panel discussed the March.

“The college wanted to highlight the intersection between race and spirituality, and so it gave us an opportunity to step right into the midst of that discussion,” said Campus Staff Member Drew Jackson. That night Drew helped lead a candlelight vigil on campus and spoke on Isaiah 40, a Scripture passage quoted by Dr. King in his speech.

Sharing the Gospel with Your Professor

The next morning the campus community had a further chance to discuss King’s legacy, race relations in America, and the gospel of Jesus Christ, as ��ñ�� students manned the Hope Proxe right in the middle of campus.

“This was the first time that the gospel had been proclaimed publicly in the quad on campus in quite some time,” Drew said. “We had hundreds of students and faculty come through. Some of our student leaders actually led their professors through the Proxe, and were able to share the gospel with their professors, which was amazing.”

At the end of the four days of the Hope Proxe, the chapter had more than 100 contact cards from students who wanted to know more or were interested in getting into a small group Bible study. Those contacts led to the beginning of several new Bible studies and at least ten conversions.

“Oxy loves the language of reconciliation and justice, and Martin Luther King, but they separate Martin Luther King from the fact he was a follower of Jesus,” Drew said. “We were able to bring that faith back into the mix and show how it was the basis for everything that he thought and did. Students were very open to that.”

Discovering Ethnic Identity

In addition to the Hope Proxe’s apparent effectiveness in outreach, it has also helped chapters develop a stronger understanding of ethnic identity. “The students who have trained to use the Hope Proxe want to learn more about ethnic identity and they want to grow in racial reconciliation because of the outreach,” said Doug Schaupp, Associate Director of Evangelism.

“We are proclaiming the gospel but it’s also doing a transforming work in the students who are leading others through it,” added Maureen Huang, Resource Development Manager for Multiethnic Ministries. The Hope Proxe has been one of the most popular proxes developed by ��ñ�� so far.

Spreading to More Campuses

More campuses have used the Hope Proxe, some in mid-November, and now some during February, Black History Month. It is being received enthusiastically, as illustrated by this feedback from ��ñ�� staff.

First of all, I loved it. I loved taking on racial justice and making it known that the gospel has an answer for our many racial injustices. The Hope Proxe takes on the self, the campus, the country, and the world all at once. It offers solid, detailed facts to support the claims that all is not well with the world, and that Christ can transform the racist into the agent of justice.
I’ve never had so much fun doing a proxe before! It is by far the best looking proxe we’ve ever used. We have seen so much fruit. Our leadership shared the gospel with over 100 students, including many leaders.
Our students at Arizona State have liked proxes in the past but this was the first one they loved. They still talk about it. Consistently, there were groups of students waiting to go through it.
In light of last year's hate crimes at Oberlin, this proxe is especially relevant since there is still some tension on campus. Our chapter members have loved this. We've shown it to the Multicultural Resource Center and they like that it will encourage student conversations. I think students are willing to listen to how Jesus can affect change but please pray for good soil. God is moving on campus!

Racial issues are present, to some degree or another, on every campus. Race is not an easy issue for college administrators to deal with. But the Hope Proxe brings a new perspective. “We introduce Jesus into the conversation, and what he has to say about the situation as a reconciler,” Maureen said. Jesus changes everything.

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Multiethnicity Is Worth the Effort

AD-16225 — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 21:05:49 +0000

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Multiethnicity Is Worth the Effort

Nikki Toyama-Szeto is Urbana Program Director in ��ñ��’s Missions Department. She oversees the development of programming for ��ñ��’s triennial Urbana Student Missions Conference. Prior to joining the Urbana team, Nikki was involved in ��ñ��’s campus ministry at the University of California-Berkeley, Stanford, and the University of San Francisco.

On Monday, January 17, 2011, Nikki marked the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday by speaking at Calvin College. Her talk was part of Calvin’s January Series, a highly regarded schedule of annual lectures that this year includes talks from Krista Tippett, Andy Crouch, and Cal Ripken Jr. Nikki’s topic was Beyond Multi-Culturalism to True Community.

Why did Calvin College ask an Asian American woman to speak about multiethnicity for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday?

As an Asian American, I think we owe a great debt to the work that Martin Luther King Jr. and many different folks did during the Civil Rights era. We stand on the ground that they made smooth. I feel a great debt to the Black community and Martin Luther King Jr. They invited me to speak on this day, and together we chose a topic that would honor Dr. King’s legacy.

You've written about multiethnicity and engaged in conversations about it. You've said that it's all too easy to manage diversity rather than be transformed by dealing with it. How does a church, or a Christian organization like ��ñ��, go beyond the superficial and create space for true transformation.

When I think of the word managing, I think of someone who is trying to minimize risks and discomfort, and maximize productivity. When you're trying to do that, one of the things you do is drop to the lowest common denominator. You try to keep the peace, keep everyone focused on the same thing, and keep everyone producing something.

When you're managing people, they generally want to do well. They don't want to admit mistakes and you want to minimize mistakes. In a transformative culture you need to create a new standard of measurement where there is a space for people to make mistakes, where there is a space for people to say the wrong thing. Because when they say the wrong thing, and there's honest dialogue about it, that's where transformation comes from.

One of my favorite images comes from Rich Lamb, a former ��ñ�� staff worker. He talked about how a community is like a rock polisher. You throw a bunch of dirty, uninteresting rocks in. Then the rock polisher bounces the rocks around in the grit and they rub against each other. When you open up the rock polisher, you see smooth stones with amazing colors revealed. That's what the transformative community looks like.

You don't get that by just managing diversity; you get a whole bunch of rocks in a row. I hope we would have more of a posture of a rock polisher so that we are transformed in the midst of doing the thing that God calls us to do.

If you’re leading an organization there are a lot of pitfalls, in the area of communication for example. Is it a matter of taking the extra time and making sure that they get addressed when conflicts come up?

I'm not sure that I would use the word pitfalls. That sounds like something you're trying to avoid, without making mistakes and offending someone. It's in the pitfalls where transformation comes. The question is, can we fall gracefully? Do we have the time and the space to not just fall, but to learn from it.

We don't have the language to make mistakes and to have conflict with each other in a transformative way. We tend to make mistakes and have conflicts with each other in hurtful ways that we then have to recover from.

As an organization, what are the ways that we can create categories for extending grace or ways to talk about hard situations? The thing that comes with multiethnicity when you feel called to it – and I believe that ��ñ�� holds it not just as a value, but as a calling to a multiethnic journey as we often talk about it – is that it messes in your areas of communication, and it messes with leadership styles, and it messes with where money is spent.

It takes having a kingdom picture, to go into some of those conversations without feeling that the people in power are going to lose something. Is the kingdom of God a zero sum kingdom? No, it's a kingdom of abundant resources. But we often think of it as a closed system, if one person wins the other loses. But I think the multiethnic journey is really about when one person wins the other person wins. Because we're on this journey together.

The Philippines have this great proverb that talks about lifting as you climb. As someone achieves something in this world, they also are supposed to lift their family and members of their community with them. How can we be people who lift as we climb, instead of just climbing really fast, stepping on others in order to get there faster?

God wants a multiethnic community of believers. He's made it very clear. Isaiah 56:7 prophesies about "a house of prayer for all nations" and John describes every nation, tribe and language, before the throne of God in Revelation 7:9. We don't hear those scriptures preached in the church very often.

I think those passages are really challenging. In our churches we've shifted away from the hard passages. Our approach to God and to scripture has become an approach of convenience and how scripture helps my life, rather than obedience to the authority of the Word of God. These scriptures cause us to look at our context and make different and uncomfortable choices. And that's not a very popular thing to do.

You also say that we don't need advocates, we need partners .

I was driving one day and listening on the radio to an interesting conversation about the need for advocates. Before that conversation I would have been in favor of having people in power advocate for Asian Americans, and for women, and for basically anyone who doesn't have a seat at the table. But after listening and hearing the dialogue, I began to realize that's true in the secular environment but in the Christian community we are called to something different. We are called to love one another.

Being in the Christian community is being part of the body of Christ. Jesus used that image: the hand doesn't say to the eye, "I do not need you." That should inform our picture of partnership, we're all part of the same body. We all do different things and we are all different. We are of different cultures. All of those things help fill out the broader picture of who God is. Not one culture, not one person, not one race, can hold all of who God is. We all see different aspects of God.

I want people on my journey who look at me and don't feel that they have to put up with me or have to learn from me so that they can advocate for me. But I want people who journey with me and who say, “Nikki, you see something about God that I don't see, because you are a fourth generation Japanese American, because of your family’s experience here in America. Because of these different things, you see something different about God that I don't get to see. And I need you as a partner in this spiritual journey, so that I can have a fuller picture of God.” And vice versa. I think that kind of interdependence resonates more with what Jesus intended in scripture.

In saying that, you’ve described something that I’ve felt about ��ñ�� and the diversity that I’ve experienced as I’ve worked with you and other people from different backgrounds. I can trust where you’re coming from, because we share the same relationship with Jesus Christ. He is the unity in our diversity.

Yes, absolutely. For people like me, we need folks who have the option to get out of those conversations, to stay in them. I wish I had the option. I wish I could not think about what it means to be an Asian, or a woman. But I don't have that luxury. I bring that with me to everyone I'm meeting.

I'm looking for folks who see their welfare tied up in mine and are willing to stick in those hard conversations, even when it becomes uncomfortable.

_______

��ñ��'s Greek Ministry hosts a panel on Multiethnicity at the University of Georgia.

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