How to Restore Christian Thought to the University

The American university system was built on a foundation of evangelical Protestant colleges. Most of the major uni-versities evolved directly from such nineteenth-century colleges. As late as 1870, the vast majority of these were remarkably evangelical. By the 1920s the evangelical Protestantism of the old-time colleges had been effectively removed from leading university classrooms," writes George Marsden in The Soul of the American University (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).

Today, there is no placeat all in the university for Christian thoughtno place in the curriculum for Christian ideals and no place in the university's research enterprise for Christian ideas. What can be done about this?

The Christian university professor or staff member who is serious about having an influence for Christ in his or her institution will quickly realize that to achieve the maximum influence, one must work together with other like-minded Christians on the campus. This is the principle of synergy at workthe simultaneous action of separate agencies which together have greater total effect than the sum of their individual effects.

The author of Hebrews underscores the point by writing, "and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing nearer" (Hebrews 10:24,25).

That the principle is true hardly requires debate; the question is how does one go about initiating cooperative relationships with other Christian professors and staff in the midst of all of the demands and pressures of daily institutional activity? The answer is the Christian Faculty/Staff Fellowship which I will describe briefly here and is discussed in detail in my book, Ministering in the Secular University (Lewis and Stanley, 1997). [See page 4 for information on ordering.]

An "R-and-D" think tank

What is a Christian Faculty/Staff Fellowship? I like to think of the fellowship in terms of a think tank or research and development activity: faculty and staff meeting on a regular basis to creatively think about, discuss, and plan how they as Christians can individually and corporately influence students, colleagues and the institution for the cause of Christ.

Professors are among the most creative individuals in our society. Unfortunately, many professors focus a significant part of their creativity on their academic discipline. If just a fraction of the creativity of Christian professors and staff at your university or college could be focused on the issue of impacting the university for Christ, much would happen. In addition to this creative function, the fellowship should be the umbrella under which all corporate faculty/staff ministry activity occurs; it should be the initiator and sponsor of such ministry on the campus.

What is meant by "regular basis"? Weekly. Anything less will not be adequate to develop the level of commitment and depth of relationships that will be necessary to profoundly impact an institution for Christ. Many protest saying, "this is a good idea, but couldn't we meet monthly or twice a month?" My reaction is, why would you not want to meet weekly? The only legitimate reason one can offer is that the activity just isn't a high enough priority item. For a Christian professor or staff member, faculty fellowship should be a top priority activity.

Each of us will ultimately give an account of our lives and our ministries to God, and I believe He will be considerably more interested in what we did on our campus to influence people for the Savior than in how many refereed journal articles we published.

Broadly speaking, a faculty fellowship should accomplish two purposes. First, it is to be the means by which professors and staff determine how to affect students, colleagues, and the institution for Christ and through which they cooperatively work to accomplish this end.

Secondly, the fellowship should minister to the faculty and staff who constitute its membership. In this connection, the fellowship should promote and foster deep relationships between its members. It should impart vision to its members and equip them for the work of ministry. It should help members to pursue excellence in their work within the institution and within the larger community. And it should support and uplift members when they experience difficult times.

Bible Studies Need Not Apply

Let me offer a word of caution by stating what the fellowship is not: the fellowship is not a faculty and/or staff Bible study. Often when Christian faculty and staff get together and begin to think about having an impact for Christ in the university, the first thing that comes to mind is a Bible study.

Bible study is an important element of the Christian life, but it is not to be the only or primary pursuit of the fellowship. I am aware of no faculty or staff Bible study which has had a significant impact on a university or college, even though some have been in existence for decades. I am aware of many instances in which faculty/staff Bible studies have started and slowly faded away. The focus of a Bible study simply is not global or outward enough. The fellowship must focus on the issue of having on impact on the institution for Christ and on equipping its members to accomplish this task.

Furthermore, the fellowship is not to be a substitute for the local church. People have told me regarding the fellowship, "I don't want to do anything in our fellowship I can do in my church." The fellowship should confine its focus to helping its members (1) become better professors or staff members and (2) become better Christian influencers. If the fellowship concentrates on these issues, it becomes "the only game in town"; the only place one can go to for help to succeed as a Christian academic in the university. Thus, if one is at all serious about becoming a better professor or staff member or having an effective influence for Christ in the workplace, he will see the fellowship as necessary in accomplishing these aims and will be committed to it.

Obviously, to undertake such a ministry in an institution of higher learning, there must be a core of leadership committed to the philosophy of affecting the institution for Christ. In my experience, it really only takes one person on a campus to get something going. Perhaps you are that person on your campus. All that is necessary is for one person to say, "This is important and we need to do it. And we will do it. We will have a fellowship even if it is a fellowship of oneme!" One person with this level of commitment can engage others to join with him.

Recall that the fellowship is intended to function in a research and development role; it is to be a think tank. While it is true that research and development activity tends to be serendipitous, it is not recommended that the fellowship be allowed to float passively along. In fact, a fairly well-established set of activities has been identified which will give the appropriate focus to the fellowship.

It should be emphasized at this point that these will not necessarily be the only activities of the fellowship, nor are the recommended number of sessions hard and fast requirements. This is a good basic mix of activities which will interest Christian professors and staff and which are fairly easy to put together into a semester program.

For a semester institution, activities would include the following:

Activity Meetings per Semester

In fact, I would suggest that a mix of activities is superior to concentrating on any one thing for very long for a very practical reason. Suppose, for example, you decide to schedule a six session sequence on creation/evolution (this happens to be a popular subject for most faculty and staff). If someone happens not to be interested in this topic and is not absolutely committed to the group, he will just drop out for a while and stop coming. Once that happens, it will be difficult if not impossible for you to get him involved in the group once again.

Careful Planning is the Key

The prospect of putting together a weekly program for a fifteen-week semester computes to a lot of work in the minds of most academics. But when you use two sessions for planning and three sessions for prayer and fellowship, there are only ten slots which have to be filled. A book review, a couple of testimonies, a couple of position papers, a couple of training activities, a ministry update, and an open session and the schedule is booked.

From an organizational standpoint, very little is needed in terms of officers, job descriptions, etc. A fellowship can function very effectively with only a few dignitaries. You will need a leader or director; this will be the person who keeps everything going, thus he or she should be absolutely committed to the fellowship and see it as a very high priority. The leader is ultimately responsible for the weekly program, although by farming out responsibility for individual meetings to interested members, this turns out not to be a very difficult task.

I directed the fellowship at the University of Alabama for twenty-plus years and rarely spent more than about thirty minutes a week keeping things on track. You will need someone, preferably with some financial skills, to keep track of money. Most of the special events the fellowship undertakes require financing; it is not uncommon to have an annual budget amounting to several thousand dollars. You need someone to be responsible for communication with members each week, i.e., reminding them of the meeting. Good computer skills are helpful here. And finally, you will need someone to oversee student newspaper ads which will normally be done on a semester or yearly basis.

If these four or five people will commit a few minutes a week on a consistent basis to attend to their duties, the fellowship should run rather smoothly.

A number of outreach activities have been developed and used effectively by fellowships around the country to reach out to students and colleagues. These outreaches are necessary for the vitality of a fellowship. No matter how effective a fellowship is with the weekly meeting, unless the group is reaching out to students and colleagues on a regular basis, it will lose its zeal and reason for being. Typical outreach activities include: Tenure Workshops; Faculty Forums; Newspaper Strategies; The Veritas Forum; Favorite Faculty Events; Student Outreaches; Lecture(s); and Worldwide Web Home Pages.

As a group begins to function in the think-tank mode, it will come up with numerous ideas for creatively influencing the campus for Christ on its own. In fact, each of the activities identified above is a result of the creative process of some university or college fellowship.

One True Example

Possibly the best illustration I know of how a mobilized group of Christian professors and staff can influence a university occurred recently. In January 1996, officials at the University of Alabama disclosed that the National Gay and Lesbian Association was holding its annual conference at the universityin violation of state laws.

The state of Alabama has laws that prohibit organizations which advocate breaking state laws from using state facilities. Alabama has laws against sodomy. But the contracts were signed and the rooms reserved, and when the announcement was made, the arrangements were a done deal. When the Christian Faculty/Staff Fellowship heard the news, they started discussing what might be an appropriate response from the group.

The fellowship set up a hospitality suite for conference delegates at which they served soft drinks and cookies. They also had a prayer room during the sessions so that Christians from the community could come and pray for the delegates. Imagine having the following announcement in each of the conference sessions: "There is a hospitality suite in Room 201 sponsored by the University of Alabama Christian Faculty/Staff Fellowship."

Members of the Tuscaloosa community found out what the fellowship was planning and offered to be involved in the prayer effort and help with the expenses of providing refreshments. At the conclusion of the conference, the conference chairwoman told Phil Bishop, who was the leader of the faculty fellowship at the University of Alabama, "I'm going to have to rethink my position on Christians because this just doesn't fit the mold!"

What an attractive way to contend for the faith on the university campus. This is what can happen when there is a mobilized group of Christian faculty and staff seeking to have an influence for Christ in their institution. Had the group not been meeting on a regular basis, in all likelihood there would have been no response from the Christian community.

Having been involved in a fellowship much like what is described here for many years, I can state unequivocally that my involvement was the highlight of my career in academia. Sure, it is difficult to involve busy people, and you may have opposition from the administration, and you may be misunderstood by your colleagues, and you will certainly attempt things that don't worksometimes you may even have spectacular failures.

But you will also have great successes. You will see students and colleagues come to know the Savior. You will see lives changed in the fellowship and in the institution. You will see your own life changed in the process. The university is one of the hallmarks of Western civilization. Can we abandon it? I believe the Christian Faculty/Staff Fellowship is perhaps the only hope for influencing the university for Christ. Surely the university deserves our best efforts. Surely the Christian Faculty/Staff Fellowship deserves your commitment.