GroshLink

Many times I'm asked what I do and why I do it, i.e. my work with  Emerging Scholars and Faculty as part of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.  The short answer is that I'm responding to the call of God, one which came to me as a student and continues with me to this day.  If you'd ask me to flesh it out a little further, I'd share something similar to Dick Staub's recent post The Intellectual & Spiritual Task at Hand & The Next Generation, (Note:  Don't miss his Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog, Beth Maynard Podcast).

The problems with American Christianity are spiritual and intellectual not tactical or strategic. ... I came to this insight while thinking about the many conferences aimed at next generation church reformers. I observed that they are generally not intergenerational, still lean towards programmatic over relational, but most significantly ~ they tend towards the tactical, methodological and strategic over the intellectual and spiritual.

This stands in stark contrast to L'Abri where theologian/philosopher Francis Schaeffer teamed with art historian Hans Rookmaaker to serve next generation seekers.

Think of the long shadow cast into today's younger generation by C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as inspired by the Inklings, a gathering of friends -- British and Christian (though with diverse theological vantage points), most of them teachers at or otherwise affiliated with Oxford University, many of them creative writers and lovers of imaginative literature -- who met in C.S. Lewis's and J.R.R. Tolkien's college rooms in Oxford during the 1930s and 1940s and later in various Oxford pubs, between the 1940s and 1963 for readings and criticism of their own work, and for general conversation.

Today's younger generation is eager to create culture, but too often think of this as a tactical strategic move ~ get more Christians in film, music etc.

But what will they produce when they get there if they are lacking in the spiritual and intellectual weightiness from which great, lasting work springs?

This is a serious issue and one to which I hope those who are able will attend ... 

In my ministry I place the emphasis on fostering meaningful relationships with faculty and emerging scholars.  I recognize that one size fits all programs really don't fit many.  I come alongside of individuals and communities to encourage them in their pursuit of God where they have been placed.  While grappling with spiritual and intellectual questions, we find God has come to dwell with us. 

Father, I rejoice in the encouragement which you provided me through Staub's post. Grant me, by the power of your Spirit, the grace to be Christ and to attend to the task given above as part of the people of God which engage in campus conversations, life, mentoring relationships, posts, readings, and writing.