Summer 2016 Christian Union The Magazine

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The Almost Agnostic

Sex and Spirituality

Christian Union the magazine :: summer 2016

Developing Christian Leaders on Campus page 14

Special Section: Searching the Scriptures New York City Christian Union: Salon Features Musician Seth Ward The Spiritual Climate on Campus The latest from Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton & Yale

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table of contents

volume xv issue iii

Christian Union

the maga zine :: summer 2016 4

in e ach issue Letter from the Founder & CEO / 3 Q and A / 12 What’s Next / 31 Donor Profile / 32 14

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4 Searching the Scriptures

s u m m e r 2 0 1 6 f e a t u r e s e c t i o n How to Be a Better Berean / 6 Q and A with Pastor Colin Smith / 12

14 From the University to the City on the web

This magazine is published by Christian Union, an independent Christian ministry.

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cit y chris tian union New York City Christian Union / 30

34 The Spiritual Climate on Campus

updat e s fr om l e ading univer si t ie s The Heart of Nuba (Brown) :: The Informant (Cornell) :: A Musical Fellowship (Dartmouth) :: Integrity in Action (Princeton) :: Faith, Reason, Philosophy, & the Academy (Yale) :: News-in-Brief from each university, and more

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letter from the founder and ceo

The Power of the Word

thinking and my walk with God. Recently, I’ve looked closely again at Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” I’ve known and loved this verse for years and have noted that throughout the book of Acts, when the disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit, they are filled with boldness for witnessing. In the last few weeks, I noticed that the word translated “power” in this passage is used repeatedly throughout Acts, but is translated differently. For example, in Acts 2:22 the word is translated “mighty works” referencing Jesus’ miracles. This has been an astounding revelation—part of being witnesses for Christ means that we would participate in the same type of “mighty works.” I am still processing what this means for me, but it’s a testimony to the fact that you can study the Bible for years and still learn so much, even from familiar passages. I pray that all of us who name the name of Jesus would be lifelong learners of His Scriptures.

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Yours in Christ,

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Matthew W. Bennett is the founder and CEO of Christian Union. He earned undergraduate and MBA degrees from Cornell, and launched Christian Union in 2002 in Princeton, New Jersey. matt bennett

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I’ve seen radical, spiritual change right before my eyes on many occasions because of intensive investigation of the Scriptures. This spiritual reality is what prompted me to begin our Christian Union ministry with rigorous Bible courses for all of our students.

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hen I meet someone who’s had a dramatic spiritual transformation, I am curious to find out what means God has used to stir them up and draw them close to Him with greater fellowship and allegiance.

Many times, they say that a deeper understanding of the Word of God triggered the change. Sometimes, it’s through reading the Bible on their own; other times, they had joined a study group that went really deep into the Scriptures, like Bible Study Fellowship or one of Beth Moore’s groups; and sometimes, it has come through preachers who have very carefully explicated the Word of God so that it’s understandable, and, as a result, the Scriptures have incredible impact.

I’ve frequently heard these sorts of stories and they still deeply encourage me as I am reminded of the power of the Word of the living God. Moreover, I’ve seen radical, spiritual change right before my eyes on many occasions because of intensive investigation of the Scriptures. This spiritual reality is what prompted me to begin our Christian Union ministry with rigorous Bible courses for all of our students. It’s the central most important offering Christian Union provides on campus. We author our own Bible course manuals because we need material that is deep but also application-oriented, and there’s not a lot on the market that way. We have considered publishing our material and, perhaps, we will do so in the future. We would love your prayers in this regard.

I’d like to give an example of how the Scriptures are always challenging my

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feature section :: summer 2016 How to Be a Better Berean / 6 Q and A with Rev. Colin Smith / 12

Searching the Scriptures Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path.

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psalm

119:105

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In this special section, Christian Union: The Magazine would like to encourage you to read and study the Bible on a regular basis. The articles—a column by Kevin DeYoung and a Q and A with Rev. Colin Smith—each present practical ways to engage the Word consistently and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior.

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In Joshua 1:8, Israel was commanded to keep God’s Word close and meditate on the Book of Law day and night. John 1:1 says that the Word became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. The Messiah told his disciples that He was “the living bread that came down from heaven” and unless they partook of this bread, they would have no life in them (John 6:53).

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feature section | Searching the Scriptures

How to Be a Better Berean by kevin deyoung

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he Jews in Berea, it is said, were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for “they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11). How telling – for them and for us – that nobility is measured not by titles, land, parentage, wealth, or degrees, but by how we handle the Word of God. Our approach to the Scriptures sets us apart as riff-raff or royalty.

So how do we become better Bereans?

That’s the question I recently posed to my congregation and the question I want to explore in this article. How can we be more like the noble Bereans and less like the rabble from Thessalonica (Acts 17:5)?

Let me suggest ten ways:

is pulling you into the text—to see it, to listen to it, to find connections with it. The best stuff in every sermon should arise from the truth you see in the text, not from the illustrations, the stories, or the preacher’s own enlightenment.

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L i s t e n t o t h e S e r m o n With an Open Bible There is no authority we have in the pulpit, except in so far as it is derived from the Word of God. It worries me when I speak at different places and read through the Scripture text without hearing anyone opening their Bibles (or at least staring down at a screen). I want to say, “You don’t know me. You don’t know if you should listen to me. You don’t know if anything I have to say is worthwhile. I hope you didn’t come to hear me. God is the one worth listening to, and He only speaks by His Word. So I’ll wait a few seconds while you grab a Bible.”

Incidentally, you do not want to be at a church where you can listen to sermon after sermon and it doesn’t even matter if your Bible is open. You want to be at a church where the preaching

nice person or a good parent or a sincere teacher does not mean you have any real God-given authority. There are lots of people who are sincere and nice who do not teach what accords with Scripture.

They speak without divine authority.

Test everything. Take your Bible with you. Open it up. Follow along. See for yourself whether everything being taught accords with Scripture.

Rev. Kevin DeYoung

In Nehemiah 8:8, it says about the leaders in Jerusalem who were teaching the Word that “They read from the Book of the Law of God, making it clear and giving the meaning so that the people understood what was being read.” In a nutshell, that’s what preaching is. The preacher reads from the book and then explains it clearly, so the people can get it.

Ultimately, the only reason to listen to any preacher is because he brings you back to the Scriptures. Hopefully, you trust your pastors because you know them personally and can see evidences of grace in their lives. But just being a

on’t Rush On D Fro m t h e Wo rd of Go d The Bereans saw Scripture as something that deserved their attention. It merited their time and effort. They examined it daily. They were not skimming; they were searching. And to do that, you have to give yourself unhurried time in the Word.

It’s not an absolute rule, but, in general, careful time in the Bible is better than a large quantity of time. Better to have five to ten minutes of slow, digestive, meditative study than cruising through thirty minutes of not really paying attention.

One of the great dangers for all of us is that the seed of the Word of God would be choked out by thorns. Remember the third soil in Jesus’ parable?

It seemed to be good. The heart seemed to receive the Word and bear fruit. That is until the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of wealth choked it out and the plant became unfruitful.

How common it is for people to go to church, hear something that speaks to them powerfully, and they will seem to be on fire for God for a few weeks or even a few months. But then what happens? It’s not like they make a con-

scious decision to stop believing what they once believed or to stop going to church like they once did. Their falling away is not a deliberate choice as much as a bad habit learned through busyness and distraction. These withering plants let their time in the Word dry up, fade, and disappear. No more searching. No more lingering. No more unhurried time to see what things are so.

Every Sunday, there is a great danger that we will be stirred and not changed.

We come to church, feel a little something, but it turns out to be nothing but a little Jesus inoculation – just enough of the virus to keep you from getting the real thing. If God is working on you next Sunday, don’t waste it. Don’t rush on from the Word to the rest of life. Find someone to pray with you. Have that conversation you need to have. Don’t turn on the football game the second you walk back in the house.

The work of the Lord in our lives is more like a crock pot than a microwave.

We want our spiritual growth to be obvious and immediate. But God’s work is often deliberate and imperceptible.

Do you want Hot Pockets for lunch or a good, slow cooked, pot roast? Do you want to be mature in Christ? Get in the Word and take it slow.

pproach the Bible A With Expectation The Bereans received the Word with all eagerness. That was their posture to the Word—readiness and expectation.

Whether in a conversation or in an audience, your posture says something. It indicates whether you are leaning forward, ready to listen, ready to learn, or whether you are bored and distracted.

The Bereans had good posture. They were at the edge of their seats, ready to receive the Word, ready to believe.

Are you eager to come to the Word?

Are you eager to take advantage of opportunities to hear more of God’s Word?

Have you thought about trying Sunday school again, or a small group, or a Bible

The Bereans examined the Scriptures daily. They came to the Bible and kept coming back. Is there a frequency and consistency to your spiritual consumption? We will not make progress in godliness without persistence in God’s Word.

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study, or Sunday evening, or a conference, or picking up a good book? I know we cannot say yes to every opportunity, but we should ask ourselves: Am I indifferent to these opportunities or am I eager for more of them?

There is no movement of the Spirit in the history of revival, and no genuine movement of the Spirit in the human heart that does not result in a new hunger for God’s Word. I’ve seen it many times. You probably have, too. When God grabs a hold of someone’s life, you can see in his newfound eagerness for the Word. He is excited to read, to study, to learn, and to grow, ready to get into the Word whenever he can.

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ly? Or Facebook? Or Twitter? Or the old fashioned mailbox? Because we believe there is news for us—there’s something there. Someone may have just put up a sweet video of a cat or a status update about someone who made a nice lemonade. Really important stuff like that. We check because we believe we may hear something relevant and necessary. And yet, what could be more relevant or necessary than God’s Word?

Let this truth be a diagnostic tool for you and for me: Our behavior with the Scriptures is an indication of our belief about the Scriptures. The Bereans looked into the Bible every day because they expected to find something there.

Do we?

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e t in t h e Wo rd as G A Way of L if e The Bereans examined the Scriptures daily. They came to the Bible and kept coming back. Is there a frequency and consistency to your spiritual consumption? We will not make progress in godliness without persistence in God’s Word.

And why did the Bereans go every day? Presumably, because they wanted answers. They wanted to know the truth. They believed that they would learn something from the Scriptures that

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they could not learn anywhere else. They wanted to know if Paul’s message was true—that is why they searched daily.

We have to focus not just on discipline, but on faith. Do you struggle to make the Bible a regular part of your routine? Consider what you are not believing about the Word? Do you believe it has something relevant to say? Do you believe there are answers to life’s hardest questions in the Bible? Do you think you will find the comfort and presence of Christ in this book? The Bereans went to the Scriptures daily because they were eager to listen to God and they believed the Bible was the place to go to hear His voice.

Why do we check e-mail compulsive-

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feature section | Searching the Scriptures

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e Prepared to Study B T h e Wo rd D e e p l y The Bereans examined the Scriptures.

The word “examined” can refer to a legal process, like a trial. Acts 17:11, therefore, speaks of an in-depth, detailed, intelligent examination of the Scriptures.

Many of us work so hard in so many other areas. We work hard to learn a language, get a degree, practice an instrument, study for our boards, or train for sports. But how hard do we work to understand and examine the Scriptures?

You don’t have to be the smartest person. It does not say that the Bereans were more noble because they were all 4.0 students. It is not about being smarter, but about digging more deeply.

There is a unique confidence that is acquired when you see something in the Scriptures for yourself. You saw the connection in the Word. You looked up the cross references. You checked your concordance. You thought it through. You prayed about it. You took notes. There is a new confidence that comes because

praying and reading that you begin to see things you hadn’t seen before. As a pastor, I need to study the Word deeply.

And every church member needs to do the same.

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e C o n f i d e n t T h a t Yo u B W i l l D i s c o v e r Tr u t h There are things in the Bible that are hard to understand. We need to learn good habits of study and exegesis. We need to learn from gifted teachers God puts in our midst. But none of this means the Word of God is inaccessible to “ordinary” people. Far from it. The Bereans were Jews, so they would have been well steeped in the Scriptures.

Likewise, most people reading this article are not lacking in the tools to think critically and search the Scriptures for themselves. We are among the most highly-educated people in this history of the planet. We have an embarrassment of riches at our disposal.

And yet, we can give up too easily.

One of the reasons we give up is

There is no movement of the Spirit in the history of revival, and no genuine movement of the Spirit in the human heart that

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does not result in a new hunger for God’s Word.

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you are not just accepting things secondhand, but (often with the aid of good teachers) you see it right in front of you in the pages of Scripture.

At the most basic level, anyone can do what pastors do. It requires hard work and training, but it does not require the world’s leading intellect. Normally, when I read through my text for the first few times I think, “What in the world am I going to say?” It only comes through studying and searching and

because we think we will never be able to discover the truth because so many smart people disagree about what is true.

You may think, “There are PhDs over here that say one thing about a verse and another group that says just the opposite. What chance do I possibly have to figure this out?” Don’t give up. If you get three PhDs in a room you are bound to have fifteen opinions. It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about the Bible or history or economics or entomology, you are

going to get very smart people who see things differently. If we are going to toss up our hands every time a really smart person disagrees, we are not going to know anything about anything.

The Bereans were ordinary people, two millennium ago, who believed they could hear what Paul said and discern whether or not his words were true to the Scripture. We can discover the truth.

Don’t give up on it just because there are many ways to look at things.

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ecognize That Not R Ever y Idea or Te a c h i n g i s B i b l i c a l You have to admire the zeal of the Bereans. When they heard this new teaching from Paul, they undoubtedly understood that he was making his case about the Messiah from the Bible. They could see that he was reasoning from the Scriptures, but still they wanted to determine if what Paul was saying about the Bible actually came from the Bible.

Almost everyone who has ever cared about Christian theology or Christian ethics has claimed Scriptural warrant for their positions. Everyone in the church professes a desire to be biblical. And yet, we need to be like the Bereans and recognize that some ideas that come with a Bible verse attached may not actually be from the Bible. It is terribly frustrating to see churches, institutions, and denominations refuse to put certain teaching outside the pale, just because the teaching claims to be biblical.

All the major heresies in the history of the church have claimed some Biblical support. When Augustine was arguing with Pelagius about the nature of grace and human inability, they were arguing about texts of Scripture. But only one of them was true to Scripture.

I understand that the Bible is not

equally clear on every issue, but on essential matters, we have to simply say, “Look, I know you have a verse there that you think supports this position, but that is not what that verse means.”

The Scriptures teach us that there are false teachings that false teachers try to peddle out of the Scriptures themselves. False teachers always have Bible verses, so we have to be discerning. That is what the Bereans were searching. They heard Paul argue from the Scriptures, but they needed to make sure for themselves the passage meant what Paul said it did.

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e Humble Enough B To Ta k e t h e B i b l e A t It s Wo rd If you read through the book of Acts, you’ll notice that Luke often points out the high social standing of those who receive the Word of God. We could be turned off by this, asking ourselves,

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trines without testing them against the Scriptures.

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est Dif f icult T Doctrines Christians from a broad church background may have a hard time accepting unfamiliar doctrines that strike them as overly precise or controversial. Thinking through predestination, the roles of men and women, eternal punishment, or the uniqueness of Christ (to give but a few examples) can be challenging and confusing. But if we are like the Bereans, we will not discard hard teachings just because they are hard. We will search the Scriptures to see if these things are so.

Be open to being surprised by the Word of God. The Bereans must have been surprised to learn that the Christ would suffer, die, and be raised to life.

But they accepted it because they saw it in the Bible. Don’t ditch difficult doc-

“Why is Luke making such a big deal about this?

It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or famous.” And this is true. But part of what Luke is trying to show us (and Theophilus) is the humility of those in high standing who are humble enough to submit themselves to the Word of God. He wants to underscore their complete submission to Scripture.

Many of these individuals may have thought they were too important for the Word.

But real nobility, Luke reminds us, is being humble enough to listen to the Word, no matter who you are.

Calvin says, “We know how hardly men came down from their high degree, what a rare matter it is for those who are great in the world to undertake the reproach of the cross, laying away their pride, and rejoice in humility... And surely this is the first entrance into faith that we be ready to follow, and that abandoning the understanding and wisdom of the flesh, we submit ourselves to Christ, by Him to be taught and to obey Him.” It is our pride that keeps us from believing. It is our pride that will not admit God’s Word is the most important word we need to hear. It is our pride which imagines we know who we are and how to be saved and how to live apart from the Bible. It takes great humility to submit yourself unreservedly to the Word of God.

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feature section | Searching the Scriptures

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ive the Bible G The Final Say I sometimes hear people say that Scripture is a conversation starter. And I suppose that’s true in one sense. There can be a lot of good conversations after you read the Bible or hear an expositional sermon. But if the Bible is a conversation starter, it is to start a conversation

ly. The question: What is our ultimate authority? Every Christian and every church will say, in some way, that our theology must accord with Scripture.

But what is our ultimate authority? How do we make our closing arguments? Do we give the final word to reason and experience, to sacred tradition, or to the holy Scriptures?

It is our pride that keeps us from believing. It is our pride that will not admit God’s Word is the most important word we need to hear. Let’s not be afraid of honest dialogue. And let’s be sure to test all our songs, our books, our creeds, our blogs, our lectures, our sermons, and our science against the Bible.

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about the God of the Bible who has the final word in all our conversations. Let’s reason together. Let’s not be afraid of honest dialogue. And let’s be sure to test all our songs, our books, our creeds, our blogs, our lectures, our sermons, and our science against the Bible.

One of the reasons different professing Christians and different churches come to such wildly different understandings of the Christian faith is because we approach the Bible so different-

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All religion rests on authority. For that matter, every academic discipline and every sphere of human inquiry rests on authority. Whether we realize it or not, we all give someone or something the last word. You may give it to your parents or to your culture or to your community or to your feelings or to the government or to peer review journals

or to opinion polls or to a holy book.

We all have someone or something we turn to as the final arbiter of truth claims. For Christians, that authority must be the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments.

When interpreted correctly, the Bible is never wrong in what it affirms. It must never be marginalized as anything less than the last word of everything it means to say.

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on The Gospel Coalition’s blog (www.theGospelCoalition.org). Reprinted with permission. kevin deyoung is the senior pastor at University Reformed Church (PCA) in East Lansing, Michigan. He serves as a council member at The Gospel Coalition and is Chancellor’s Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary and a PhD candidate at the University of Leicester. He has authored several books, including Just Do Something, The Hole in Our Holiness, Crazy Busy, Taking God at His Word, and The Biggest Story. | cu

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feature section | Searching the Scriptures

Q and A with Rev. Colin Smith Keys to Unlocking the Bible

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CU: Why don’t people read the Bible

hristian Union: The Magazine recently interviewed Rev. Colin Smith, the senior pastor of The Orchard Evangelical Free Church in Arlington Heights, Illinois. Smith, born in Edinburgh, Scotland, received his Bachelor of Arts in Theology and Master of Philosophy from London Bible College. He is the author of several books, including Unlocking the Bible Story, a four volume series. Through his teaching, daily radio program, and Web site (unlockingthebible. org), Smith challenges people to believe that their lives can be transformed by personal study of God’s Word through “the power of the open book.”

When did your passion for the Word of God begin? christian union:

colin smith: I was blessed to be brought up in a Christian family and came to faith in Christ as a child. So the Bible was part of my life from an early stage. I still have notes that I typed as a teenager on Exodus, Nehemiah, and other books of the Bible.

CU: Who are the theologians/authors

on a regular basis? What are some major misconceptions?

CS: The biggest misconception is that the Bible is primarily information. I have heard this many times from well-meaning Christians and I wince every time I hear it. If you see the Bible primarily as a resource for knowledge, you may go to it when you are interested to research a particular topic, but it will not likely have a regular place in your life. However, if you see the Scriptures in terms of food – milk, meat, and bread that sustain your life – you will approach it in an entirely different way.

Rev. Colin Smith’s daily program, Unlocking the Bible, is heard on radio stations in the United States and abroad.

CU: What was your inspiration for

CU: A 2016 report from the

CS: It started out as an initiative for our con-

American Bible Society and the Barna Group indicates a downward trend when it comes to consistent Bible reading among Christians.

Why is this alarming?

gregation at The Orchard to read through the Bible in a year. I committed to preaching through the Old Testament, and when we had done that for a year, people wanted to carry on and do the same with the New Testament. The books came because Moody Publishers was looking for a fresh overview of the Bible. When they heard what was happening at the church, they asked if I would consider putting it into print.

The four volumes focus on 80 chapters of the Bible, each with a key theme that relates in some way to the person and work of Jesus Christ. I often say that the whole Bible is one story: It begins in a garden, ends in a city, and all the way through it is about Jesus Christ.

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who inspired you?

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CS: Our Lord told us that “Man shall not CS: Christ is known through the Scrip-

tures. Our faith is in the Christ of the Bible.

So the theologians and authors who inspire me are those who have soaked themselves in Scripture. I owe an incalculable debt to the writings of D. Martyn Lloyd Jones, J. I. Packer, C. H. Spurgeon and J. C. Ryle, together with Puritan writers like John Bunyan, John Owen, and Richard Sibbes, and Scottish pastors like R. M. M’Cheyne, Thomas Boston, and a host of others.

live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt 4:4).

God’s Word nourishes the soul as bread nourishes the body. Christians who neglect the Bible will inevitably remain or become weak. Jesus said, “Whoever feeds on me… will live because of me (John 6:57).” Spiritual life is sustained as we draw strength, energy, faith, hope, love, peace and joy from Christ, and Christ feeds us through His Word.

writing the Unlocking the Bible Story series and subsequent books and devotionals on the subject?

CU: What are some practical tools

CU: What are some benefits of daily

CU: What would happen in the

people can use to unlock the Bible and see it come alive?

Bible reading?

United States if more people simply read the Bible each day?

CS: Besides all that we said earlier about CS: The first answer to this question is Jesus Christ, the key to all of the Scriptures.

They all speak in some way of Him or of our need of Him. The goal in all of our reading of Scripture should be to catch a clearer glimpse of Him and to draw near to Him in faith and in repentance.

Growing up in Scotland, I was introduced early to a series of questions that I still find helpful when interacting with Scripture: Is there a promise to believe?

A sin to avoid? A command to obey? A warning to heed? An example to follow?

I like to read Scripture slowly, and to look for one thing that I can take hold of and carry with me throughout the day. I commend doing this even, and especially, if you are reading through the Bible in a year. Remember that you are reading the Bible to nourish your soul. Success is not measured by the number of pages you have read, but by the degree to which you have absorbed some aspect of the truth and derived benefit from it.

CU: What is a good plan for reading

the Bible in one year?

The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.

CS: It would surely be good for our nation

if more people read the Bible every day. I’m convinced that the biggest challenge we face today is a loss of the fear of God. Where people have a sense that God is great and that someday and in some way we are all accountable to Him, there is at least some restraint on the worst excesses of sin and of evil. But where the fear of God is lost, all hell breaks loose, and I think we are seeing something of that in our country and in our world today.

But we have to remember that the Phar-

You are reading the Bible to nourish your soul. Success is not measured by the number of pages you have read, but by the degree to which you have absorbed some aspect of the truth and derived benefit from it.

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isees read the Scriptures every day.

There is a diminished version of Christianity that is often found among people who have not yet grasped the great truth of union with Christ. It majors on disciplines, and tends to produce a wooden, joyless attempt at discipleship that often lacks any real intimacy with God and leaves a person with the anxious feeling that God “has it in for them” if they don’t get it right. There’s a big difference between reading the Bible because you think it is something you need to do in order to be a good Christian, and reading the Bible because you love Jesus Christ. If more people in our country read the Bible because they love Christ, our nation would be transformed. | cu

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Suppose you are trying to help a believer whose energies are flagging. He or she is generally run down, discouraged, and in low spirits. If you believe the words above, then whatever else you might do or suggest to help this brother or sister, a fresh draught of Scripture will be in the mix because you know that God’s perfect Word revives the soul. Similarly, if you are trying to help someone who does not understand the Gospel, meeting with them to continue reading the Bible may be your best strategy. The Word of God brings the light of understanding to eyes that once were blind.

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CS: When we read through the Bible in a year at The Orchard, we offered a copy of The One Year Bible published by Tyndale to anyone who would commit to read it. The One Year Bible gives a portion from the Old Testament and from the New Testament, along with shorter pieces from the Psalms and Proverbs each day. This gives a balanced diet of different parts of Scripture, and I think that is profoundly helpful.

sustaining spiritual life, it is worth reflecting on Psalm 19 (verses 7-8), where we find four marvelous statements about what Scripture is, and what Scripture does:

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from the university to the city

Scholarship & Leadership culture will be transformed for the glory of god as the lives

universit y

of our future leaders and the universities they attend are impacted by the

chris tian

Gospel. As students who are well-positioned to assume roles of influence

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learn to seek God, grow in their faith, and develop a thoughtful, Christ-

updat e s

centered worldview, they will be prepared to engage culture in a powerful

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way. This is at the heart of Christian Union’s work at Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale.

chris tian

next step. By developing networks of like-minded believers in key cultural

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centers, starting in New York City, their impact will be multiplied. This

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model was used by the Lord to bring sweeping change to England through

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God will bring similar change to the U.S. as new networks of leaders emerge and engage today’s culture.

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William Wilberforce and the Clapham Circle in the early 1800s. Pray that

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alumni and their peers—City Christian Union—will help them take the

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as these students graduate, christian union’s ministry to its

15 Students from Christian Union’s leadership development ministry at Princeton University

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The Almost Agnostic Hickman ’16 Credits CU Ministry for Turnaround

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by eileen scott, senior writer

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When Peter Hickman ’16 arrived at Harvard College four years ago from Bonne Terre, Missouri, he was barely hanging on to his Christianity.

Today, as a recent alumnus, he has a firm understanding of the Bible and is living a life of overflowing faith and service. The applied mathematics major credits Christian Union’s leadership development ministry at Harvard with helping him go from “almost agnostic to a Christian leader.”

“When I came to college, I knew I was not putting Jesus at the center of my life, and I was not sure Christianity was true,” Hickman said.

“Christian Union provided the intellectual resources to understand better the reasonableness of the Christian faith.”

Specifically, he credited Christian Union’s emphasis on a seeking God lifestyle with helping him to develop a deep prayer life and noted how his peers were “inspirational in their life-transforming devotion to Christ.” Hickman also called the ministry’s Bible courses “crucial” in his spiritual development.

His leadership skills were honed as he served on the student organization’s executive team as treasurer.

“Peter was deeply involved and invested in building Christian community,” said Don Weiss, Christian Union’s ministry director at Harvard.

“He is exceptionally thoughtful. I have long appreciated his honesty and willingness to engage in the mysteries of faith while maintaining an eye towards faithfulness and sincerity.”

As a result of seeking God more intentionally, Hickman found that being closer to Christ gave him a deeper desire to serve those in need. And despite the time he spends working with facts and figures, matters of the heart and compassion seem to come naturally.

One example is his participation in a 10-week service trip to Japan in 2014. Hickman joined six

other students from Christian Union’s ministry at Harvard to help that country rebuild from the devastating tsunami three years earlier.

“That experience was one of the greatest times of my life,” he said. “As I worked with many amazing people who were following Christ, I got to be a part of international missions work and I was able to explore an amazing country.”

“In the different jobs I did there, I was very conscious of a desire to show God’s grace and love through my actions, in the hope that more Japanese people would trust in Christ.”

Closer to home, Hickman devoted countless hours to manning the sound board at Christian Union’s leadership lecture series. He has also served at homeless shelters in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and near his hometown.

No matter where his attention lies, Hickman says he is grounded in God’s love and directed by the calling to be Christ-like.

“My specific desire to study economic development was motivated, in significant part, by my sense that God cares dramatically for the poor and wants His people to value them,” he said. “I’m [also] fascinated by economic questions and I think they are very important. When I have questions, I study them, which is why research is the path I want to pursue.”

“I really want to help people in the academy to understand Christianity as reasonable, beautiful, and powerful, and I think I can do that as an economist.”

For Hickman, work is not a means to an end, but a way to serve others and glorify God. “My life is not the space in which I search for enjoyment or fulfillment, but where I pursue other callings, such as building relationships, serving the church, and seeking God,” he said.

“My life feels very coherent. I’m grateful to the Lord for His direction, to the church, and to Christian Union, for the guidance I received.” | cu

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2016 :: christianunion.org

17 Recent alumnus Peter Hickman ’16 enjoyed a dramatic spiritual transformation during his time at Harvard.

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National Champion Cornell Wrestler Passionately Pursues Christ by catherine elvy, staff writer

As much as Garrett is passionate about the sport he discovered in the eighth grade, the California native is even more effusive about his flourishing relationship with Christ.

“I’m not defined by the things I do. [I am defined] by who God says I am,” Garrett said. “That’s settled in my heart and will not be shaken.”

As he paused to reflect on his remarkable wrestling career, Garrett also expressed appreciation for the role Christian Union’s ministry played during his stint at Cornell, especially during his senior year.

“This has been a year of really solid growth in my faith,” Garrett said. “The expression of God in me is constantly growing. As I pursue Him intimately, the love just manifests even greater.”

As a result, Garrett’s final chapter at Cornell

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After celebrating an NCAA title and graduating from Cornell University, champion wrestler Nahshon Garrett has turned his sights toward winning a coveted slot on the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team.

The developmental sociology major left Big Red country with plans to join the Sunkist Kids Wrestling Club, an elite, Arizona-based organization devoted to developing Olympic and World champs. There, Garrett ’16 plans to train under Arizona State University Coach Zeke Jones, a widely accomplished freestyle wrestling competitor and trainer.

“It’s a great environment to train in,” said Garrett, who is optimistic about his prospects of being part of the 2020 Team USA. “I feel pretty great about it.”

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Nahshon Garrett ’16, who celebrated his senior year with an NCAA title in wrestling, plans to train for the 2020 Olympic games.

de Janeiro, Brazil, in August.

“Sometimes, it doesn’t happen the way you want it to happen,” Garrett said. “There are some things you just cannot control in that sport. You cannot be too upset.”

Nevertheless, after returning to upstate New York, Garrett was named male athlete of the year

by The Cornell Daily Sun for 2015-16. He extended the credit to his Heavenly Father.

“My wrestling – the desire that God’s given me to wrestle and the ability and the strength and the mobility and the mental capacity, the strength,

“This has been a year of real solid growth in my faith. The expression of God in me is constantly growing. As I pursue Him intimately, the love just manifests even greater.”

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the ligaments, the muscles, the extra-long fingers and everything that I have – I was created for this,” Garrett told the student newspaper.

Hence, Garrett’s natural athleticism played a role in him becoming one of the top wrestlers in California and being recruited to Cornell, where he openly shared how strong faith bolstered his single-parent household.

Not surprisingly, Jim Thomforde, Christian Union’s ministry director at Cornell, noted Garrett stood out as an evangelist on campus.

“He is constantly sharing his faith. He’s always looking to minister to people on campus,” Thomforde said. “He’s very ministry-minded… He’s definitely aware he is a herald of Christ.”

As for Garrett, he says that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross points to true personal victory, regardless of whether he is able to jet to Tokyo for the 2020 Olympics.

“I was worth the blood of Jesus. He died to reveal our worth and value,” Garrett said. “I’m just being who God says I am. I am a son.” | cu

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was a sweet one, both in his prayer closet and on the mat.

In March, Garrett closed his collegiate career with his first national title in front of a sold-out crowd at Madison Square Garden. Along with ESPN fans, spectators inside the famed arena watched Garrett triumph in his weight class for Division I during the 2016 NCAA Wrestling Championships.

“Being able to wrestle in such an historic venue, [the tournament] had deeper meaning than just wrestling,” he said. “It was amazing to be part of that.”

Likewise, the 19,000-plus fans inside Madison Square Garden helped create an electrifying atmosphere, especially as they sang The Star-Spangled Banner.

Garrett told The Cornell Daily Sun, “I was a little emotional before my match, so I had to calm myself down.”

Garrett’s control, diligence, and agility paid off. The four-time All-American clinched his senior season with a flawless 37-0 record, while matching a Big Red record for the most victories without a loss in a season.

More notably, Garrett wrapped up his Cornell career with 149 wins, good for second place on the university’s all-time list. He became Cornell’s 13th national champion, and his 20 triumphs in NCAA tournament competition tied two school records.

Still, after capping one of the most superlative-filled careers and seasons for Cornell’s wrestling program, including a national championship in the 133-pound weight class, Garrett felt he had more to achieve.

“It doesn’t seem like it was the end,” Garrett told The Ithaca Journal. “That’s why I’m pursuing the Olympic thing.”

About three weeks later, Garrett appeared at the 2016 U.S. Olympic Team Trials in Iowa.

While at the Carver-Hawkeye Arena, Garrett just missed making Team USA, which ventures to Rio

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Sex and Spirituality Bible Course Encourages, Equips Freshmen by eileen scott, senior writer

This spring, a Christian Union Bible course focused on helping Brown University students understand God’s design for sex and equipped them to better navigate the sex culture on campus in a Christ-centered manner.

Freshmen with Christian Union’s ministry at Brown studied Sex and Spirituality in the latter part of the semester. Course topics included: why God created sex, God’s view of intimacy, and societal pressures.

“The Sex and Spirituality course was extremely relevant to the women in my group,” said Jill Doyle, a Bible course leader. “It gave them a biblical framework, which they can continue to move

“The course provided thoughtprovoking answers that had evaded me for so long.”

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—Nicolette Bencie, Brown ’19

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forward with as they wade through the sexualized culture at Brown.”

According to Doyle, the wife of Christian Union Ministry Fellow Justin Doyle, many women in the course had not been exposed to biblical teaching about sex in a manner that was positive and descriptive of God’s purpose and design.

Most of their experiences were related to the “rules” believers should uphold.

“The dialogue in our group was very open, and I watched as students wrestled through the cultural messages they have received about sex in light of the Bible course content,” said Doyle.

“There’s definitely a pressure to partake in the hookup culture at Brown and other college campuses,” said Nicolette Bencie ’19, a member of Christian Union’s ministry at Brown. “Though relationships are important, remembering to keep them in perspective keeps the hookup culture from pulling us in and allows us to invest in deep,

meaningful relationships when the time is right.”

Bencie said the opportunity to talk about sexuality with fellow Christians was a new experience.

The rising sophomore admitted that she and her peers were “subconsciously scared of isolation” because of their Christian worldview.

“The course provided thought-provoking answers that had evaded me for so long,” she said.

“And those answers allowed me to stay rooted in my faith. It was strangely comforting and supporting to realize that the other students were struggling with many of the same questions.”

The intellectual drive that motivates students to attend a top university like Brown carries over to their faith and study of Scripture. Therefore, the Christian Union curriculum was designed with depth similar to seminary courses. Despite their busy schedules, the participants agreed to attend the 90-minute sessions each week and complete homework assignments.

“The discussions brought me closer to God,” Bencie said.

Taking the course as freshmen helps students engage the pressure and misinformation often distributed on campus and helps instill convictions that can sustain students throughout their years at Brown.

“It gives us the confidence to stand firmly in our beliefs,” Bencie said.

Participating in a Christian organization that examines sex and spirituality, taking seriously the student as a whole person, makes a difference for many students. In addition to Bible courses, Christian Union also offers a weekly leadership lecture series, mentoring, and opportunities to put faith into action.

“Looking back, I have grown significantly closer to the Lord thanks to the guidance of Christian Union,” Bencie said. “And now I realize my initial discovery of the community, as a freshman, wasn’t a coincidence, but truly an act of God.” | cu

Empowering Women with Gospel Truth Olojo Emerges as a Leader in Christian Union Ministry by eileen scott, senior writer

2016 :: christianunion.org

women come out of their shells.

As a result of praying and contemplating marriage, love, and friendship, Olojo has come to see her identity through the eyes of Christ and is content to spend time growing in a deeper relationship with Him. “For a lot of the women, there is pressure to be in a relationship and hook up and just not be alone,” said Solomon. “You’re not considered a person unless you are in a relationship.

There is no identity for women apart from that, even though they declare independence.

I’ve seen Seyi actively say, ‘I’m a Christian.

We are a minority. I don’t want to shy away from being a witness to other women.’”

And that witness involves prioritizing a Seyi Olojo ’18 established a weekly prayer group personal relationship in her residence hall this year. with Christ before all others.

“We need to prepare ourselves as brides of Christ, first, then of husbands,” said Olojo. “We need to exercise what true love looks like.”

As an environmental policy major, Olojo seeks to explore the living conditions of women and advocate for the prosperity of her Christian sisters in a variety of regions throughout the world and at home.

Olojo also hopes to marry one day, if that is God’s will. Overall, she says she hopes for a future “that will enable me to do women’s ministry and be surrounded by a community of women who are strong and in different points of their lives— and to show that Christians can join in the discussion of women’s empowerment.” | cu

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It’s ironic, really. Students at Barnard College are expected to be advocates for women’s rights, independence, and empowerment. Yet, societal pressure at the women’s college, which is affiliated with Columbia University, often encourages these extraordinary women to hook up and couple up in order to find acceptance.

However, amidst the confusion this contradiction gives rise to, one Barnard sophomore walks confidently single and secure in her significance as Christ’s bride.

Strengthened and buoyed by her participation in Christian Union’s leadership development ministry at Columbia, Oluwaseyi (Seyi) Olojo ’18 is helping to empower other women to deepen their relationships with Christ and see the beauty and strength of authentic femininity.

Olojo, the daughter of Nigerian immigrants and the first in her family to attend college, has grown as a Christian witness through her singleness and through the richness of the Scriptures she explores at weekly Bible courses led by Christian Union faculty members.

“Seyi has gone from being an active, vibrant student in Bible courses to serving as an assistant Bible course leader for the freshman courses, which focused on Seeking God and Sex and Spirituality,” said Yolanda Solomon, a Christian Union ministry fellow. “She sends encouraging e-mails to others and is never hesitant to share about her experiences. She has become a gatherer who is building community.”

Inspired by Christian Union’s focus on seeking God through regular times of prayer, fasting, and Bible reading, Olojo established a weekly prayer group in her dorm. Together, the women encourage and empower one another to be a voice for God on campus.

According to Solomon, there have been tangible ways that Olojo has grown as a leader—from discipleship opportunities to helping freshman

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Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly Tanner Allread ’16 Awarded Haas Memorial Prize by catherine elvy, staff writer

Yale College recently honored a senior from Oklahoma with its prestigious James Andrew Haas Memorial Prize for his pronounced commitment to public service.

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Yale College recently honored Tanner Allread for his commitment to public service, especially on behalf of Native Americans. Allread ’16 was a leader with Christian Union’s ministry at Yale.

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The institution recognized Tanner Allread for his efforts on behalf of Native Americans, a cause the member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma describes as an earnest reflection of his desire to be a Christian leader. Upon graduation, Allread joined Teach for America to work in Oklahoma City’s public school system for two years. After teaching, he plans to pursue a career in public-interest law, an endeavor that will allow him to specialize in Native-American and educational matters.

“My heritage is something I’ve always been interested in,” said Allread ’16, who noted he received essential leadership mentoring via Christian Union’s ministry at Yale for the career he

plans to dedicate to the tangible needs of Native Americans.

Many of Oklahoma’s indigenous communities share a proud legacy, but are substantially beset with poverty, incarceration, and mental illnesses.

“Some of them are experiencing poor education and lack of access to resources,” Allread said.

Concern for the welfare of Oklahoma’s tribes “really drove me through college in pursuing history [as a major] and my congressional and White House internships.” While at Yale, Allread focused on Native American history and secured a certificate in education studies.

Allread also noted his commitment to Christ is fueling his passion to serve the Native American population. “I feel a great call just to serve people,” said Allread. “For me, it really extends to Native American communities, as well as rural communities.”

While at Yale, Christian Union’s offering of Bible courses, lectures, and other programs allowed Allread to “engage with my faith deeply and really get serious. The ministry helped me engage with Scripture and understand how I am supposed to live as a Christian.”

Allread especially appreciated the ministry’s leadership lecture series and the stream of speakers who highlighted how they reflect their faith via vocational endeavors.

Chris Matthews, Christian Union’s ministry director at Yale, praised Allread for exuding humility and care for others. “He brings his identity as a humble servant to Christ in his advocacy for Native American causes and in his readiness to invest time in healing those around him,” said Matthews.

Laurel Copp, a Christian Union ministry fellow at Yale, echoed those comments.

“Tanner’s kindness toward others and his willingness to serve without recognition show his deep love and commitment to the words of Jesus to ‘love the least of these,’” Copp said.

Likewise, Haas’ instructors commended the graduating senior for his “generous spirit” and “quiet fortitude” in leading his peers.

In awarding its Haas prize, Yale recognized Allread for melding his academic pursuits with a pronounced concern for social justice. Such efforts included an internship with former U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn and with the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education. He also studied at The London School of Economics and Political Science in the summer of 2013 and attended George Washington University’s Native American Political Leadership Program in the summer of 2014.

Allread desires to see indigenous communities overcome obstacles of poverty and crime. “I’ve met a lot of people who have hope and commitment to improving Indian Country as a whole,” he said.

His extensive efforts included serving as house manager of the Yale Native American Cultural Center, where he staffed events and coordinated programming. As an underclassman, he also served as a peer liaison for the Native American Cultural Center.

Allread served as a fellow with Oklahoma Indian Legal Services during the summer of 2015.

There, he researched federal, state, and tribal stat-

utes related to probate, guardianships, and child welfare. As well, he drafted wills and codicils, wrote motions and briefs for court filings, as well as advice letters to clients, and supported attorneys during hearings.

In summer 2014, Allread was a policy assistant for the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education. Among his series of duties, he compiled a database of 2,000plus public school mascots reflecting Native American culture.

Among other endeavors, Allread was a campus coordinator for Teach for America’s branch at Yale and worked as an undergraduate director’s fellow for Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies.

For now, he will concentrate his efforts to improve the lives of people of Native American heritage by teaching seventh-grade science in Millwood Arts Academy in Oklahoma City.

“I want to make a difference,” said Allread.

“I’m reflecting on what I’ve been provided with.

I want to make the greatest impact as a Christian.”

After all, “God definitely has a heart for those who have been oppressed: the alien, refugee, widow … Micah 6:8 tells us to love one another and seek justice for those affected by oppression.” | cu

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Counseling Peers at Penn by catherine elvy, staff writer

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health topics. As part of their efforts, the undergraduates are holding a series of online discussions to help them foster skills to walk alongside those who are hurting.

“It’s exactly what students need to hear with its paradigm of ‘we are needy/we are needed,’” said Justin Mills, Penn ’05, Christian Union’s ministry director at Penn.

The topic of burden sharing is especially timely at Penn, where the campus has been plagued by a string of suicides.

In April, students mourned the death of a ju-

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Students involved with Christian Union’s ministry at the University of Pennsylvania are devoting a chunk of their summer to a reading group aimed at prepping them on the basics of peer counseling.

“We want our students to know that they can help their friends,” said John Cunningham, a Christian Union ministry fellow at Penn. “There are more people struggling than they think.”

In June, the students began reading Side by Side: Walking with Others in Wisdom and Love, a primer on peer counseling and specific mental

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Students Seek to Support Friends Who Are Struggling, Suffering

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nior who threw herself in front of a train, making her the tenth student at Penn to commit suicide in just three years.

Given the startling number of self-inflicted deaths among Penn students, undergraduates involved in Christian Union’s ministry are bolstering their efforts to support one another and their classmates.

“They need to know that this truly is a life-and-death issue on campus,” said Cunningham.

“We want our students to be intentional with their friends.”

Part of that approach comes with the recognition of some of the unUnderstanding mental health issues on Penn’s healthy or extreme campus is paramount, according to Jack dynamics permeatHostager ’19, who penned a column for The Daily ing top universities Pennsylvanian. and broader American institutions.

At Penn, “there’s such a culture of performance and competitiveness,” said Jack Hostager ’19, co-leader of the ministry’s outreach team. “What is the Christian way to think about what should be motivating us?”

In contrast, Christians are called to find peace by shifting from an achievement mentality to an identity rooted in validation from the Son of God, Hostager noted.

“Part of being a good Christian is being a good neighbor,” he said. “It’s important to be aware of the people around you, be in tune to their stress and anxiety, and always be willing to drop everything to be there for them.”

In a related effort to expand student awareness of mental health issues beyond Penn’s iconic campus, Hostager recently penned a column for The Daily Pennsylvanian reflecting his experiences working at an outpatient mental health facility in downtown Philadelphia.

“If we care so much about mental health here, then we ought to be just as passionate about it in the wider community in which we live,” Hostager wrote for a column that appeared in late May. “Mental health issues do not only exist on this campus during the sliver of our lives that we spend at Penn.”

Rather, 120,000-plus people have taken their lives in the United States during the last three years. “The people who suffer the most, suffer a lot in silence,” said Hostager, who worked as a research assistant.

Along related lines, Christian Union’s ministry at Penn devoted its final leadership lecture series of the year to probing the concept of Sabbath rest as part of an enhanced emphasis from student leaders in the ministry on mental health.

In April, Kevin Antlitz, a Christian Union ministry fellow at Princeton University, gave a lecture on principles behind the commandment found in Exodus 20 to keep the Sabbath as holy. Antlitz aims to set aside a day to rest from work-related activities.

The message resonated with students, including Hostager. “It’s important to make sure you’re taking time to recharge. That’s what God wants us to do,” he said. “Otherwise, something will give.”

Not only are rest and adequate sleep interlinked with mental well-being, being intentional about honoring the Sabbath can send a powerful message to peers, Cunningham noted.

“Taking Sabbath at Penn is one of the best ways to exert a countercultural voice against the culture of pressure, achievement, and success that underlies a lot of the mental health struggle on campus,” Cunningham said.

Likewise, Cunningham warned that obsession with success can come with dangerous consequences. “Failure is not a life-ruining category,” said Cunningham. “Life is more than Penn. Life is more than your job and your internship.”

Lasting success comes from maturing in Christ and following His callings and principles.

As such, students need to be diligent and focused in this chapter of their lives, but remember they are called to be “ambitious in a different place,” a heavenly one, Cunningham said. | cu

Shining a Light on Depression Ministry Hosts Lecture by Christian Counseling Professional by eileen scott, senior writer

try and from a highly skilled, compassionate Christian Union faculty member.

“Christian Union has helped,” said the student. “A ministry fellow gave me encouragement and reminds me of why my views of myself are wrong.” The mentor forthrightly explained to the student that feelings of not being cared about are simply not true and also engages the student with the truth in Scripture.

Another student, Arthur Mensah ’19, learned about depression for himself and those he cares about.

“The practical ways highlighted to aid in tackling depression were very eye opening,” said Mensah, who hails from Libya and Ghana. “I found [Groves] very eloquent and very knowledgeable. I appreciated that he was sensitive in his delivery and was careful not to create an uncomfortable atmosphere. It struck a chord with several people.”

“Depression is that place where all is dark and there is no hope...”

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Mensah, who plans to study psychology, said the lecture empowered him to be more active in fighting depression, rather than “just waiting for the feeling to lessen with time.” He also sees the knowledge as a leadership tool, within the Christian community and on campus.

“It allows us to help incoming freshmen and our peers as they struggle with depression,” said Mensah, an active member of Christian Union. “I think Christian students, much like all students, feel a pressure to be perfect in all aspects of their lives. Since that perfection is unattainable, it is often difficult to be vulnerable and open up about sin and many students instead internalize it and struggle on their own.”

As Carlisle noted, “In order to help others through depression, we need to ask the Lord for humility, be faithful to being with others in it, and be brave,” and, in the process, lovingly reflect the love of God to help illuminate the shadows of depression. | cu

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Depression is an unwanted intruder into the lives of millions of Americans, including students at top universities. Many of these young people attempt to hide their pain while coping with competing demands and lofty expectations.

A recent lecture sponsored by Christian Union’s ministry at Dartmouth took aim at this often-misunderstood malady, creating awareness and empowering one student to take a life-altering step. This spring, Alasdair Groves, Dartmouth ’04, gave a presentation on depression as part of the ministry’s leadership lecture series. Groves, the executive director of the Christian Counseling Educational Foundation in New England, highlighted the various manifestations of depression and emphasized there is no quick fix to overcome it.

“Depression is that place where all is dark and there is no hope, and you can feel with every ounce of your being that things are bad and there is no clear way anything will get better,” he said.

However, Groves offered hope by sharing recommendations for those living with the disease and for those sojourning with them.

“Overall, the presentation was very practical and freeing for students. Many have stated that it has helped them love others better,” said Chase Carlisle, a Christian Union ministry fellow at Dartmouth.

More than 50 students attended the lecture.

Some were members of Christian Union’s ministry, while others were invited by concerned friends. One student came for the information, but left with a startling realization.

“It was scary when [Groves] described patients and what they went through,” said the student. “He described my life. That was when I realized this is a serious thing and should be looked into.”

After seeking professional help, the student is learning to cope with the symptoms of depression and is able to identify some triggers. The student is beginning to be less reclusive and to live a more balanced life, while realizing depression can be an ongoing battle with no easy exit strategy.

The student also found support within the minis-

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Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry Christian Union Ministry Director Publishes Third Book by catherine elvy, staff writer

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Youth ministry involves far more than staging fun-filled retreats and offering frightful warnings against teen vices.

Rather, God calls youth pastors to develop students who will embrace missional purposes throughout their lifetimes.

With such principles in mind, Jon Nielson co-edited and co-wrote Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry: A Practical Guide. Crossway, part of Good News Publishers, released the 224-page paperback in February, about seven months after the longtime youth and college minister became the director of Christian Union’s ministry at Princeton University.

“There are certain foundational principles that are absolutely necessary in any student ministry,” said Nielson. “Those principles would include a core conviction. It’s God’s Word, through the work of God’s Spirit, that brings change to human hearts

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Jon Nielson, Christian Union’s ministry director at Princeton University, co-edited Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry: A Practical Guide.

and lives.”

In late 2014, The Gospel Coalition approached Nielson about helping the organization craft a practical guide for student ministry as part of its partnership with Crossway, which is based in Wheaton, Illinois.

As a result, Nielson wrote two chapters of the paperback and its digital version, and he co-edited the entire work with Cameron Cole, director of children, youth, and family at Cathedral Church of the Advent in Birmingham, Alabama.

Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry is Nielson’s third book. P&R Publishing released The Story: The Bible’s Grand Narrative of Redemption in 2014, and the New Jersey firm published Bible Study: A Student’s Guide in 2013.

As for Nielson’s newest release, Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry aims to equip youth pastors and youth leaders to train teens to follow godly principles in their homes, schools, and churches. The manual features contributions from leaders who share guidance on a variety of topics, including how to partner with parents.

Nielson sought to articulate the centrality of the death and resurrection of Jesus as the focus of ministry. Instead of highlighting moralistic or relational connections, gospel-centered ministry points to Christ’s profound accomplishments upon the cross.

“There is a practical outworking of core theology in student ministry,” said Nielson. “What you really believe will really change hearts and lives. It will impact the music, the retreats, etc. The core theology drives the practical aspects of student ministry.”

With that, Nielson penned two chapters of the handbook, namely “Helping Students Personally Engage the Bible: Small Group Bible Study in Youth Ministry,” as well as “Equipping Youth for Gospel Ministry: Leadership Training in Youth Ministry.”

“The high school and college years are trajectory-setting years,” Nielson said.

Nielson simply wants teens and emerging adults to embrace Christ’s lordship. “If young people can

get the Gospel during those years, then that will set them on a path toward a deepening spiritual maturity when they are older,” he said.

Before joining Christian Union, Nielson ministered at College Church in Wheaton, where he served for three years as high school pastor and another three years as college pastor. Earlier, he was director of training for the Charles Simeon Trust and a pastoral resident for Holy Trinity Church in Chicago.

Nielson, who earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature from Wheaton College in 2005, is pursuing a doctor of ministry from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, where he earned a master of divinity in 2010.

As for his new role as Christian Union’s ministry director at Princeton, Nielson describes it as a “tremendous opportunity.”

That is especially so as Princeton undergraduates are in a prime season of early adulthood and able to experience the long-range benefits of embracing Christ as personal savior. “The practical season of

at Chicago Hope Academy, where Jeanne Nielson served as an English teacher.

Despite a busy schedule, Nielson is not done sharing spiritual insights via the printed word. The Illinois native is wrapping up Faith That Lasts: Raising Kids Who Don’t Leave the Church via CLC Publications, which has slated it for publication in the fall.

The concept developed from a stirring blog Nielson wrote for ChurchLeaders.com, namely: “Three Common Traits of Youth Who Don’t Leave the Church.”

One especially compelling section of the piece encouraged youth leaders to focus on equipping, rather than entertaining, teens. Christ gave teachers to the church to train the “saints to do gospel ministry in order that the church of Christ may be built up,” Nielson noted in his blog, referencing Ephesians 4:11-12.

Not surprisingly, Nielson points to such core scriptural principles as the key to both successful parenting and teen shepherding. “Focus on the Word,” he said. “It helps believers grow in maturity and brings conversion.”

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“There are certain foundational principles that are absolutely necessary in any student ministry. Those principles would include a core conviction. It’s God’s Word, through the work of God’s Spirit, that brings change to human hearts and lives...”

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It’s also vital for youths and young adults learning to walk out gospel-centered lives. “I’m passionately committed to ministering to students of these ages,” Nielson said. | cu

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life during college and high school is formative as students are wrestling through all kinds of concepts, ideas, and worldviews,” Nielson said.

Nielson, a licensed minister via the Presbyterian Church in America, is married to Jeanne, an accomplished marathoner and soccer player. The couple has three daughters.

Also an avid athlete, Nielson played four years of basketball at Wheaton and coached basketball

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Religious Liberty and Justice for All? Van Oss Writes about Wheaton Case for Harvard Law Review by catherine elvy, staff writer

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Religious liberties are woven into the fabric of the United States.

With deep admiration for that principle, a Harvard Law School student addressed concerns over the status of such freedoms when he penned an article for the Harvard Law Review

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Harvard Law School student Trenton Van Oss ’17 expressed concerns over the status of religious liberties when he penned an article for the renowned Harvard Law Review.

exploring some of the key issues in the recent Wheaton College v. Burwell case.

Given his concerns for government interference in the operations of faith-based entities, Trenton Van Oss took on the complex topic for an article that appeared in January.

The Wheaton alumnus of 2013 is an active participant in Christian Union’s ministry at Harvard Law School. Through the ministry, the Pennsylva-

nia native receives mentoring to help him prepare to reflect his faith in future endeavors.

“Christian Union has helped teach me to prioritize the Lord and my spiritual relationship in the midst of all the noise and distractions that come with law school,” said Van Oss, who recently finished his second year at Harvard Law School.

“We talk a lot about how not to lose yourself to the common traps in the legal profession – careerism, chasing prestige, and putting your spiritual life on the back burner when life gets busy.”

During meetings, the ministry’s faculty members “help us to recharge spiritually,” he said.

“It’s impossible to reflect Christ at work if you’re not devoting time and attention to Him in private.”

As a Christian student, Van Oss is exercising leadership by displaying concerns for challenges to religious freedoms across the country.

“This pits the government’s interpretation of religious doctrine against religious adherents’ [views]. The central question is about who gets to decide what religious doctrine requires,” he said.

Specifically, Van Oss probed some of the implications of a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit against Wheaton College, in particular whether the contraceptive requirements of the government’s healthcare initiative pose a substantial burden to the Christian college.

In July 2015, the Chicago-based court held that compromise regulations allowing Wheaton to opt to turn over the fulfillment of contraceptive requirements to a third party do not meaningfully burden the institution’s religious exercise.

That’s not so, according to Van Oss. “The government says, ‘We’re not requiring you do anything against your faith,’” Van Oss said. “Wheaton says, ‘Yes, you are.’”

At issue, under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, employers must provide health insurance policies that cover specific contraceptives. Given outcries, government administrators

Court allowed judicial scrutiny to improperly play a role in determining questions of “creed and conscience.”

As a devoutly Christian college, Wheaton states its members must “uphold the God-given worth of human beings, from conception to death, as the unique image-bearers of God,” Van Oss wrote.

That belief forbids the school from designating others to pay for the grave evil of abortion.

In its lawsuit, the college argued the contraceptive regulations in the healthcare act violated the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which requires the government to justify any law that substantially burdens religious exercise as the least restrictive means of achieving a compelling governmental interest.

A district court later ruled against the college, determining that the health law – not the organization’s act of signing and mailing the form – served as the true causal mechanism of triggering contraceptive services. The appeals court agreed.

However, in a separate case in 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court decided 5-4 that the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive requirements violated the religious freedom act for closely held corporations. It noted it was inappropriate for the court to decide whether the religious beliefs of the operators of the Hobby Lobby chain were mistaken or insubstantial.

As for the Wheaton case, the Seventh Circuit’s decision marked an intrusion, Van Oss noted.

“Questions about the limits of complicity are better left to philosophers and theologians than to federal judges,” Van Oss wrote. | cu

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crafted a compromise for religious organizations, hospitals, and colleges, essentially allowing them to “self-certify” their objections to their insurance carriers.

Under such an arrangement, the groups submit an Employee Benefits Security Administration Form 700 to register religious objections, thus enabling insurers or third-party administrators to assume the responsibility of paying for birth control.

However, some organizations, including Wheaton, countered that signing the form authorizing the third parties to provide contraceptive coverage made them complicit in acts that grossly violated their beliefs. Some Christians oppose forms of birth control that prevent human embryos from implanting, a practice they equate to abortion.

Consequently, Wheaton sought relief via a federal lawsuit in 2013. Van Oss’ analysis for Harvard Law Review focused on the strongly worded appellate ruling.

In July 2015, the Seventh Circuit asserted the regulations excusing Wheaton from directly providing contraceptives, including the option to simply draft a letter to the government, did not substantially burden the college’s religious exercise. “This is hardly a burdensome requirement,” wrote Chief Judge Richard Posner, Yale ’59, Harvard Law ’62.

Essentially, the court found Wheaton to be incorrect in asserting the act of notifying the government of its objections made it the “trigger-puller or facilitator” of actually extending emergency contraceptives to its staff via a third party.

Van Oss noted the opinion from the Appeals

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city christian union

The Musical Soul New York City Salon Features Seth Ward by eileen scott, senior writer

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t a salon sponsored by New York City Christian “All man is musical,” said Ward. “Music is spiriUnion, musician Seth Ward countered the philosophtual…Psalms is the biggest book of the Bible. Jesus ical notion that man’s ability to think uniquely defines his quoted Psalms the most.” existence. In his presentation, “The Mark of the Maker: Despite the melody written on the heart of man by The Musical Soul,” Ward contended that humans have God, contemporary musical society doesn’t honor the God’s rhythmic signature ensacred essence of song. graved upon their souls, mark“Today musicians are ing them as His beloved. pressed to believe in an atheThe pianist’s love of music istic idea of music and art. It’s and deep Christian faith were almost like you can’t mention evident during a discussion anything about God,” he said. that ranged from historical to “It’s the most bizarre thing whimsical. Ward, the music imaginable. Can you imagine director at Central Presbygoing into a Bach mass and terian Church in New York, not be pressed to think of discussed the ancient chords God? We don’t give artists and rhythms uncovered by that liberty, even when reliarcheologists and noted how gion is part of our culture. We these early songs and chants are asked to cut it off.” have been interwoven into The cultural impact of the timeless classical, contemposacredness of music is what rary, and iconic works. made this topic an important “The pentatonic scale one for New York City ChrisDr. Seth Ward spoke about music as the timeless is the most basic thing we tian Union and its director, mark of God upon human souls at New York City have,” he noted. “Almost evScott Crosby.

Christian Union’s winter salon. ery melody you have comes “We tend to categorize from that.” To demonstrate music as general and secular the point, Ward played various songs on the or Christian,” Crosby said. “This hinders our piano, from classical works to Looney Tunes understanding of how and why God creatmelodies, all of which possessed chords simed us as musical creatures. It was helpful to ilar to the ancient scale. This, he explained, learn how we can understand music in more showcases the unified musical spirit that redemptive ways.” binds together humanity.

“Seth gave an excellent presentation that The New York City Christian Union salon provided background, context, and practice drew attendees from various fields of work and study. to the topic. Most attendees have asked for a follow-up They were, in a sense, the embodiment of Ward’s consalon on music.” tention—that music is the entity of the human self that These salons feature a broad range of topics and seek unites all persons through time, regardless of generato encourage and equip Christians to engage culture tion or position. more comprehensively.

Music, he contended, binds the natural self with the “Music and the arts are certainly part of this scope, Divine and resonates as an infinite language which is as are finance, education, media, and other sectors,” universally understood. said Crosby. | cu

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What’s Next...

Please pray for upcoming Christian Union events

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august

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august

Christian Worldview Summer Session Christian Union presents its annual Christian Worldview Summer Session for students, August 14-25, in Lake George, New York. See www.cuthissummer.org.

Prayer and Fasting Initiative Christian Union Day and Night invites believers across the nation to pray and fast for 40 days. August 15 through September 23. See www.CUDayandNight.org to learn more.

The Gospel of the Kingdom

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september

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An evening of celebration in Dallas, Texas to support the ministry of Christian Union in developing Christian leaders to transform culture.

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Dallas, Texas Benefit Event

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november

New York City Christian Union presents The Gospel of the Kingdom event on September 8 at Armenian Evangelical Church, (152 E 34th Street in Manhattan). Join NYCU for an evening exploring how the Gospel of Jesus Christ changes our mindset, ethics, lifestyle, and authority, with a special emphasis on the power that flows for today’s Christian as a fruit of the Gospel. Keynote speaker: Ken Fish. Advanced registration at ChristianUnion.org (NYCU section).

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donor spotlight

Providing for Future Leaders through a Charitable Remainder Trust

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Eleanor Bennett: “Knowing Christ has been the best thing that has happened to me.”

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long-time wildlife rescue volunteer, who has considered horseback riding, camping, and whitewater rafting to be some of her favorite outdoor activities, Eleanor Bennett knows a thing or two about adventure.

Reflecting on her full life so far, however, Eleanor believes one adventure has excelled them all: “Knowing Christ has been the best thing that has happened to me.”

Since coming to faith in Jesus Christ, Eleanor has consistently sought ways to share and live out the

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knowledge of God’s love through His Son. Eleanor recently alerted Christian Union that she has included the ministry in her estate plans through a Charitable Remainder Trust. She shares that she took this step because she believes she can make a difference in the direction America is headed by helping develop God-honoring leaders at some of the nation’s leading campuses.

Today, Eleanor lives on a farm outside of Birmingham, Alabama. Her great love for animals is evident: three chickens raised from chicks, a noisy rooster, and a duck occupy a sunny room; twittering birds, a large rescue dog named Angel, two shy cats, and a horse in the barn round out the menagerie. Surrounded by these much-loved creatures, Eleanor shares about her life of faith and service, and the active interest she takes in helping tomorrow’s leaders lay a strong foundation for a life of faith.

Eleanor was born in New Orleans, and raised in Nashville. She moved to Birmingham in the eighth grade. When Eleanor married, she moved away for a couple of years, but she and her husband eventually moved back to Birmingham for his medical residency.

It was there, through a weekly women’s Bible study focusing on John 17 and Revelation 3, that Eleanor’s life underwent its most significant change as she made a commitment to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.

“I realized I was a Christian,” she said.

Eleanor started sharing the Gospel and bringing friends with her to a Bible study. Unfortunately, her husband wasn’t ready for the change in his wife and her newfound faith. As a single parent, Eleanor raised her two children, Kristie and Stephen.

Eleanor attended Briarwood PCA for 40 years, then moved to its sister church, Oak Mountain Presbyterian Church, near her home. A tireless volunteer, Eleanor became involved in a ministry to women in the Birmingham jail, Vacation Bible School, and a Community Bible club. She has been a volunteer with a program providing sex and family education for seventh and eighth graders; a reading tutor for eight years in the Birmingham schools; and a tutor in Shelby County schools. One of Eleanor’s favorite volunteer activities was teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to adults.

And if that wasn’t enough, Eleanor sang in the church choir and has been involved for a long time in its singles ministry and divorce recovery group. For many years, Eleanor has hosted a Friday Bible study in her home. She currently hosts a gathering on Sunday evenings.

thought-provoking Christians in the legal field, and read and discussed works on the intersection of faith and law. The ministry at Harvard Law is at the forefront of Christian Union’s efforts to influence the field of law with sound legal minds and godly perspective.

Eleanor enjoys hearing how students are coming along and keeps tabs on the ministry’s progress. “Christian Union is reaching students and leaders,” she commented. “These students are receiving a good foundation so that when they graduate they can share their faith.”

Today, both of Eleanor’s children and their spouses live in Birmingham. And the weekly Bible study that played such a pivotal role in her journey to faith has

“Christian Union is reaching students and leaders. I have loved supporting Christian Union through the years.” remained a constant in her life.

Eleanor’s planned gift will play an important role in sustaining Christian Union’s future. There are a number of tax-advantaged planned giving techniques you might consider as you think about your giving, including: • Gifts through wills and living trusts • Life income gifts that pay you and/or other designated beneficiaries an income for life, such as charitable gift annuities and charitable remainder trusts • Gift of real estate, including life estates • Successor beneficiary designation for retirement plans

2016 :: christianunion.org

“I have loved supporting Christian Union through the years,” Eleanor shared. “I take joy in knowing that the planned giving decision I’ve made will help provide for the ministry after I’m gone.”

For information about planned giving options, please call (609) 688-1700, ext. 915 or e-mail giving@ christianunion.org. | cu

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Some years ago, Eleanor began learning about Christian Union’s ministry from a close relative over their weekly lunches. She liked what she heard. In 2011, Eleanor decided that becoming a Christian Union financial partner was a way she could impact her country. She made her first gift and pledged to give annually.

Last year, Eleanor contacted the ministry about including Christian Union in her estate plans. Through her support, she says, “My hope is that Christian Union students will continue with Christ, especially after college, and that they pursue careers in the federal government and judgeships.”

Christian Union positions itself strategically at some of the nation’s leading universities for the very reason that they produce a high percentage of culture-shaping leaders in these very fields. For example, at Princeton University, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs offers undergraduates classes that help prepare them for positions in the government.

Dartmouth also has a reputation for alumni who serve in high levels of American government.

In addition to sharing the Gospel on campus and helping Christians develop a mature faith, Christian Union coaches students involved with its ministries— many of whom are on track to pursue professions in arts and entertainment, business, government, law, and other culturally influential fields—to pursue their chosen fields as a vocation. Students are trained to see and leverage the potential for effective, godly leadership that will bless society.

A number of the alumni of Christian Union’s ministry are indeed on track to influence society through the federal government and legal profession. Kara McKee, Princeton ’11, spent time working on policy for the Budget Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. She then served as a policy advisor to Republican presidential candidates Scott Walker and Marco Rubio, focusing primarily on economic and domestic policy issues.

Jeffrey Arango ’18 is a political science major with a concentration in political economy at the University of Pennsylvania. He just completed an intensive White House internship.

In 2015-16, 40 law school students, at what is arguably the nation’s premiere law school, Harvard Law, studied the Bible in-depth with a Christian Union ministry fellow, prayed together regularly, hosted

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the spiritual climate on campus

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students at harvard university

reports from some of america’s most influential universities

The Spiritual Climate on Campus The following articles were written to keep readers informed about the spiritual atmosphere at some of America’s leading universities. Some stories will encourage you by highlighting ways God is working through other (non-Christian Union) ministries and alumni. Other articles— on news, trends, and events—are included to help motivate you to pray for these institutions, their students, faculty, and staff, and for all of the Christian ministries that work at these schools. ......................................................................................

BROW N | On Campus

The Heart of Nuba

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Carlson said. “Tom seemed to be fueled by the Holy Spirit.

There’s no other way to explain it.

He was clearly all in. So was I.” Being all in meant Carlson was putting everything on the line— even his life.

“I thought I knew what I was getting into when I visited Tom for the first time. Boy, was I wrong,” said Carlson. “He’s in the middle of a war zone and he’s right in

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tions have denounced Sudanese attacks on civilians, and have warned of ethnic cleansings.

Carlson and Catena are former classmates who met on the football field at Brown as members of the defensive unit. The long-time friends met again on a killing field three decades later to film The Heart of Nuba.

“A great injustice was taking place in the Nuba Mountains,”

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ocumentary filmmaker Ken Carlson, Brown ’86, traveled into a war zone a continent away to tell the story of a friend who is saving lives in a remote area of Sudan.

The Heart of Nuba depicts the work of surgeon Tom Catena (Brown ’86), who serves as the only permanent physician at Mother of Mercy Hospital, a 350-bed facility in the province of South Kordofan.

Since 2011, human rights organiza-

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DARIN G FILM D O CUME NT S THE S TORY OF A ME D I C AL MIS S I ONARY

By Eileen Scott, Senior Writer

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Filmmaker Ken Carlson (right) recently produced a documentary on classmate Tom Catena (left), a medical missionary.

“Tom (Catena) seemed to be fueled by the Holy Spirit.

There’s no other way to explain it.”

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—Ken Carlson, Brown ’86

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the Sudanese government’s crosshairs. Every day, he sees hundreds of patients, performs a wide variety of surgeries, runs an oversubscribed clinic, and somehow manages the entire hospital. It’s simply unreal.”

Carlson recalled being held at gunpoint on an airstrip in Turalei, South Sudan, and also watching as planes flew overhead at Mother Mercy Hospital and dropped bombs on a nearby town. And he wishes he didn’t worry about his friend.

“Tom is like a brother to me, so naturally, I am anxious about his existence over there,” he said. “Thankfully, I know that God is utilizing him in the most effective way possible and His will shall be done no

matter what.”

This story of compassion, sacrifice, and friendship came full circle in May during commencement.

Carlson, at Brown for his 30th class reunion, brought The Heart of

Nuba with him for a premiere at his alma mater. Catena was also there, via Skype, to receive an honorary Ph.D.

In 2012, Catena told TIME his Christian faith drew him to the embattled Nuba Mountains. “The idea is to serve,” Catena told the magazine. “You use Christ as your guide, your mentor. This is what He did.

He came to serve, not be served, and I try to follow that.”

While Carlson describes Catena as a humble giant and a humble saint, the Emmy award-winning writer and producer displays his own humility as he gives God all the glory for his work.

“As a successful filmmaker, I follow my heart and my heart belongs to my Lord and Savior,” he said. “If one follows that edict, one is less likely to stray. As we know, temptation is alive and well in Hollywood, so living a prayerful life helps one live a life true to one’s faith.”

“I find comfort in Proverbs 19:21, ‘Many are the plans in the mind of man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand.’ ” During a Q and A session following a screening of the film, someone asked, “Do you think an individual can make a difference in this world?”

Carlson’s response: “Yes. Definitely.”

“I think if Tom Catena has taught me anything, it would be that, not only can you individually make a difference, but God wants us to,” he said. | cu

BROW N | On Campus

Studying Spiritual Warfare B ROWN S TUDE NT S COMPLE TE UNI Q UE IN DE PE N DE NT S TUDY

By Eileen Scott, Senior Writer

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were to study spiritual warfare, along with its history and implications, and deepen their understanding of evil influences and how they are manifested. Galvan and Yeh also analyzed how Scripture contributes to the understanding and meaning of spiritual battles.

The students took a theological approach to their learning, which included readings that examined religious faith, practice, and experience. Additionally, they also studied how psychology is involved in spiritual battles.

aware of how the devil was working in my life.”

Although the study was done from a Catholic perspective, Galvan said, “the great thing about this study is that, no matter what denomination you are, this is the reality. We are in a battle on earth.

Though it’s been won by the resurrection, we still have the battle in every decision to choose the Lord and His will. We have to do our part.”

What was denominationally unique for the students was the role

Galvan and Yeh noted that this theological perspective on spiritual warfare provided a multifaceted and insightful course of study not typically available to students at Brown.

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of the Eucharist and the sacraments in fighting evil and combating sin.

“When I go to Mass, I’m receiving Jesus’ body, and He is transforming my body to be an instrument of His will,” Galvan said. “The sacraments do transform you. You can’t stay away from Christ. You are a walking tabernacle.”

Awakening to the true reality of sin and the supernatural was a lesson for Yeh, as well.

“One thing that this GISP has helped me to grasp is that there is more beyond what we can physically see,” said Yeh, who is majoring

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Galvan and Yeh noted that this theological perspective on spiritual warfare provided a multifaceted and insightful course of study not typically available to students at Brown.

One of the fundamental lessons the students learned is that spiritual battles are truly real.

“We have to accept this reality,” said Galvan, who majored in Mental Health and Healing. “It’s not something to avoid. Learning about spiritual battle, especially during the portion [we studied] on the devil and demons, made me

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pair of Brown University students spent the spring semester delving into the supernatural by researching spiritual warfare from within the Catholic tradition.

Lauren Galvan ’16 and Emily Yeh ’17 developed a Group Independent Study Project entitled Spiritual Battles, through which they took a reasoned and logical look at the unseen.

A Group Independent Study Project (GISP) is a cooperative effort between students and members of the Brown faculty to develop a credited course that is not part of the college’s curriculum.

Students do research, create a syllabus, and plan and execute the academic coursework. Each group study, which must be approved by the College Curriculum Council, is sponsored by an instructor at Brown who takes an active role in serving as a mentor, sounding board, and advisor for the course.

In their introduction to their GISP proposal, the Catholic students wrote, “In an era when spirituality is at the forefront of conversations on psychology, mental health, wellness, healing, and medicine, we are inspired now more than ever to learn about spiritual battles; not only because we want to study spirituality through this lens, but also because we think that this concept may have significant implications for current conversations on spirituality and healing.”

The students’ primary goals

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in Business, Entrepreneurship, and Organizations with a focus in economics.

“This realization is allowing me to grow in a sense of empathy for other people. I do not have full knowledge of the type or extent of battles others may be going

through, so more often than not, the best thing I can do is offer others patience, love, and compassion,” she said.

Galvan admitted learning about the evil one was a little unsettling.

“It scared me, but it makes me want to be more aware of how [evil] is

affecting my life or tempting me.”

Like Yeh, Galvan has become more compassionate. And in addition to a clearer intellectual understanding of sin and evil, both students also have a greater understanding of what is at stake in the battle for souls. | cu

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Thomistic Institute Lecture

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Duke University Professor Thomas Pfau presented the Thomistic Institute Lecture on April 26 at Brown. The presentation, entitled “The Human Person Today: Theological and Literary Perspectives on Responsibility and Love,” focused on the ethics of the human person as presented in the writings of T. S. Eliot, philosopher Robert Spaeman, and Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II).

In preparation for the lecture, students with the Thomistic Institute at Brown met to discuss pre-readings suggested by Pfau.

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Alumna Changes Stance on “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife” In June, Harvard Theological Review insisted it does not plan to print a retraction for Harvard Professor Karen King’s 2012 paper on the so-called “Gospel of Jesus’ Wife,” despite recent indications from King, a Brown doctoral alumna of 1984, that the papyrus fragment was probably a fake.

In defending their decision, the editors said their peer-reviewed journal published a 2014 article

by Brown University Egyptology Professor Leo Depuydt Yale Ph.D. ’90, arguing the papyrus was a crude forgery. The editors now say

Harvard Theological Review does not plan to print a retraction for Harvard Professor Karen King’s 2014 paper on the so-called “Gospel of Jesus’s Wife.”

they never endorsed a position on the fragment, which purported a reference from Jesus to his wife.

COLU M B I A | On Campus

Trinity Heights C H U R C H P L A N T W I L L TA R G E T C O L U M B I A S T U D E N T S

By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer

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to offer Christian apologetics, but church held its most recent preview also to compare perspectives from event on June 26, when it examined the key philosophers, poets, art- “Science as the End of God.” Such weighty topics belong in ists, and the like who have shaped prevailing academic discourse. the church and appeal to emerging Cheung’s upcoming dissertation is adults. “We have to tackle these entitled Nietzsche Contra the Athe- questions head on,” he said. “We ists: An Analysis of the Popular Reception of Nietzsche’s Atheism in English Speaking Countries.

As well, Cheung hopes to provide a place for students to connect their intellectual life with their faith.

“They’re having an intense campus experience,” Cheung said. “Let’s make sure they know how to navigate church life.”

Cheung plans to launch weekly services on September 25 from the space that Trinity Heights utilizes inside The Cathedral School of St. John Julia and Stephen Cheung are launching a church the Divine, which is on Am- plant near Columbia University. sterdam Avenue about four blocks from Columbia. In early 2015, Cheung started a local have to be thinking about them.” small group before rolling out addi- Trinity Heights also encourages tional activities, including month- newcomers to check out its comly outreach events. Most of those munity groups of eight to 15 people centered on substantial discussion who regularly meet in area homes.

The goal is to become a groups and some even featured multi-generational church, includwine and cheese pairings.

Leading up to the start of week- ing a healthy mix of college students ly services in September, Trinity and young adults. “We need shared Heights held a series of preview wisdom from both sides,” Cheung events, including ones dubbed said. “Different generations can “Goodness without God” and “We challenge each other’s thinking in Suffer, So There Is No God.” The helpful ways.”

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United Kingdom-born pastor is putting his vast ministerial and academic background to work by planting a church near Columbia University.

Stephen Cheung, who hails from Reading, England, hopes to see students entrenched in a vibrant church community and reach out to intellectual skeptics via Trinity Heights Church, a non-denominational congregation targeting residents of Morningside Heights.

“It’s really important for students to get involved in church life during college. It provides a great sense of community,” said Cheung, who also is pursuing a doctorate from England’s University of Durham.

In Manhattan, part of Cheung’s efforts will center on reaching out to academic cynics of Christianity, especially given the culture of Columbia and Greater New York City.

“We have to engage with the intellectual life of the city and the mainstream,” said Cheung, who holds a master of letters research degree from the University of Bristol.

Much of Trinity Heights’ outreach to non-believers will occur through the relationships that naturally take place on Columbia’s stimulating, inquisitive campus.

“It is important that Christians feel confident that they can bring their atheistic and agnostic friends to our events without being embarrassed,” said Cheung.

As such, Cheung wants not just

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Just as Cheung wants students to experience life beyond their campus walls, he also wants Trinity Heights to function effectively as part of the global church, even reaching out to needs of believers in far-flung corners of the globe that are beset by vicious cycles of poverty and unrest. “We can learn from them what it means to be generous and sacrificial,” said Cheung.

Because the local and global church should function as concentric circles, Trinity Heights is building on relationships with churches in Burma and Rwanda. As well, church newcomers are encouraged to take Just People?, a six-week course in compassion, justice, and the intersection of faith and action.

As for Cheung, his ministerial experience includes a stint serving as associate pastor of Temple Bible Church from 2008 to 2014. Also at the Texas church, Cheung previously served as college and single adults pastor.

As well, he worked as a missionary and theological educator at Mexico’s Puebla Bible Seminary from 2005 to 2007 and as interim pastor at England’s Westbury Leigh Baptist Church from 1999 to 2000.

In December 2014, Cheung and his wife Julia relocated to New York after sensing a calling to help reach a segment of the unchurched Northeast. “After being in Texas, you start to feel like there’s a church on every corner,” said Cheung.

In New York City, Cheung has benefitted from training and other support from Apostles Church NYC and Redeemer Presbyterian Church’s City to City church planting division.

As natives of the United Kingdom, life for the Cheungs in Manhattan offers a familiar vibrancy.

“New York feels like London,” said Cheung, who is of Korean, Chinese, and Armenian descent.

More importantly, Columbia’s Morningside Heights’ neighborhood features a tangible sense of community, along with fertile ministry grounds. “That’s where you are going to find lots of academics, skeptics, and cynics,” Cheung said. | cu

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COLU M B I A | On Campus

A Sweet, Generous Spirit M A R I E L K I M H E L P E D L A U N C H R U F AT C O L U M B I A

By Catie Edmondson

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Editor’s note: The following article was reprinted with permission from the Columbia Daily Spectator (www.columbiaspectator.com).

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W

hen Mariel Kim, Barnard College ’16, stood in Lerner Hall during finals week handing out free doughnuts, the student response was typically Columbian.

“Some people kind of stood back and asked, ‘What’s the catch?’” Kim said.

“Nothing, we just want to give you doughnuts. It’s a stressful time!”

During her time at Columbia, Kim has worked to combat the cynicism and isolation she said she

saw on campus, helping found the school’s branch of the Reformed University Fellowship (RUF).

As a computer science major, Kim said she faced a challenging curriculum and sought solace in RUF’s citywide church organization. Her experience there motivated her to help bring a ministry onto campus in the hopes of providing a space for students to come together.

“Everyone is so busy and driven, it can be hard to find a sense of community,” she said. “Our goal is to have a community where people can come together and discuss the challenges they face. RUF’s approach is to create a safe space

where people can voice their doubts and wrestle with wherever they are in relation to faith.”

The organization, which started two years ago, looks to foster a supportive environment for students, regardless of their faith.

Eric Lipscomb, RUF’s campus minister, said that Kim’s generous and kind spirit makes those who converse with her feel like they are the most important people in the room.

“She puts people first in a lot of ways. She is highly thoughtful of others; she just puts a smile on your face by being with her,” he said.

Lipscomb also said that Kim has

Mariel Kim, Barnard College ’16, helped launch Columbia’s branch of Reformed University Fellowship.

served as a role model in RUF. “It was never about pushing any agenda, just trying to love and care for people in the name of her faith.

She would talk the talk, but she also walks the walk,” he said. “Despite how challenging or closed off people might be, partially as a function of her faith, she moves toward people and tries to care for them.”

Hyunseo Lee, Barnard College ‘18, recalled the support that Kim provided to her as a struggling firstyear student.

“Although she’s two years older, she reached out to me as a friend and accepted me as a friend, which I really appreciate,” Lee said. “Although I’m not an official member, I still found a great community

within RUF, and she really helped me transition well into college life.

It can be really stressful; she gave me so much advice. Just being able to talk with her and have her as that resource was really helpful. It definitely made my transition to college easier.”

Lee added that Kim is the “kindest person [she] knows,” and also highlighted Kim’s creativity.

Kim is perhaps as known for her skill as a graphic designer and calligrapher as she is for her kindness.

Last year, she and three other Barnard students—all STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) majors—started a graphic design company called Salt & Serifs, creating postcards that are now sold in the Barnard store.

“It was a fun outlet, and it showed me that you don’t have to be just a student here,” Kim said.

“You can pursue your own projects; you can find what you’re passionate about. You can find and build your own community.” | cu

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distributed in the neighborhood around Bryant Park. The bags included granola bars, water bottles, handwritten notes of encouragement, and other items.

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A Lenten resolution by Columbia freshman Nicole-Anne Lobo resulted in the distribution of “blessing bags” for the least of these in New York City. Struck by the need among the city’s poor, Lobo internalized the words of Matthew 25 regarding feeding the hungry and sought support from fellow members of the Catholic community at Columbia. The resulting donations were enough to prepare 35 blessing bags that were

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Students with Reformed University Fellowship at Columbia participated in their national organization’s Summer Conference in Panama City, Florida. RUF Summer Conference, held in May, was “a week of worship, relevant teaching, and fun at the beach with hundreds of college students from across the U.S. seeking truth, relaxation, and recreation following spring semester.”

Blessing Bags

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RUF Summer Conference

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COR N E LL | On Campus

The Informant

MARK WHITACRE SHARES REMARK ABLE TESTIMONY AT CORNELL

By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer

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hen Mark Whitacre completed his doctorate in biochemistry from Cornell University, he never envisioned himself returning decades later to describe his experience as a corporate whistleblower and his dramatic faith conversion.

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Mark Whitacre, Cornell Ph.D. ’83, appeared at his alma mater in April to discuss business ethics and share his powerful testimony.

More than anything, the former Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) executive—who was at the heart of an unprecedented price-fixing scandal—marvels at how God has given him a stage for sharing his compelling testimony. Whitacre’s saga inspired The Informant, a 2009 movie starring Matt Damon.

“The movie has created this re-

markable platform,” said Whitacre, Cornell Ph.D. ’83. The peppy scientist noted the account, which dominated business headlines throughout the mid-1990s, also prompted three books and a Discovery Channel documentary.

On April 5, Whitacre appeared at Cornell, where he probed ethics and corporate culture in Sage Hall during a lecture sponsored by the Johnson Graduate School of Management. Following that session, Whitacre shared his faith journey inside Klarman Auditorium during an appearance sponsored by Johnson Christian Fellowship and Chesterton House.

“It was so neat to be back,” Whitacre said. “The students heard a message that can go with them for life. I wish I would have heard the [salvation] message back in 1983.”

Today, the Ohio resident gives about 100 lectures per year, about half of which involve his remarkable testimony and the remainder deal with business ethics. Whitacre is quick to point out that The Informant concludes with his 10-year prison sentence – before his radical conversion, inroads to ministry, and re-entry into scientific endeavors.

To Whitacre’s delight, most of the students and professionals who attend his sessions are mesmerized by the rest of his life story. “I’ve gone from ashes to beauty,” said Whitacre, who noted he accepted Christ as his personal savior in 1998, three months after entering prison.

With his wife of nearly 40 years often by his side, Whitacre crisscrosses the country while sharing his account of redemption and unexpected second chances.

Many of Whitacre’s messages include warnings about the dangerously addictive nature of greed and narcissism and the twin deceptions of unfettered success and self-invincibility.

“There’s more to life than materialism. You cannot take it with you,” Whitacre said. “Jesus is more important. The most rewarding part of life is serving others.”

Such concepts were foreign to Whitaker in 1989 when the 32-year-old wunderkind became the fourth-highest ranking executive at ADM. For the seven years Whitacre worked at the global food processing powerhouse, he averaged annual compensation of $3 million, according to reports.

“I felt like I was a rock star,” Whitacre said. “I felt like I arrived.”

Despite jetting frequently in a Falcon 50 on corporate jaunts and owning a mansion featuring an eight-car garage, Whitacre described his heart as empty. “It was never enough,” he said during an interview.

After a turn of events and at the unrelenting insistence of his wife, Whitacre exposed ADM’s crooked dealings with its Asian competitors in the food-ingredients industry to Illinois agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In the early 1990s, Whitacre became a whistleblower of historic caliber by wearing recording devices for about three years. The resulting evidence captured high-ranking executives divvying up markets in flagrant violation of U.S. antitrust codes.

With such tapes, federal prosecutors won a landmark case that resulted in a $100 million fine for ADM and sentences for some of its chieftains, according to news reports.

Despite his role in exposing one of America’s biggest commercial scandals, Whitacre went on to serve nearly nine years at a series of federal penitentiaries.

In a colossal twist for the case, ADM accused its superstar-turned-mole of embezzling about $9 million during the twilight of his employment. The fraudulent payments, which took place despite heightened supervision from his

FBI handlers, violated Whitacre’s immunity agreement.

Then, to the horror of his attorney, Whitacre turned down a plea deal that would have resulted in about six months of prison time. Whitacre, who also battled an undiagnosed bipolar disorder and emotional instability, instead unsuccessfully contended against a string of indictments in court.

In yet another turn of events to Whitacre’s remarkable story, Chuck Colson, the former Watergate felon who founded Prison Fellowship, sought out Whitacre to spiritually mentor him after the fallen golden boy entered prison in 1998.

Whitacre remained friends with the Brown University alumnus of 1953 until his death in 2012 and regarded him as a father figure.

As for his stint in prison, Whitacre devoted those years to Bi-

ble study, shepherding his fellow inmates, and even helping some earn high school certificates. Such efforts were a source of tangible fulfillment.

“I became a free man when I went to prison,” Whitacre said.

Later, to his amazement, Cypress Systems, Inc., a California-based biotech company, offered Whitacre a position related to his Cornell doctoral studies upon his release from prison. Whitacre, who joined the firm in December 2006, serves as chief operating officer and chief science officer.

Today, instead of being known as the sensation who rode a meteoric track to corporate stardom and then exposed his industry’s schemes, Whitacre simply wants to be recognized as a messenger of transformative lessons.

“The only book that changed my life was the Bible,” he said. | cu

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COR N E LL | On Campus

Beyond Overwhelmed THE RELATIONSHIP OF WORK, PLAY, AND TIME

By Karl Johnson, Cornell ’89, Ph.D. ’11

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1970). She describes (post)modern time as “confetti time,” or “one big chaotic burst of exploding slivers, bits, and scraps.” That’s apt; technology indeed has chopped our days, and nights, into increasingly narrower slices.

Although Shulte provides some wonderful practical advice, which is great so far as it goes, I wonder how close she is getting to the root of the matter. The problem is not just that we don’t have enough open spaces in our schedule to focus, concen-

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dition have no chance to get through, can project no image of themselves, except in activities which, for us here and now, are frivolous.”

I was reminded of these clever quotes upon reading Brigid Schulte’s Overwhelmed: Work, Love, and Play When No One Has the Time (Sarah Crichton, 2014). Schulte provides an excellent overview and diagnosis of our current dysfunctional relationship to time—a sort of 21st century updating of Staffan Linder’s The Harried Leisure Class (Columbia,

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.K. Chesterton once provocatively quipped, “It might reasonably be maintained that the true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground.”

C.S. Lewis, explaining his “tendency to use images like play and dance for the highest things,” similarly stated, “I do not think that the life of Heaven bears any analogy to play or dance in respect of frivolity. I do think that while we are in this ‘valley of tears,’ cursed with labor, … certain qualities that must belong to the celestial con-

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trate, or meditate. There is also the qualitative problem that time has become less significant, in the literal sense of not signifying anything beyond itself.

Which brings me back to Chesterton and Lewis, for whom time had a “sacramental” dimension.

According to thinkers going all the way back to Augustine, sacramental

something is past, it’s past.” (The root of ‘secular’ is ‘saeculum,’ a long period of time roughly equivalent to a person’s age span; hence economists sometimes speak of ‘secular stagnation.’) But religious traditions often conceive of time as having a vertical as well as a horizontal dimension—kairos as well as chronos. In the Christian tradition, for

According to thinkers going all the way back to Augustine, sacramental time intersects and transforms secular time… To Chesterton and Lewis, thinking of time as sacramental dignified play. time intersects and transforms secular time. Charles Taylor takes up the theme in A Secular Age (Harvard, 2007): “‘Secular’ time is what to us is ordinary time, indeed, to us it’s just time, period. One thing happens after another, and when

example, the Incarnation of Christ constitutes a ‘temporalization of the eternal.’ Thus, as Hans Boersma once put it, “time participates in the eternity of God’s life, and it is this participation that is able to gather past, present, and future to-

gether into one.” Liturgy in general and the Eucharist in particular tell the story of the world from creation to consummation, and situate worshippers as actors within that story.

To Chesterton and Lewis, thinking of time as sacramental dignified play. Why? Because work is characterized by wages—by what one is owed—and can therefore provide no analogy to grace, which is God’s unmerited favor. In this way of thinking, the freedom of play and leisure provides a better analogy of grace, or even of heaven.

Perhaps, then, in addition to all the reasons Schulte cites, one of the reasons we struggle with working such long hours is that we have forgotten the significance of play.

Karl Johnson is the executive director of Chesterton House, a center for Christian Studies at Cornell. | cu

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This spring, an a cappella group at Cornell University joined forces with the International Justice Mission to host a concert that highlighted the global human trafficking crisis.

Measureless A Capella

(measureless.efootprints.com) staged a free concert inside Klarman Hall in connection with a campus branch of International Justice Mission. Measureless is a fusion of two Christian singing groups, The Atonements and Grace Notes.

Professor Gary Fick Honored by Cornell In May, Cornell University honored Professor Gary Fick for 40plus years of service in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Believers at Cornell also hailed

Fick, upon retirement, as a friend and mentor who has dedicated himself to Cornell University advancing Professor Gary Fick God’s kingdom in Ithaca, New York. When not teaching or doing research for Cornell’s Section of Soil and Crop Sciences, Fick has invested his life in Christian service via his church and through Camps Farthest Out, an organization that hosts evangelical camps and retreats.

D A R T M OU T H | On Campus

A Musical Fellowship FREEMAN ’17 HAS SPIRITUAL PITCH

By Jessica Tong, Dartmouth ’17

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come Here.’ After the showcase, we all lined up around the railing of a balcony overlooking a huge foyer (in a central building in MIT),” she

Tyne Freeman ’17

said. “It was such a beautiful moment, as a couple hundred voices came together in harmony, infiltrating this secular space, infusing

jor and African and African-American Studies minor, Freeman will spend her senior year embarking on a fellowship of intercultural musical collaborations. During her fellowship, she hopes to examine the ways intercultural musical collaborations and co-compositions with artists across the African continent and diaspora can prompt meaningful interaction, transcending cultural and linguistic differences.

She wants to learn how music can facilitate and sustain relationship, how can it serve as a social space, and how the significance of these interactions may extend beyond music.

At the end of her senior year, Freeman will produce a professionally recorded, full-length album featuring a variety of artists, genres, and musical traditions.

The inspiration for this cross-cultural music fellowship came about during her study abroad in Ghana,

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when she took a mid-term break in Kenya. In Nairobi, Freeman attended a show that focused on using music to make a social impact.

“Afterwards, I connected with one of the performers. A few weeks later, he sent me half of a song he’d

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it with the love of God in melody.

Many students and others passing through stopped to listen.”

Freeman’s faith plays a large role, not only in her extracurricular activities, but also in her academics. As a music (modified with English) ma-

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Freeman will spend her senior year embarking on a fellowship of intercultural musical collaborations.

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yne Freeman, a junior at Dartmouth, has spent much of her time in college building upon her passion for singing and songwriting and experiencing the power of music to profess her faith and transcend differences in culture.

As a three-year member of Dartmouth’s only Christian a cappella group, X.ado, the native of North Carolina has come to treasure greatly the family of singers with whom she can worship, describing them as intentional about welcoming her warmly with “sincere hearts for God, and a love for music.”

In X.ado, she recently stepped into the role of “spiritual pitch.”

As a spiritual pitch, she leads Bible studies and seeks to be in constant prayer for the group to cultivate collective spirituality, stay focused on the mission of singing for Christ, and also foster a sense of community. X.ado recently participated in Break It Down Boston (BIDB), a gathering of Christian a cappella ensembles from schools along the east coast to street sing in Boston and exchange arrangements and ideas.

For Freeman, one particular moment at BIDB exemplified the way in which she has seen God working through college a cappella groups and how many voices can come together as one.

“Towards the end of the conference, all the members of each group learned voice parts for the song, ‘Holy Spirit You Are Wel-

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composed in Swahili and Luo, and asked me to compose the other half in English,” she recalled. “This sparked the idea of virtual collaboration and solidified my project ideas. I was also inspired by many other experiences, such as traveling to Cuba, singing with Jabulani African Chorus on campus, and simply collaborating with countless wonderful artists.”

Although the application process for this senior fellowship was

long and full of uncertainties, Freeman found that it allowed her to reflect upon the many moving parts of her studies and encounters with artists throughout her first three years at Dartmouth.

“It’s been a joy to see how my academic, extracurricular, and relational experiences can come together in this culminating endeavor. I am grateful for a chance to reflect, and appreciate how God has woven so much together,” she said.

Freeman has found that her Christian faith has called her to trust continually in the goodness of His plan and commit to being fully absorbed in each stage and area of college she has encountered. Consequently, in each of her academic and extracurricular involvements at Dartmouth thus far, and in her exciting endeavor to come, Freeman plans to “appreciate the different seasons and seek out the jewel of each.” | cu

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D A R T M OU T H | On Campus

A Fellowship Family Just across the Street CHRIST REDEEMER CHURCH REACHES OUT TO DARTMOUTH STUDENTS

By Eileen Scott, Senior Writer

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hrist Redeemer Church in Ha- mouth organizations and as a pasnover, New Hampshire doesn’t sionate member of CRC. Sisson said the church is like an seek to meet Dartmouth students where they are. Rather, the church encourages them to step off campus, out of their comfort zones, and into vibrant fellowship with Christians in a local church.

Rev. Bill Willeman, senior pastor at Christ Redeemer Church (CRC), says his church provides “value added” opportunities in addition to the ministry that is already happening with ministries on campus. CRC has a strong connection with several ministries, including Agape, Navigators, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Cru, and Christian Union.

Emma Sisson ’17 recogChrist Redeemer Church is a spiritual home to nizes that added value, both Dartmouth students like Emma Sisson ’17. as a participant in Dart-

extended family.

“I wanted a family that is separate from Dartmouth,” said Sisson.

“We are all necessary and beautiful in the sight of God. CRC solidified for me what the body of Christ looks like.”

In an effort to minister to the students who stay in Hanover for Dartmouth’s unique Sophomore Summer session, CRC offers a reading program on the works of Jonathan Edwards. Willeman, the students, and church members explore the writings of Edwards and his critical role in The Great Awakening. The program is designed with a rich intellectual and theological approach

by Willeman, who has a Master of Theology degree from Dallas Theological Seminary and has led churchbased ministries in Ohio, Michigan, Texas, and Vermont.

CRC, located across the street from Dartmouth, was founded 16

years ago by Willeman, community members, and Dartmouth students. Today, it continues to offer leadership opportunities in a variety of programs. Students serve alongside local community members in the church nursery, participate in Bible studies, and assist with planning events.

According to Willeman, the students bring vibrancy, energy, and enthusiasm to the church and are dedicated to the overall mission of Christ Redeemer, which is “to be a place for the spiritually hungry to discover, learn, and grow in a relationship with God.” For example, Sisson recently completed a semester internship with CRC where she attended pastoral events, funding meetings, and brainstorming sessions that focused

on getting students involved in Sunday services and retreats.

Sisson, who plans to become a teacher, says she has learned a lot from CRC.

These messages, for Sisson and other Dartmouth students, provide spiritual food for thought throughout the week.

“Every Sunday, I leave church

“The sermons are amazing. We are being fed academically, thought-provoking content. It’s cool to go to a church that is just as intellectually challenging (as Dartmouth) and full of truth.”

—Emma Sisson, Dartmouth ’17 “The sermons are amazing,” she said. “We are being fed academically, thought-provoking content. It’s cool to go to a church that is just as intellectually challenging (as Dartmouth) and full of truth.”

and think, ‘Wow.’ There’s always something to chew on. When I’ve been tempted to skip church, I still go and realize the Word spoken was what I needed to hear.” | cu

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Cotton Patch Gospel

2016

Joshua Echebiri ’14

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boys’ school that focused on the topic “Christianity Is Good News for the World.”

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Joshua Echebiri, Dartmouth ’14, is continuing his education abroad and immersing himself in Christian apologetics. Echebiri is a student at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics (OCCA).

He recently described the lectures and community at Wycliffe Hall and OCCA as “inspiring, challenging, and equipping.”

While at Oxford, Echebiri also participated in a debate at a local

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“Cotton Patch Gospel,” an honors thesis production by Robert Leverett ’16, opened at the Bentley Theater in May. The play, which is ensemble-based and incorporates live bluegrass music and a potluck dinner, explores the concept of theater as a community.

In his production, Leverett integrates the audience into the show as the Gospel story is told through a collection of vignettes and tableaus.

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H A RVA RD | On Campus

Abundant Life S TUDY EQUATE S CHURCH AT TENDANCE WITH GRE ATER HE ALTH, LONGEVIT Y

By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer

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new study from Harvard University supports the notion that attendance of religious services may be associated with better health and longer life.

In a study that combed data from about 75,000 women between 1996 and 2012, those who attend-

“Our results suggest that there may be something important about religious service attendance beyond solitary spirituality,” said Tyler VanderWeele, senior author and professor of epidemiology in Harvard’s School of Public Health.

“Part of the benefit seems to be

Photo credit: iStock.com

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A recent study from Harvard University suggests that frequent church participation may be associated with improved health.

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ed church more than once per week had a 33-percent lower relative risk of death than the females who did not participate in religious services.

Those who actively took part in services also displayed a significantly lower risk of death from cardiovascular and cancer issues, according to the study from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

On May 16, The Journal of the American Medical Association (Internal Medicine) published an online report entitled Association of Religious Service Attendance with Mortality among Women.

that attending religious services increases social support, discourages smoking, decreases depression, and helps people develop a more optimistic or hopeful outlook on life.”

Earlier studies suggested a link between church attendance and health benefits. Criticism of such reports highlighted the possibility of so-called reverse causation, namely that mostly healthy individuals make it to services, so attendance may not impact health. VanderWeele’s study implemented rigorous methodology that controlled for common causes for mortality and repeated measures over time

for both attendance and health, according to Harvard.

As part of efforts to use a robust sample size, the researchers mined data from 1992 to 2012 from 74,534 women who took part in the Nurses’ Health Study. The participants supplied answers about their diet, lifestyle, and health every two years and about their religious attendance every four years. Ever vigilant, the academics adjusted for factors including diet, physical activity, alcohol consumption, tobacco usage, body-mass index, social integration, depression, race, and ethnicity.

Dr. Timothy Flanigan, a medical professor at Brown University, called the study interesting and provocative, especially the results pointing to a “remarkable 30-percent decrease in mortality among individuals who are regular church attendees, compared to those who do not attend at all.”

The infectious diseases specialist explained the results highlight “an association and does not imply causation.” Still, such an association is “very important and powerful,” said Flanigan, Dartmouth ’79, Cornell M.D. ’83 That especially is so because “recent trends in mortality rates in the United States point to disturbing increases in suicide, drug overdose, and morbidity and mortality due to alcoholism and substance abuse,” he said.

Active church attendance promotes regular prayer and reliance upon God.

“Faith, prayer, and worship encourage resiliency in the face of life’s hardships,” said Flanigan.

“This resiliency can help one cope with the hardships and trials of life in a constructive manner.”

As for the Harvard study, in addition to showing a 33 percent lower mortality rate, the frequent church-goers also lived an average of five months longer. The study also highlighted benefits for moderate church participation.

The Harvard-led team did pause to note a limitation of the study.

Namely, it largely consisted of

Caucasian nurses who identified as Christians. As for the study’s lead author, VanderWeele is a professor in Harvard’s departments of epidemiology and biostatics. VanderWeele, Harvard M.A. ’05, Ph.D. ’06, Penn M.A. ’02, also is a co-director of Harvard’s Initiative on Health, Religion, and Spirituality.

As well, the scholar’s 40-page curriculum vitae is packed with extensive credentials and service efforts, including his status as an advisory board member to The John Templeton Foundation and his past presidency of the Harvard School of

Public Health Christian Fellowship (hsph.harvard.edu/christian-fellowship-so).

VanderWeele and his colleagues noted religion and spirituality may be underappreciated resources that physicians could explore with patients: “Our results do not imply that health care professionals should prescribe attendance at religious services, but for those who already hold religious beliefs, attendance at services could be encouraged as a form of meaningful social participation.” | cu

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H A RVA RD | On Campus

Three Rules for Happiness

J E S U I T P R I E S T E X H O R T S H A R VA R D G R A D U AT E S

By Rev. James Martin Editor’s note: The following story originally appeared in The Harvard Crimson prior to Commencement 2016.

Reprinted with permission.

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Rev. James Martin

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and general arrogance that all of us, Harvard or no, are tempted to.

So, remember the following: 1.) You’re not God. 2.) This isn’t heaven. 3.) Don’t be a jerk.

Let’s take these dicta one by one.

The first is essential for life in general, but has special meaning for anyone, like yourself, who has just

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irst of all, congratulations, soonto-be alumni!

I have a special place in my heart for Harvard, since my sister graduated from the college in 1986. Her graduation came four years after I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania. Needless to say, there have been some good-natured rivalries over the years, particularly during the two years when we overlapped as students: that is, when she was still at Harvard, and I was still at Penn.

On her first Thanksgiving visit back from school, my sister was bursting with Crimson pride. At

the dinner table, she began dilating on the magnificence of Fair Harvard: The Yard, her friends, her classes, her professors, and so on.

I rolled my eyes and said to my parents, “Was I this bad as a freshman?”

“Oh,” said my father without a trace of irony, “much worse.”

As wonderful as is your Harvard education, and as rich as your experience has been in Cambridge, there is a lurking danger of which I’m sure you’re aware: the patented arrogance that comes with having graduated from an Ivy League school. So my advice to the graduates of the Class of 2016 are three easy things to remember, passed on to me from an elderly Jesuit. They will help you combat the inevitable feelings of vanity, entitlement,

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spent four years being told by many people that you’ll be able to change the world. Of course it’s important to work for change, but there are limits.

“You’re not God,” then, has multiple implications. First, you can’t change many things, so stop trying. Second, you’re not in charge of the universe, so stop acting like you are. And third, you don’t know everything, so stop acting like you do.

Simply reminding yourself of this can bring calm, perspective, and humility. It may also save you some heartache in relationships with friends and coworkers. As the Bible says, or at least should have said, “No one likes a know-it-all.”

The second dictum, “This isn’t heaven,” can help to reduce, by a factor of ten, the amount of complaining you do. For example, if an app on your phone isn’t working, if your internet access is on the fritz, if you’re stuck on a subway (or, variously, the T, the El, or the Metro), you can remind yourself that life isn’t perfect. This will cut down on how much you complain and, therefore, how much you bother everyone around you.

If you’re still tempted to carp, think for a minute how much easier your life is than that of most people on this planet. I used to work with refugees in East Africa, and when I get annoyed by those “first-world problems” just mentioned, I try to think of people who have far less.

But it’s that last apothegm that I wish more people remembered: “Don’t be a jerk.”

Look, I’m as guilty as the next person of being a jerk. It’s hard not to be today, since jerkiness is con-

tagious. In my first job after graduation, the company seemed to prize managers who were “tough” and “demanding.” Sometimes this meant lauding men and women who were tough and demanding.

But sometimes it meant promoting people who acted like jerks—throwing their weight around, screaming at underlings, and basically acting like, to use an underutilized word in corporate America, babies. That meant, in turn, that some who aspired to management positions emulated them. So, more jerkiness.

There will be many times when you feel like you’re entitled to be a jerk. You’ve got a cold. You’re hung over. Your roommate has again forgotten to put his dishes in the dishwasher. You left your credit card in the restaurant last night. The person in the airplane seat next to you has just taken his shoes and socks off and is scratching his feet. So you’re annoyed. I get it.

But that doesn’t mean you need to pass on your misery to the next person you meet. Let the jerkiness cycle end with you. Be nice. Be kind. Try to smile. Yeah, I know it’s hard. Do it anyway.

Do all these things anyway.

Why? If you put these three simple rules into action, you’ll be a lot, a lot, happier. And you’ll make everyone around you happier too.

And that’s the Veritas.

The Rev. James Martin is a Jesuit priest, editor at large of America magazine, and a frequent commentator in the media on religion.

He is the author of many books, including Jesus: A Pilgrimage. | cu

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Harvard Right to Life Students involved with Harvard Right to Life highlighted aspects of their commitment to protecting the rights of the unborn during the John F. Kennedy, Jr. Forum in the spring semester. On April 26, they attended a talk featuring Cecile Richards, Brown ’80, who spoke about her role as president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America. While students involved with Harvard Right to Life disagreed with many of Richards’ positions, they asked a series of hard-hitting questions with the intent of having such queries resonate with their fellow students.

The Future of Evangelicalism Candy Gunther Brown, Harvard PhD ’00, and Mark Silk, Harvard ’72, PhD ’82, are the authors. of the recently-released book, The Future of Evangelicalism in America. The collaborative work explores various angles of evangelicalism, including spirituality, theology, and politics.

The book also addresses the challenges which face a new generation of evangelicals.

Gunther Brown is professor of religious studies at Indiana University. Silk is director of the Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life and professor of religion in public life at Trinity College.

P E N N | On Campus

Snapshots of Society W H A R T O N A L U M N U S I S V I C E P R E S I D E N T O F L I F E WAY R E S E A R C H

By Eileen Scott, Senior Writer

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2016 :: christianunion.org

“Most people want their pastor a path. He originally pursued opto preach about the Book of Reve- portunities in marketing and stralation and the end of the world, but tegic management, but a dearth of that’s a complicated task,” McCo- employment opportunities landed nnell said. “The scholars they cite McConnell his first job with a maroften disagree about how the end ket research firm.

“I didn’t realize that [research] times will unfold.” would be the perIn fact, a variety fect fit for how of the issues LifeWay God created me,” Research delves into said McConnell, are complex. noting his orienta“Addressing topics tion toward details, like mental illness, truth, and accuradomestic violence, dicy. “You have to do vorce, abortion, and a thousand things women in the church exactly right, or are important topics you will mislead and previously have people.” been hush hush,” Mc- Scott McConnell, Wharton ’93, is the vice president of While working Connell said.

LifeWay Research. for the research But that doesn’t firm, McConnell stop the researcher worked on a project for LifeWay from giving voice to such issues.

“When the opportunities come Research. In a turn of events that up to research those things, we real- McConnell calls “stunning,” he was ize there is an opportunity to shed offered a position with the Nashville-based organization. “I was light in a dark place,” he said.

Through his extensive research, blown away at the fact that I could McConnell has also drawn some be using these skills for kingdom conclusions about today’s young purposes, and it was incredibly, inadults, especially those at his alma tellectually stimulating.”

McConnell notes that he would mater and other leading universistill find fulfillment in that field, ties.

“What I am seeing is that young whether he was with a faith-based people who choose to follow Christ organization or not.

Of course, that assessment is are very dedicated…and very faithbased upon fact. “God wired us ful,” said McConnell.

Although he is thrilled to be to get a lot of satisfaction out of working for a faith-based organi- work,” McConnell said. “That is a zation, McConnell didn’t begin his gift from God.” | cu career intentionally seeking such

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cott McConnell, an alumnus of The Wharton School, works at the corner of faith and facts, extrapolating data about cultural issues and trends that lead to church growth, enhanced non-profit organizations, and greater public awareness.

“Facts are our friends,” said McConnell ’93, the vice president of LifeWay Research.

At LifeWay, McConnell and his team study various demographics and data to uncover opinions, beliefs, and attitudes regarding contemporary affairs—which can range from the morality of sports gambling to the connection of mental illness and abortion.

McConnell’s findings are often used by Christians for church planting, non-profit messaging, and evangelism efforts. LifeWay also prepares articles that provide a biblical worldview on some of the day’s most popular topics.

McConnell has worked for LifeWay for 20 years, determining appropriate research methodologies and using national polls, random samples, and other tools to gather the elements necessary to create an informational portrait of issues and trends.

A recent study sponsored by Charisma House Book Group looked at the end times via a phone survey of 1,000 senior pastors. The study revealed a certainty in the return of Jesus Christ, but a wide range of ideas on the details of the apocalypse.

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P E N N | On Campus

‘Rep Yo Faith’

PENN STUDENT HAS ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT

By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer

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University of Pennsylvania student is using her flair for fashion to promote evangelism on campus.

During the spring semester, Jazmine Smith ’18 introduced a line of clothing to serve as conversation starters about her personal

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to handle production and ship the orders. The criminology major also promotes her products via Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

“I never thought I would be an entrepreneur,” Smith said.

Between January and May, the Philadelphia native filled about 100 orders.

The Rep Yo Faith line also includes hoodie sweatshirts, hoodie dresses, tank tops, baseball caps, phone cases, and more.

In addition to reflecting her spiritual heritage via her clothing line, Smith pens Jazmine Smith ’18 is using her fondness for fashion to promote a blog for youth and evangelism on campus via a line of clothing she introduced young adults entitled during the spring semester.

The Chosen Ones 2.0 (https://chosenones2. relationship with Christ. Smith’s se- wordpress.com).

As well, Smith is involved with lection of T-shirts, sweatshirts, and Cru’s ministry at Penn (phillycru. the like feature spiritual messages.

“You don’t have to go out on a org), and serves on the board for corner and hand out tracts,” said UPenn God’s Property (www.faceSmith of her garment line dubbed book.com/upenngodsproperty), a club that aims to bolster spiritual Rep Yo Faith.

In November, Smith sensed a support for African-American studivine prompting to develop her dents. While in high school, Smith own line of attire as she was praying founded It’s All About HIM, a about how to evangelize at Penn. “I mime ministry.

As for her retail initiative, Smith thought up the idea on a Thursday, and I was working on it by Sunday,” offers evangelical-themed clothing, as well as items centered on a royalSmith said of her venture.

Over winter break, Smith put ty motif and purity campaign. The the finishing touches on some spiritual nobility garments receive of her initial designs, launched a the most views of her ever-expandWeb site, and selected a company ing line of products, but the absti-

nence-themed items are a big hit among parents and grandparents of tweens and teens. Smith targets children and young adults, up to age 25, as her core audience.

Among new endeavors, Smith plans to design a colorful Rep Yo Faith line for children.

As for the creative aspect of her venture, Smith crafts her own designs via Adobe Photoshop’s selection of fonts and graphics. Many of Smith’s current duties focus on being the middleman between the customer and the drop-shipper, and she is generating a modest profit.

“It’s worth it to me not to fall behind in my studies,” said Smith, who explained that most of her interaction with customers involves sending confirmation e-mails and notifying her drop-shipper of orders. “I don’t want to lose sight of the goal.”

So far, the bulk of orders come from Smith’s friend base across Philadelphia. “Most of my orders come from the younger crowd,” she said. “Some are from parents and grandparents.”

Rep Yo Faith has even developed a following at Penn.

“I absolutely adore Rep Yo Faith.

I believe in the products and what they stand for and feel honored to wear the line. I have had countless discussions with Jazz about her company and what it promotes,” said Marissa Samuels ’18, who noted she is of Jewish heritage.

“It has been a true privilege watching Jazz create and grow this

company,” said Samuels. “I am so proud of all of her accomplishments, and look forward to what the future has in store for her.”

Ajulu Adigwe ’18 echoed those comments.

“Rep Yo Faith has truly been a source of empowerment. It has given me more confidence to be open about my Christian journey and has allowed me to be proud of my morals and beliefs,” said Adigwe, a psychology major. “Practically every piece in the Rep Yo Faith line is extremely cute and comfortable. Not only do I look fashionable, but I get tons of compliments and questions from strangers asking about the meaning of ‘Rep Yo Faith’ and where they can purchase the products!”

As well, Smith is an “honorable woman of God,” said Adigwe, who served as a cheerleader with Smith at Penn. “That has certainly been able to shine through in each and every piece of her collection. I’m truly proud to call her a friend.”

Tiffany Young ’16 agreed.

said Young. “This line comes from a place of love.”

As for Smith, the aspiring law student is simply pleased for her casual wear to spark discussions among Penn students about the God who is dressed in majesty.

“It has been a lot of hard work,

In November, Smith sensed a divine prompting to develop her own line of spiritual attire as she was praying about how to evangelize at Penn.

“The Rep Yo Faith line was created from a place of love, passion, and initiative. I’m so proud of Jazz for taking the initiative to follow through with this dream of hers,”

but worth it,” she said. “I’ve had good conversations with others about faith.” | cu

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Campbell ’96 Ministers in Orlando

Multicultural Worship Night

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Students involved in six campus ministries at the University of Pennsylvania, including The Episcopal Chaplaincy, participated in a multicultural worship night.

The students gathered on April

21 at St. Mary’s, Hamilton Village: The Episcopal Church at Penn for music, Scripture reading, and prayer in a variety of languages. The theme of the evening centered on Revelation 7:9: “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb...”

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Rev. Aaron Campbell, Penn ’96, was among many Christians leaders who responded with compassion following the murder of 49 people in a gay nightclub in Orlando. Campbell, the pastor of Antioch Christian Fellowship in Philadelphia, boarded a plane with only a backpack and a Bible for a 24-hour visit to the site of the massacre.

Without any plans for where he would stay, he ventured to Florida to pray with

hurting people of the Orlando community. Campbell said he saw a “functional shock” in people, similar to what he witnessed after the earthquake that rocked Haiti in 2010.

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PR I N C E T O N | On Campus

Integrity in Action

LOVE AND FIDELIT Y NET WORK HOS TS SUMMER LE ADERSHIP SEMINAR

By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer

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tudents who participated in an intensive summer seminar from the Love and Fidelity Network received a crash course on some of the practical and spiritual impacts of the dynamics shaping modern relationships.

In a session probing some of the cultural values underpinning the contemporary dating scene,

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As for Regnerus, the Texas researcher and author is widely known for his work examining data from the adult children of parents with same-sex relationships. An upcoming book will examine the behaviors and motivations of men and women in the modern dating culture, especially when considered through the lens of economics.

The biggest shift in the United States occurred with the introduction of oral contraceptives in the early 1960s.

“Arguably, the invention of the pill may be the single most important force that has changed social relations in the past 100 years,” Regnerus said.

In earlier chapters of American history, couples University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus was one of the contemplated serious comspeakers at a Love and Fidelity Network conference in June. mitment for most sexual acts because of the associated risks one expert cautioned students that of unintended pregnancies. “The pill deception abounds. “Men initiate threw the mating market into disarsex more, but it’s less connected to ray,” Regnerus told students during romance,” said Mark Regnerus, a his appearance in Princeton.

With the removal of many of University of Texas sociologist who delivered a lecture entitled The State practical and social motivations for of Science on Gender, Sexuality, and commitment as a prerequisite for sexuality – including the binding, Family Flourishing.

This year, some 25 students and contractual nature of marriage – five alumni mentors participated came a pronounced devaluation of in the Love and Fidelity Network’s the exclusive nature of sexual unions.

With that, comes tangible chalfourth-annual Integrity in Action leadership seminar from June 8 to lenges for modern women. “The 12 at Princeton University. The stu- real accomplishment is to ‘gatedents hailed from 19 universities, keep’ yourself toward a real, bona including Brown, Harvard, and fide relationship,” Regnerus said.

As such, Regnerus cautioned that Princeton.

individuals who engage in casual liaisons cheapen the overall social status of sexual activity. When viewed as a matter of economics, “sex is not entirely a private matter between a couple,” because the market forces of supply and demand enter into the dating scene, Regnerus said.

“You might think this is a private matter,” he said. “It is a public matter. People figure out what is expected of them. Men and women are always looking around, listening to friends and trying to discern what is normal. People track toward what is normal.”

Still, women do possess the collective power to restore exclusivity and worth to sexuality. “In the background, women are the ones with the power. They cannot just wield it individually... There is power in numbers,” said Regnerus.

The sociologist encouraged women to consider their collective ability to restore sacredness to sexuality. “Love makes a huge difference,” he said.

“Love is a gift of self. Sex is an expression of love and the gift of sex.”

Also during Love and Fidelity’s 2016 seminar, the newest crop of student leaders appreciated the input they received from political philosopher Ryan Anderson, Princeton ’04, and Sherif Girgis, Princeton ’08, as the pair advocated for traditional marriage during separate sessions.

Anderson co-authored What Is Marriage? Man and Woman: A Defense, along with Princeton University Professor Robert George, Harvard

Theology ’81, Law ’81, and Girgis, a doctoral candidate at Princeton and law student at Yale University.

“We were amazed at the level of student engagement this year,” said Brittany Crippen, Love and Fidelity Network’s director of outreach and communications. “It was such an encouragement to see that the next generation of leaders is more invested than ever in addressing our nation’s marriage crisis – not just the definition of marriage, but [also] on forming lasting relationships built on the foundation of genuine friendships.”

In 2008, Love and Fidelity began hosting its annual Sexuality, In-

tegrity and the University weekend conference in November on Princeton’s campus. Founder and Senior Adviser Cassandra Hough, Princeton ’07, launched the Anscombe Society (blogs.princeton.edu/Anscombe) to promote chastity and family values at Princeton in 2005.

More recently, the organization designed the Integrity in Action seminars to equip student leaders with the most up-to-date arguments in support of traditional marriage, family issues, and sexual integrity.

“We began the in-depth training program in 2013 because we saw the need to bring together the ris-

ing leaders of each Love and Fidelity Network campus chapter,” Crippen said. “They could see what we already knew—that they weren’t alone in their hopes to change campus culture, but part of a wider movement of young people proactively challenging the sexual revolution ideology on university campuses.”

Overall, Love and Fidelity organizers received a wave of positive reviews for their latest seminar. “Students left more determined to make a positive difference on their campuses, motivated by an authentic concern for the happiness and well-being of their peers,” Crippen said. | cu

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PR I N C E T O N | On Campus

A Heart for Social Service

PAY T O N ’ 17 AWA R D E D T R U M A N S C H O L A R S H I P

By Catherine Elvy, Staff Writer

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whole church is to care for widows and orphans. The challenge is to care for the oppressed.”

At Princeton, Payton is no stranger to causes that reflect her faith and passion for racial equality. In addition to being president of Princeton’s gospel choir, Payton has participated in extensive campus and service opportunities. As well, she was a vice president of the Black Student Union and a founding member of the Black Justice League.

Not surprisingly, the gospel choir ranks as one of Payton’s most cherished activities. “I’ve really, really caught the vision of bringing the message of Jesus to our campus and community,” Payton said.

The student-directed group performs a repertoire of high-energy spirituals, hymns, contemporary

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paired by social systems.

This year, the Truman Scholarship Foundation recognized 54 students out of 775 candidates nationwide for their exceptional leadership potential and as well as a commitment to service in government, nonprofit or advocacy sectors, education, or elsewhere in public service.

Payton plans to use her scholarship to earn a graduate degree in social work with a focus on social service administration from the University of Chicago. The Detroit native also is pursuing certificates in African American studies, American studies, and Spanish language and culture at Princeton.

“I just want to make an impact,” said Payton. “The challenge for the larger body of Christ is not to sit on the sidelines. The challenge for the

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Princeton University upperclassman plans to reflect her twin passions for justice and her Christian faith while pursuing a career in social services.

In April, Briana Payton ’17 was one of two Princeton students awarded a Truman Scholarship, which will provide $30,000 toward graduate school and professional development programs to train for public service endeavors.

“Everything I care about is because God has put it on my heart,” said Payton, who also is active in Princeton’s Christian community and serves as president of Princeton University Gospel Ensemble.

Payton, a sociology major, envisions herself working on behalf of low-income, minority communities, especially ones where access to education and advancement is im-

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gospel, and a cappella music.

As president, Payton has introduced new activities aimed at recruiting freshmen, including karaoke and pizza parties. As well, the choir performed inside East Pyne Hall’s iconic arch during the 2016 Communiversity ArtsFest, and the ensemble held a joint concert with Kindred Spirit, a Christian a cappella group on campus.

“It was a huge statement about unity,” Payton said.

Colleagues say they are inspired by Payton’s tangible faith and commitment to virtually boundless service.

“She was raised in a Christian family, but her sense of God’s goodness and working out ‘all things together for her good’ has very much deepened,” said roommate Kate Gardner ’16.

Arianna Brown ’18 echoed those comments. “She is really the epitome of what it means to walk with God and serve others,” Brown said.

“I remember hearing about her and her faith before even getting to campus. It was pretty well-known that she was going to love and mentor all the Christian freshmen that entered Princeton.”

Also during her time at Princeton, Payton has advocated for a series of issues impacting the African-American community on campus and beyond, roles that have permitted interaction with university administrators. Among her myriad efforts, Payton served on Princeton’s CPUC Special Task Force on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Likewise, during her freshman year, Payton’s name appeared in national media outlets after she followed the lead of the undergraduates who created a Tumblr blog called I Too, Am Harvard. From

that platform, they shared their experiences about attending Harvard University as students of the African diaspora.

In association with the Black Student Union, the Princeton campaign featured photographs of 50plus students, posed near historical

During the spring, Briana Payton, Princeton ’17, won a Truman Scholarship, which will provide $30,000 toward graduate school to help the Michigan native train for a career in public service.

campus backdrops, while holding whiteboards with handwritten messages reflecting their encounters with racism at Princeton.

Also during her freshman year, TIME.com printed Payton’s poignant response to The Princeton Tory opinion piece entitled “Checking My Privilege: Character as the Basis of Privilege.”

At the heart of her activism, Payton notes she has a “huge passion for the black community and the Christian community. I want to carry out God’s vision.”

With such fervor fueling her priorities, service is central to Payton’s professional aspirations. She is seeking to explore ways “social systems work can be changed for a more

just and equitable outcome.”

Before entering graduate studies, Payton plans to seek hands-on experience via a nonprofit organization.

In 2014, Payton spent her summer working with Umoja Student Development Corporation through the Princeton Internships in Civic Service program. The Chicago entity provides youth with resources to help them access higher education opportunities and develop skills for academic and personal achievement.

Long range, Payton wants to create networks and programs for youth development and empowerment, especially to benefit those from urban school districts.

“I know God has a plan for my life,” she said. “I want to be an advocate for justice and ambassador for Christ.” | cu

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Callahan ’13 Will Run for Belgium Princeton University alumnus and All-American runner Peter Callahan ’13 has secured approval to compete for Belgium, his mother’s homeland, in the summer Olympics in Rio de Janerio, according to FloTrack.org.

While at Princeton, the four-time NCAA All-American anchored the winning distancemedley-relay team at the 2013 NCAA Indoor Championships.

Callahan was captain of the track team during his senior year. He was also very active with Christian Union and served as convener of the Episcopal Church during his sophomore year.

YA L E | On Campus

A Major Life Correction E X- O F F E N D E R R E C E I V E S M A S T E R O F D I V I N I T Y D E G R E E

By Eileen Scott, Senior Writer

M

ingled among the graduates from Yale Divinity School this spring were diverse stories of challenges, dreams, and accomplishments. But one stood out among the others— the testimony of a former felon who learned about life, redemption, and education behind bars at one of the nation’s more famous prisons.

While serving a fourteen-year sentence at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, New York, George Chochos turned to the Lord and his desperation turned into aspiration. In a first-person account on the Yale Web site, Chochos recently shared his story. The once self-described “societal outcast” who earned a Master of Divinity degree in May now seeks to transform lives and give back to society.

Chochos recalled peering through the window of his jail cell and seeing the majesty and eternal flow of the Hudson River.

“These bars motivated me to not

so in a way in which I would become an asset and not a liability to my community,” he wrote.

Through the Bard Prison Initiative and New York Theological Seminary’s Master of Professional Studies program, Chochos was offered “extraordinary educational opportunities” and earned two undergraduate degrees before attending Yale Divinity School (YDS).

“I came to Yale with a deep sense of calling that I was being afforded an opportunity that would not just change my life, but could help to shape the public discourse on higher education in prison and perhaps even change the national discourse on prison and criminal justice reform,” he wrote.

“I could never have imagined that an educational journey that began in a prison cell could lead to a place like Yale.”

Chochos hopes to foster discussions on criminal justice reform that

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are focused on restoration rather than retribution, so “prisons would no longer be human warehouses of despair, but places of transformation and hope.”

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just reflect on my life in ways that produced sorrow and remorse, but also to actively seek ways to change my life, so that, if given the opportunity to re-enter society, I could do

While at YDS, Chochos served in various organizations and programs. He worked with the children of incarcerated parents, sought the reduction of gun violence in local urban areas, and spoke about criminal justice reform on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. “Most importantly, I have been able to reconnect with my son after 18 years,” he said.

And now, he seeks to encourage other people who have lost their way. Chochos will attend the Master of Sacred Theology program at YDS. His goal is to serve communities ensnared by crime and to teach at college-in-prison programs. He is also pursuing service with a local church.

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Chochos hopes to foster discussions on criminal justice reform that are focused on restoration rather than retribution, so “prisons would no longer be human warehouses of despair, but places of transformation and hope.”

Yale Divinity School alumnus George Chochos is seeking to serve communities ensnared by crime and teach at college-inprison programs.

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“At graduation, I received a card from men on the inside offering congratulations and indicating that I inspired hope that people can reach for their dreams, no matter

how big, no matter how seemingly impossible,” he said. “This is what a Yale degree means to me. This is what someone ‘like me’ being in one of the greatest educational

institutions in the world means— that I can instill hope and motivate people on the margins of society to dream and aspire to greatness.” | cu

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YA L E | On Campus

Faith, Reason, Philosophy, & the Academy

P R O C T O R L E AV E S A D Y N A M I C L E G A C Y AT YA L E

By Luke Foster, Columbia ’15

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s Ryan Proctor ’16 leaves Yale for Harvard Law School with both master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Classics—and a fiancée—he looks back on how he grappled with the relationship between faith and reason, and prompted others to do the same, both at the personal and public levels.

While he never joined a campus ministry, he was consistently involved in a New Haven local church, St. Mary’s, and helped to lead a weekly prayer meeting throughout his four years. He served as president of Choose Life at Yale, chairman of the Conservative Party, and speaker of the Yale

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tian leadership in the academy.

“Having been so close to my teachers in high school, one of the oddest things about coming to Yale was that professors didn’t know me outside of class,” he said.

That was not the case at his Catholic high school, Holy Spirit Preparatory, in Atlanta, Georgia.

“I was raised nominally Catholic —we didn’t discuss religion at home, or even pray together. But my mother wanted me to have a Catholic education. At Holy Spirit, I had good teachers, believers, who really put a lot of time into me.”

The example of those men moved

Proctor served as president of Choose Life at Yale, chairman of the Conservative Party, and speaker of the Yale Political Union... He came to see every position as a chance to display Christian leadership in the academy.

Political Union—the latter two groups dedicated to parliamentary debate on questions of political philosophy.

Proctor came to see every position as a chance to display Chris-

him to dedicate himself to following Christ.

He arrived at Yale looking for guidance, with a sense of “entering enemy territory,” and was glad to find Christian upperclassmen will-

ing to mentor him. When he was in a position to pay that forward to younger students, he found it both natural and “exhilarating” to do so, always connecting the abstract ideas he studied and talked about to the practicalities of living a good life as a Yale student. As chairman, he nudged the Conservative Party to debate theological resolutions like “Sex Is Sacred” and “Man Needs Religion.” He calls having seen friends convert to Christianity his “proudest accomplishment at Yale.”

When asked about his career plans, Proctor underlines the importance of family to his sense of calling. “As a culture, we’re so careerist now,” he argues, “but work isn’t an appropriate subject of transcendent longings. The most exciting and best thing I can do is to become a husband and father.”

Nevertheless, after marrying and completing Harvard Law, he plans to practice law “to advocate for the Christian faith where it’s misunderstood and under assault.” He sees his experiences at Yale as preparation for witnessing to Gospel truth before a secular culture. “We have a secularizing tendency to try to separate morality from faith to make

it acceptable to a wider audience, but when somebody confronts you about a Christian moral teaching, don’t be afraid to own it; and make sure the person understands how

the teaching fits into the whole picture of the Gospel story.”

Proctor is determined to convey that his disagreements with the broader secular culture are not

merely idiosyncratic, irrational preferences, but are radical, loving loyalties to a completely different vision of what is right and true. | cu

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Metaxas ’84 Writes about Liberty If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty, by Eric Metaxas (Yale ’84), is described as part history and part manifesto, a critical analysis of our founding fathers’ original intentions for America.

In his latest book, Metaxas, a New York Times best-selling author, explains that America is not a nation bounded by ethnic identity or geography, but rather by a

radical and unprecedented idea, based on liberty and freedom for all. He cautions that it’s nearly past time we reconnect to that idea, or we may lose the very foundation of what made us exceptional in the first place.

Gender Neutral Maps Like many institutions and businesses across the country, Yale University is following suit in response to a movement by special interest groups and the federal

government to make all bathrooms “gender-neutral.” Yale welcomed guests to its commencement ceremonies with a new map of “all-gender” restrooms on the commencement Web site.

Yale Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean, Tamar Gendler, told the Associated Press that “Yale aims to be a leader in the gender-neutral bathroom project.

Putting the map at the top of the university’s commencement site is an act of signaling Yale’s commitment to the project.”

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A student takes a break at Yale University

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pa rt ing shot

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The University of Pennsylvania

|| Photography by Phil Anema

Thank you!

Through your generous giving, Christian leaders are being developed to change culture.

lass of 2017

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h nooga, Tennessee y (minor) in Englis ar nd e co se a Hometown: Chatta ith w n n; Harvard-Radcliff Religio tio of Ac y d ud an St e ith tiv Fa ra ge pa Major: Com Harvard Colle wship ity Track and Field; rs Va : es iti tiv ; Black Men’s Fello Ac d) s or W n Campu ke po (S Agnostics ip; Speak Out Loud anists, Atheists, and um H Christian Fellowsh of ity un m ite Creator of vard Com

d the Har g the infin t comes from servin the team that debate en of rt llm tural pa lfi s fu wa ed I , gu ar ar ye I “ This ting effect on the na out God? las th a s wi l ha fu do ng ni we ea at M wh Be void of God, I upon our lives if to address Can Life ngful in a universe de n only be imparted ni ca ea ” m ng is ni e ea lif lt “m ; fe s rse nt g that happened ne the Unive sts over, and nothin hile my debate oppo fro W . rld se er wo iv e un th t, al ur ou s at Christian burn and supern less. In contrast, the , the sun eventually ng ew ni vi ea rld m is wo e lif eir th n, in tio ica ne there to noted that, g meaning. By impl team wanted everyo tin te las ba y de y an d M l. ha fu ve ng ha on earth will e, is hugely meani eir life. at life, everyone’s lif th rts se as ew er the purpose of th vi ov sc rld di wo n ca ey th so Jesus Christ e helping know the Gospel of rd, I spend a lot of tim ed va ar H at ry ist in m is debate allow Christian Union’s tions for our lives. Th urse leader through ica pl co e im bl ess and its Bi d nt an ta , sis ity as As an od, and the forgiven of Christian G y lit er id na ns tio co ra e to th t , en re , and I am eterand invite all pres peers explore Scriptu ist in my senior year Christianity widely hr of C s g in im rv cla se e to th t d ar en es forw vard Square.” me to pr ith, and love in Har h Jesus Christ. I look fa , ug ds ro en th s fri er d off fin e e H m acceptance s done to help Christian Union ha nally grateful for all

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