by J. Terence Morrison

What great changes I have seen in my 50 years “hanging around” the university. Fifty plus years ago I sensed God calling me to serve him in the university world while an undergraduate, so off to graduate school and the professoriate. Then, after fruitful years of ministry in that world as a professor God shifted my profession to “professional” ministry as a member of InterVarsity staff. Student, professor, InterVarsity staff, with students and professors, always working to help disciples of Jesus to be better followers of Him. And always watching!

From my entry into the university in 1954 to today, the percentage of 18-25 year olds in higher ed has essentially quadrupled. I’ve seen teachers’ colleges become universities, the number of institutions of higher education expanded in every state and millions and millions of dollars poured into higher education, first in the sciences and now in athletics. The changes in the world of higher education within my time are astounding. What about the changes in the Christian professoriate in this period?

The challenges and barriers to the flourishing of Christian faculty have grown over these years. I have seen some saddening changes in the nature and behavior of too many Christian professors in those 50 years. While the good news is that there are so many professing Christians now in faculty roles, the bad news is that they seem to have so little impact. “You mean to tell me that Professor X is actually a Christian?” How often I’ve heard students and fellow faculty express this amazement, both believers and unbelievers. Why might this be happening?

Challenges Facing Christian Faculty

One explanation is “pressure”. I’ve heard expressions of the sense of pressure from faculty at mostly teaching colleges as well as faculty in R-1 universities. One engineering professor expressed himself by shaking his head and saying, in the last 20 years the sense of pressure he feels personally has multiplied many times.

Another thing I’ve noted amongst Christian faculty was expressed by one Agricultural Economics professor, “From Monday to Saturday I put on my university hat. On Sunday I switch to my church hat and on Sunday night I switch back to the university hat.” I call this the “divided mind”. There’s a dichotomy between the values, aspirations, life style, commitments expressed under the church hat from those expressed under the university hat and many are unaware that they live two fairly separate lives.

The third thing that I have found to be a saddening insight to too many Christian faculty today is that, as one expressed it, “I have an elementary school level of biblical, theological awareness and an advanced, post doc understanding of my discipline”. That is, while growing intellectually in his work commitment to the university, he self-confessedly has grown very little in his understanding of God’s revelation and how the Church is working it out all these years.

Flourishing Faculty

But I’m happy to say that some stand out as being different from this disheartening experience. They seem to be flourishing in every dimension of their lives as faculty women and men. Amongst senior faculty, I think of Frank, Frances and Fritz, Ken, Mary Lou, Patricia; all of them successful in their field. I could name a number of others. I’ve seen their colleagues look at them with respect, shake their heads, and say, “Oh yes. They are serious Christians.” I’ve heard stories of their self-giving to undergraduate Christians, of their courageous stand against what they saw as some ungodly directions in the university, of their quite unashamed acknowledgement to colleagues and students that they believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior and accept the Bible as God’s Truth. Amongst Assistant Professors, I think of two I met some years ago, one at MIT and one at Cornell. Without any collusion, they said almost the same thing. They had, in discussion with their wives, come to the conclusion that it needed X hours of week to have a living walk with God, y hours to have a healthy family and if tenure didn’t come with the remaining hours of the week given wholeheartedly to their work, then too bad for tenure; they would move onto something else. In God’s grace, both of these men went on to significant tenured positions in the university world but they had counted the cost and decided what was important; that is, the Lordship of Christ and obeying His word.

Amongst faculty at non-research oriented universities, I think of Chuck and Barb, Mike, Ed, a group that calls itself “Café” at another university. All of these are pressured to publish. All of them pressured to be on committees. All of them pressured to teach new classes, take larger class loads, etc. etc. Yet known by their colleagues, unbelievers and believers, as committed Christians, as servants to the university, as fun to be with, known to the students as people who care and will serve them.

The Elements of Flourishing

What makes these men and women different? First, I would say, they all have a sense of calling. God has given them a desire and capability and made arrangements, “circumstances,” to put them where they are and they believe they have a responsibility to be stewards of the call God has given them. You can find this sense of calling to a non-professional clergy ministry in the story of Bezalel and Oholiab in Exodus 31:1-6. God gifted them and gave them to Israel to build a beautiful and functional tabernacle where he could meet with his people. Paul underscores this in Colossians 3:23-24 and Philippians 2:12 & 13. In the first passage Paul says to serve the Lord with everything you have. He is your master, your employer, the one whose approval is essential. In the latter passage he says we’re to work out our salvation; that is, all of the calling that Jesus has given us, with all of our might, we’re to work that way while totally depending on God to work that desire, that will and that accomplishment in us.

Beyond this foundational sense of calling, here is a list of characteristics I can abstract from my reflections on Christian faculty who are flourishing in the contemporary world of the academy:

1. Love for God leads to committed discipleship.
2. They are aware of their gifting and they have a desire to serve God with all of their gifts; at home, at the workplace, at church.
3. They are all part of supportive communities, both local, church and particularly fellowships of various sizes, on the campus and in their professional world (groups of Christians gathered together at annual meetings to encourage one another).
4. They are all initiative takers. They take initiative with students, they take initiative to do ministry together, to develop mutual encouragement with other Christian faculty and in the university to work for good, but they are all patient as they see these initiatives work out.
5. I find them all to be good stewards of time, strong in self-discipline. They have decided what things are important to invest in and what things they have to let go. And they stick with, and periodically, re-evaluate their stewardship.
6. They all seem to me to have a hunger to know, to understand, to order, which you could say flows out of the Creation Mandate in Genesis 1 where God has said to Adam and Eve and all of us, “This is my world, take care of it and make it flourish.” Perhaps one could add that they work at Phil. 4:8, disciplining themselves to, “think on these things, i.e. the things that are excellent.”
7. I find that they pray about their work, that the Holy Spirit will fill them and lead them. They tend to be students of Scripture, committed to the Body of Christ in all its manifestations.

So, 50 years of being around University has shown me that there seems to be two classes of Christians on the faculty: those who make me sad, those who make me glad. The former seem not to have understood what it means to be a follower of Christ, to be called to be salt and light in this world, to be stewards of all God’s creation. The latter seem to have grasped this and in joyful discipleship committed themselves to the hard, yet immensely rewarding task of living for Jesus as professors in today’s university.

Where do you place yourself? Which group do you fall in? InterVarsity Faculty Ministry exists for the sole purpose of helping you to be in the good stewardship group, not in the divided mind category.

Terry Morrison is Director Emeritus of Faculty Ministry. Prior to joining InterVarsity, Terry was a professor of chemistry at Butler University. If you are interested in learning more, Terry will be leading a workshop entitled “How to Flourish in the University” at Flourishing in the Academy, the national gathering of the Emerging Scholars Network at Following Christ 2008.