FEBA Forever!

As we read in my blog from awhile back, Daniel and his friends were forcibly marched about 800 miles from Jerusalem to Bablyon in about 605 BC to start a three year program of study prior to entering the job market as employees of the royal family. He was caught on the horns of a dilemma; should he cave into the pressures of the system or curl up in a fetal position and die? He didn’t want to abandon his faith and dive headlong into the Babylonian religion and culture, but the only alternative appeared to be a miserable death or perhaps isolation in some filthy refugee camp.

 

Daniel’s choice is not that different from the dilemma facing every Christian university student. We understand that “friendship with the world is enmity toward God” (James 4) and that we are to “love not the world” (1 John). We also know that we are “in the world but not of the world” (John 17) and that we are to live as “strangers in the world” (1 Peter 1). We know that “the world hates you” because “you do not belong to the world” (John 15). Furthermore, Jesus prays for his disciples in John 17 “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but that you keep them safe from the evil one.”

 

So how do we live in America? The pressure of our culture is enormous. Materialism, power, sex, ego, career, and other “carrots” are all clamoring for attention. But the ‘withdraw into a Christian ghetto’ approach is nearly as deadly as succumbing to the temptations that surround us. The Christian ghetto rejects Jesus’ command to “GO” to all the nations, and treats the living-dead sin-slaves all around us as enemies instead of captives to be pitied and freed. The ghetto approach of separation into “safe” institutions is as futile as Jerusalem’s attempt to withstand the seiges of Nebuchadnezzar. The Babylonian empire was in total control of the known world at the time, and the walls of Jerusalem would not keep them out. Similarly, there is no church that will protect us or our children from the influences of the world system (kosmos). Most youth abandon their faith (read Barna’s research), and although I can’t prove I believe that the “protected” youth are most at risk. The minute they grow up and step outside the confines of censorship land (e.g., the home and Sunday school room), a naïve Christian boy or girl is woefully unprepared to withstand the onslaught of our adversary and the world system he controls. Withdrawal is futile.

 

I would like to discuss the third option that Daniel took. He responded with honor and courage. Honor means living in the world as an upstanding citizen, respecting authority, working hard at our studies and careers, and treating everyone around us with dignity and respect. However, this has to be combined with courage—the determination to stand up to evil and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ even when it’s scary to do so.

 

Honor

 

Daniel treated everyone with honor. He followed the chain of command, he didn’t lie/cheat/steal, and he never took advantage of his position to back-stab his captors. He probably could have taken revenge when no one was watching. He earned the respect of three kings (Nebuchadnezzar, Belteshazzar, and Darius), despite the fact that he was a slave his entire life. He was aware of the letter Jeremiah sent to the captives in Babylon, which had been dictated to Jeremiah by God.

The prophet Jeremiah sent a letter to the exiles Nebuchadnezzar had carried off from Jerusalem to Babylon…the letter said: “The Lord God of Israel who rules over all says to all those he sent into exile to Babylon from Jerusalem ‘Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and allow your daughters to get married so that they too can have sons and daughters. Grow in number; do not dwindle away. Work to see that the city where I sent you as exiles enjoys peace and prosperity. Pray to the Lord for it. For as it prospers you will prosper.’” (Jeremiah 29:1-7)

This letter continues and makes other points, but what is astonishing to me about this letter is that God did not want the captives to rebel, to give up and die, or to complain and gripe about living in Babylon! Rather, he wants them to keep on living their lives, to work hard, and to support the country where they live! I think that somehow Daniel understood that God’s plan had always been for Israel to be a “light to the Nations” (Isaiah) and that “all the people of the earth will be blessed” through Abraham’s descendent (the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 12). So far from commanding or condoning hatred and rebellion toward a Godless world, Daniel and company were asked to play along enthusiastically. God wants us to treat the powers of this fallen kosmos with honor. Daniel’s plan from the beginning of his 800 mile death march was to show his captors the love of God, because God loves everyone—even evil people. And Daniel’s love made a huge difference—Nebuchadnezzar eventually converted and Darius supported Nehemiah’s return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city walls.

 

We see the same thing in 1 Peter 2:11-17—“Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of the foolish. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a coverup for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love your fellow believers, fear God, honor the emperor.”

 

So God clearly wants us to live in this world, to work hard, to show people respect, and to honor authority. This means you should do your homework, don’t cheat in class, make plenty of widgets at your job, etc. My dad says “the Christian farmers’ wheat should grow just as high as any that of any other farmer.”

 

But there is a danger that people will misinterpret this to mean that they can make a truce with the devil and live at peace in the world. We are at war, and there is not going to be peace. Daniel knew he was a slave and not a free man, or he would probably have packed his bags for a return trip to Jerusalem! This is where courage comes in.

 

Courage

 

My other blog describes how Daniel took serious risks to remain undefiled by the King’s food. Over and over in Daniel we read how Daniel and company would not compromise when it came to their faith. Thrown in the lions den, cast into the fiery furnace, whatever—they weren’t going to compromise. They believed that God would save them, or that it would be worth it to die instead of compromise.

 

This reminds me of a song in Les Miserables by Enjolras:

            “It is time for us all to decide who we are. Do we fight for the right to a night at the opera now? Have you asked of yourselves what’s the price you might pay? Is it simply a game for rich young boys to play? The color of the world is changing day by day…” (The ABC Café—Red and Black).

 

The context is different but the tone is the same. Enjolras and company were going to defy the government of France by building a barricade in the streets. They had a meeting in the Café to decide…are we willing to die for this cause? Nearly all of them did die on that barricade. How sad—there was not a dry eye in the Palace Theatre in London on the night I saw Les Miserables.

 

But our cause makes theirs look trite and foolish. I am reminded of an address by C.S. Lewis in 1939 to a group of new students at Oxford entitled “Learning in War-Time.” There they sat, eager nervous frosh at Oxford about to embark on a program of study during WWII. It might have seemed to them odd to go to school during a war, but C.S. Lewis made the point that the war is trival compared to the real war we all face. Lewis asks are we “fiddling while Rome burns?” No, rather we “fiddle on the brink of hell.” He explains further “how is it right, or even psychologically possible, for creatures who are every moment advancing either to heaven or to hell, to spend any fraction of the little time allowed them in this world on such comparative trivialities as literature or art, mathematics or biology?”

 

His point is that WWII did not present a new situation, and neither did Daniel’s captivity in Babylon, nor our life in 21^st century America. We are not to withdraw from culture and hide in caves just because things are going badly. Our duty is to rescue the lost in our fallen world, and withdrawing into some super-spiritual exclusively religious existence is wrong. It is very tempting to survey the darkness around us and start thinking our “present predicament more abnormal than it really is.” According to Lewis “War threatens us with death and pain” but “there is no question of death or life for any of us; only a question of this death or of that—of a machine gun bullet now or a cancer forty years later. What does war do to death? It certainly does not make it more frequent; 100 per cent of us die, and the percentage cannot be increased. It puts several deaths earlier; but I hardly suppose that that is what we fear. Certainly when the moment comes, it will make little difference how many years we have behind us.”

 

Perhaps this is how Daniel felt. His life in Bablyon hung by a thread, but his life with God was eternal and secure. What did it matter if he were killed for refusing to defile himself? He had the courage of a man living in God’s kingdom, already dead to this world.

 

And so we will live like Daniel. We arrive at Kent and Akron this fall to launch a Campus Bible Study. We know that the University hates us because we are Christians (see my other blog “what we are facing”). We will lives characterized by honor—respecting authority, doing our work, and participating in life in the University. We will also courageous lives; like strangers and foreigners in the world, already dead to the world and whatever defilements it offers. This means we will not become entangled in ordinary affairs to the exclusion of our mission—to win the world for Christ. There is little chance that we will actually be killed for our faith, but fear remains a great enemy of boldness. So let us recall the words of Jesus “In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage–I have conquered the world.” (John 16:33b).

---

Additional Information

 

One of my favorite articles in psychology is entitled “Why I do not attend case conferences” by Paul Meehl (1973). In this humorous and sometimes biting essay, Paul Meehl explains the apparent discrepancy noted by his students that, despite decades of continuous clinical practice, he almost never attends case conferences in which students are required to present and discuss their clinical cases. His answer is that the intellectual level is so low that he cannot bear to attend, and he then ennumerates a list of offenses such as the idea that all evidence is equally good, the tendency to reward every student for even the lamest efforts, and other types of generally unscientific thinking.

 

The article is provocative and intentially offered as a polemic. Meehl is funny. For example, he offers “Uncle George’s pancakes fallacy…a patient does not like to throw away leftover pancakes and he stores them in the attic. A mitigating clinician says, ‘Why, there is nothing so terrible about that—I remember good ole Uncle George from my childhood, he used to store uneaten pancakes in the attic.’ The proper conclusion from such a personal recollection is, of course, not that the patient is mentally well but that good ole Uncle George—whatever may have been his other delightful qualities—was mentally aberrated” (p. 239). However, Meehl is not simply writing a humor column. He has a number of points to make, because he does care about the competent practice of psychology.

 

His points are not interesting here, but I am writing in the same spirit as Meehl to explain my paradox. I consider myself a fairly zealous Christian, but I do not attend Christian Faculty Conferences. I have a long history of trying to become a Christian professor in the secular university. After 5 years on the faculty, as I prepare for my tenure review, I have been reflecting on what I’ve done to get here and attempt to establish myself as a missionary to the campus.

 

I felt called to minister in the secular university before I finished high school, although I could not have articulated any coherent reason at the time. I chose to be educated at a Christian University (Biola University), so that I could learn to articulate and defend my Christian worldview. This is where my quest to obtain a position on the faculty of a secular university began. I have not wavered from this mission, and during my graduate education at Colorado University, Colorado Springs and The Ohio State University I remained active in my local church and tried to become equipped as a Christian worker. At Ohio State I tracked down the very helpful and kindly director of the Faculty ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. I have read (among others) J.P. Moreland, Dallas Willard, and William Lane Craig, and I have heard them all speak in person and via mp3 from various internet resources. I am acutely aware of the decline of Christianity in the University. For a real-life example, the director of Campus Crusade at Kent and I searched for Christian faculty and staff to start a prayer meeting. We found only about 6 people who were clearly Christians among the nearly 900 tenure-track faculty. So far as I can tell, they are doing very little to advance the cause of Christ in the University. I have continued to work in my local church, and now help to lead a home church and men’s bible study (comprised of mostly post-college twentysomethings with no children). I am a deacon in my church, an ordained minister in the state of Ohio, have performed several weddings for members of my home church, and am a trustee of my church. In addition to being in the teaching rotation for church and bible studies, I have preached in the main church service on several occaisions.

 

I consider myself a tent-maker missionary to the secular University. I invite graduate students and undergraduate students to my church, my home church, and outreach events sponsored by my home church. I share the gospel in my office with unsaved students. My efforts have not been fruitless, as a several students (and non-students) have received Christ during the course of my ministry efforts. Some become incorporated into my local fellowship and are discipled. Some leave Ohio when their education is finished. Others attend other churches, but continue to speak with me regarding spiritual matters. Together we plan coordinated outreach efforts targeting faculty and students whom we long to see receive Christ. I have not yet succeeded in building a home church of actual college students from my university, but I am working on it.

 

I have tried to work with local para-church missions organizations on campus such as Campus Crusade for Christ and Intervarsity Christian Fellowship (during a very brief attempt to plant a local chapter). I have referred undergraduates to their meetings, and I have attended these meetings to observe them. I meet with the local director of Campus Crusade periodically, and started a faculty/staff prayer meeting with the former director (discontinued when he left and was replaced). I have also become familiar with the faculty ministries of Campus Crusade (Christian Leadership Ministry) and Intervarsity Christian Fellowship (Intervarsity Faculty Ministry). I signed up to be a faculty mentor with Intervarsity’s “Emerging Scholars Network.” I have read Leadership University (http://www.leaderu.com/), have read the websites of Christian Leadership Ministries and Intervarsity’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries, and have downloaded ministry resources. When Campus Crusade sent some ambassadors from Indiana to meet with the faculty, I was one of the only Christian tenure-track professors to show up. When a Christian professor at another university hosted a back-to-school prayer breakfast, I’ve attended every year I was invited. When the new director of Campus Crusade showed up, I made a point of meeting with him as soon as his schedule would allow.

 

For all this, I have not attended a Christian Faculty conference or retreat. I will not be at “The Heart of the University” sponsored by Campus Crusade for Christ in Washington this year. I will not be at “Spiritual Formation and the Academic Life” sponsored by Intervarsity Faculty Ministry. How can this be? Why would I choose not to avail myself of these resources when I have diligently sought out so many others?

 

In a nutshell, I have come to the conclusion that Campus Crusade and Intervarsity Fellowship are barking up the wrong tree(s) in their faculty ministries. They do have some valuable resources online, but in terms of practical help and instruction/equipping, I think they have the wrong focus. Thus, their conferences are probably not that helpful. In fact, I think that the emphasis on conferences as a ministry tool is unfortunate. First of all, I don’t have money for conferences. Second, I would prefer practical help right where I am trying to minister. Third, conferences are a high intensity, low frequency approach to assisting faculty. High intensity—probably very inspiring, motivating, and stimulating. They are probably very exciting and emotionally rewarding. But low frequency—they are only once a year. Try sustaining a marriage on one fantastic vacation a year with minimal interaction in between! It doesn’t work. What is required is fairly frequent, but less emotionally intense, encouragement and support. The demands on faculty are so strong and compelling that one pep rally per year probably does not lead to sustainable ministry efforts that are hard work, every week of the year.

 

In all fairness, these conferences are perhaps very enlightening for the large group of Christian faculty who are doing nothing. In my experience, most Christian faculty are too enamored with the kosmos. Work in the secular university can be so enriching and/or grueling, and the academy has become so decadent/indulgent or hectic/draining that the temptation to give 100% for career is overwhelming. This has been a great struggle for me. The “carrot” of a chance to feather a very nice nest, combined with the “stick” of being fired for failing to receive tenure are powerful forces that compel most Christian faculty to put their job first. So the Christians in academics who are totally “asleep in the light” would probably benefit from a kick start of any kind—including a national conference.

 

However, these objections are minor compared to the three themes in Christian ministry among the faculty that concern me. They are: academic integration, spiritual disciplines, and kingdom theology applied to the university. Unfortunately, academic integration is overrated, spiritual disciplines are stupid, and recapturing the university for Christ is a fool’s errand. However, these are the three aspects of ministry that Campus Crusade and Intervarsity Christian Fellowship seem to emphasize for faculty. How sad, given that both of these para-church organizations appear to have solid missions strategies for reaching the undergraduates. If it were me, the only priority would be to involve faculty in the mission!

 

In my next blog (Part 2), I will try to explain my objections to academic integration, spiritual disciplines, and kingdom theology applied to the university.

---

Additional Information