• “4″ for Silent Generation
• “11″ for Baby Boomer
• “33″ for Gen X-er
• “73″ for Millenial

What’s your score? 

Anyone have comments on the quiz (and where you fall), the data found at Millennials: A Portrait of Generation Next, and/or how this material should be used by those in higher education?

PS.   For more check out Week in Review: Milliennials in Transition Edition.

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To give you a taste for the blog, below’s the first part of Francis Collins’ BioLoguration.  Check out the post and let me know what you would share with student at the beginning of their academic (possibly vocational) journey.

It happened again this week. I received an e-mail from a student at a major university who is in the midst of a profound personal crisis. Was this a financial problem? A failure in course work that threatens a lifelong career dream? A romantic breakup? No doubt there are plenty of those kinds of crises happening all over college campuses. But none of those accounted for her distress. Instead, my correspondent was having a wrenching crisis of worldviews, and her deepest foundations were being shaken.

She had been home-schooled by loving parents who were dedicated Christians, and who made sure that she learned the deep and profound principles of their faith. She made a personal commitment to that faith as a teenager, and her relationship with Christ was a central part of her life. She arrived at university fully aware that this secular environment might threaten her faith, but she quickly found other believers to share experiences with, and she learned to love the undergraduate experience.

That is, until she decided to major in biology. — BioLoguration by Francis Collins, 4/29/2009.

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Thanks to Andy Crouch’s 5 Questions post on to-do lists, I’ve had quite a few good conversations with friends and family on this topic. Two pastors of my local congregation have given some interesting feedback on the topic.  One quipped that he finds to-do lists helpful in his search for significance, i.e., when he crosses items off his list he feels like he’s accomplished something. He confesses to sometimes adding items to be crossed off … I’ve heard this from some other people ;-)  Another pastor noted the cultural rootedness of to-do lists:  

In our culture, almost everyone has multiple things to manage, most not by choice but by necessity in our complex, multi-faceted world – more than can conveniently be remembered.  Thus the need for external support mechanisms.

What are you thoughts? In what manner are to-do lists vital to the scholar. Does this vary from field to field and the level of one’s responsibility? What tools do you use to manage and prioritize items on to-do lists? Is this cultural artifact unique and/or over-used in the United States (or Western Civilization)?

Maybe this should be the topic for Chapter 2 of Up to the Minute Publishing ;-)

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St. Patrick

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through a confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

– A Poem by St. Patrick, ca 377 AD

PS.  Last week’s Graduate & Faculty Team Meetings were focused upon spiritual formation, check out Sabbath for Academics. Several times we reflected upon St. Patrick’s Breastplate.  I have found A Poem by St. Patrick, St. Patrick’s Breastplate (HT to Sursum Corda), and The Confession of St. Patrick to be choice pieces for Lenten prayer and meditation.

PPS.  Visit The Trinity in St. Patrick’s Breastplate for a quote from Alister McGrath in which he presents how the ancient Gaelic hymn St. Patrick’s Breastplate tutors worshipers in the important biblical doctrine of the Trinity.

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By contrast I look at Lent from the radical, relational lens of seeking God the Father – one shared by the people of God throughout the Biblical story — finding its fulfillment in Jesus the Christ through His inauguration of the Kingdom of God, death, resurrection, ascension to Lordship, the gifting of the daily redemptive Presence of God through the Holy Spirit (which dwells within the Body of Christ by the grace of God the Father and the Son). … and the New Heavens and the New Earth.  To God be the glory!  Forgive me, I’ve gotten a little carried away.  Lent ends in Holy Week where we focus upon the final days of Jesus the Christ’s earthly ministry and his death/resurrection.

Christine Sine in What Is Lent Anyway? defines Lent as

a time for “confrontation with the false self” (Thomas Keating) when we reflect on the responses and behaviours we exhibit that are least Christ like and seek God’s help in rededicating ourselves to God and God’s purposes. This is a time for self-denial and fasting when we give up some of the comforts of our lives in order to make ourselves more available to God.

If you practice Lent, please take a few minutes to share some reflections regarding the Lenten journey, how the lessons learned (and life lived) apply to campus life/vocation, and recommended resources (on-line and/or in print) for the blog’s readership. 

Interested in a glimpse from our family?  We have committed to Christine Sine‘s 2009 Lenten Guide: A Journey Into Wholeness.  Last night we considered What Is Lent Anyway? followed by watching and discussing the Reflection for Lent youtube video. Our nine year old twins particularly have interest in the Mutunga Challenge, i.e., each person in the family eating for under $2.00 a day for 1 week of Lent (and then carrying over this challenge into the rest life giving the difference of money spent to support the poor in Africa, the Caribbean and Guyana).  Any campus fellowship’s ready for the Mutunga Challenge?  Note:  recipes can be found in the 2009 Lenten Guide: A Journey Into Wholeness.

When tucking the twins into bed, we explored Psalm 51 and purpose of the Ash Wednesday Cross based upon The Lenten Tree: Devotions for Children & Adults To Prepare for CHRIST’s DEATH and HIS RESURRECTION by Dean Lambert Smith.  One of my daughters noticed that the other book I had with me, i.e., Bread and Wine: Readings for Lent and Easter, had a similar cover to Watch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas — quite observant.  I commend all of these resources.  More coming over the course of the next 40+ days.   Note:  If you have interest in joining me on a Lenten Journey, possibly for the first time, let me know.

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1. Honoring God at Work
2. Human Flourishing

AND two audio files

1. Why Aren’t We Flourishing? — Opening Plenary by MaryKate Morse, Professor of Leadership and Spiritual Formation at George Fox University. Time: 35:00
2. Powerful Faith — Seminar presentation by Michael Lindsay, a sociologist at Rice University and the author of Faith in the Halls of Power. The seminar in which Michael Lindsay spoke was entitled Exploring Privilege and Redeeming Power. Time: 1:15:09

After you’ve reflected upon the presentations, take a moment to share some thoughts on fear, power, and faith in higher education.

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As you know, I’ve read and enjoyed a number of books in 2008 including Culture-Making: Recovering Our Creative Calling and The Last Lecture.  How about you?  In 2008, what 2-3 books were you not able to put down and/or find yourself talking/writing about?

PS.  Just forwarded a list of suggestions from Readers of The Bridge: Messiah College Magazine.

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Out of curiosity, I followed the link to the original post on the ACRLog (i.e., Association of College and Research Libraries: Blogging by and for academic and research librarians):  Information is Power – Even When it’s Wrong.  Then I took some time to ruminate over the piece, particularly the concern Sometimes aggregators are misleading. … Anyone have thoughts and/or tips on how to find, evaluate, share, and use on-line resources?

By-the-way, the last time I followed the Daily Report to the ACRLog, I read about the rise of the blog among academic and research librarians in What Happened To The Personal Web Site.  Next time I visit the ACRLog, I’m going to look to see whether someone wrote about the question of accessing material received from a blog (or how about a Facebook post) versus a personal web site, an organizational web site, or an on-line journal article.  Fascinating questions, maybe I should consider a degree in information science.

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In an academic setting like Calvin where Monday signifies not only the beginning of a new week but the onslaught of classes to teach, tests to take (or give) and general all-around busyness, is it really realistic to rest from your work on Sunday? Is it even biblically mandated for the New Testament church?

In his book, Catch Your Breath: God’s Invitation to Sabbath Rest, Don Postema points out that that “the hectic pace of contemporary life makes the idea and practice of sabbath rest enormously attractive.” Yet this same hectic pace also, on the other hand, makes it incredibly difficult to slow down, let alone cease from the normal concerns of everyday life. In light of these considerations, two key questions must be answered: Why should Christians observe the Sabbath and how?

Two other links which come to mind when I consider the topic are given below.  What resources, practices, and communities have you found helpful in Sabbath-keeping, particularly as a new term begins?

1. A Guided Sabbath, a resource written by Sarah MacDonald & Jay Sivits for Following Christ in 2002
2. Critical Junctures: The Spiritual Formation of Graduate Students and Young Faculty by Bob Trube.

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Young scientists making their research results open to the public, challenging the standard means of publishing results, and opening themselves up to criticism.

Out in the Open (Boston Globe) (HT: Culture Making)

Historically Black Colleges Producing More PhDs

After falling for several years, the number of PhD recipients produced by historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) is on the rise.

Who Produces Black Ph.D.’s? (Inside Higher Ed)

Teach Them to Challenge Authority

Inside Higher Ed speaks with Gregory S. Prince Jr., former president of Hampshire College and author of Teach Them to Challenge Authority: Educating for Healthy Societies. Prince argues that taking a “neutral stance” in the classroom is the wrong approach:

Faculty need to take positions so that students can learn how to challenge those in authority. How a faculty member takes a positions is what is critical. It is an art both to take positions and to create an atmosphere in which students will learn how to challenge those positions

Teach Them to Challenge Authority (Inside Higher Ed)

Get Reporters to Call You

If you are an expert on something (and if you have a PhD, then you most definitely are!), check out the website HelpAReporter.com. It is a free subscription service that connects journalists with expert sources. According to the home page, after you sign up, you will receive up to 3 emails a day, with 15 to 30 queries each, listing reporters who are looking for expert sources. Just don’t let all the publicity go to your head!

HelpAReport.com (HT: Seth Godin)

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