The Emerging Scholars Blog

What tips/ideas do you have for InterVarsity’s National Graduate & Faculty Ministry Staff Team Members in Using Social Media Appropriately and Effectively to Grow Communities?  Now’s your opportunity to give input.  I’m leading a seminar on the topic at our April Team Meetings.  Here’s some material I’m seeking to address:

1. How do we use social media appropriately to
   1. build community?  Note:  How does social media influence our/your definition of community or the various forms of community in which we find ourselves?  The seminar will take the direction of building local, face-to-face campus communities, but I’m also interested in the other forms of community, such one finds in the Emerging Scholars Network.
   2. invite others to engage with our community?
   3. engage others with ideas we are discussing in our communities?
2. What are some do’s and don’ts for healthy, appropriate and effective use of technology?
3. What’s available? What’s changing? How do we make decisions?
4. How do we make decisions about the use of technology when engaging with audiences of different generations in our ministry?  Note:  Please don’t skip.  Due to the overall conference theme, it has particular relevance.  :-)  Feel free to also share How you make decisions about the use of technology when engaging with audiences of different generations in higher education?

Calling out to the community/network for input. …

And if so, with whom did you watch it?

My family and I joined the rest of our Adult Bible Fellowship for our annual Souper Bowl Party. This has become a central tradition among our group of church friends: a Super Bowl watching party combined with a soup & chili cook-off. We have a few families in our group with houses large enough to host everyone comfortably, along with finished basements where the many, many kids can gather. We’re still waiting for Cincinnati’s turn, but our group includes a couple of Purdue grads who were very happy with this year’s outcome. At least it wasn’t the Steelers. :)

The Super Bowl is a powerful cultural liturgy in the United States, part of the “military-entertainment complex” that James K. A. Smith describes in Desiring the Kingdom. Here, he explicates the National Anthem ritual: Read the rest of this entry »

Students and Faculty at 2008 Faculty Ministry Symposium

The final chapter in George Marsden’s The Outrageous Idea of Academic Communities Christian Scholarship [Oops! - Ed.] proposes that even the most impressive work of individual Christian scholars is not enough; Christian scholarship needs “a strong institutional base.”

Scholars, like everyone else, depend on communities. If like-minded academics do not form their own sub-communities, then they will be dependent entirely on the communities that already exist. These, of course, have little place for inquiry concerning faith and learning. If such inquiry is to grow as a recognized part of contemporary academia, it must depend on institutions and networks which can sustain that enterprise. (101)

Before getting to Marsden’s ideas, let me throw out a few discussion question: Have you experienced or witnessed successful communities of Christian scholars? What have been the outcomes? On the hand, have you seen failed or stunted attempts to build communities among Christian scholars? What went wrong?

Recognizing that, for a variety of reasons, evangelical Christians have failed to create research universities that can compete with the best secular universities, and that, to put it mildly, “the obstacles are formidable” to creating such a university, Marsden suggests some other ideas for institutional support. Some of these are already established, while others are just beginning. Marsden’s ideas are after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week when Dr. Joe Kearns, MD, Emergency Medicine, presented on Keys of Thriving (Not Just Surviving!) in Medical School and Beyond at PSU-Hershey’s Christian Medical Society lunch lecture, I couldn’t help but think this has ESN written all over it. Below are a few main points which I culled/distilled from his presentation.  Let me know what you think of their relevance to your graduate school/professional experience.  Feel free to highlight, expand upon, or share a story in relationship to one or several points.

1. “Life is going to get better after…”  This is just not true.  Life doesn’t get any better after you finish your degree, it only changes.  Note:  it is particularly important to keep in mind the growing complexity of commitments/responsibilities with family, friends, community, church, workplace, professional societies. …
2. We must feed upon the Word of God.  We need to learn how to live between Genesis and Revelation.  As Jesus answered the tempter, by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, “It is written, ‘Man doesn’t live only on bread. He also lives on every word that comes from the mouth of God’ “ (Matthew 4:4, NIV).  Do not forget as you treat your patients [translate to your vocation/profession] that although the creation is broken, God created it all good.  Furthermore, part of our mission as members of the Kingdom of God is to restore the creation.  And one day God will bring full restoration in a new heaven and new earth.
3. Dwell in the wisdom literature, i.e., Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.  Why?  Because in school you’ll get a lot of knowledge, but you’ll not engage with wisdom directly.  Soak up the poetry, songs.  A lot of life is vanity.  Don’t take yourself so seriously.  It’s important to keep yourself in perspective.
4. Be troubled by the account of the rich young ruler (Matthew 19:16-30).  Why?  Because being rich is a mixed blessing.  The more you have, the more trouble you have.  And having everything doesn’t make you happy.
5. In summary, the two things necessary to thrive in school and after graduation:  read/query the Word of God AND have fellowship with the people of God no matter the work load.  If you can’t do the two above, then quit school.  Don’t become narrow and seek accolades.  Before moving for your job, make sure there is a good match with a local congregation.  Don’t focus on making money, limit your hours to be involved with community, church, family.  Take time to interact with your patients (translate to your vocation/profession).
6. Jesus came to give life and give it abundantly, not just to survive in school.  Without a relationship with the Creator, you don’t know who you are.

As you begin a new term, what do you think about abstaining from social media? I had some friends who fasted from Facebook through Lent and according to Inside Higher Ed a professor offered a class extra credit if they stopped using social media during his course (see Extra Credit: Abstain from Facebook).

How many took him up on the offer? 12 out of 35. How many succeeded? 6 out of 12. I wonder how he tracked and/or verified what I assume to be self-reporting.

In what manner does social media help you get to know your colleagues? Is it awkward to use with those above or below you in the campus structure? Do all faculty need to have a Facebook page to relate to students or would students prefer not to have faculty know what they’re chatting about?

Note: HT to Ivy Jungle’s July Update for information regarding this article.

Would you agree with my idealistic enthusiasm for My Freshman Year:  What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student, the story of a professor of anthropology at a large state university who realized that she no longer understood the behavior and attitudes of her students and returned to the classroom?  And my uneasiness when reading that some Online Professors Pose as Students to Encourage Real Learning (Chronicle of Higher Education, 5/29/09), in the class which they’re teaching?  Can you offer testimonies, tips, or sources regarding what it takes to stimulate an on-line learning community?  We would love to have specific suggestions regarding how to direct the conversation of the ESN Book Club: Your Mind Matters.

Note:  If you don’t have a copy of John Stott’s Your Mind Matters, I’d encourage you to borrow/purchase so you’re ready to go on Tuesday.  If you’d like a head start on reading but don’t have a copy of the book, visit InterVarsity Press’ website for PDFs of the Foreward and Chapter 1.

There is a good blog post at Inside Higher Ed today about the struggle between commitment to a particular place and the realities of the academic job climate. Dana Campbell writes that she and her husband (both from the West Coast) assumed that their time on the East Coast would be temporary, and that even their faculty appointments in Maryland would be short. She continues: Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, when back in ’da Burgh, something drew me to Kiva Han Coffee, a memorable 3rd place at the corner of Forbes/Craig.   What could it be?  It’s more than the strategic location between Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and the University of Pittsburgh.  How about this grande vision? Read the rest of this entry »

I had the good fortune to hear Wendell Berry read at Northern Kentucky University Sunday afternoon. Apparently, he does not accept many speaking engagements these days, but accepted NKU’s invitation because he and the university are neighbors (Berry lives in Henry County, Kentucky, about a hour south of NKU). The reading was terrific, and, as usual, Berry’s words provided much to ponder.

At the end of a reading from his essay, “Is Life a Miracle?” Berry noted that, formerly, the university was unified under religion, but that time has gone and is not coming back. Instead, he proposed unifying the university under a commitment to the local community, as was the original mission of land grant universities.

The idea has some appeal to me, since I am a proponent of local communities and think Berry has some very worthwhile ideas on the subject. I plan on researching his views on the university in more depth. However, setting aside the questions of feasibility (e.g. how can mathematics be committed to the local community? why should someone who earned their BA in Michigan, their PhD in California, and tenure in Kentucky be committed to one community over another?), I wonder about the nature of this commitment. I think I have a fairly good idea of what Berry means by this commitment to the local community. However, it doesn’t take long to see that not many people share Berry’s perspective, and that local visions for the local community differ wildly.

What do you think? How important is a university’s commitment to its local community? Is this is a good way to organize a university’s mission?