Living Toward Shalom

But seek the shalom of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its shalom you will find your shalom. —Jeremiah 29:7

In the last week of March, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries  (GFM) staff team will come together for our annual national staff conference. I am looking forward to this year’s exploration of  Living Toward Shalom.

As you may guess, we have a number of significant  pre-conference readings and learning assignments designed to prepare us not only for our learning together, but also what the Giver of Shalom might want to do among us and through us for one another and the University. A glimpse . . .

• Jeremiah 29:1-14
• Chapter 1 of Walter Brueggemann’s Living Toward A Vision: Biblical Reflections on Shalom
• Nicholas Wolterstorff on  Shalom and Human Flourishing  (4 min, 39 sec)
• Chapter 1 of Henri Nouwen’s Peacework: Prayer, Resistance, Community
• LA Times Op-Ed piece by Francis Su: Solve this math problem: The gender gap  
• Francis Su’s The Lesson of Grace in Teaching: From weakness to wholeness, the struggle and the hope  (MAA Haimo Teaching Award Lecture of the Joint Math Meetings, 1/11/2013).

As you have opportunity, please join us in

• reading some of the above material.
• engaging in some prayerful listening and observing about the presence of shalom in the university/universities with which you are connected.
• interviewing or hosting discussions with members of your campus community (across roles and academic stages) regarding the presence of shalom.
• taking a campus prayer walk.
• prayerfully considering  . . .
  • Where do students/faculty see shalom present in the university? in their department/field
  • Where is shalom absent? How do you see people longing for shalom?
  • What are some of the issues of shalom at your university?
  • Who are engaging these issues of shalom at your university?
  • Where might Christian students and faculty engage in conversations, advocacy, prayer, and action that might address matters of shalom in the university? How might this happen?

In this creative preparation process, a number of bonus resources have been shared by the superb GFM staff team coordinating the GFM national staff conference  . . .

• Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Letter from the Birmingham City Jail
• Does God Care about Educational Inequality?  Veritas Forum at California State University, Long Beach with Ruth N. López Turley, October 10, 2012.
• Is Justice Possible? Veritas Forum at the University of Pennsylvania with David Skeel, Rogers Smith, and Robert Ghrist, October 22, 2014.
• What Gods Do We Believe in Now? Veritas Forum at Northwestern University with N. T. Wright and Gary Morson, November 12, 2012.
• Walter Brueggemann’s  Evangelism and Discipleship: The God Who Calls, the God Who Sends
• Makoto Fujimura’s  Abstraction and the Christian Faith

Furthermore, John Mulholland, who curates The Charles Malik Society for Redeeming Reason with a passion for Shalom and Nicholas Wolterstorff‘s labors in this area, passed along to the Emerging Scholars Network a number of resources.

• Advice to Those Who Would Be Christian Scholars  (Interview with Nicholas Wolterstorff with  Appendices, PDF)
• Educating for Shalom – Table of Contents  (PDF).
  • Note:  Educating for Shalom: Essays on Christian Higher Education by Nicholas Wolterstorff (Eerdmans, 2004)  [collection created and edited by Clarence Joldersma and Gloria Strunks]
• Educating for Shalom – Chapter Notes  (PDF)
• Educating for Shalom – Notes on Chapter 7  (PDF)
• Patrica R. Harris‘  Hearing the voices of those who are educating for shalom: what they are saying about institutional vision, missional goals, and educational models  (2013). Doctor of Education (EdD). Paper 18.  http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/edd/18.
• Patrica R. Harris’  Shalom Word study from Nicholas Wolterstorff
• Julia Stronks‘  Teaching To Justice: Christian Faculty Seek “Shalom” In Different Disciplines  (PDF)
• Shalom  — Major Word Studies in Perry B. Yoder, Shalom: The Bible’s Word for Salvation, Justice, and Peace (Newton, Kansas: Faith and Life Press, 1987).

May God richly bless you and your campus community as you are  Living Toward Shalom this Lent, with your hope for the new heavens and new earth resting upon the resurrection of Jesus the Christ, the Son God,  working out through the people of God. As you have contributions to make to and resources to share with the conversation, please do such. Thank-you. To God be the glory!