Call to support ESN’s daily life

To connect  emerging Christian scholars to resources, local communities, and wider networks.  Learn more…

We  generally try to avoid alarmist communications at  ESN, but we truly are at a crucial moment, and we want to invite you to partner with us in supporting Christian academics.  Last week we shared the wonderful news that God has blessed and expanded the Emerging Scholars Network’s ministry in the last year and a half. We’re very grateful for the temporary funding which God used to grow ESN over the past few years, but it will be ending soon.

Last year Tom and Hannah shared their vision for ministry with Fred McNaughton on The Get Up and Go Show!” (10/23, 6 min, 27 sec). Click  here  to search/download Part 1 and 2 of “Emerging Scholars Network Oct 23.”  Enjoy 🙂

During the summer of 2014, thanks to generous temporary funding Hannah Eagleson, an active member of the Emerging Scholars Network,  joined InterVarsity Christian Fellowship staff to develop Scholar’s Compass: a devotional for and by Christian scholars. Although we agreed upon Hannah only serving 10 hours a week, the  network  quickly called upon her for more hours not only in the development of the devotional (70+ members of the writing team) but also in . . .

• deepening partnerships (e.g., American Scientific Affiliation).
• serving the Urbana Students Mission Conference Sponsors/Scholars program (in which we’ll serve 45-55 students seeking to connect with other Christian academics and grow in understanding their vocations). Pre-Urbana  Google Hangouts  are already “in session!”
• writing workshops at various Graduate & Faculty Ministry conferences and campus chapters.

What a joy to see ESN flourish in new and exciting ways over the past year and half. Hannah shares:

Often, grad students and faculty members tell me that the ESN blog made a huge difference for them in a time when they were struggling with what it meant to be both a Christian and an academic, or that they really needed to hear someone was praying for them on the day I emailed, or that the blog was one reason they decided to go to graduate school in the first place. Stories like that are why I love working with ESN. I found ESN exciting and encouraging in my own graduate school life, and want to extend even greater support to the next generation of ESN members.

With this in mind, it is important that we raise the support to continue her position. Due to the complex nature of editing and networking, it is difficult to break down her hours, but last academic year her salary was about $11,000, i.e., $5500 per half year.  Over the course of this academic year we’re hoping to raise $11,000  to continue her current level of activity, Lord willing, expanding to $15,000 to make new endeavors possible. We are just beginning the process and desire to be half-way by December 31 when we wrap up serving at the Urbana Student Missions Conference.

Your gifts (whether $5 or $100 a month) toward the “Emerging Scholars Network” enable us to support her labors and our our growing operational costs (e.g., conferencing, online resourcing). As you have the resources, please join our committed core members (a big thank-you to those who have gotten us started!) so that ESN will not need to cut its activities dramatically in 2016.

Will you make a shared investment in generosity with us this Christmas season?

To God be the glory!

In Christ,

Thomas B. Grosh IV, Associate Director, Emerging Scholars Network

PS.  If you desire to contact me directly to learn more about a particular form of giving or about the ministry in general/specific, please do not hesitate to  contact me. Thank-you.