Kami L. Rice concludes her guest series, Heading East, this week. Standing in an ancient Hindu temple that honors Vishnu—or perhaps it was a temple for one of the other Hindu gods, or maybe it was for one of Vishnu's avatars; it's hard to remember for sure because it's so very hard to keep Hinduism's less-than-codified beliefs straight—and watching people seek blessings from whichever god's statue it was that was open for business at that time of day, I felt an unexpected desire to wretch. The temple, … [Read more...] about Sharing the Gospel in India and America
evangelism
Evangelism in the Academy
Much evangelism happens on campus — indeed, the college campus might be the central place where evangelism takes place in US culture — but I'd wager that very little evangelism happens within the academy, inside the formal and informal structures of scholarship, teaching, and academic service. At my church, I've just started teaching an 8-week series on evangelism to my adult bible fellowship. I'm using the following working definition of evangelism: Introducing nonChristians to the good news of Jesus … [Read more...] about Evangelism in the Academy
Bringing It All Together
One of the frequent struggles that ESN hears from students and faculty is the difficulty in bringing it all together. Here, "all" refers to the vast scope of the Christian life in the context of campus. Read through InterVarsity's 13 (!) core values, and you'll see what I mean. Even InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministry's Four Core Commitments present a daunting challenge for anyone: Spiritual Formation Community Evangelism & Service Integration of Faith, Learning, & Practice I would say that … [Read more...] about Bringing It All Together
Academics Coming to Faith
Do we enter the fall with the anticipation of colleagues coming to faith? Several years ago, InterVarsity Graduate & Faculty Ministry Staff Christian Anible wrote The Conversion of a Scholar: A Reflection on Augustine's Confessions. Take a few minutes to read his essay and prayerfully consider who God has called you to be present with in the coming minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, even decades. To God be the glory! we must not succumb to the temptation to impose Augustine's story as a kind of … [Read more...] about Academics Coming to Faith
Sharing the Gospel with Faculty Colleagues
As you may know, evangelism is a core value of InterVarsity, and InterVarsity's Graduate and Faculty Ministries (of which ESN is a part) has named "Evangelism and Service" as one of its four core commitments. But several of us within InterVarsity have been discussing the unique challenges for faculty who want to share the gospel with their colleagues. By extension, these challenges apply to those who want to become faculty, as well. Evangelism by an undergrad who expects to graduate within a few years, or by a campus … [Read more...] about Sharing the Gospel with Faculty Colleagues