InterVarsity’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries (GFM) encourages students and faculty to live out GFM’s Four Commitments for ministry: Spiritual Formation; Community; Evangelism and Service; and Integration of Faith, Learning, and Practice.Read more…
Book Review: Luminous by T. David Beck
Summary: Explores how purpose, presence, power and peace enable us to radiate the light of Christ in our everyday lives.Read more…
Book Review: Embracing the Body
Summary: An invitation to move beyond guilt and shame around our embodied selves to discover the goodness of our bodies and how God made us, meets us, and works through our bodied lives.Read more…
Book Review: What Your Body Knows About God, by Rob Moll
Summary: Explores how our neurophysiology enables us to connect to God and others and how spiritual practices, liturgies, and opportunities to serve enable us to physically as well as spiritually thrive.Read more…
“Your crooked heart”: Literary Study and Spiritual Formation (Scholar’s Call)
Act III of Shakespeare’s King Lear gets to me every time.Read more…
Vocatio Christ: The Contours of Our Callings Part 2 (Scholar’s Compass)
It seemed like the whole world was on fire when C.S. Lewis stepped into the pulpit of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in Oxford in the autumn of 1939. Only a few weeks earlier Germany had invaded Poland, provoking declarations of war from Great Britain and France, igniting the great conflagration that would be the Second World War. Across the United Kingdom out of a sense of duty and urgency young men were enlisting in the armed services and citizens were preparing for the war effort. And Lewis, the great Oxford don, had been tasked with addressing a room full of anxious young men beginning their autumn term at Oxford University.Read more…
Book Review: Is Your Lord Large Enough?
In “Is Your Lord Large Enough?”, Peter J. Schakel turns to the writing of C.S. Lewis on topics concerning the formation of Christians and provides a “digest” of Lewis’s writing around key topics drawn from his letters, fiction, and non-fiction books and essays. Read more…
Vocatio Christi: The Contours of Our Callings (Scholar’s Compass)
“Follow me.” With these two simple words Jesus turned the worlds of Peter, Andrew, James and John upside down. Jesus called them away from the life that they knew in order to be apprenticed into a new Way, a new Truth, a new Life. He extended this call to Matthew the tax collector, to a rich young ruler, and to many, many more. Some followed. Some didn’t.Read more…
Missio Dei: The Context of Our Callings (Scholar’s Compass)
What, if anything, does my spiritual life have to do with my work life? Better yet, what does my spiritual life have to do with my life’s work? Is my specific vocation incidental or irrelevant to my spiritual formation? Or do these aspects of my life converge somehow? Similarly, are evangelical witness and the integration of faith and scholarship mutually exclusive concerns, one activity being suited to dynamic extroverts and the other to bookish introverts? Or is there a way in which these go together?Read more…
A Spirituality of Graduate School: Mission and Formation (Scholar’s Compass)
Greg Thompson once said in my hearing, “Mission without spiritual formation and virtue is impossible. But spiritual formation without mission is solipsistic.” Read more…
Book Review: Spiritual Direction
Many longing for a deeper awareness of the presence of God in their lives have rediscovered the special relationship known as spiritual direction.Read more…
Scholar’s Compass Navigating Beginnings: Relying on God’s Strength and Blessing Others
I remember struggling with staying connected during my second year of graduate school.Read more…
Scholar’s Compass Navigating Beginnings: Overcoming Fear and Anxiety
I remember well that fall when I started graduate school–the excitement, the anticipation of starting something new. Orientation activities and faculty seminars inviting students to something big, something interesting, something important. Read more…
Prayers and Call for Science Entries for Scholar’s Compass
We’re deeply grateful for an exciting first week of Scholar’s Compass! Please join us in thanking God and praying for the project. Also, we’ve received an exciting opportunity and are issuing an extra call for science-related devotionals. Scroll down forRead more…
Navigating Beginnings: Glory-Seeking Ministry in the Academic Life (Scholar’s Compass)
Physics Professor W. Brian Lane on how he came to see teaching physics as a way of seeking God’s glory. Read more…
Welcome to Scholar’s Compass
Welcome to Scholar’s Compass, a devotional written for and by scholars.
Scholar’s Compass Monthly Prayer Update
Scholar’s Compass launches tomorrow! We’re deeply grateful for the response to the project so far. First and foremost, we want to thank God for the generous response of so many people who have agreed to write for the project andRead more…
Scholar’s Compass Launches Sunday
Join us Sunday for the first glance at Scholar’s Compass. With our initial theme of Navigating Beginnings, we’ll be exploring the following topics during September: What physics can show us about seeking God’s glory How the Iliad guides us toward hospitalityRead more…
Join Us in Praying for Scholar’s Compass
Many of you generously expressed an interest in praying for Scholar’s Compass, which launches next Sunday (September 7). We’ll be posting prayer requests the first Saturday of each month on the ESN blog, and we’d love for you to readRead more…
Help Scholar’s Compass Connect to Communities
As we’re launching Scholar’s Compass, we’d love to connect with communities who might want to try it out and give us occasional feedback. Do you know any groups of graduate students or professors who might want to try it out?Read more…
Scholar’s Compass: Navigating Themes
ESN’s new devotional for scholars launches September 7, and we’re planning the themes or threads that it will feature across the year. In keeping with our title of Scholar’s Compass, we’ve chosen the idea of navigation to tie these threads together.Read more…
Suggest Themes for Scholar’s Compass
Scholar’s Compass, ESN’s new devotional by and for scholars, is taking shape. We’ll be launching September 8 with posts three times weekly. We’ve had about 55 responses to our survey, and we’re excited to talk more with each of you.Read more…
ESN Devotional Has a Name
Thanks to everyone who commented for giving us so many great name ideas. We were impressed as always with the creativity and thoughtfulness of ESN members. We deeply appreciated your ideas, and may use some of them as theme ideasRead more…
Devotional for Scholars: Prayers and More
We’re deeply excited by the response to the academic devotional so far. Over forty writers in at least five countries have gotten in touch. We’re delighted to hear from so many scholars who want to talk about integrating faith andRead more…