InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network
As we press into the daily grind of 2019, set aside time to join me in checking / resetting our compass by prayerfully considering:
Photo: At Urbana 18, we held a staff party to celebrate Tom’s great work with ESN (Emerging Scholars Network). This picture shows Tom and Theresa Grosh, their daughter Ellen, and InterVarsity Grad/Faculty Ministry Colleagues Bobby Gross (Vice President for GFM), Kathy Tuan-Maclean (Director of Faculty Ministry), and Hannah Eagleson (ESN).Â
With both sorrow and joy, we announce that Tom Grosh IV will be transitioning to a new role as an area director with CMDA (Christian Medical and Dental Association) in South Central Pennsylvania, and I will be carrying on the vision and mission of ESN. Sorrow, because Tom is an amazing colleague who has grown ESN into a vibrant ministry with a strong model, and I will miss him immensely. Joy, because Tom is moving on to another wonderful opportunity to serve Christ and still plans to do some volunteer writing with ESN, and joy also because I am deeply excited to grow the vision, mission, and model Tom has built at ESN. [Read more…] about ESN News: A Leadership Transition
“It was amazing seeing so many Christian graduate students passionate about integrating their faith and their academic work. The connections were invaluable and further spurred me on to persevere as a faithful witness to Jesus’ kingdom in the academy.†— InterVarsity ESN Urbana 18 Fellow
[Read more…] about Equipping Christian Scholars at Urbana 18: The ESN Urbana Fellows Program
Living in relationships with immigrants, refugees, and other low-income people has forced us to grapple with the question of what it means for us, as followers of Christ, to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. It has also awakened us to the ethically complex questions of immigration and refugee policy—who do we let in, what do we do with those who came in even though our government did not allow them in, and what effect will our policies have on those already here and struggling to get by? Of course, our attempts to address these questions have been shaped by our own personal journeys. — Soerens and Yang (2018), “The Immigration Dilemma†in Welcoming the Stranger, p. 9.
We have argued that Scripture makes repeated and clear calls for us to take special concern for the stranger, to love them as ourselves, and to welcome them as if serving Jesus himself. God commands us to obey, which is primary if we are to truly follow Christ. ‘There is no other road to faith or discipleship,’ Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, except ‘obedience to the call of Jesus.’ We dare not dismiss God’s instructions to us, but rather should move from reflection to prayerful action. Serving and loving immigrants can take on different expressions, and each are vitally important in the broader Christian witness. — p. 203.
. . . restless is our heart until it comes to rest in thee . . . — Augustine, Confessions.[1]