Why InterVarsity Needs Faculty Ministry
by Craig Gartland
I remember meeting Charlie Hummel during Orientation of New Staff (ONS) in 1989. I was honored to meet him, for he was the author of an IVP booklet that had made a profound impact on me during my first year in college: Tyranny of the Urgent.
When I met him, Charlie was serving as our Director of Faculty Ministry. This made less of an impact on me. I knew InterVarsity involved faculty as advisors to chapters, but as a new campus staff getting ready to serve undergraduates on campus, I honestly did not know that we had a faculty ministry, let alone a Director of Faculty Ministry.
Fast forward to 2012 and my recent appointment to the same position. Though I could not have imagined myself in this position back at ONS in '89, my journey on staff since then has led me to engage and care deeply for those who are in a unique place of influence in our colleges and universities and who are key to fulfilling our vision on campus: faculty.
I also step into this role following not only Charlie Hummel, but Terry Morrison and most recently, Stan Wallace. All three of these directors have contributed significantly to the growth of Faculty Ministry – fed as well by the growth of Graduate and Faculty Ministries as a whole. Here are some of the ways in which I see InterVarsity needing Faculty Ministry – now as much as ever:
One reason we need faculty ministry is found right at the heart of our vision statement: our commitment to seeing "campuses renewed." This was the theme of our Staff Conference ’11, during which we explored and affirmed that as an organization we care deeply about the place where God has called us – not only the people who inhabit it. In this way, we care about the Gospel's influence on the very ideas that shape the campus and the structures that undergird it. Faculty are critical in our moving forward and making an impact in this vision. In the words of our president, Alec Hill:
As a former dean and faculty member, I understand the strategic nature of faculty ministry. Students come and go, but faculty abide for up to four decades. They represent the heart and soul of the university. InterVarsity has always cared not just for individuals, but for communities, ideas and structures. The influence faculty have extends beyond campus – they are culture-makers. If a ministry wants to impact society, professors are a critical ministry audience.
Faculty Ministry also fulfills our commitment to disciple and mentor those who follow God’s call into academia and faculty positions, starting with their time as undergraduates, in grad school, and then into faculty appointments. This is in many ways an ambitious task and often a long journey, but one that we have seen bear great fruit as students have come up through our college and graduate student chapters to take faculty positions in institutions around the globe.
To this end, Faculty Ministry has developed the Emerging Scholars Network. By providing resources and facilitating mentor relationships, we hope to resource and support those whom God has gifted and is calling into academia from their undergraduate days through their tenure in a faculty position, so that they can have a redeeming influence.
Faculty have always served an important role in our ministry as faculty advisors. In this way, faculty meet a real need of ours. However, most faculty who serve us in this role would love to be more than just a "signature" each year.
During my senior year I met regularly with our chapter's faculty advisor for mentoring and discipleship. What impressed me was that Prof. Bruch seemed to get as much out of our times together as I did. I would come to learn that this flowed out of his love and care for students – a significant part of his sense of call to being a faculty member. He and his wife would also regularly invite the InterVarsity student leaders to their home where we would be the eager recipients of their hospitality.
This may not be true of all faculty advisors, but I know there are many who are waiting to be asked to speak, mentor, or open up their home for ministry. We have much to gain from their unique perspective and understanding of life on our campuses, and as valuable allies.
As I speak to InterVarsity staff about their relationships with and impressions of faculty, most have figured out that faculty live busy lives. Most faculty have full plates and deal with a great deal of pressure: from securing tenure, to funding research, to subtle (and not so subtle) pressures of conformity and faith censorship. To this end, Faculty Ministry already has a strong track record of providing resources and support to help faculty flourish in their positions. As Prof. Mary Poplin (speaker at SC ’11) writes:
InterVarsity Faculty Ministry is invaluable for Christian professors in secular universities like myself, helping me enormously as a scholar who is deeply concerned with getting God and Christian principles back to the academic roundtable.
Whether through conferences, symposia and faculty communities on campus, a quarterly journal (The Lamp Post), and other resources, Faculty Ministry has helped faculty grow in their faith, taking their research, teaching and witness seriously. I look forward to Faculty Ministry growing further still in being a presence of salt and light on campus – reaching those faculty who are not yet Christ followers and deepening the faith, work, and lives of those who are.
In so many ways stepping into this role as Director of Faculty Ministry deeply resonates with my gifts, passions, and experience after 23 years on staff. It also taps into a deep desire of mine to make a long-lasting impact on the campuses where God has called us.
Faculty ministry is therefore one way in which we take the long view – investing in those who are part of the very fabric of the campuses where we serve and who will likely outlast our tenure in the place. I trust you can see there is a strong case to be made for why we need faculty ministry. However, my real hope is that we — together — desire it and long for it to flourish. To see that happen, it will take all of us sharing the load, but also more broadly enjoying the harvest of such an investment.