Rebuilding the Ancient Ruins: Renewing the Campus

This article is taken from a talk delivered by InterVarsity president Alec Hill in a chapel service at the National Service Center on January 16, 2008. To listen to the talk or download to an MP3 player, go to our audio resources page.

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion — to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit; that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. Isaiah 61:1-4 [ESV]

Students and faculty transformed, campuses renewed and world changers developed – InterVarsity Vision Statement

You can see the elements of our Vision Statement in this passage from Isaiah: the whole idea of transformed lives – liberation, freedom, ashes to joy. And then there’s “oaks of righteousness.” That sounds a lot like developing world-changers to me, people who will stand strong in the face of opposition. And then verse four – “building up the ancient ruins” – the Israelites were returning to a devastated place. They were going to have to literally rebuild Jerusalem. In a spiritual sense, it is our mission to see campuses renewed by the Spirit of God.

In the university world, spiritual devastation has gone on for generations. Yale was started by Congregationalists, Princeton by Presbyterians, Brown by Baptists, the University of Pennsylvania by Presbyterians, Rutgers by Reformed, Columbia by Anglicans, and on and on. Up to a century ago most colleges and universities considered themselves to be Christian. In 1868, at the University of Illinois, attendance at daily chapel and Sunday worship services was required. In 1902, a professor at Northwestern University was fired for saying that the Bible contained myths and errors.

I recently read The Decline of the Secular University, by John Sommerville. Certainly, it is no longer even a question as to whether universities are secularized or not. A recent survey conducted by professors from Harvard and George Mason University discovered 17 percent of faculty consider themselves born again. That includes faculty from religious schools. When you go to so-called “elite” schools, that figure drops to one percent. Overall, half the faculty believe that the Bible is a book of fables and legends. When you look at the elite schools, the figure is almost 75 percent. So, what would have gotten them fired at Northwestern University a century ago, is now mainstream thinking.

What happened? That would take hours to detail, but here’s a quick summary. Most of the private schools were denominational schools. What happened over time, whether they were Protestant or Catholic, is that they wanted to draw a broader range of faculty and of donors. They tried to broaden their missions. In doing so, they tended to water down their distinctiveness.

Another factor was the perceived breach between science and religion. As the Germans’ model of empiricism came in – only believe what you can prove – religion, philosophy, and the arts all got pushed out. In the late 19th century, with the permission of many Christians, religion was moved from the center to the periphery. You began to see denominational centers appear on campuses at that time, started by Lutherans, Catholics, and Methodists. Dwight Moody was involved, working with the YMCA movement. There was also a group called the Student Volunteer Movement, a predecessor of InterVarsity, that came along in the 1880’s.

The university was being rearranged as a secularization of culture was taking place. We, as the historic Christian church, are responsible for losing the university. The government and other external factors were also involved. The university world was once ours but it no longer is, in the same way it once was.

As we read in Isaiah 61 about rebuilding the ancient ruins that have gone through devastation for generations, what can we do?

In our Vision Statement, the section I get the most questions on is the part about renewing the campuses. People say, “What in the world does that mean? I can get the transforming students and faculty, and I can get developing world changers, but what do you mean by renewing the campus?” Well, it’s in there because I think it’s core to what we believe we’re about.

The issue here is, how do we increase our impact in the higher education game? The first option is to do what a lot of Christians do, which is to start new schools. Let’s just write the other schools off and start our own. I taught for 16 years in one of those schools, and it is a great school. But the reality is that only about three percent of the Christian high school kids coming out of evangelical churches will go to these schools. So 97 percent will go to the schools that InterVarsity serves. I don’t agree with the Christian broadcaster who said, a decade ago, “don’t send your kids to any of these secular schools.”

The second option is for us to be a significant player at established schools, to find ways to have more influence. We are still defining what exactly this means. There is no single silver bullet. We have a portfolio of options. Here are some examples.

At Emory University, our staff have done a good job at working with the administration. The week I was there the president of the university was going to speak at the chapter meeting. Two months later, the chaplains office and our InterVarsity staff worked together to bring Jimmy Carter to campus. He talked about being a Christian statesman in the twentyfirst century. That is exciting! Our faculty sponsor at Emory is a Japanese American who became a Christian at the University of Chicago, largely via InterVarsity. He’s also now the vice provost, and he’s only in his late thirties. I hope he’ll start a faculty chapter there. But the point is, we are trying to work with universities.

Another way in which we renew campuses is through InterVarsity Press books. The reference books we publish find themselves in amazing libraries, not just at seminaries and churches. And when you look at books on economics, and the arts, and other specific disciplines, you see that InterVarsity Press books are helping to shape professors’ minds.

Our alumni program is another way. Many of our alumni are going into the academy as part of their calling.

There are times when we take a hard stand, vis a vis the university, in order to help the university; such as when we filed suit against the University of Wisconsin last year. It was important that we did that. We had to say “No, we’re not going to be further marginalized, we belong here, our voice is here.”

But I think if I had to pick the area of our most under-rated impact on the campus today, it’s through our faculty ministries. When we were working on our Vision Statement, there was a lot of pressure not to include faculty. Because it’s snappier to say “students transformed, campuses renewed, worldchangers developed.” One of the arguments was that “campuses renewed,” includes faculty; therefore, we don’t have to say it. But if we really are going to make an impact on these campuses, it’s going to be with both students and faculty.

Let me give you a couple of things that are happening with faculty ministries. The first involves reaching current faculty. In my talk at Staff Conference I mentioned that 60 faculty were meeting weekly and praying at the University of Michigan. There was a buzz in the room. No one knew. There was a sense of “Wow!” At the Air Force Academy, at one point, there were over 100 faculty meeting weekly, and it is still a very strong fellowship there. The impact on cadets is still quite strong.

It’s our plan and prayer over the next five years to double the number of faculty witnessing communities that we have, from 25 to 50. We also want to put on more conferences for faculty. Often we find that faculty have PhD knowledge in their field but high school sophomore knowledge of theology. So the idea of conferences is to help faculty think about both their field and theology, and bring them together through greater integration.

When Jeff Hardin, a professor of Zoology at the University of Wisconsin, starts out teaching his undergraduate class in a big lecture hall, he tells them, “We’re going to look at the birth process. Let me start this semester with a quote from a Jewish poet.” Then he reads, “I was fearfully and wonderfully made in my mother’s womb.” That’s a cue to the Christians to know that they can talk with him. It is also opening up a wider conversation. Jeff is the kind of faculty member we want to encourage.

Did you know that every summer in recent years there has been a faculty conference at Cedar Campus? Faculty come and bring their families.

Did you know that this coming December we are planning Following Christ 2008, where we are hoping to host between 1,000 and 1,500 faculty and graduate students? This is a big deal. If we want to raise up the ancient ruins, these people are critical to that.

The second way in which we want to renew the campus through our faculty strategy is to broker future faculty coming on staff. In the next couple decades, two thirds of all faculty will retire. We have something called the Emerging Scholars Network. The idea is to identify promising undergraduate and graduate students who believe their calling is to teach at a secular university. What if in 10-20 years, 20 percent of the professorate are believing Christians. What difference would that make on the ancient ruins? We’re encouraging these young scholars, and we’re providing mentors for them.

When Ken Elzinga, an economics professor at the University of Virginia, left the InterVarsity Board of Trustees a few years back, he brought us Ellen Whitener. Ellen was a young faculty member at the University of Virginia School of Business. Ellen became a Christian right before she went to college. She got a PhD at Michigan State, became a professor, then progressed up through the ranks and became the Associate Dean. She got very involved with InterVarsity and was at Cedar Campus many times. She died of meningitis at age 47. I remember her funeral. There was a standard talk by the pastor. Then student after student and faculty member after faculty member got up and talked about her. They were not Christians, but they were people who had been deeply touched by her life.

I hope this will be an ongoing conversation for us within InterVarsity. What does it mean to renew campuses? What is our role? Students come and go in two, three, four, five, or sometimes six years. They move through. But there’s an institution, a community of learners that goes on and on and on, the faculty. Our vision is to renew the campus and change the world by transforming both students and faculty.