GOD IN GRAD SCHOOL:CHECKING IN WITH OUR FELLOWSHIPS AT DARDEN,

THE LAW SCHOOL AND ON CENTRAL GROUNDS

Also in th i s i s sue:“ The Internship Program”

“Conversat ions wi th Purpose”

A P U B L I C A T I O N O F T H E C E N T E R F O R C H R I S T I A N S T U D Y | W I N T E R 2 0 1 4

STUDY CENTER STAFF

BILL WILDERExecutive Director bill@studycenter.net

LANE COWINDirector of Undergraduate Ministries

for Womenlane@studycenter.net

FITZ GREENDirector of Educational Ministries

fitz@studycenter.net

JAY MCCABEDirector of Undergraduate Ministries

for Men jay@studycenter.net

SHELLY PELLISHDirector of Administration + Development

shelly@studycenter.net

DEBBIE RODRIGUEZDirector of Finance

debbie@studycenter.net

ASHLEY WOOTENDirector of Communications

ashleyw@studycenter.net

AMY ZELLDirector of Counseling Resources

amy@studycenter.net

WHO WE AREWe are a non-profit education and outreach

ministry serving the University of Virginia

and Charlottesville since 1968. We seek to

serve Jesus Christ by fostering the serious

consideration in the university environment of

a Biblical worldview, and by encouraging and

facilitating wise discussion of the Truth in light of

the challenges of contemporary culture.

CONTACT USPhone: (434) 817-1050

Email: info@studycenter.netWebsite: www.studycenter.net

Twitter: studycenteruvaFacebook: studycenteruva

The Study Center Newsletter is published for our friends and supporters.

University Christian Ministries, Inc. (dba Center

for Christian Study) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit

corporation EIN 51-0192618.

THIS ISSUE:

On the cover: Darden students gather for their weekly fellowship in the Alumni Lounge at the Darden School. Each week about 20 students come for prayer, Bible study and fellowship. (Photo by Edward Bricker)

The Internship Programby Caroline Cross, page 5

God in Grad Schoolby Bill Wilder, page 3

Conversations with Purposeby Fitz Green, page 6

B o o k R e c o m m e n d a t i o n sWe are adding new books to our library collection every week! Here are a few favorite

recommendations from our Study Center librarian, Trish Owen, with brief descriptions from the publishers:

Author and pastor Kevin DeYoung addresses the busyness problem head on— and not with the typical arsenal of time management tips, but rather with the biblical tools we need to get to the source of the issue.

CRAZY BUSYA (Mercifully) Short Book About a (Really) Big Problemby Kevin DeYoung

Written between 1946 and 1947 while O’Connor was a student far from home at the University of Iowa, A Prayer Journal is a rare portal into the interior life of the great writer. Not only does it map O’Connor’s sin-gular relationship with the divine, but it shows how entwined her literary desire was with her yearning for God.

A PRAYER JOURNALby Flannery O’Connor

Much has been written of late about what the apostle Paul really meant when he spoke of justification by faith, not the works of the law. Wester-holm notes weaknesses in traditional understandings that have provoked the more recent proposals, but he also points out areas in which the latter fail to do justice to the apostle.

JUSTIFICATION RECONSIDEREDRethinking a Pauline Themeby Stephen Westerholm

catalog.studycenter.net

by Bill Wilder, bill@studycenter.netExecutive Director

The Center for Christian Study has had a long and deep commitment to graduate students. In any given week Study Center staff help host three large group meetings for graduate students, attend several leader-ship meetings, and provide pastoral care for individ-ual graduate students. This kind of engagement with students goes back to the early ministry of Daryl Rich-man, which led to the founding of the Law Christian Fellowship and the Study Center over forty years ago. By the early 1990s the Center was supporting four different graduate fellowship groups, including those students at the law school. Over time we came to sponsor one group on the Central Grounds, the Graduate Christian Fellowship (GCF, co-sponsored for a time with InterVarsity), and two groups on the North Grounds: the Law Christian Fellowship (LCF) and the Darden (Graduate School of Business) Chris-tian Fellowship (DCF).

The Center’s graduate student ministry holds a special place in my heart: I came to the Study Center in 1999 to serve as the Director of Graduate Ministries and spent the first years of my ministry working with students from virtually every field (business, law, arts and science, engineering, medical). Since then the Center has continued to provide staff support for these groups, most recently through Board member and interim Director of Graduate Ministries, Sharon Decker and Director of Educational Ministries, Fitz

Green. For the past two years I have rejoined the team, repris-ing my former role working with Darden students while Fitz has added law students to his work with graduate students on the Central Grounds.

So what does the Center’s graduate student ministry at U.Va. look like? Those of you involved in one of these grad-uate fellowship groups over the years would recognize many of the basic rhythms. The Graduate Chris-tian Fellowship (GCF) continues to meet on Friday nights at the Study Center for dinner, discussion with a speaker, and followed by an activity afterward. GCF hosts a weekend retreat each semester, often in a home at Lake Monticello or off the Blue Ridge Parkway. This year they began the year by asking, “What is our purpose in grad school?,” a conversation followed by a short series on friendship and another on apologetics. As I write, GCF is beginning a new series on the various ways in which scripture describes the atonement—the way in which humans are restored to a right relationship with God through the work of Christ.

The Law Christian Fellowship (LCF) still meets on

GOD IN GRAD SCHOOL

Pictured above: On Tuesday mornings Darden students gather in the Alumni Lounge for Bible Study.

STUDY CENTER NEWSLETTER WINTER 2014 S PAGE 3

CHECKING IN WITH OUR THREE FELLOWSHIPS AT DARDEN, THE LAW SCHOOL AND ON CENTRAL GROUNDS

PAGE 4 S STUDY CENTER NEWSLETTER WINTER 2014

Thursday nights where they host a speaker before heading out for dinner together. Like GCF, the law students began the academic year considering their role as graduate students: “Serving God in Law School: Answering the Call of Deut 6:4-5.” Other speakers helped LCF students explore what it means to be a Christian in this world, including a talk from Fitz at their fall retreat at Wintergreen. LCF also heard from Colonel Stuart Couch on his experience as a prosecutor and a Christian in the military tribu-nals after 9/11; and from Jess Bravin of the Wall Street Journal, who wrote a book on the courageous stand Colonel Couch took in a very difficult situation. This event meant a lot to me, not least because (full disclo-sure!) Stuart Couch is also my brother-in-law.

Darden Christian Fellowship (DCF) has changed their weekly meetings a bit more over the years. I remember when DCF moved from late Wednesday afternoon meetings to a mid-week lunch meeting featuring pizza and a speaker. More recently in response to increased competition for lunch slots, DCF leadership moved the weekly meeting to the coffee break (“First Coffee”) on Tuesday mornings. The result: a short but focused Bible study and discussion right in the middle of the action at Darden (in the Alumni Lounge). The turn-out has been large enough this year to warrant divid-ing the group in two at various points, with a Bible study and discussion at both ends of the lounge. DCF also makes a point to bring in speakers for the Darden School from time to time. We began the year with U.Va. Professor of Economics and Center co-founder Ken Elzinga speaking on “Cheerful Economics and Spiritual Capital.” In April we’ll sponsor a large event featuring Study Center Board member and former Director of Graduate Ministries, Sharon Decker—

now the North Caro-lina Secretary of Com-merce—in April. Both of those talks would be well worth listening to from the resource page on our website,www.studycenter.net/resources/archived-lectures.html.

When I think about the Study Center’s ministry to graduate students over the years, I’m grateful for the ways in which our Lord has used these fellowship groups and Study Center staff in the lives of gradu-ate students. Thanks to these groups and the Center’s support, caring and committed followers of Christ have been there to address hard questions, work through lingering doubt, provide encouragement along the way and, above all, in all things to point to Lord Christ at this most formative (and potentially de-formative) time of life. In these years of graduate study at U.Va., students gain a world-class education in their field of study. We want their spiritual growth to match their intellectual and vocational growth. I’m encouraged to see the good ways in which that has happened for many students over many years.

It is also true that much remains to be done. Our ministry goal at the Study Center is clear: to see stu-dents conformed to Christ out of a deep commitment to Biblical truth, with hospitality, and with regard to the larger University and Christian communities. To help accomplish that goal, the Study Center has also received a major Lilly Endowment grant for the “theological discernment of vocation.” As a result those of us on staff at the Center are reexamining every aspect of what we do here with a view to our particular calling at U.Va. That includes our graduate ministries! We continue to pray for a Study Center staff person specifically designated to North Grounds graduate student ministry, much as we were able to do when Sharon Decker joined us for her seminary internship two years ago. Your prayers for the right person in the right timing would be much appreci-ated. In the meantime, we look forward to what the Lord will do in the lives of these graduate students in the remainder of this year—and in years to come as they build on the foundation laid in graduate school.

All three graduate fellowships bring in speakers on a regular basis to address topics relating to their field and their faith. Pictured above is Ken Elzinga, U.Va. Professor of Economics,

speaking on the joy of giving at the Darden School in September 2013. (Photos by Edward Bricker)

STUDY CENTER NEWSLETTER WINTER 2014 S PAGE 5

THE INTERNSHIP PROGRAMPROVIDING WORK EXPERIENCE, MENTORING AND CHRISTIAN FORMATION

My time as an intern began my second year. I remember feeling lonely and isolated after I re-turned for the new school year. I wasn’t sure who my friends were or where I “fit in.” The Study Center had been a safe and wel-coming place for me first year, so I came to talk to Shelly Pellish. She was so kind to me; she let me sit in her big, brown chair and cry and tell her how I

was feeling. This was the first of many long conversa-tions I had while sitting in the big brown chairs in her office. A few days later I got a voicemail from Shelly asking me to come in and talk to her. During that time the Study Center was in transition from having a graduate student live on the third floor and care for the build-ing to an expanded hospitality ministry enabled by un-dergraduate students and staff. Shelly asked if I would like to work at the Study Center as an intern and help her think through how we host hundreds of students daily in the building. I was absolutely thrilled to be asked, but at the time I had no idea just how wonder-ful and formative this time as an intern would be. Over the following months I was drawn into the Study Center community. I came to truly treasure my rela-tionship with Shelly and gradually got to know all of the staff as familiar faces and eventually dear friends. I knew I wanted to be even more involved, so I applied and was accepted into the Elzinga Residential Schol-ars Program, led by Lane Cowin and Jay McCabe. This made my commute to my internship really short because now I lived next door!

As a fourth-year, I’ve had the opportunity to witness how the internship program has grown and matured (there are 12 interns working this year!). This year, I am receiving academic credit through the University’s Intern Program at U.Va. I enrolled in the program because I wanted to learn more about how non-profits operate. Shelly agreed to serve as my internship site sponsor. While my classmates lament spending lots of “quality time with the copy machine,” I get to learn how the Study Center runs by working alongside her in development, parent and student relations.

More than the career experience, my time as an intern and as a student at the Study Center has been a time to learn how much Jesus loves us and calls us to be his representatives to the world. I have found a true community that I will treasure for the rest of my life: mentors, like Shelly, who have nourished me and developed my strengths; truth from the hours spent under Bill’s teaching; openness and vulnerability in my talks with Lane…all fueled by lots of animal crack-ers from the jar in Jay’s office! I am SO grateful to the Lord for his abundant blessing in my time as an intern. All glory to Him for what He has done!

by Caroline Cross, U.Va. ‘14Study Center Hospitality Intern and Elzinga Residential Scholar

Top left: Caroline Cross (photo by Brittany Fan); Above: Caroline with her fellow female Scholars from 2012-13.

CONVERSATIONS WITH PURPOSEHOW OUR SMALL GROUPS ARE SHAPING STUDENTS AND ADDRESSING REAL CULTURAL ISSUES

By the end of their first semester, college students everywhere are united by a common goal in course selection: no Friday classes. Yet on Friday afternoons the Study Center is abuzz with energy and activity. That’s because this is when most of our small groups meet. Student involvement in reading groups and Bible studies has increased dramatically in the past few years, and we’re excited about the role they are playing in Christian formation for our students.

One thing I love about these groups is their sheer diversity. Last Friday there were five groups slated for the afternoon: an undergraduate men’s Bible study on Joshua and Judges, two reading groups on Ephesians (one in English Bible and one for students studying Greek), one on Christianity and economics and one on a theology of the body. That doesn’t include the groups coming up this week: one on

faith and science, another on the “historical Jesus,” and yet another one on music and modernity. The idea is to make sure we’re studying the Bible even as we also look at the impact of our faith on all of life (economics, science, music, the academic study of Jesus and so forth). This reflects the Center’s conviction that discipleship involves our whole person. Our bodies, our families, our work, our church life: they all belong to Christ.

The diversity of topics in our small groups is complemented by a diverse range of attendees. One of my groups this year focuses on the academic quest for the historical Jesus. This approach to Jesus, which focuses on what we can know from a critical study of the historical sources, is what students encounter at U.Va. An average meeting last semester included a postdoctoral student in physics, two undergraduates

from the Christian apologetics club, two students from the Virginia Atheists and Agnostics club, a retired seminary professor, and me. Needless to say, we had some lively discussions!

Let me share a few examples of what’s happening in these groups. Our Historical Jesus group illustrates a ministry hope that we see lived out in reading groups. At the Study Center we believe Christian engagement in culture should include both affirmation and critique. For instance, we desire to support the University’s mission

By Fitz Green, fitz@studycenter.netDirector of Educational Ministries

Top left: Jay McCabe leading a study on Christianity and Economics; top right: Lane Cowin leads a weekly women’s Bible study; left: Bill Wilder facilitating the Faith, Reason and Science discussion. (Photos by Elisa Bricker)

where we see “good learning” flourishing—we do this in the conviction that learning about His world can point us toward the One who created all things.

Historical Jesus studies can certainly be affirmed in part. For example, recent scholarship on Jesus has emphasized the implications of the simple fact that Jesus was Jewish. The church has been reminded that we can’t understand Jesus’ mission apart from

God’s purposes for His people Israel and His plans to bring blessing to all the nations through Israel, just as He promised to Abraham.

At the same time, we want our students to see with open eyes the aspects of the world in which Christians cannot participate. This might involve naming ideas that are false, such as the academic argument that no such person as Jesus ever existed. It also might mean calling certain academic structures or methods into question. For example, most scholarship on Jesus assumes that knowing what really happened requires starting from a place of absolute skepticism. By this method, the only way to prove that an event from Jesus’ life is historical is to assume that all the evidence we have for Jesus (in the gospels) is biased or fabricated and then identify the tiny kernels which would not have been made up. This is backwards. What would happen if you told a friend that you assumed they were lying every time they spoke unless you could absolutely prove otherwise? It’s also an insufficient way of seeking truth, yet students are often taught to think in this way. We worship a Savior who lived in a specific time and place, who truly died and truly rose from the dead. Our faith is and must be historical, and Christians should have every confidence in seeking the truths of history.

The Study Center is always looking for ways to partner with other ministries on Grounds, and I’ve been delighted to co-lead a group on the Theology of the Body with Nate Smith from Catholic Student Ministries. We’ve led a mix of Evangelical and Catholic students through a weighty theological work called Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body, by John Paul II. The text is theologically dense but also intensely practical. Through this reading we’ve considered the effects of the creation, fall,

redemption and future resurrection on our bodies. This bears on students’ pressing questions about how to live faithfully as a single person, the significance of marriage, and how we treat our bodies. Far from shying away from heavy theological reading, students wanted to keep reading so much that we added an extra meeting last semester!

Ken Myers, founder of the Mars Hill Audio Journal, is also leading a group called Music, Meaning & Modernity. Ken is an incredible resource to have in Charlottesville, and he has been a friend of the Study Center for many years. With his help this reading group has considered whether music has any objective meaning at all, or if it can mean anything we want it to. (Hint: Ken thinks music does have meaning.) This group has been enlivened by the attendance of some local worship pastors in addition to our students, another way the Study Center serves as a bridge between the church and the academy.

These small groups cover worthwhile topics, but more than that they are forming students in how to think Christianly in light of the truths of scripture and within our specific cultural moment. Our hope is that these habits of Christian study will be fruitful to students even after college and for the rest of their life.

If any of these small groups sound enticing to you, join us! See our website for a complete list of groups and their meeting times.

STUDY CENTER NEWSLETTER WINTER 2014 S PAGE 7

READING GROUPS AND BIBLE STUDIES SPRING 2014Visit www.studycenter.net/smallgroups to read de-scriptions of each group, meeting dates and times. Most groups are open to people of all ages.

Undergraduate Women’s Bible StudyUndergraduate Men’s Bible StudyChristianity and Economics Reading GroupFaith, Reason and Science Reading GroupHistorical Jesus Reading GroupNew Testament Greek Reading GroupEphesians Reading GroupTheology and the Body Reading GroupMusic, Meaning and Modernity Reading Group

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UVA REUNIONS WEEKEND 2014COMING TO U.VA. REUNIONS WEEKEND?

JOIN US AT THEChristian Fellowships ReceptionJune 7, 4-6 pm at the Study Center

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