1. The influence of the academy in both the Western and Eastern world.
a. Highlight the number of students faculty and staff interact with daily
b. Highlight new faculty and staff that we interact with and the future students these new faculty and staff will interact with throughout their careers
c. Highlight the discoverability of knowledge, or truth, done at the universities
d. Highlight the impact on society and culture by the universities
e. Highlight the CULTURE that the universities have
i. Dress
ii. Language
iii. Customs
iv. Organizational structure
2. Focus on the calling each of us as to the university
a. Mark 5: 1-20
i. Even though the demonic wanted to follow Jesus after his “cleansing” Jesus sent him back to his home. Why? Those from within a culture are best to be able to reach others inside the same culture.
3. Fear
a. Fear can be real at a university
i. Promotion
ii. Tenure
iii. Hiring sequences
iv. Resources
b. The opposite of faith is not fear, the opposite of faith is paralyzing fear
c. If realizable fear can exist, then that raises the question how can Christians be effective in the academy?
4. Christian workers in restricted/closed countries have highly effective strategies to reach people in hostile settings.
Learn from these workers
5. Strategies of engagement
a. Prayer. One can always pray, so pray often and strategically
b. Embrace and engage in the culture. Learn the language, be part of your universities culture, recognize God called you to this culture, engage it.
c. Be a TREMENDOUS resource/asset to your Department/College/Unit/University
i. Service is a very visible source of witnessing
ii. Allows you to “bank” goodwill in case you ever need to make a “withdrawal” against the goodwill
6. Avoid Geopolitical conversations
a. Almost always a trap from the enemy
b. Don’t avoid Christian aspect of geopolitical conversations. E.g., support the unborn without supporting a specific political party
7. Own your space
a. A strange protection exists for faculty’s office door and office and email signatures. Own them, use them, allows you to make a statement without directly stating it to someone in the moment.
8. Adopt the language of salvation in your lectures
a. Hey class, they say confession is good for the soul…I gotta confess I got this part of the lecture wrong…
b. I need to change a test date, can you show me mercy here?
c. I wasn’t nice in that response, could you forgive me?
d. That’s a reasonable excuse for the assignment to be late, I’ve gotten grace in my life let me show you grace also
9. Meet felt needs
a. Students come to your office in pain, scared or often in crisis.
b. I will almost always ask “tell me, do you practice a faith?”
10. Embrace the safety of answering questions.
a. It is impossible to get into trouble for answering a question
b. Construct situations so that people ask you questions
c. Answer honestly, opening and let them know you enjoy the conversations
11. Seek people of peace
a. Individuals that if they became a believe would rock the local university.
b. Every campus has them, figure out who they are
c. Pray for them
d. Engage them
12. Partner with parachurch organizations (to name a few)
a. CRU
b. IV
c. Navs
13. Recognize at some time you have to “gamble”
a. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God
b. Be willing to risk backlash so that the Gospel is clearly, directly and lovingly stated.
