Date of Award

2-2023

Document Type

Project Portfolio

Degree Name

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

Department

Seminary

First Advisor

Jacqueline Bland, DMin

Second Advisor

Ekaterina Lomperis, PhD

Third Advisor

MaryKate Morse, PhD

Abstract

Today’s Christian professor in the secular university setting is likely an expert in their academic field. Likewise, many Christian faculty are sincere in their faith and devout in their practice. The Christian professor’s expert knowledge is impressive and their heart for God is admirable. Yet, today’s Christian professor is simultaneously likely to be ill-equipped and disconnected from having a missional impact in their secular university context. In my work with Cru at The Ohio State University, this challenge is complex; there are no easy answers. Christian faculty are typically educated and trained in environments that assume the irrelevance of God to their area of study. They live their daily lives in a context that promotes spiritual malformation, an environment that tends to determine one’s identity by their accolades. Faculty who would desire to influence others on campus for Christ, even students in particular, often feel unprepared to put their desire into practice. The most common degree needed to be a professor in the secular university is the PhD (doctor of philosophy), meaning a teacher of the love of wisdom. Yet, many centuries ago the academy relegated Christian philosophy and theology to the periphery of public knowledge, or excluded Biblical wisdom altogether. The Wise Professor is a program for Christian faculty to gather together as a community of likeminded peers, seeking wisdom as the skillful art of living in God’s mission. If wisdom has practical, ethical, theological, missional, and formational dimensions, then Christian faculty would do well to explore all of these dimensions of wisdom. In order to live out their God-given vocation, Christian faculty are invited to grow in living a wise life in accordance with the mission of God, for the good of the university and the world, and the glory of Jesus Christ.

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