A
PUBLICATION
OF
THE
CENTER
FOR
CHRISTIAN
STUDY
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FALL
2018
T HE S T UDY C E NT E R
EXTENDING the WELCOME of CHRIST WELCOME FROM BILL | DISCIPLING WITH TRUTH AND LOVE FALL PROGRAMS CALENDAR A WELL-LIT HOME: REFLECTIONS FROM A BOARD MEMBER PAG E 1 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2018
THIS ISSUE: WELCOME!
by Bill Wilder, page 3
DISCIPLING WITH TRUTH AND LOVE
by Rachel Gaffin with Katie & Ethan Hightower, page 4
FALL PROGRAMS CALENDAR
page 6
A WELL-LIT HOME
by Paul Chen, page 7
STUDY CENTER STAFF BILL WILDER
Executive Director bill@studycenter.net
RICK CAMPANELLI
Director of Graduate Ministries rick@studycenter.net
NIKKI FLANNERY
Development Manager nikki@studycenter.net
RACHEL GAFFIN
Communications Manager rachel@studycenter.net On the cover: Elzinga Residential Scholar Katherine Huiskes and fourth-year Anna Powell welcome students to MoveIn Day Lunch 2018 (photo by Brittany Fan); Page 3: (left to right, counter-clockwise): Law Christian Fellowship students gather at the house of Rick Campanelli, Director of Graduate Ministries, for a start-of-year cook out (photo courtesy of Rick Campanelli); Facilities Assistant Kyle O’Donnell eats with a first-year at Move-In Day Lunch 2018; Elzinga Residential Scholar Pauline DiLorenzo greets a fellow volunteer at Move-In Day Lunch (photos by Brittany Fan); Page 5: Katie and Ethan Hightower address students at Move-In Day Lunch (photo by Brittany Fan); Page 6 (from top to bottom, counter-clockwise): Parents connect with the Study Center community at Move-In Day Lunch; Donell Woodson shares with students at spring 2018’s talk, Redeeming Charity; families chat before going inside at Family Weekend Reception, Fall 2016 (photos by Brittany Fan); a student and her family enjoy conversation at Move-In Day Lunch (photo by Abby Vendt); Page 7: Paul Chen, Professor Ken Elzinga, and Bill Richards stand in front of Paul’s lawn room (photo courtesy of Paul Chen).
FITZ GREEN
Director of Educational Ministries fitz@studycenter.net
ETHAN HIGHTOWER
Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Men ethan@studycenter.net
KATIE HIGHTOWER
Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Women katie@studycenter.net
JAN MATHEWS
Administrative Assistant jan@studycenter.net
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.
KYLE O’DONNELL Facilities Assistant kyle@studycenter.net
TRISH OWEN
Librarian trish@studycenter.net
DEBBIE RODRIGUEZ Director of Finance debbie@studycenter.net
CARLY VANNESS Programs Manager carly@studycenter.net
AMY ZELL
Director of Counseling Resources amy@studycenter.net
WHO WE ARE We are a non-profit education and outreach ministry serving the University of Virginia and Charlottesville since 1976. 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 US PAG E 2 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2018
Phone: (434) 817-1050 Email: info@studycenter.net Website: www.studycenter.net Find us on social media: @studycenterUVA
WELCOME! The word ‘welcome’ originally conveyed the notion of desiring (wel = will/wanting) someone to come, a notion we’ve been eager to convey to UVA students at this time of the year! We have welcomed first-year families at our two Move-In Day Lunches, hosted returning students at our Welcome Back Lunch and graduate student picnics, and gathered Study Center staff, interns, and residents for an opening dinner. We’ve been extending that kind of welcome for a long time at the Study Center. In the pages that follow you’ll read an account of his own welcome here from new Board member (and young alum), Paul Chen. This year we’ve also been welcoming new members to our ministry staff team. After years as beloved undergraduate ministers at the Study Center, Jay McCabe and Lane Cowin have been called to new places of service. Lane is now the Director of Spiritual Formation at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville while Jay is founding a post-undergraduate Fellows program in Virginia Beach. After saying farewell to Jay and Lane earlier this summer, we welcomed Ethan and Katie Hightower as our new directors of undergraduate ministries. We’re excited to have them on board! You will find their stories in this newsletter as well. It remains, of course, to welcome you to this new Study Center year and newsletter. But first, I have a few thoughts on what a Study Center welcome is all about. It occurs to me that the act of welcoming or being welcomed is not automatically good, any more than reading or even believing is automatically good. It entirely depends on what you’re reading, believing, or being welcomed to! I can think of certain books I wouldn’t recommend to my children, certain claims I wouldn’t want them to believe, and certain weekend parties to which a less than warm welcome to my children would be more than welcome to me. So when we welcome students to the Study Center, what exactly are we welcoming them into? The negatives are easy here. We’re not welcoming them to a church (though we hope that will be their first priority) nor, in the case of undergraduate students, to a fellowship group (though we’ll hope they’ll join one). Rather, we’re welcoming them to a study center with its admittedly unusual combination of place, hospitality, and Christian study. I think we can say more than that, though. It’s not just the present
we’re welcoming these students to. They are (for the moment) at the end of a long line of students who have passed through this building since 1976, themselves welcomed by a long line of staff and Board members stretching back even further. Last night our Programs Manager, Carly Vanness, read an account of Daryl Richman’s coming to Charlottesville, along with his early partnerships with Ken Elzinga, David Turner, and Drew Trotter, to her team of interns. We had read and discussed that story and others at our summer staff retreat, because we see ourselves as temporary stewards of a ministry that we have inherited from others. Hopefully, too, we’re welcoming students to the beginning of an even longer line as well. I love the way that many Study Center alumni from the 70s, 80s, and beyond still consider themselves to be part of the larger Study Center family. Andy Crouch once wrote of “[planting] seeds that will take generations to bear fruit, to nurture forms of culture [including ministries] that will be seen as a blessing by our children’s children.” That’s certainly my hope for the Study Center–that it will be extending a welcome to students for generations to come. (It makes you wonder what a 22nd century Move-In Day event might look like, doesn’t it?) Of course, we should only hope for the long-term flourishing of the Study Center insofar as it faithfully represents God’s gracious welcome to all who will come. We want students to come to the Study Center because, ultimately, we want them to come to Christ. Our welcome is grounded in His. That’s what Paul wants the Roman church to see in his letter to them. Twice he exhorts this church to welcome each other (14:1; 15:7), the first time “for God has welcomed him” (14:3) and the second time “as Christ has welcomed you” (15:7). In reflecting on faithfulness recently, I noted that our faithfulness is always a response to God’s faithfulness. Likewise, our welcome at the Study Center over the years is a response to (and reflection of) his prior welcome to us in Christ. My prayer is that the Study Center will extend that kind of welcome into our house on Chancellor Street for many years to come as we anticipate our Lord’s welcome into eternal habitations. And now, finally–welcome to this newsletter! I hope you enjoy it. Yours in our Lord, Bill Wilder Executive Director, bill@studycenter.net
PAG E 3 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R S P R I N G 2018
A TIMELINE of MARRIAGE and MINISTRY
DISCIPLING with TRUTH and LOVE by Rachel Gaffin Communications Manager
KATIE BORN & RAISED IN STOCKTON, CA
2011 ENTERED WESTMONT COLLEGE
ETHAN BORN & RAISED IN TROY, AL 2009 ENTERED AUBURN UNIVERSITY 2012 SERVED AS ASSISTANT PASTOR AT TWO ALABAMA CHURCHES 2013 RECEIVED A B.A. IN ENGLISH FROM AUBURN
2013-15 SERVED AS AN R.A. AT WESTMONT
2015 RECEIVED A B.A. IN RELIGIOUS STUDIES FROM WESTMONT
2013-15 TAUGHT ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE AT TROY UNIVERSITY
2015 STARTED AT GORDON-CONWELL THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY JULY 22, 2017 MARRIED IN TROY, AL MAY 2018 GRADUATED FROM GORDON-CONWELL JULY 2018 STARTED WORK AT THE CENTER FOR CHRISTIAN STUDY AS DIRECTORS OF UNDERGRADUATE MINISTRY PAG E 4 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2018
with Katie and Ethan Hightower Directors of Undergraduate Ministries
This fall, the Center for Christian Study welcomed two new directors of undergraduate ministry to staff: Katie and Ethan Hightower. After getting married in 2017, Katie and Ethan graduated in spring 2018 from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, MA, with Masters in Divinity. In addition to theological understanding that is deeply rooted in Scripture, the Hightowers each carry with them stories of grace and hope that testify to the Lord’s love and care for his children. It is this union of knowledge and experience, of truth and love, that the Hightowers bring to their ministry to UVA students.
Stepping into the work of the Study Center’s directors of undergraduate ministries is no small feat. The undergraduate ministry positions encompass a wide range of responsibilities, including but not limited to: leading small groups, giving lectures, mentoring students, and leading dinners and discussions with the Elzinga Residential Scholars. Add to that the inevitable impromptu ministry that takes place here daily—conversations in the kitchen, office drop-ins from students, not to mention the unexpected calls at odd hours that come with the territory of serving as landlords to the Center’s eighteen residents. Enter Katie and Ethan Hightower—a husband and wife team who came to Charlottesville with a gospel-shaped desire to care for students with both truth and love. Recent graduates of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Katie and Ethan are both well-rounded students of Scripture, their understanding of the Lord supported with “knowledge and discernment” (Philippians 1:9b). Katie, a Biblical Languages minor during her undergraduate years at Westmont College, possesses a passion for the power of a precise word from the original text to illuminate the meaning of a given Scripture passage and its call on the lives of God’s children. This fall, she and Ethan have partnered to lead a small group called “Hosea: Idolatry & Mercy,” where Katie’s language study has led to nuanced discussion with students of what exactly the Lord intended when he called the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute. While Katie’s passion for language informs her teaching, Ethan’s curiosity for historical context informs his own instruction of students. This fall, he and fourth-year Daniel Durgavich, three-time Study Center resident, are leading students in a small group that explores the lives of the Church Fathers and Mothers, called “Heroes of the
Q&A with KATIE and ETHAN
If you could give any advice or encouragement to your college freshman self, what would it be? Katie: I would ask myself what kind of friendships I wanted to get out of college and what qualities I thought a lifelong friend would display. I’d also talk to myself about how to be that kind of friend to others. I would encourage myself to seek people who would talk to me about the complicated, messy, and difficult parts of life and be willing to share perspectives and engage big issues, especially Christian faith. Ethan: You can’t expect to have good habits later, a stable lifestyle later, or a consistent relationship with Christ later if you aren’t striving for those things now. Faith.” Equipped by their years at seminary, Katie and Ethan have plunged headfirst into sharing the truth of the gospel with UVA students. Their ministry to students doesn’t stop with the head, however. This fall they gave a talk together entitled “Finding Our Story in Christ’s Story.” Students shared dinner and then had the opportunity to hear both of the Hightowers testify to the Lord’s sovereign care for their lives. Through sharing their personal stories, the Hightowers modeled an important truth of the Scriptures: that the Lord is the one who has called us “out of darkness and into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9b). In the light of Christ, his children find the freedom to share their stories from the heart: vulnerably and without shame. Katie and Ethan both have opportunities to continue to share their stories with students, particularly as they mentor the Elzinga Residential Scholars. “Discipleship is looking at God together in order to grow closer to him and each other. Christianity isn’t meant to be lived out alone,” says Ethan, emphasizing the truth that gospel living takes place in the context of gospel community. Katie agrees, “Discipleship has shown me the value of being vulnerable with other people and inviting them into the reality of my life, even if it’s not the Instagram-worthy picture I wish it were. I want to create a safe space for students to feel free to be themselves and share their struggles without fear of judgment, knowing they will be met with the grace of the gospel and a response that points them to Christ.” Through teaching and through relationships, through love and truth, the Lord is at work in Katie and Ethan’s presence at the Study Center to do just that. Hallelujah!
How has the Lord grown your understanding of the gospel through your marriage? Katie: Marriage has helped me understand the differences between the gospel accounts in a new way. Ethan and I have a lot of the same experiences, but when we tell the stories later, we remember them differently. Ethan: If things are tough, I push people away and bottle up my emotions. I lie to myself, and I even hide from God. You can’t really do that in marriage. It’s tough but so rewarding.
What is your prayer for UVA students this semester? Katie: For students to root their identity in Christ and use the Bible as the lens through which they view the world. Ethan: That they would want to know the triune God more deeply. I pray that this would be the thing that energizes them and determines their majors, careers, and habits.
How can the Study community pray for you?
Center
Katie: I would love prayer for Charlottesville to become a real home for me and Ethan, especially with our families living far away. For myself, I would love prayer for finding a balance in caring for others and caring for myself. Ethan: I want to want to know God more and have an ever-deepening relationship with him. PAG E 5 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2018
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FALL PROGRAMS CALENDAR AUGUST AUGUST 24 & 25 MOVE-IN DAY LUNCHES AUGUST 29 WELCOME BACK LUNCH AUGUST 31 GRADUATE CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP PICNIC
SEPTEMBER SEPTEMBER 4 INTERN DINNERS START SEPTEMBER 6 RESIDENT DINNERS & CLASS STARTS SEPTEMBER 7 SMALL GROUPS START
OCTOBER OCTOBER 8 SOUL SABBATH RETREAT OCTOBER 13 HOMECOMINGS TAILGATE
SEPTEMBER 11 FIRST YEAR DINNER SEPTEMBER 19 FINDING OUR STORY IN CHRIST’S STORY WITH KATIE & ETHAN HIGHTOWER
OCTOBER 16 FIRST & SECOND YEAR DINNER OCTOBER 25 REDUCED TO DATA:
WITH FELICIA SONG OCTOBER 27
FAMILY WEEKEND RECEPTION OCTOBER 30 THINKING GREEK: WOMEN’S FORUM
NOVEMBER NOVEMBER 1 THINKING GREEK: MEN’S BREAKFAST
DECEMBER DECEMBER 4 THIRD & FOURTH YEAR DINNER DECEMBER 10-17 (EXCEPT SUNDAY) EXAM SNACKS
PAG E 6 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2018
NOVEMBER 14 TWO VIEWS: LORD’S TABLE
Visit studycenter.net for more information and audio recordings.
A WELL-LIT HOME Paul Chen (陈扬洋) Student and Investor in Technology; Study Center Board Member
In this article, Paul Chen, a 2010 UVA alum and newly minted Study Center Board member, reflects on his experience as an international student at UVA. After a foray into UVA’s party scene, Paul felt called to another way of life, in large part through the welcome he received from UVA’s Christian community—particularly at the Study Center.
Back then, the Study Center held supper clubs, where five to six students got together to talk over take-out dinners. I loved these! Instead of judging my broken English, people there were friendly, and I felt welcomed and safe. My favorite spot at the Study Center was the kitchen, where I ran into lots of people, including Garrett Trent, a friendly first year from Charlotte. Garrett remains a good friend today.
“Many believers ooze out of their faith in college.” I first heard Professor Elzinga speak in August 2006 at the Study Center MoveIn Day Lunch. I had just become a Christian two years before and didn’t fully understand what Professor Elzinga meant at the time. I wasn’t worried too much, though, because the lunch was free and the other first years seemed nice. The house looked similar to its neighbors, except with better lighting.
Besides men, I also met many godly women through the Center. I remember in one supper club, two women talked about the suffocating pressure that they felt about looking beautiful all the time. As an international student, I never had this kind of open and vulnerable conversation with American students anywhere else. The Study Center somehow managed to remove the cultural barriers that created a schism between American and international students elsewhere on Grounds. I built many healthy relationships in the building.
Shortly after school started, the sirens on Rugby Road called to me. “Fresh off the boat” from China, I was not invited to any of the prestigious parties. While F.O.M.O. (“fear of missing out”) was not a term back then, I was massively afraid of missing out on the great UVA party experience. So, I hustled my way into the lesser parties. Initially, I was drawn to the novelty of being able to party all night. I spent my weekend nights on Rugby Road and Sunday mornings at church. Something in my life felt off, but I wasn’t sure why. This tension between life on Rugby Road and church on Sunday morning lasted several months. One night, at another dance party, I started to feel bored, then empty, and finally shameful. Suddenly, I just couldn’t stand the ambience of that place. It felt so... dark. I went outside for fresh air, where I found another newbie standing outside. “What’s up, man?” I asked. “Felt pretty bored,” he said. Before long I learned that he was also a believer. We exchanged our feelings of confusion caused by our self-proclaimed Christian faith and how we chose to spend our time on weekend nights. We then decided to go back to his dorm to hang out, where we joined his roommate, another Christian. We talked for hours about faith and life, and ended up playing the video game FIFA World Cup. It was awesome! That night, I saw a new vision for my life at UVA, one that was wholesome, exciting, and fun. Wanting more of this, I searched around for more Christian community. A guy named Rob Smithson from my dorm talked about the Study Center a lot and seemed to be having a great time there. Remembering the MoveIn Day Lunch, I decided to check it out.
In my fourth year, I got to know Bill Wilder when I found myself facing the disappointment of not receiving a job offer I had counted on. Bill prayed with me and pointed me to my identity in Christ. Ever since, every time I get back in Charlottesville, I make a point to visit Bill. After graduation, God took me to many unexpected places. I advised companies on Wall Street. I served as an usher at Tim Keller’s church. I was introduced to Silicon Valley. I prayed with believers in big Chinese cities. I studied diplomacy at the Kennedy School. I served two graduate fellowships. I married an incredibly intelligent believer. I now travel globally to invest in tech startups. My wife and I serve as youth leaders in a San Francisco church. For a time, I oozed out of faith at UVA, but then I received sound instruction through the Study Center. It is this kind of instruction that I hope to give in my own life. I’ll leave you with two passages of Scripture that have encouraged me: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). “To know wisdom and instruction, to understand words of insight, to receive instruction in wise dealing, in righteousness, justice, and equity; to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth” (Proverbs 1).
Born in Chengdu, China, Paul Chen immigrated as a teenager to Norfolk, VA. Paul currently serves on the global technology investment team with Alibaba Group, based in San Francisco. Together with his wife Wanxin, Paul attends Menlo Church in the Bay Area. This fall, he will speak to the Study Center’s Graduate Christian Fellowship about Christianty in China.
PAG E 7 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2018
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FAMILY WEEKEND RECEPTION
OCTOBER 27, 2018 5:00-7:00 P.M.
Join us for an evening of food, refreshments, and live music in our home with fellow parents and Study Center staff. Details and registration form available online: studycenter.net/family-weekend-reception
PAG E 8 S T H E ST U DY C E N T E R N E W S L E T T E R FA L L 2018