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THE S T U DY C E NT E R
THIS ISSUE: Seeds Still Bearing Fruit, pg. 3 Bill Wilder Surrounded by a Cloud of Witnesses, pg. 4–5 Rick Campanelli
STUDY CENTER STAFF BILL WILDER
Fall Programs Calendar, pg. 6 Various Staff Members
Executive Director bill@studycenter.net
Grounded in the Gospel, pg. 7 Katie Carr
Senior Director for Education & Programs fitz@studycenter.net
FITZ GREEN
RICK CAMPANELLI
Director of Graduate Ministries rick@studycenter.net
KATIE CARR
On the cover: Student volunteers and staff members excitedly gather to welcome incoming students at Move-In Day Lunch 2019 (photo by Brittany Fan). Page 3: (from left to right) Families meet and converse over food in the Richman Room at Move-In Day Lunch; Directors of Undergraduate Ministries, Katie and Ethan Hightower, gather with the greeting team before incoming students arrive; an incoming student grabs food at Move-In Day Lunch (photos by Brittany Fan). Page 4: (from top to bottom) Director of Graduate Ministries, Rick Campanelli, shares about wisdom at LCF Tuesday night gathering (photo by Brittany Fan); a group of Law students at LCF Welcome Back Picnic (photo provided by Rick Campanelli). Page 5: descriptions on page (photo on bottom right provided by Rick Campanelli, others by Brittany Fan). Page 6: (from top to bottom) fourth-years Tristan Amatruda, Cassie Stiles, and Aaron Terrasa share a laugh; students participate in trivia at First & Second Year Dinner from Spring 2019; Felicia Wu Song shares social media data at her “Reducted to Data” lecture in Fall 2018; students huddle together as they wait in line for Exam Snacks (photos by Brittany Fan). Page 7: (from left to right) Foundations Week participants, student volunteers, and a few staff members gather for a group photo at the top of Humpback Rocks (photo provided by Ethan Hightower); a few Foundations Week participants chat with Katie Hightower on the Study Center deck (photo by Katie Carr); first-years Abby Cornwell, Anna Williamson, and Robert Wood jump for joy for the Scavenger Hunt (photo by Eva Varghese); headshots of Madison Gould and Coleman Jenkins (photos by Katie Carr).
WWW.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.
homecomings tailgate NOVEMBER 9, 2019 TWO HOURS BEFORE KICK-OFF MORE INFORMATION AT studycenter.net/study-center-homecomingstailgate
Communications Manager katiecarr@studycenter.net
NIKKI FLANNERY
Development Manager nikki@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
TRISH OWEN
Librarian trish@studycenter.net
BILL PORTER
Facilities Coordinator billporter@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 2019
Phone: (434) 817-1050 Email: info@studycenter.net Website: www.studycenter.net Find us on social media: @studycenterUVA
SEEDS STILL BEARING FRUIT by Bill Wilder Executive Director, bill@studycenter.net A beginning and an ending came together in a lovely way on August 24th this year. Hours after one of our Move-In Day Lunches for incoming students and their families at the Study Center, hundreds gathered at Trinity Presbyterian to remember Daryl Richman and celebrate his life. Many of you will know that the Lord used Daryl in the sixties and seventies to sow seeds that are still bearing fruit today. It’s been such an encouragement to hear from folks writing or calling to share the impact Daryl had on their lives. There are so many stories! For one thing, it seems clear that Daryl had a gift for showing up, often unexpectedly, at just the right place or time. Much of the seed he scattered in every direction fell, by God’s grace, on fertile soil. It was deeply appropriate, then, that the ending of Daryl’s life and ministry coincided with the beginning of another year of ministry at UVA, which was itself, after all, the fruit of Daryl’s labor so many years ago. This is true not only of the Study Center’s ministry and the Move-In Day Lunch we hosted that day, but also of numerous other Grounds ministries. During the memorial service I sat next to the long-time leader of an undergrad fellowship group not directly tied to Daryl or Trinity. I appreciated his recognition that the entire Christian community at UVA owes a debt to Daryl and his work over a generation ago. Thanks to the Lord’s work through Daryl many years ago, seed continues to be sown and fruit continues to be borne at UVA across the entire span of Grounds ministries. Some of that sowing and reaping is described in this newsletter. We have included a calendar of events for this semester at the Study Center. We hope that you will attend our community events as you can and encourage the UVA students in your life to get involved. There is a piece too on our inaugural “Foundations Week,” a four-day retreat before the Move-In Day weekend for incoming students to meet other first years, get to know Charlottesville, connect with ministry staff, and get grounded in gospel truth. Finally, Director of Graduate Ministries, Rick Campanelli, describes a unique and encouraging gathering of the Law Christian Fellowship (LCF) after the memorial service for Daryl. Speaking of graduate ministries at UVA, I am happy to announce the Study Center has revived a past partnership with InterVarsity Graduate and Faculty Ministries (GFM) in order to better serve graduate students and faculty members on Central Grounds. Many years ago when I was the Director of Graduate Ministries at the Study Center, I had the privilege of working for four years
with Tom Oster, the IV GFM staff person at that time. We are delighted that our Senior Director for Education and Programs, Fitz Green, will now be working closely with Kevin Offner, the new GFM staff person, in our Graduate Christian Fellowship. We are also pleased to welcome Katie Carr to the staff of the Center for Christian Study. Katie is a 2018 UVA alumna who served as an intern at the Study Center and participated in the Trinity Fellows Program (2018-19) before joining the Center this past July as our new Communications Manager. She replaces Rachel Gaffin, who has now joined the Abundant Life Fellows Program in Charlottesville and so still makes appearances at the Study Center. We’re glad you’re here, Katie! Blessings to you, Rachel! I am grateful for all the sowers and sowing that the Lord continues to bring to UVA. As Ken Elzinga often notes, the fields remain “white unto harvest,” so we pray that even more workers will enter into Daryl’s labor. We also take this occasion to praise God for the good work he began in his faithful servant and sower, Daryl Richman. An ending for him was also a beginning. Having sowed to the Spirit, he has now reaped eternal life (Gal 6:8). His body was sown in weakness, it will be raised in power (1 Cor 15:43). May we, like Daryl, “not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will also reap if we do not give up” (Gal 6:9).
Remarks from Ken Elzinga... “Like many of you, I have keen memories of my time with Daryl. Let me share one with you—because it was a game-changer for me. Perhaps you will find it edifying as well. The scene is the UVA chapel. There was to be a meeting that evening that Daryl had organized. I was to be the speaker. Daryl and I were sitting on the front row of the chapel, the East side, by the organ. As we were talking and praying together, I felt badly for Daryl because, as the time of the meeting drew nigh, it appeared as though not many students would be in attendance. Parenthetically, I had not yet learned that UVA students generally made their appearance at the last minute and did not have the propensity, embedded in the Dutch, to be punctual. When it first appeared that attendance would be sparse, I told Daryl how sorry I felt. Daryl would have none of it. He told me that we were not called to be successful in attracting lots of students. Rather, we were called to be faithful in caring for those who came. We are not called to be successful. We are called to be faithful.” – Ken Elzinga, from his remarks at the memorial service for Daryl Richman 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 FA L L 2019
SURROUNDED BY A CLOUD OF WITNESSES by Rick Campanelli (Law ‘83) Director of Graduate Ministries, rick@studycenter.net
This is a story about God’s faithfulness over four decades. At a barbecue on a Sunday afternoon this past August at Bob and Denise Cochran’s house in Charlottesville, about forty Law Christian Fellowship friends and spouses were having conversations you might expect. They were catching up with each other on their thinking about vocation and jobs, on relationships, on families, on discerning where God is leading, on balancing competing priorities. Some talked about the changing culture and the challenge of talking about the Lord in the workplace. Some shared how God had worked in unexpected ways in his provision for them or a family member, and how God had been faithful to them in dry times.
the years, many hadn’t seen each other in person for two or three decades. And we certainly hadn’t had a chance to be all together like this for a very long time. We were in town to attend the memorial service for Daryl Richman, and to praise God for the impact Daryl’s
These conversations are not surprising. They are typical of many Law Fellowship conversations that happen among friends who care deeply about each other, trust each other, and pray for each other. They might happen any week at the Law School: in the library, in Scott Commons over coffee or lunch, in the LCF Tuesday night gatherings, in the Bible studies, in the prayer times— even on the “Sermon on the Mound” softball team that so many LCF folks play on. (Of course, there the conversations occur between screams of “tag him out!” and “she’s safe!”)
faithfulness had on so many of us with whom he humbly and boldly shared the gospel in the 60s and 70s. We came from near and far—Colorado, Texas, New England, DC, Charlottesville, and throughout Virginia. We came from law firms and businesses, from ministries and families, from full-time practice and retirement. We celebrated Daryl and how the Lord had been faithful to all of us over the years, and now brought so many of us back together.
What is surprising, though, is that most of the LCF members and friends at this August barbecue were no longer in law school. In fact, most had graduated from UVA Law and the Law Fellowship forty or more years ago. Although many had been in touch with each other over
We certainly looked different than when we were in law school, and we had seen many changes over the years. Some had long since left the practice of law; some had retired. We had experienced many trials—even if we’d never been in court—which the Lord brought us through
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Some of the forty LCF friends at the Welcome Back Picnic at the Campanelli home.
and was still bringing us through. Families that we had talked and prayed about for all these years now included grown children with kids of their own—and we were still praying about them! We shared some tragic stories and celebrated and laughed over the rich years of friendship the Lord has blessed us with. While the contexts of our lives had changed since we were at law school—when we could only look forward in faith to what the Lord might do in the years ahead—now here we were, together again, celebrating the actual experience of the Lord’s sustaining, abiding love all these years.
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Two days later, I attended a gathering of the current UVA Law Fellowship, a worship service to start off the year. There were about 40 students there, too—over half of them first-year students. Many of them were wondering, as we once did, what it would look like to follow the Lord at Law School and in the vocation of Law. As the meeting concluded, I had a chance to tell them that just as they were freshly starting off the year, which could seem very daunting, I had just been with a group of former Law Fellowship members who forty years before, sat (almost) where they sat, faced questions and uncertainties about the future, and were putting their trust in the Lord in this big, new endeavor of the Law. And yes, they could affirm the Lord’s great faithfulness, decades later, in their lives and in relationships of brothers and sisters who, by God’s grace, continue to be a blessing to each other across geography and across the years even long after law school.
Former Law Christian Fellowship members and friends— we’d love to stay in touch! If you aren’t receiving our emails, contact nikki@studycenter.net and we’ll put you on our list.
It is so encouraging to hear from—and about—former LCF members who continue to demonstrate God’s love and faithfulness. What an awesome reminder that those of us who are currently involved in LCF are part of a decades-long legacy of God’s redeeming work at the Law School. Additionally, hearing about LCF alumni provides a hopeful glimpse into what relationships with the Lord and with each other can look like even years after graduating from this place. – Ray Gans (Law ‘20), LCF President
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At Move-In Day Lunch, Rick takes a moment to talk with Callie Gaskins (Col ‘20) and her younger brother, Davey.
Ray grabs a slice of pizza before Rick begins his talk; Rick introduces himself to a student.
Professor Barbara Armacost (Law ‘89) speaks at an LCF Tuesday night gathering.
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19-22 Foundations Week 23-24 Move-In Day Lunches
fall programs calendar
28 Welcome Back Lunch
Hear what our staff members have to say about some of our events:
august 10 First & Third Year Dinner 30 Presence & Pluralism with Rick Campanelli
september 12 Soul Sabbath 19 Family Weekend Reception 21 Abortion & Race: A personal Story with DJ Carter
october
29 Thinking Greek
09 Homecomings Tailgate 14 C.S. Lewis on Stage 19 Second & Fourth Year Dinner
nov–dec
12/9-16 Exam Snacks
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Wouldn’t it be so refreshing to enter into a conversation with someone radically different than you with the mutual goal to better understand the other person and to do so from a place of love? Paul says to the Romans, “So far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.” I am excited to hear Rick Campanelli talk about how to live together peaceably with all and what that looks like practically in the pluralistic society that we live in. – Ethan Hightower, Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Men Soul Sabbath is an opportunity for our high-achieving and often over-committed students to take a break and focus on their life with Christ. It’s a day-long retreat in solitude for students to rest and to seek the Lord through Scripture, nature, and other elements of the contemplative life. My favorite part of the day is when we come together for a silent meal where we eat slowly and focus on the experience of eating down to the taste and texture of the food. – Katie Hightower, Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Women Family Weekend Reception is an intimate gathering at the Study Center during UVA's Family Weekend. Students and their family members are welcomed into our home for hors d'oeuvres and conversation with new friends and old. Our staff loves getting to meet the parents of students we've gotten to know here in the building. (But what brings me the most joy, besides the people, is the cheese platter!) – Nikki Flannery, Development Manager Typically, I avoid digging in to controversial topics like abortion. That being said, I am looking forward to hearing DJ Carter share his personal story and his heart for women who have been impacted by abortion. Through this talk, DJ will expand the way we think and talk about these important topics. – Carly Vanness, Programs Manager I’m so excited to host this play, in which C.S. Lewis stands in his study sharing the story of his conversion. It’s geared for students—particularly for non-Christians—and it’s a creative way that goes beyond the lecture to engage our imaginations with the truth of Christianity. – Fitz Green, Senior Director for Education and Programs
GROUNDED IN THE GOSPEL by Katie Carr Communications Manager, katiecarr@studycenter.net Describe Foundations Week and what it was about in your own words. MG: Foundations Week was a week of connecting with other first-year students, older students, and Grounds ministers, and building a foundation on the gospel for our first year of college. We got to meet professors who are believers, leaders in different Grounds ministries, and upperclassmen that answered our many questions about college life. It was such a valuable week of fellowship and learning how to ask the hard questions in college, and it was even better that we got to do it with such a caring, genuine group of people around us. The group from Foundations Week has continued to check in with each other, hang out together, pray for one another through the struggles, and celebrate each other in the wins. It has been such a beautiful picture of a Christ-centered community. If you could use one word to describe Foundations Week, what would it be? MG: Preparatory; I keep on saying that I can’t imagine how I would’ve survived the first week of college without Foundations Week. CJ: Formative; it helped form new things and relationships that have helped me immensely starting college. It formed friendships that have continued to grow, but also just a base of people to know and be familiar with, who you know share your beliefs and want the best for you. What is one thing that you learned during the week? MG: I think that I really learned the comfort of having the gospel as a grounding point during Foundations Week. The gospel is not too weak to carry my struggles. It is strong and true and always good, and it will always be more than enough for us. I also learned that the mysteries of God are not God withholding from us. Rather, they are an opportunity to embrace faith and trust that He is always good even when things don’t make sense. CJ: Honestly, I learned a lot about the origin of beliefs that I either didn’t hold, or didn’t know of. Ethan talked about his view of baptism, which I found very interesting as that’s not something I have historically agreed with, but he gave some really valid reasons for his view that I hadn't thought of before. How did the week deepen your understanding of the gospel? MG: Foundations Week really helped me see the gospel as an anchor to come back to when things feel chaotic. College has been challenging in a lot of ways already, and the community
from Foundations Week has helped to remind me that the gospel is always true and always good and always for me, no matter what. CJ: I loved hearing other people’s (especially Fitz and Ethan) perspectives on the overall story of scripture and how we fit in with the broader eternal picture. I also really enjoyed the biblical and theological discussions that came up simply from random conversation. Carly led a discussion on how the university environment shapes and orders your loves. How did that impact the way that you have approached the first few weeks of classes and being a college student? MG: Coming into college, the one thing I knew I was going to have to be cautious about, especially knowing myself and my tendencies to overachieve, was the level of ambition found in the “ideal” UVA student. So it was so comforting to have Carly’s discussion. It was so nice to be in a place where everyone in the room was supportive of resisting the achieving mindset and instead embracing slowness and intentionality even when it’s not going to be popular. CJ: That was one of the most helpful things we did because it provided an outside look on the culture that we were about to be immersed in. It was also good to look at my own desires and motives behind those desires and has helped me to separate the things that clearly only come from the culture around me and not from the Lord. As our goal should be to glorify God and enjoy him in everything we do, and as John Piper loves to say that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him, talking about what the university wants us to love has helped me to be less satisfied in the things I do or in my abilities and knowledge and infinitely more satisfied in Him and Him alone. And in doing that, using that to drive the life I live as a student as I steward what He has given me: not out of need to validate and give myself worth, but as a way to live out the life I have and use the gifts I have been given, which I know have worth only because of my Savior and the fact that my life comes from Him and Him alone. Madison Gould (left) is a first year from Austin, TX. Her favorite book is Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. Coleman Jenkins (right) is a first year from Fairfax, VA. His favorite book is Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin.
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family weekend reception October 19, 2019 from 5:00 until 7:00 p.m. at the Center for Christian Study Join us for an evening of food and fellowship with fellow parents and staff members. Take a tour of our building and learn about the history of this home. We‘d love to see you there! More info at studycenter.net/family-weekendreception
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