Praxis Summer 2010
A publication of the Center for Christian Study
“Question About How to Know What Career to Pursue?” Helping students find a sustainable vocation for the glory of God is an important goal for our Directors, p.2
Praxis
What’s Inside: Faith, Vocation & a Long Term View
Study Center Staff
by Tim McConnell and Wes Zell page 5
Tim mcconnell
Director of Graduate Ministries
tim@studycenter.net
Goodbye Wes & Ashley
Ashley mejias
by Wes Zell and Ashley Mejias page 6
Director of Women’s Ministries
ashleym@studycenter.net shelly pellish
Director of Development, Alumni + Parent Relations
shelly@studycenter.net
On the cover: Darden second-year student, Parker Garrett, responds to a question of moral decisions in business during Randy Case’s lecture at Darden in April.
Debbie Rodriguez
Director of Finance + Administration
debbie@studycenter.net Ashley West
Director of Communications
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ashleyw@studycenter.net Bill Wilder
Executive Director
bill@studycenter.net Amy Zell
Director of Counseling Resources
amy@studycenter.net Wes Zell
Director of Undergraduate Ministries + Director of Educational Ministries
wes@studycenter.net Eric Kelley
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Special thanks Photography
by Elisa Bricker, U.Va. ‘04, ‘05
Sarah Cramer Shields, U.Va. ‘06
Who We Are
We 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 Us
Center for Christian Study 128 Chancellor Street Charlottesville, VA 22903 434.817.1050 Email: info@studycenter.net Website: www.studycenter.net Twitter: StudyCenterUVA
Bill Wilder, Executive Director
Praxis 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.
Pictured: Steve Garber (Parent ‘10), the Director of the Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture, shared from his wealth of experience working in Washington, D.C. with many of the nation’s top politicians, artists, and businesspeople, with undergraduate students at the Study Center.
Faith, Vocation, and a Long-Term View by Tim McConnell, tim@studycenter.net and Wes Zell, wes@studycenter.net
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As another school year comes to a close, the Study Center has hosted lectures for both undergrads and graduate students, addressing the question of how to pursue a vocation that values one’s Biblical convictions, knowing this is one of the most challenging decisions we will make throughout our lives. One of the tasks for students is sorting out one’s vocation—in other words, figuring out what you are going to do with your life. Students at UVa, undergraduate and graduate, are faced with this question to an extraordinary degree. As they progress
through their programs, they realize what a unique opportunity for success they have been given, just how privileged they are—and the pressure mounts. In their minds, they hear, “What are you going to do with all you’ve been given?” and then tell themselves, “It had better be something good!” This pressure can be crushing, and it certainly produces an opportunity for the gospel. Conversation after conversation revolves around the question of vocation. Could it be true that God has intentions for my life? Is it possible that God could lead, guide and direct my life into its best
Pictured: U.Va. students Cassandra Maxilklkjlkj, Josh Wade, and Megan Marotta during Steve Garber’s talk.
and most fruitful…perhaps even its most rewarding and fulfilling result? And, if so, how do we discern those leadings and pursue them over a long time – particularly if (as is often the
“Could it be true that God has intentions for my life?” case) the most fruitful track also contains some measure of futility, difficulty, and even suffering? Together we search for a Jesus who operates not only as Savior but also as Lord. In addition to the many individual conversations that occur through our relationships with students, the Study Center this spring hosted events and opportunities that focused on these Pr a xis Spring 2 0 1 0 s pa g e 3
questions about vocation and our work in the world. One of those events was an undergraduate dinner and discussion with Steve Garber (Parent, ’05, ’12), the Director of the Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture, and also a current member of our Parents Council. Steve has given careful, sustained attention to the question of Christian vocation for many years; his own vocation has been to mentor numerous believers – in the arts, business, government, and many other occupations – as those believers struggle to embody their faith in Jesus through the work of their hands and minds. During his visit to the Study Center Steve spoke with undergraduates about the challenges of working for good in a world that will certainly disappoint, frustrate, and deeply grieve us. How, for example, do Steve Garber we continue Director, Washington to believe Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture that our work has meanWashington, D.C. ing despite Study Center Parents Council ‘10 constant encounters with Purpose: overwhelmTo encourage the recovery of the integral relationship of faith to vocation to the ing need? Or responsible engagement of the culture how do we across the country and beyond. patiently labor in – rather than cyni-
The Darden Christian Fellowship hosted Randy Case, President of C-12 group in the typical challenges CEOs may face from the case studies Randy presented;
businessman, then a professor of business at the University of Virginia, and now disciples small groups of CEO’s through his organization called C-12, helping them to keep their pursuit of business in line with their pursuit of Christ. In his time at Darden’s Faith and Business Lecture, Randy addressed the morality, or amorality, of business by taking the group through a number of “case studies” of real-life examples of a CEOs vital relationships. The group was able to look at each vignette and discuss what the moral issues were, and go back and forth with each other on what the best moral and business decision would be for the CEO. (Transition statement...) If there is to be a sustainable Christian vocation to business or law, then it must first be established that it is possible to glorify God in these fields. Is it possible to honor Christ as a
“How will you stick with a sense of calling to take up your responsibility for history, for the way the world turns out?”
- Steve Garber, speaking to students at the Study Center on April 19, 2010 To hear the full lecture given by Steve Garber at the Study Center, go to www.studycenter.net/Resources.htm.
cally disengage from – the political, legal and social structures that seem so entangled, entrenched, or indifferent to our individual contributions? These are critical questions for a student who is about to leave the university and engage a broken, sinful planet. At the Darden Graduate Business School in April, the Christian Fellowship hosted Randy Case. Randy was a pa g e 4 s Pr a x i s Spr i ng 2010
lawyer, or to do business to the glory of God? To explore this question, Tim met with a dozen graduating Darden students this spring to read a book under that very title: Business for the Glory of God, by Wayne Grudem. The thesis is simple, but in today’s culture also profound. God made us industrious, and
Tidewater, Virginia, for their spring Faith and Business Conference. (Pictured, L-R): Randy listens as students, faculty and community members in attendance at his Darden lecture, discuss Professor ____ offers feedback on the topic; First name Last name (Darden 1st Year); the lecture was held in Darden Business School classrooms.
it is possible to practice business (productivity, employment, profit-making, commerce, etc) as a reflection of His glory. Being called into business is not something to be ashamed of, nor to make up for in other ways—e.g., by supporting missionaries and pastors and other ‘real servants of the Lord’—but is itself an opportunity to serve the Lord with gladness and reflect His glory in the world. If you’re going to be a Christian businessperson in the long haul, you need to know how it pleases the Lord. The questions of faith and vocation continue in the law school. Next week Tim will sit down for lunch with a law student who is more than halfway through Law School and is pretty sure Jesus is calling him to something other than the field of law! And that’s okay too. There are a thousand ways his years at UVa Law could apply to the future Christ intends for him. Together Tim and this student will talk, pray, and seek the sole voice who is worthy and who is able to call them both forward—the Lord of the call. And so, as a ministry working with students in a pivotal stage of life, we are thankful to help sort through the chaos and confusion and point to Jesus as the Lord who has our lives and future plans secure in his hands.
for further reading: • • •
Faith & Business, by Wayne Grudem The Call, by Os Guiness Book 3, by third author
These books can all be ordered through the Splintered Light Bookstore, located in our building. Contact Splintered Light, www. splinteredlightbooks.com.
Randy Case President C-12 Group
Tidewater, Virginia C-12 Mission: Helping Christian business owners and CEOs achieve God’s best through Executive Peer Forums, Focused Curriculum, and Oneon-One Coaching.
What it takes to be a good CEO: 1. Seek out the truth.
You’re the main arbiter of what is true and what is not in your organization. If you deny what is true or support what is not, your lie will infect and destroy all the good purposes of the whole.
2. Offer up weakness and find strength.
This is what Jesus did, sacrificed his weak body in hope of the victorious strength he trusted God would eventually provide. Great leaders are called to do the same (which makes leadership a dangerous calling indeed).
3. Love without prejudice.
Your followers are acutely aware when you put one of them ahead of the rest. They see this for the self-serving act that it is, and it undercuts their respect for and willingness to sacrifice for you.
4. Employ Others to your calling
The leader’s effectiveness arises primarily from what he/she can influence followers to do.
5. Choose in the face of fear.
The man or woman at the top is ultimately the decision maker for the whole organization. If you do not fear, then you have probably not sufficiently gauged the real risk. But the marketplace will ultimately ignore a firm that doesn’t choose and thereby define what it is and what it is not.
6. Unite and divide.
The most important choice you make as a CEO is who/what is in, and who/what is out. This choice defines the organization like no other (see #5).
Pr a xis Spring 2 0 1 0 s pa g e 5
Thank You Wes & Ashley by Wes Zell, wes@studycenter.net, Director of Undergraduate Ministries and by Ashley Mejias, ashleym@studycenter.net. Director of Women’s ministries We are so thankful for the time to have had Wes Zell at the Study Center for the past 8 years, as the Director of Undergraduate Ministries and Educational Programs, and to have had Ashley Mejias as the Director of Women’s Ministries for the past two years. They each wanted to take an opportunity to express their thanks and describe where God is leading them.
From Wes
This summer I’ll conclude my work here at the Study provided during my years on staff, and equally grateful Center in order to begin a graduate program in environ- for the labors and friendship of the folks he now leads. mental engineering. Which means that this This place cares about caring for students. week I’ve experienced a number of finales: my last time speaking at one of the on-Grounds I will miss sitting on the front row as an underfellowship groups, my last time moderating a graduate moves from Move-In Day, through Study Center lecture, and now my last time four years of university, and out into the writing for the Study Center newsletter (I world. I am deeply grateful to have been let only just realized this as I began to type these into the lives of so many students – into their paragraphs). In each of these finales I have questions about Jesus, into their hopes about felt an especially strong twinge of that sense their friendships and dating relationships, into of loss which accompanies any move away their prayers. God’s work among his imagefrom something good. I will miss much about Pictured: Wes, Amy, Elias bearers is extraordinary to behold. my work here. and Griffin. Wes will be pursuing a Ph.D. in Engineer- I will miss witnessing up-close God’s provision ing at U.Va. and Amy will I will miss, for example, working with an in- remain as a Director at the for the Study Center through the generosity of credibly dedicated and creative staff. Nine years Study Center. so many supporters. I am deeply grateful for ago this spring I had coffee with then-Graduthe Board members, parents, alumni, and othate Director Bill Wilder while visiting the Study Center ers who continually make this work with students posfor an exploratory interview. I am deeply grateful for sible, and I am constantly humbling to be entrusted with the friendship, example, and now leadership that Bill has this work by so many.
From Ashley I write with great joy as I sit amidst these students and in this place, yet also with great sadness. At the end of June, I will be concluding my time with the Center for Christian Study. My husband, Alex and I, along with our new baby girl, born May 11, will be moving to Richmond, Virginia. Alex will be beginning a position as worship associate with Third Presbyterian Church. This new position will enable him to work with Third Presbyterian’s second site at Short Pump and with East End Fellowship, a multi-racial congregation serving the Church Hill community while beginning an arts and justice ministry to the larger Third congregation and in the city of Richmond. We are Pictured: Ashley and her husband Alex will be moving to Richmond, VA to work also excited to become neighbors with Third Presbyterian Church. in the Church Hill community with pa g e 6 s Pr a x i s Spr i ng 2010
several of Alex’s roommates from his tenure in the basement apartment of the Study Center, more than ten years ago. Pictured: The Women of the Yellow House (girls in the
While I am Residential Program), at a dinner at Ashley’s house. looking forward to the work and life that God has planned for us in Richmond, I am anticipating that I will miss so many things about the Center for Christian Study; the variety of ways that it cares deeply and well for students, the safety it offers, the momentum and heart of the staff and the students who fill this place. I am so grateful to have worked amongst such passionate, careful, and loving people whose hearts and minds are oriented towards the
Title of Article by Shelly Pellish, shelly@studycenter.net Director of Development, Parent & Alumni Relations
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Pictured: Wes with this year’s guys in the Residential Program.
There will be many more finales in my remaining few months on staff. However, the shocking providence of my return to engineering includes the continuity that this transition allows. Foremost among these is that we remain in Charlottesville. Amy will continue on staff at the Study Center, which means that my children remain surrounded by extraordinary young adults. And my graduate studies include responsibilities as a teaching assistant, which means that I will continue to spend a lot of time with young adults myself.
God who saves; this truly is an organization that encourages consideration and love for our God, and that sees students as whole people whose journeys and questions reflect the Gospel. It has been especially remarkable to see the residential program – a program that was just a house and an idea when I arrived here – grow into a group of women who bring courage, mercy, and form to community and whose manner of life together has immeasurably instructed me in the Christian call to authentic relationship.
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I will miss the animation and grace of students, the passion and honesty of their questions in lectures and in conversations, as they encounter the Gospel in their studies and in their lives. As Alex and I look upon this ending and this new beginning, I am grateful to you for your prayers and support for the Study Center in the name of the God who simply is. Praxis Sp ring 2 0 1 0 s pa g e 7
Center for Christian Study 128 Chancellor Street u Charlottesville, VA 22903
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Praxis
Permit No. 144
WElcome Class of 2014! The 9th Annual Move-In Day Lunch is coming up the Saturday before school begins.We invite you to join us this year as we fill every square foot of the building with first-years, transfers, moms, dads, siblings, and, of course, sandwich fixings, providing lunch and conversation with campus ministers. If you know of any first-years or transfers, we encourage you to invite them to this wonderful event and let us know how to contact them!
9th Annual Move-in Day Lunch Saturday, August 21 12:00 noon RSVP and Questions: Please email Shelly Pellish, shelly@studycenter.net, or call 434.817.1050. www.studycenter.net/moveindaylunch.htm