Praxis, Spring 2010

Praxis Spring 2010

A publication of the Center for Christian Study

Beyond Addiction Sharon Hersh visits the Study Center to speak honestly about addiction and body image in light of the Gospel, p.2

Praxis

What’s Inside: Coming Alongside

by Tim McConnell page 5

Study Center Staff Tim mcconnell

Director of Graduate Ministries

tim@studycenter.net

Tending University Gardens

by Bill Wilder page 6

Ashley mejias

Director of Women’s Ministries

ashleym@studycenter.net shelly pellish

On the cover: Students Brittany Kalbac, Jen Barker and Devynne Bruce were part of the group of women who gathered at the Study Center for Sharon Hersh’s Beauty and the Body seminar.

S

Director of Development, Alumni + Parent Relations

shelly@studycenter.net Debbie Rodriguez

Director of Finance + Administration

debbie@studycenter.net Ashley West

Director of Communications

ashleyw@studycenter.net

Since our last issue of Praxis in fall 2009, you may notice this issue looks, well...different. I hope you enjoy the beautiful color photos taken by our friend and local photographer, Elisa Bricker, and the new layout, allowing us more flexibility in the contents of this magazine.

In this time of economic challenge, we are looking at everything we do with a new lens, asking, “How do we better communicate the stories of how God is at work through the Study Center, and do that on a leaner budget? How can be better stewards of all that God has blessed us with?”

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

Special thanks Photography

by Elisa Bricker, U.Va. ‘04, ‘05 www.elisabphotography.com

Instead of backing off our communication, we’ve worked hard to become more creative with our resources and presentation. There is such beauty in the transformation of minds and hearts taking place here that we want to tell those stories with beauty as well.

Design Consulting + Illustration

In this issue we listen to Sharon Hersh as she speaks on the problem of addiction and to Tim McConnell as he encounters the demands of ambition in the “Darden Bubble.” Of course, we have all had a way of making “really good things...become bad” (to quote Sharon) since Adam and Eve ate the fruit in the Garden, so Bill reflects on God’s own “fruitful” answer to the problem in his people, including those at the Study Center.

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.

by Brandon Wooten, U.Va. ‘04 www.creed-design.com

Who We Are

Contact Us

Truly, it is God who gives the growth, but I am grateful for those (like Sharon and Tim) who plant and water.

Center for Christian Study 128 Chancellor Street Charlottesville, VA 22903 434.817.1050

Ashley West, Editor

Eric Kelley

Email: info@studycenter.net Website: www.studycenter.net Twitter: StudyCenterUVA 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.

beyond addiction { The Gospel as our Only Hope }

On the weekend of February 12-13, counselor, author, and speaker Sharon Hersh visited from Colorado to speak to over 200 students, counselors and campus ministers at three engagements hosted by the Study Center. We met with Sharon before her talks and asked her the following questions:

Q:

How has addiction become such a huge problem today?

Why are we prone to making one thing in our lives more central than it should be?

A:

We live in a culture that reinforces that it is not okay to be uncomfortable. The media, the movies we watch, and the literature we read today really does suggest that “we deserve a break” and we should find everything we can to soothe our emotions. We do not know what to do with uncomfortable emotions. And that’s where then we turn to make one thing more central than it should

be. So if we have a human experience of being in the midst of restlessness, confusion, loneliness, or rejection and do not know what to do with all of those emotions—we find something, maybe it’s a glass of wine, maybe it’s a human relationship, an achievement at work—that kind of makes all those emotions go away for a few minutes.

Then it’s easy to latch on to that and say “I want this all the time, I want more of it all of the time. This is going to be the way that I make life work.” So addictions are really good things that become bad, because we put them in the wrong place. They become our god

that we turn to when we are hurt, Pictured: (top) Women listening attentively during the confused, afraid, Beauty and the Body seminar; and hoping this (above) Sharon Hersh. behavior, person, substance, or ideology, will take all of the negative away and help us live this “happy free life” (we think we’re supposed to have).

Q:

Your first lecture is titled “Beyond Addiction: Why Self-Help is Not Enough”. How are people experiencing “self-help” not being enough and what do you believe is the solution? How can we break free from our compulsions?

Pr a xis Spring 2 0 1 0 s pa g e 3

Pictured: (Above, L-R) The Study Center welcomed 120 men and women for Sharon Hersh’s Friday night lecture and 110 women for her Saturday morning “Beauty & the Body” seminar; these two undergrad students were part of a large group of women from the Chi Alpha Fellowship in attendance; Sarah Fletcher, U.Va. undergrad, turns to chat with a friend before the event; Sharon’s books, including Brave Hearts, can all be ordered through the Splintered Light Bookstore.

A:

There certainly is a lot of self-help available today, whether it’s a twelve-step group or a church-sponsored support group, like Celebrate Recovery. The problem is, when we are looking for that ONE thing that will completely take everything away, we get stuck in another addictive cycle in thinking there is one thing that will help us deal with all that jumble of emotions—the emotions we’re processing with a destructive coping strategy—which is what an addiction is.

And so self-help alone actually intensifies what I call “the last addiction”, and the last addiction is the addiction to ourselves. We really do believe that we can save ourselves with the selves that God has entered this mess in the first place. And so if we find that right book, that right counselor, that right twelve-step program, and we will use it--we think we have found the answer. I believe addiction is a gift when we realize, “Yes, I need to ask for help. I need to be involved in community. I need to pray, and meditate, be faithful to some sort of accountability.” But even then, I am not cured.

This is not a disease or an experience from which you get a cure. I get a daily reprieve, and what that means, because I am blessed to be an addict myself, is everyday I get a chance to acknowledge, “God I need you, God, I need to depend on you, because right around the corner could be something else that could grab me.” My dependence on Him becomes the path of recovery.

Q:

“You’re alone.” If you stay in that place, you’ll never be free.

That’s one of the reasons I love to talk about this subject, because you’re getting a group of women together and even if they know they’re coming to an event to hear a speaker talk about body image and eating disorders, I guarantee you that every woman sitting there is thinking, “But it’s not like I’ve got it”. We really do believe that we uniquely experience something from which we will never be free. And so we may read the stories of the celebrities to see where we’re the same, we may even read the story of someone who has been free, and we’ll see the similarities, but we won’t believe that we can be free Pictured: Study Center Directors because we primarily look for Amy Zell and Ashley Mejias were the differences. For a woman responsible for organizing the full to become free from these lies, weekend of events with Sharon Hersh. she must confront them head on over and over again. Now if the big lie is: “I am alone in this, that no one else feels this way”, to defeat that big lie, we have to be in community, we have to be doing events like you are here where we talk about it and we realize, “Oh, I thought that. I do that. We really do have something similar going on here.” So that then in banding together, we can experience freedom.

A:

We realize these are sensitive issues and hope that we can serve you and your loved ones through our Counseling Resources. If we can be of any assistance to you in this area, please contact Amy Zell, Director of Counseling Resources, at amy@studycenter.net.

What are some of the lies you see college women believing about body image, identity and eating?

How does a woman become free of these lies?

There are many lies that we as women believe about body image, beauty and eating. All you have to do is flip through a few pages in a magazine to see that the lie takes all sorts of variations in the media. I think THE lie that is the most destructive is that we are alone in this and that we are the only ones whose minds are tortured by thoughts that “You’re fat, you’re beastly, you’re ugly, no one will ever love you, you better not eat, you better exercise” because you see underneath all of that behavior is this lie:

pa g e 4 s Pr a x i s Spr i ng 2010

Download Audio for Sharon’s lectures on our website:

www.studycenter.net/Resources.htm “Beyond Addiction: Why Self-Help is Not Enough” “Beauty & The Body: Under the Banner of Emptiness” “Beauty & The Body: Under the Banner of Freedom”

*

The Study Center has offered the Beauty & the Body Seminar every other spring for the last ten years, and we hope to continue to serve the university community with this seminar on a biennial basis.

Sharon Hersh’s Recommended Readings We asked Sharon what books she would suggest for a better understanding of addiction, eating disorders and body image, whether it is your personal struggle or helping a loved one.

Here’s what she suggests:

The Last Addiction, by Sharon Hersh Addiction and Grace, by Gerald May Broken, by William Cope Moyers Drinking: A Love Story, by Carolyn Knapp Appetites, by Carolyn Knapp Holy Hunger, by Margaret Bullit-Jonas Beautiful Boy, by Nick Sheff Life Inside the Thin Cage, by Constance Rhodes

These books can all be purchased through the Splintered Light Bookstore. Contact Byron or Rie Harris by phone, (800) 979-3310 or email goodreads@splinteredlightbooks.com.

Does Giving $50 make a difference?

Yes.

When you support the Center through the Annual Fund, you don’t have to make a big donation to make a difference. When you give to the Annual Fund, your gift is combined with hundreds of other donations, and those gifts accumulate to make an impact in the daily lives of students.

Because most of our services are free to the University community, and we do not receive money from the University, your support of the Annual Fund is important. Gifts to the Annual Fund make an immediate impact and together they add up to something pretty amazing.

To make your contribution towards the 34% of our ministry support still needed by June 30, 2010, please use the enclosed envelope or visit us at www.studycenter.net/HowToGive.htm.

the 2009-2010 Study Center Annual Fund Pr a xis Spring 2 0 1 0 s pa g e 5

Coming Alongside

by Tim McConnell, tim@studycenter.net Director of Graduate ministries

This morning I met a student from the Darden School for coffee. It was 9:30 and she was right on time. One of the brightest at Darden, one of the most driven and ambitious, she is also open that for her, above all else, the most important thing is that she follow Jesus Christ at every turn. Ambition is synonymous with her character and her reputation, and having come from a childhood remembering nights when she and her brothers and sisters went to bed with little to eat, ambition in business is her path for making sure that never happens to her or her family again. But what else fits into a life like this?

My friend was concerned that she may have shut out some of God’s blessings by pursuing her career with such passion. How, she asked me, could she open the door to sharing life with a husband? There is a man, a man of deep faith who is devoted and loving to her, but how could that side of life fit into a driven and successful business career? I came alongside and listened. I counseled her a bit, and we prayed. And her burden seemed lifted.

That’s a picture that unfolds time and time again in our ministry to graduate students. Coffee, listening, prayer, and the resolve to live life to its fullest in Jesus—whether

GradUate Ministry At A Glance

So what’s going on every week in our three ministries to graduate students? Here’s an abbreviated version of the typical weekly schedules for each ministry:

Law Christian Fellowship

Monday: Leaders Meeting & Bible Study Tuesday: Two Bible Studies & Wing Night Thursday: Weekly Meeting at the Law School Friday: Wallyball

Darden Christian Fellowship

Tuesday: Leaders Meeting & Bible Study Wednesday: Weekly Meeting at Saunders

Graduate Christian Fellowship

Monday: Bible Studies Wednesday: Weekly Meeting at the Study Center Saturday: Prayer Breakfast For more information on our graduate ministries, please contact Tim McConnell, tim@studycenter.net, or visit our website, www.studycenter.net/graduate.htm. pa g e 6 s Pr a x i s Spr i ng 2010

Pictured: Tim McConnell with Darden students at North Grounds.

you are a businessperson, a lawyer or an academic.

Students at Darden talk about the “Darden Bubble.” It’s an invisible, and yet impenetrable, barrier that keeps Darden students from interacting with the world around them. Part of my mission is to get inside that bubble... and smuggle in Jesus. I think about that image every Tuesday morning as I carry my Bible up the steps of Saunder’s Hall. Darden Christian Fellowship students meet at 9:30 every week on that day for a thirty minute Bible Study. There’s no time to linger—this is Darden— but the Word goes forth in power nonetheless.

Coffee, listening, prayer, and the resolve to live life to its fullest in Jesus—whether you are a businessperson, a lawyer, or an academic.

That bubble surrounds the Law School too. There are moments when you realize that without the Law Christian Fellowship...well, the bubble probably wouldn’t pop! For example, after the Haiti earthquake, a first-year student stood up to explain that her father is a missionary aviator in Haiti. The response of prayer and extending love and support was amazing.

Life happens inside the bubbles, and that’s what campus ministry is all about—being there when life happens.

Of course, we couldn’t be there without you. And so, this article is really a note of thanks. Thank you for supporting this ministry. Thank you for praying, and thank you for caring about whether or not there is time and space in the grad school bubble for Jesus.

tending University Gardens

by Bill Wilder, bill@studycenter.net Executive Director Sarah Cramer

As most of you will know, the University of Virginia has gardens at its heart— and a city, so it seems, all around. It is not hard to move from the lovely seclusion of a Pavilion garden to the bustle of the Corner or the Downtown Mall.

A trek from garden to city may be found in the Bible as well. Indeed, that seems to be the overall story of Scripture, beginning as it does with a garden (Gen 2:8) and ending with a city (Rev 21:2). Since both are gifts of God (the beginning points of the old and new creations), it seems fair to conclude that this movement from garden to city reflects God’s original intention for

Center’s commitment to minister in the University context, honoring and enabling the pursuit of understanding and expertise as a specifically Christian and God-honoring endeavor.

Still, as we press on toward God’s coming gift of a city, doing our best to live faithfully in our present place in culture, it is important to remember that our rather hasty exit from the garden left much to be tended. There is a very real sense in which God continues to seek fruit from his garden even as he prepares a place and a city for us. This is the story of Scripture, isn’t it? God redeems his people from Egypt to bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey, from which he expects them to offer him the firstfruits. Yet the vineyard in which he is most interested is the nation of Israel

As we press on toward God’s coming gift of a city, doing our best to live faithfully in our present place in culture, it is important to remember that our rather hasty exit from the garden left much to be tended.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve seized the fruit in their own time and way, failing to acknowledge their dependence on God for provision. As a result they failed to produce the fruit God wished to see in their hearts: trusting obedience that law-fulfilling love. This is the fruit God continues to seek in his people.

There is a place for knowledge and wisdom in this present age and beyond.

Indeed, this is central to our call at the Study Center. In Scripture, though knowledge and wisdom are not to be enjoyed apart from love, the fruit of the Spirit that God grows and harvests in human hearts and lives. That means students at the University of Virginia, too, including those (like many of us) marked by ambition or struggling with addiction. For us at the Center for Christian Study those students are University gardens well worth tending.

For more on the fruit of the Spirit as a part of the Study Center’s continuing exploration of food this year, see “The Fruit of the Spirit and Human Maturity,” a lecture series by Director of Undergraduate Ministries, Wes Zell,www.studycenter.net/Resources.htm.

Maggie Stein

his world— an ever-expanding human itself, which is not exactly bursting with cultivation of the world that flourishes produce. He looks for good grapes but in God-honoring culture. finds only bad: “And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, What this means for those of us but heard cries of distress” (Isa 5:1-7). connected in one way or the other to the University is this: that the pursuit of A hopeful ending to this depressing story knowledge here for the sake of vocation of a perpetually pathetic patch of weeds (in law, media, medicine, business, etc.) (otherwise known as God’s people) is is not necessarily just a time-biding found in Galatians 5:22, where Paul though ultimately meaningless by- alludes to this storyline in his reference product of the Fall. It means that our to the “fruit of the Spirit.” Here finally study and work, however marred by is the fulfillment of what God intended the Fall, are still essentially good gifts his people to be: a well-watered garden of God and possible of redemption. producing fruit that God himself (by his This conviction undergirds the Study Spirit) causes to grow. And what is that

fruit? It is the singular fruit of love that contains within itself (like edible seeds) all the other virtues. Joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control: all these virtues are simply parts of that one fruit of the Spirit, love, that encloses them all. This is why Paul can describe love itself as exhibiting faith (love believes), joy (love rejoices), and patience (love endures) in 1 Corinthians 13!

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A publication of the Center for Christian Study

Praxis

Permit No. 144

You’re Invited to the University of Virginia’s

Christian Fellowship Gathering Details: Saturday, June 5, 4 - 6 p.m. at Pavilion VI Lower Garden (During U.Va.’s Undergraduate Alumni Weekend) Co-sponsored with the U.Va. Alumni Association Alumni and Families welcome Registration: For Reunion Weekend registration and lodging information, please visit the U.Va. Alumni Association’s Reunion Website, www.virginiareunions.com.

RSVP Requested but not required to Shelly Pellish, shelly@studycenter.net, or 434.817.1050.