An Open Letter to Our Friends By Drew Trotter President, Center for Christian Study
INSIDE Our New Director of Graduate Ministries Thank You to Volunteers
Praxis V12 N3 Fall 2008
Pr a x i s
Finding Life at the Study Center
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s of December 31 of this year, after almost 22 years of service, I will be stepping down as President of the Center for Christian Study. Bill Wilder, our Director of Educational Ministries, has agreed to become Acting Executive Director, and I cannot think of a better choice for this transitional period. Under his able leadership, the Center for Christian Study will surely continue to thrive. And thrive it does. The Center is blessed with a superb staff; the work they do so well makes a difference for the King in many lives, as it always has. I take joy in the new direction God is leading me, but I also have a natural sadness that a wonderful era of my life is ending, and I am filled with gratitude for the privilege it has been to serve in a place where God is so evidently active in so many interesting and important ways. Ever since the April Fool’s Day (an oddity that sometimes made me wonder at its appropriateness) in 1987, when I started here, until only very recently, my calling to the Center was without question for me, and I often reflected on how fresh it all still seemed after so many years. That is in great part due to the leadership of our Board and the diligence, ingenuity and wisdom of our staff, which never failed to challenge me, excite me, and encourage me in the tasks God gave us to do. It has been quite a ride for me, and that ride will continue for others, as the staff of the Center presses on in the exceptional work of intellectual and spiritual formation participants in the ministry of the Center have come to expect. Please continue to support the Center with your gifts and your prayers, as I shall; it is a work that is crucial to the life of the University of Virginia and the Charlottesville community. But what is my new calling? From January to July of next year, I will be finishing a book I have been working on for some time, a book on movies entitled Show and Tell: How to View a Movie Responsibly. Then, beginning July 1, I will become National Director for an organization called Centers for Christian Study, International (CCSI), a group, which has a passion for seeing study centers planted across the nation, and, as the name implies, also beyond our borders. My
job will not be so much in the “planting” area of things, though, as it will be in unifying and strengthening centers that already exist alongside a number of universities in our land and in raising awareness of the study center movement of which our Center here in Charlottesville has always been a leader. To this end, last July I was part of a group of study center leaders that founded the Consortium of Christian Study Centers. As National Director of CCSI, I will serve as Executive Director of the Consortium, which will operate as a subsidiary of CCSI, but with its own elected Board of Directors from the study centers that choose to join the Consortium. There are presently as many as 15-20 other centers in various stages of development and spread from South Carolina to Oregon and New Hampshire to Southern California that may wish to join the Consortium.
Founding members of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers, left to right: Bob Osburn, David Mahan, Karl Johnson, Rick Howe, and Drew Trotter. Not pictured: Randy Bare (photo courtesy of Randy Bare)
It is satisfying to be able to write that I leave the Center for Christian Study with no regrets, and, while I have a great sorrow in my heart, it is accompanied by an equally intense joy at the memories I will always carry of ministry at the Study Center. I have far too deep a sense of my own deficiencies to imply that there are not things I could have done better, but I rejoice in the grace of our Savior to allow me to witness the many testimonies to His great name I have observed in this place. I am grateful for the staff and Board members alongside whom I have been privileged to work down through the years for the part they also played in making this so. I am even more grateful for the opportunity God has given me to serve him at the Center for Christian Study. I want to thank you — our students, parents, alumni, donors,
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Finding Life at the Study Center By Andrew Witmer University of Virginia class of 2008 (Ph.D.)
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he Center for Christian Study was like a home to me during my seven years of doctoral study at the University of Virginia. Actually, for three of those years, the Study Center was my home. I moved into the upstairs apartment in 2003 and looked after the building as Resident Manager until 2006. Those were great years. It was fun to meet the many students who streamed through the building every week. I had easy access to scores of fascinating lectures (and could attend in my slippers if I wanted to). And I drank a lot of free Starbucks coffee, since the Center usually has some brewing in the kitchen. My life changed in significant ways while I lived at 128 Chancellor Street. I passed my comprehensive exams, started work on my dissertation, and joined Trinity Presbyterian Church. Best of all, I met and began dating a beautiful young woman named Maureen, who is now my wife. This fall I began a year-long post-doctoral fellowship at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture. The Institute is an interdisciplinary research center at the University of Virginia that explores contemporary cultural change and its social and individual consequences. I am spending most of my time revising my dissertation for publication, and also plan to write one or two journal articles on matters of race and science in the nineteenth-century United States. In the midst of all this living, I found life at the Study Center. I met many people there whose words and actions taught me new truths about following Jesus Christ. These encounters ranged from praying weekly with a friend whom I first met at the Center to chatting with the students who lived Andrew Witmer (photo by Carl Briggs) downstairs. I also remember meaningful conversations with Study Center staff, and behind-the-scenes glimpses of these good people going about their work. I doubt I will ever serve others as cheerfully as Carl Briggs does every day, but I am more likely to try after watching him. The Study Center provides many opportunities for those interested in learning more about the Bible
and the Christian life. Since my first year in graduate school, I have almost always been in a class or a study group led by Bill Wilder, the Center's Director of Educational Ministries, who has become a dear friend and one of my most valued teachers. He even preached the sermon at my wedding last year. I learned to read Scripture better in Bill's Old Testament course. He showed me, among other things, the true scope and glory of the Christian hope. I also discussed two books with Bill and another friend. Our meetings gave me the chance to ponder God's character and talk about life as a graduate student. Over the past few years, I've had the wonderful opportunity to minister alongside Bill by team-teaching a class at our church and forming two discussion groups at the Center for Christian Study. The first group brought together several of my graduate student friends from the UVa History Department. We met twice a month for more than a year, and Bill led us through studies of several books of the Bible. Not everyone in the group was a Christian. My confidence that these friends would be impressed and edified by Bill's teaching made it much easier for me to talk with them about joining. Bill and I are currently meeting weekly with a Muslim scholar from Iran who is studying at UVa. When this friend asked me one afternoon if I knew of anyone who would be willing to get together regularly and explain the Bible to him, it didn't take me long to think of someone! I am deeply grateful for Bill and his colleagues. In more ways than I can count, I have received life, and seen it offered, through the ministries of the Center for Christian Study.
Upcoming Events Fall 2008
October 18th: Family Football Tailgate Game: UVa vs. University of North Carolina Tailgate will begin 2 hours before kickoff at East Lot A, #182
October 25th: First-Year Families Dinner The Study Center is hosting a dinner for first-year families from 7-9 PM in the Garden Room E, West Range on the Lawn. Cost is $33 per guest and seating is limited, so reserve your space now! For more information or to R.S.V.P. for an event, contact Shelly Pellish at 434-817-1050 or at shelly@studycenter.net
Chaplain, Pastor, Teacher, and Scholar
New Director of Graduate Ministries Begins By Carl Briggs Editor
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s a pastor, scholar, and family man, Timothy McConnell ministers to graduate students from a background of patience, firmness, and humility. Tim became the Director of Graduate Ministries for the Center for Christian Study this past summer, inheriting the work of Justin Holcomb among students, faculty, and staff at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and the School of Law. As Tim meets with students at North Grounds, where the business and law schools are located, he guides the Darden Christian Fellowship (DCF) and Law Christian Fellowship (LCF) to place students’ vocational pursuits within the larger call given by Jesus Christ. He seeks to emphasize “through theological ideas the purpose of being at work in the world, for the greater good of humanity and to the glory of God,” he said. At a recent picnic for new and returning Darden students, a young woman told Tim that the event was one of her first opportunities to meet with fellow Christians. She is Tim McConnell talks with Kristen Stutz, a Korean and second-year graduate student and president of Darden Christian Fellowship. (photo by Carl Briggs) spoke of her conversion to Christ this summer during her corporate internship in her native country. Now, as a new Christian far from home, she told Tim about her good friend with DCF who is connecting her to a church and Bible study as she begins her final year at Darden.
“I stood there thinking, what would this young believer do without a Christian fellowship to help her navigate new faith in the middle of such a highpressure environment?,” Tim said. “I thank God for DCF!” Students in both graduate schools “are all very pressed in their time, and they feel the stress of expectation, of performance, and in both schools they’re pursuing careers that traditionally can present some difficulty in reconciling their careers and the Christian faith. Law students and business students both will bump up against the question of how does my Christian faith apply to my career choice.” Tim’s pursuits pursuits have taken him from his days as an English major at Northwestern University near Chicago to Princeton Theological Seminary, where he earned a master of divinity degree. He also earned a master of studies degree in theology, with distinction, at the University of Oxford, and is now completing a Ph.D at UVa in Early Christian History and Doctrine on a Presidential Fellowship. He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. His ministry work has included several years of service as a chaplain with the U.S. Army Reserve, as a volunteer and associate staff member with the high-school ministry organization FOCUS (Fellowship of Christians in Universities and Schools), and as a church associate pastor. He has teaching, preaching, and other ministry responsibilities at Meadows Presbyterian Church in Charlottesville, where he is a parish associate. He and his wife, Abigail, have three children. One of Tim's goals is to “increase people’s awareness of the priority of relationships. They can pursue love and happiness and joy on deeper levels than just
New Graduate Minister, continued to next page
R emaining F all P rograms , 2008
All events are at the Center for Christian Study
Lecture Series > s -m ra rog P l Fa l
Violence Against Women Instructor: Lindsey Holcomb Oct. 22, 29; Nov. 5, 12; 7:00 p.m.
Saturday Seminar
Understanding Theology (free seminar) Instructor: Wes Zell Oct. 18, 9:00 a.m. - 12: 30 p.m.
Prayer and Art Gene Veith Provost and Professor of Literature, Patrick Henry College, Purcellville, Va. October 28, 7:00 p.m. free public lecture Details of all events at www.studycenter.net
An Open Letter, continued from front friends — for all you have done for Marie, our three sons, and me in these last twenty-two years. I am eternally grateful, and I mean that precisely. Eternity is a humbling concept, but I firmly believe that what God has done, is doing now, and by every indication will continue to do here, has an eternal character. His work warrants praise forever because it will last forever. The handiwork of His Spirit at the Center — through every lecture, every discussion, every prayer, every cup of cold water given in Christ’s name — has resulted in a place that stands for truths, and the Truth, in a culture desperately in need of both. Here He has built, and continues to build, as His kingdom is always built: brick by brick, stone by stone, day by day, and He deserves the praise. Deo Gloria. Deo Gloria. Drew Trotter, right, and his wife, Marie, celebrated the 2005 graduation of Brooke Everley from the University of Virginia Law School. Brooke, an active member of Law Christian Fellowship, is an attorney in Birmingham, Ala. Drew directed the LCF ministry for many years. (photo courtesy of Drew Trotter)
New Graduate Minister, continued from inside page the career level and vocation level, even as they’re in the middle of some of the hardest years of their professional development.” Ministering to graduate students is “more pastoral than academic,” Tim said, but there remains the need to examine “the foundations of law and commerce” and ask, “What does it mean to be a successful lawyer or a successful business
Thank You The Center for Christian Study would like to thank the following parents, students, and friends who volunteered for the 2008 Move-In Day Lunch:
Student Committee Carolyn Skancke (UVa ’09), Chair Ted Jordan (UVa ’10) Sarah Daubert (UVa ’09) Brittany Newell (UVa ’09) Neil Paine (UVa ’09) Will Jungman (UVa ’09) Jennifer Newsome (UVa ’10) Barrie Humphries (UVa ’09)
Event Volunteers Abby Adams (UVa ’11) Paige Backenstose (UVa ’10) Beth Bailey (UVa ’09)
Carey Bailey (Parent, ’09, ’12; Parents Council) Hilah Barbot (UVa ’09) Diamond Bruner (UVa ’09) Paige Brunsink (UVa ’11) Mallory Butler (UVa ’09) Lauren Cave (UVa ’11) Stephen Clark (UVa ’10) Meredith Cox (UVa ’11) Allison Creedman (UVa ’11) Ken Elzinga (Faculty; Past Board) Jacob Feldman (UVa, ’11) Emily Flavin (UVa ’11) Anne Fowler (UVa ’10) Kaitlin Fulkerson (UVa ’11) Leigh Anne Gilbert (UVa ’11) Jaime Goldberg (UVa ’09) Kaitlin Good (UVa ’11) Lauren Greber (UVa, ’10) Eric Green (UVa ’10) Molly Harrington (UVa ’09) Mary Haynes (UVa ’10) Jackson Hill (UVa ’11) Tommy (UVa ’79) & Kemp Hill (UVa ’80; Board) David Hope (UVa ’11)
THE STAFF & CENTER . . . Wes Zell is co-teaching on the book of Joshua during the Sunday morning education hour at Trinity Presbyterian Church, Charlottesville, in September. . . Bill Wilder is teaching the Reformed Theological Seminary course Acts and Pauline Epistles at Trinity Presbyterian Church through December. . . Timothy McConnell led a shortterm mission trip to Kenya July 3-19, where he preached at Naaman Githenya Memorial Church, Nyeri. He preached Aug. 31 at Providence Presbyterian Church in Gum Spring, Va., and will preach Oct. 12 at Meadows Presbyterian Church, Charlottesville. . . Tim spoke Oct. 6 at Chi Alpha's Monday Night Alive meeting on the University of Virginia Grounds. . . Drew Trotter officially helped form the Consortium of Christian Study Centers (CCSC) at a Consortium meeting in Minneapolis July 26-27, and was elected Executive Director by its Board of Directors. He spoke Sept. 13 on the Five Academy Award Nominees for Best Picture and What They Tell Us About Ourselves at a Fall Outreach Dinner Party sponsored for professionals in Philadelphia for 100 people. He also attended the board meeting of The Rivendell Institute at Yale University Sep 19-20. . . Drew will attend his 40th High School Reunion at The McCallie School in Chattanooga, Tenn., Oct 2-4. He also will attend the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville Oct. 30–Nov. 2, and may serve as a discussion leader. Drew and his wife, Marie, will attend the Dec. 6 wedding of their son Christopher in Jackson, Miss. at Galloway United Methodist Church; Drew will officiate. person? How do these pursuits relate to historical Christianity, the Church today, and, most importantly, to our foundation in Christ?”
Abigail Hull (UVa ’11) Hannah Jones (UVa ’10) Elizabeth Jordan (UVa ’08) Karen and Fred Jordan (Parents, ’08, ’10; Parents Council) Nancy Jungman (UVa ’09) Eric Lipscomb (UVa, ’09) Drew Macklin (UVa ’09) Emily Macklin (UVa ’10) Charlotte Malloch (UVa ’11) Alex Mejias (UVa ’00, ’06) Krisan Marotta (Board) Cassandra Maximous (UVa ’10) Suzanne McEver (UVa, ’11) Julia McLaughlin (UVa ’10) Mason McLean (UVa ’11) Rob Meyer (UVa ’11) Emmett Montgomery (UVa ’09) Missy Muir (UVa ’10) Caroline Nettles (UVa ’09) David Newsome (UVa ’09) Linda and Ken Newsome (Parents, ’09, ’10; Parents Council) Arin Noble (UVa ’10) Meredith Noble (Parent ’10; Parents Council)
Melissa Oldham (UVa ’09) Page Otey (UVa ’09) Steven Parsley (UVa ’09) Maddy Picker (UVa ’09) Sam Pierce (UVa ’10) Leigh-Anne Piercy (UVa ’11) Caroline Richards (UVa ’11) Caitlin Roberts (UVa ’09) Ashley Romanias (UVa ’09) Malia Seip (UVa ’11) Margaret Schwethelm (UVa, ’11) Allison Scott (UVa ’09) Amy Shickel (UVa ’10) Nancy Skancke (Parent, ’05, ’09; Parents Council Chair) Rob Smithson (UVa ’10) Gifford Taylor Alex Tenney (UVa ’11) Marie Trotter Sarah Wade (UVa ’10) Karisa Ward (UVa ’11) Hampton Williams (UVa, ’09) Lakia Wilson (UVa ’09) Natalie Wilson (UVa ’09) Jon Yagel (UVa ’09)
F r o m photo by Eric Kelley
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t h e
P r e s i d e n t
Shacked Up
he phenomenal new read of the year so far is a slight paperback novel called The Shack. Though it is distinctively Christian, not just Christians are reading it. As of this writing, it was #1 on The New York Times Trade Paperback bestseller list. Add to this that The Shack is William P. Young's first novel, and that the book was self-published (don’t look for anything else by Windblown Media anytime soon), and the stir that it is causing is nothing short of amazing. Evangelical Christian leaders have lined up on both sides of the fence concerning it. Well-respected author Eugene Peterson compares it to John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, while one of the most popular preachers of our day, Mark Driscoll of Seattle, has branded it as heresy. If you have read it, this diversity of opinion will not surprise you. The Shack takes the bold step of actually portraying the three persons of the Christian Trinity, but the controversy comes from the way in which they are portrayed. God the Father appears as a “large beaming African-American woman” (p. 82) named Papa. The Holy Spirit is vaguely Asian, and also a woman. Jesus is a Middle Eastern carpenter, dressed as an outdoorsman from the great Northwest. This flirtation with breaking the Second Commandment is only the beginning, as the book appears to imply for many a universalism concerning salvation, and a softness regarding sin, the wrath of God and the final judgment that disturbs many. On the other hand, its descriptions of forgiveness, of love and joy within the Trinity, and of the care that God has for His people are so engaging that just as many believe it tells them more clearly who God is than any other book they have read. The Shack is the story of a white, middle-aged Oregonian named Mack, who experiences a tragedy in his life, and then has an encounter with God. The heart of the book takes place over several days in a shack in the wilderness, where Mack has long, elaborate conversations with Papa, Jesus and Sarayu (and a very important conversation with a fourth character, Sophia, who only enters the narrative for one chapter) about everything from the nature of being to the question of why there is so much pain in the world. If this sounds like a theology text to you, you are right: it is. But it is theology veiled as narrative fiction. As a believer in the power of art to shape the soul, and a firm believer in great theological truths being expressed in artistic words (what else are the Psalms, if not that?!), then am I giving an unqualified endorsement
of The Shack? Alas, no. I am more grateful for it than many people I know. I am the grandfather of small children, and the tragic situation The Shack sets up resonated with fears I have about those dear grandsons of mine. Those fears are respectfully treated in the book, thankfully without any sugar coating or pious unrealism. But my concerns with the book are two. The first is that I do believe there is merit in the charge that Young breaks the Second Commandment in portraying the Father and the Spirit in such detailed terms. Defenders of the book have offered the argument that since C.S. Lewis has Aslan, why can’t Young have Papa? The answer is that Aslan is a direct reference to a Biblical description of the Second Person of the Trinity, Who is indeed the One Who shows us in human form what God is like. The Lion of Judah is one of the most important titles of Jesus Christ in Scripture. On the other hand, even in Lewis, the Emperor Beyond the Sea is a mysterious, unrevealed character to the end of the Narnia Chronicles. The other theological points mentioned above have some merit, though in all fairness Young has often and clearly denied the heresies attributed to him, while still defending positions about the church that I believe are problematic. My second concern is also critical to the cause of the gospel in the world, and perhaps my greater problem with the book. The Shack simply is not very good art; in fact in some ways, it could be destructive art. Many of the minor characters in the book are shallow caricatures; even Mack reads that way too often. More importantly, I am not African-American, nor am I a woman, but I wondered, as I was asked to embrace the character of Papa, how African-American women would think about the choice of a portrayal straight out of one of the most racially charged stories in history, Gone with the Wind. Has a white, male Evangelical, as racially and sexually sensitive as Young certainly appears to be (even Sophia is Hispanic in appearance), unwittingly perpetuated an image that would better be left in our past? For beauty, depth of affection and literary truth, read Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead or Leif Enger’s Peace Like a River. While these novels also may not dot every “i” theologically, they are nevertheless works that point to the Holy One of Israel in all His might and mystery in a way that is exceptional, and, I believe, lasting. That is the sort of novel our God deserves.
— Drew Trotter
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The Center for Christian Study is a non-profit education and outreach ministry serving the University of Virginia and Charlottesville-Albemarle region since 1968. Through programs, ministries, and partnerships, we provide opportunities and resources for the corporate and individual investigation of the truths of the historic Christian faith. Some of the ways we do this include courses, lectures, seminars, student-run fellowships, internships, mentoring opportunities, discussion groups, and special events. We proceed believing that men and women will be transformed by the Truth, which will be reflected in their thoughts and actions, both in their private lives before God and in their public lives as members of society, the family, and the Church. Center for Christian Study 128 Chancellor Street Charlottesville, VA 22903 Phone: 434.817.1050 www.studycenter.net Praxis is published quarterly for our friends and supporters. Carl Briggs, Editor carl@studycenter.net University Christian Ministries, Inc. (dba Center for Christian Study) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation EIN 51-0192618.
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