The Study Center, Spring 2018

A

PUBLICATION

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THE

CENTER

FOR

CHRISTIAN

STUDY

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SPRING

2018

T HE S T UDY C E NT E R

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 S P R I N G 2018

THIS ISSUE: INTRODUCTORY LETTER

by Bill Wilder, page 3

FRIENDSHIP ACROSS RACIAL BOUNDARIES

Lecture transcription, page 4

STUDY CENTER STAFF

FRIENDSHIP, LONELINESS, AND SOCIAL NETWORKS

Lisa Rohrer, page 6

BILL WILDER

Executive Director bill@studycenter.net

RICK CAMPANELLI

SHARING LIFE, SEEKING TRUTH

Director of Graduate Ministries rick@studycenter.net

Rachel Gaffin, page 7

LANE COWIN

Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Women lane@studycenter.net

NIKKI FLANNERY

On the cover: Donell Woodson presents a Reimagine Charity lecture with Shawn Duncan in the Study Center’s main meeting room. (Photo by Brittany Fan) Page 3: Second year residents Beatrix Castelly and Lydia Waterman worship alongside their housemates during a Thursday night Elzinga Residential Scholars Prorgam dinner. (Photo by Brittany Fan) Page 4: Jay McCabe and Donell Woodson sit side-by-side as they lecture together on Friendship Across Racial Boundaries in March.

(Photo by Brittany Fan) Page 7: Fourth year friends Eric Fromke, Ben Dalkin, and Dan Buckley gather in the Study Center’s prayer room on a Friday morning for their weekly Bible study. (Photo by Katie Carr)

Development Manager nikki@studycenter.net

RACHEL GAFFIN

Administrative + Communications Assistant rachel@studycenter.net

FITZ GREEN

Director of Educational Ministries fitz@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.

JAY MCCABE

Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Men jay@studycenter.net

TRISH OWEN

Librarian trish@studycenter.net

DEBBIE RODRIGUEZ

RESOURCE SELECTIONS FROM CENTER FOR CHRISTIAN STUDY STAFF The Good and Beautiful Community, James Bryan Smith Jay McCabe and Lane Cowin are using this text as a resource for their small group, Friendships, Loneliness, and Social Networks.

Toxic Charity, Robert Lupton Lupton shares how many wellintentioned charity efforts can harm rather than help others.

The Study Center’s Reimagine Charity lecture discussed many of the ideas found in this book.

Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis The Study Center kicked off its Book Club this spring by reading this 1950s work of fiction recounting the myth of Cupid and Psyche.

More Than Equals, Spencer Perkins and Chris Rice Though they come from unique backgrounds, Perkins and Rice share their experiences as “yokefellows”—partners in sharing the gospel and pursuing racial reconciliation.

Awaiting the King: Reforming Public Theology, James K.A. Smith

Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord, L. Michael Morales

In his small group of the same name, Fitz Green is using this book to discuss politics and public policy with students.

How can humanity dwell with God? Morales considers the book of Leviticus and its tabernacle language to answer this question.

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Director of Finance debbie@studycenter.net

LISA ROHRER

Programs + Communications Manager lisa@studycenter.net

CARLY VANNESS

Hospitality + Facilities Coordinator 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 Phone: (434) 817-1050 Email: info@studycenter.net Website: www.studycenter.net Instagram: @studycenteruva Facebook: studycenteruva Twitter: @StudyCenterUVA

DEAR FRIENDS, The theme of this edition of The Study Center is friendship. The college years are often viewed as a time for forming deep and lasting friendships, and yet many students struggle with feelings of loneliness or rejection during these years. What then is a biblical understanding of friendship? How should we pursue it? What makes it a challenge? These are some of the questions we’re asking at the Study Center this semester.

A concern for friendship is not new around here. For many years now the Study Center has invited students in for Move-In Day Lunches, Exam Snacks, March Madness Lunch, Class Dinners, and Graduation Lunch. If friendships are formed over meals, then this is the place to find friends! I also love the fact that the Study Center is a “third place” (neither home nor work) where students can simply hang out. The Center’s commitment to hospitality makes it a natural place for finding and forming friendships.

C.S. Lewis once distinguished between lovers and friends in this way: “Lovers are normally face to face, absorbed in each other; Friends, side by side, absorbed in a common interest.” That’s a great way to picture what’s happening naturally in our building, as well as in our discussion groups, lectures, and courses: students gathered around a “common interest” and pursuing truth together as friends. Once again Lewis (quoting Emerson in part) puts it best: “‘Do you love me?’ means ‘Do you see the same truth?’— or, at least, ‘Do you care about the same truth?’”

Our educational programs are a place for friendship too. This semester we’re reflecting more intentionally on friendship. In the pages to follow you’ll learn more about “Friendship, Loneliness, and Social Networks,” a weekly discussion group that Lane Cowin and Jay McCabe facilitated this semester.

You’ll also hear about “Friendship Across Racial Boundaries,” a conversation in which Jay McCabe and Board member Donell Woodson share the story of their friendship over the years. In our final article, you’ll read a story of three friends sitting side-by-side in our prayer room, absorbed in the most beautiful common interest of all: the truth and love of Christ.

I hope discussions and articles like these will encourage us all to be intentional about friendship in our lives. Walls of separation and division (in college or culture) need to be addressed in lots of ways, but surely friendship is one of them. After all, the Lord has called us friends. How can we not go and do the same with others?

By His Mercy, Bill Wilder Executive Director, bill@studycenter.net

SPRING 2018 CALENDAR RUSH HOSPITALITY January 13–20 WELCOME BACK LUNCH January 23 FIRST YEAR DINNER January 29 REACHING TOWARD A HOPE AND A FUTURE | Art Exhibit by Constance de Bordenave February 2 WEALTH WISDOM | David & Krisan Marotta February 6 THE MOVIES AND AMERICA | Drew Trotter February 19 SECOND + THIRD YEAR DINNER February 20 REIMAGINE CHARITY| Donell Woodson & Shawn Duncan February 28 FRIENDSHIP ACROSS RACIAL BOUNDARIES| Donell Woodson & Jay McCabe March 1 MARCH MADNESS LUNCH March 15 HOW TO GROW AS A CHRSITIAN STUDENT | Bruce Hindmarsh March 20 STUDENT ART EXHIBIT April 6 FOURTH YEAR DINNER April 17 EXAM SNACKS May 3–5, 7–10

Students catch up with one another after their Christmas breaks during our spring 2018 Welcome Back Lunch in the main meeting room, displaying how friendships are often formed across a table.

BEACH WEEK May 13–17 GRADUATION DAY LUNCH May 19 ALUMNI REUNIONS RECEPTION June 9 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

FRIENDSHIP ACROSS RACIAL BOUNDARIES Introduction and Questions Lane Cowin Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Women, lane@studycenter.net Interviewees Donell Woodson Lead Trainer in Community Development, The Lupton Center; Study Center Board Member Jay McCabe Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Men, jay@studycenter.net

On March 1, 2018, Donell Woodson and Jay McCabe presented a lecture on Friendship Across Racial Boundaries.

The following text is a partial transcription from that lecture.

Lane Cowin: One of the things that we’re excited to do here at the Study Center is to pursue truth—God’s truth.

To pursue truth is to live truth, be truth, and bring others into truth. Tonight, we will see these gentlemen experience God’s good truth together.

Donell Woodson is a home-grown Charlottesville native, deeply tied, deeply rooted here in Charlottesville. He was the first staff person under IV for the OneWay AfricanAmerican ministry chapter here. Currently, Donell works with the Lupton Center in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is passionate about introducing people to the beauty of the city in ways that include knowing the city’s gritty backstories and doing justice to the complexities of what it means to know a place and the people in it.

Jay is a Winston-Salem native who graduated from UVA in 2005. After graduating, he attended seminary and returned to work at the Study Center in 2010. Jay loves tacos more than most humans, and he really loves daring people to believe that Jesus loves them more than they imagine.

These two have a dear friendship. In this interview, they speak to their experience of friendship as a brown man and a white man, and what it has meant for them to know themselves and each other deeply.

How did you become friends?

Jay McCabe: When I moved back here in 2010 to work at the Study Center, Donell was already working with OneWay,

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the black campus ministry with InterVarsity. Their office was right off the back room, and my office was upstairs.

Within that first year of moving here and starting to work here, I asked Donell if we could start hanging out some, to get to know each other. We got a couple meals and shared our stories. Over that next year or so, we started to form a friendship that went beyond working in the same building.

I came to know and care for the students he was caring for, as well as the things going on in his life as he prepared to get married. He met [my wife] and got to know my family.

The friendship started to form as we opened up our lives to each other.

Donell Woodson: For me in this story line, [the Study Center] has so much to do with the fabric of what is our friendship—our brotherhood and covenant—from InterVarsity and those amazing friends that we shared together, to Shelly Pellish, a former staff member who just cared so deeply for minority students and staff, and wanted with all her heart to see this place embrace this new brown guy on staff.

JM: We were definitely supported and encouraged by many people. Another thing that helped as we got to know each other is that we both are pretty charismatically-inclined in our Christian faith and practice. That became a really neat connection that we shared. We felt that God was very close to us, and that that was important in our walk with him. The fact that we were also both doing college ministry created this great opportunity to talk about our work, and to connect about things we were passionate about.

DW: We discovered the obvious connections first, instead of entering into the friendship first by seeing the differences between us. That has sustained our

friendship and challenged us to move past the fear and dig into the deeper things of relationship.

LC: You mention fear. What has your friendship together, as a brown-skinned man and a white-skinned man, helped you to understand about your own racial identities or the identity of your friend here on the couch with you? What would you say to perhaps someone who experiences fear in some way when they think about moving toward “the other”?

JM: I grew up without any non-white, close friends. I lived in a world that wasn’t very informed about other people’s experiences and cultures. Around the same time that we were becoming friends, I was realizing that I actually had a culture and identity as a white person—that there were things that were normal to me as a white person that wouldn’t be normal to other people. As I was on the first steps of that journey, knowing that Donell sees things differently kept these realizations from simply being theoretical. If I don’t own and recognize that I have a culture, I’m more likely to do harm to other people through normalizing myself and thinking other people’s experiences are weird.

DW: It was the nurturing of my faith and identity in Christ and in God that led me early on to wrestle with and teach this truth that we are created in the image and likeness of God. He is creator, and a part of the uniqueness of the Creator is seen through that which he creates. The wrestling bore in me this maturation process of understanding that I have to enter into relationship through the lens that the other is created in the image and likeness of God. LC: What has it been like for you to enjoy one another?

I’m thinking about that both in terms of what has delighted you in experiencing this friendship as a white man and a brown man, but also, what has it meant for you to see not the other, but one another, particularly where race has been painful, where there have been things happening around you that have been really painful and broken in terms of race.

JM: I’ll talk about the painful surroundings of the last eight years. There has been Ferguson, there has been Trayvon Martin, there has been Charleston, there has been Martese Johnson, there has been the last presidential election, and there has been Charlottesville. These events have brought to the surface what has been covered up or hidden: that there is a different experience across races in the United States. I don’t even know how to express the significance of hearing about these events, and caring not only because they affect other human beings, but because I have a friend who is affected more personally than I am. I feel his pain

because I am with him, he’s expressing it to me, and I can’t fix it. It’s deepened my lament for what is broken in this country, in the world, and in all of us. And this is kind of the surprising thing: Donell and I have something that basically defies that. Our friendship is not perfect, but I love this person like a brother. We hope there could be this type of brotherhood across all people and places. When you don’t see that happening, it’s heartbreaking. It would almost be devastating if we didn’t share what we have to give me hope and give me encouragement that God is in this. He is doing his good work even when things seem to be just painful.

DW: Even as Jay talked about these things that caused emotion to rise up, I think about the very personal, on-Grounds things that took place [while I was here on OneWay staff] and how our student body processed those things, how the residents and community of Charlottesville at large were processing those things.

[I deeply felt] the weight of being the first AfricanAmerican college pastor here and the loneliness of being the only one in that kind of role as I sought to care for students. My friendship with Jay was, as young Atlantans would say, so “life” for me. There’s no better description. In those moments of such brokenness, hurt, and pain, I could breathe because there was a deep knowing that was taking place in the cultivation of our friendship. We exchanged the act of friendship with one another, we lived in the tension of the reality of our skin-colors and ethnicities at times, in the tone and tenor of the day—we didn’t run away from that. In that pain was beauty. Beauty for ashes. That Scripture [Isaiah 61:3] contextually means so much to me, thinking about this relationship.

There was a lot of fear on both sides: a lot of unknowns.

Daring to lean into [the pain surrounding race] means it could be to the detriment of the friendship. But the more we did and dared, the better, the deeper, and the wider our relationship became. We looked up and watched the students around us doing the same thing [in their relationships]. This is where daring to engage in relationship is so important: it sows seeds for people to live past the fear that can impede any progress. If you live into [friendship across racial boundaries] and lean into it, it creates this beautiful moment for life.

Before you realize it, people around you are absorbing that. They’re doing it themselves.

Listen to the full conversation online at studycenter.net/lectures/racial-boundaries

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FRIENDSHIP, LONELINESS, AND SOCIAL NETWORKS Lisa Rohrer Programs and Communications Manager, lisa@studycenter.net

In January 2018, the United Kingdom appointed a “Minister for Loneliness” in order to combat the high statistics of isolation in the country. In a New Yorker article about this new British government position (which was a first for any nation), writer Rebecca Mead explains, “The appointment seems to address an ill that Britain can barely admit it is suffering from.”

For college students, particularly those at both an academically rigorous and highly social university like the University of Virginia, a similar temperament exists. “Loneliness is extremely common, and one reason is the stigma attached to admitting one’s loneliness,” Lane Cowin, Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Women, observes. “Shame totally squelches opportunity to know and be known in our loneliness, to name the reality of our longing for friendship, and the fact that friendship takes time and effort.”

“I think most students experience loneliness regularly, and fear it constantly,” Jay McCabe adds. In his role as Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Men, he has the opportunity to meet with students who often bring up questions about isolation and friendship, especially in the midst of the busyness of life at UVA. “We are convinced that friendship is an important and often neglected activity in the Christian life,” Jay says. “We all want it and love it, but it requires that we accept our vulnerability, and that is often terrifying in practice.”

In response to questions about difficult, unsatisfying, awkward, or confusing attempts at building deep friendships, and in response to an interest raised by Undergraduate Ministries Intern Kiki Konopnicki, the Study Center launched a “Friendships, Loneliness, and Social Networks” small group to bring the topic to light.

“We thought it would be helpful to actually consider what friendship is, why it’s hard, and what it might look like to be faithful in our friendship efforts,” Lane explains.

The six-week small group, which began on January 26, addressed one topic each week, ranging from defining God-intended friendship to wrestling with how today’s technology affects friendship.

“Social media stir our desires for friendship, and definitely afford us the opportunity to stay connected.

At the same time, a cheaper version of ‘connection’ can often stand in for what deeper, vulnerable friendship offers,” Lane says. “People often seek out the closeness, intimacy, and connection that God intended for people to experience in friendship from other sources that are not made for those things—hooking up, partying, or pornography, to name a few,” Jay adds.

Unlike the kind of friendship offered by these idols and false fulfillers, the small group has considered what the Bible has to say about true friendship.

“True friendship requires knowing and being known deeply, which requires a vulnerability and grace that isn’t always intuitive,” Lane begins. In John 15 (among other passages) we

see Jesus describing and embodying the friendship he wants with his disciples. Though the God of the Bible models friendship to us, where can students experience the goodness and power of friendship when our attempts often fall short or result in continual loneliness?

“Jesus offers us the grace of uniting us to himself,” Lane explains. The God of the universe invites us into friendship that provides us hope in the midst of our present, broken relationships. Though not yet brought to completion, Christ’s death and resurrection assure us that our friendships can and will be restored.

“If anything, friendship gets harder after college,” Jay admits. But, Lane adds, “deep friendship requires attending to that movement from brokenness to redemption over and over again.”

While students engage with one another in the classroom, around Grounds, and in their homes, our goal is that the honest conversations at the Center for Christian Study about loneliness and fear in friendships will offer students hope that Christ is making all things new, and that deep friendship—both modeled by and offered to us from a Father who knows us intimately—is worth pursuing.

Jay McCabe and Lane Cowin

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SHARING LIFE, SEEKING TRUTH Rachel Gaffin Administrative and Communications Assistant, rachel@studycenter.net Cross the threshold of the Study Center’s front door on a Friday morning, and you’re likely to find the building mostly empty. Historically, 8:00 a.m. proves to be an unpopular time of day for most college students, its difficulty most keenly felt on a Friday.

“Yeah, it’s the worst time ever,” fourth year Ben Dalkin laughs, “but it’s when everyone was most free.” He leans back in one of the armchairs flanking the newly renovated Study Center prayer room with his friends and fellow fourth years, Eric Fromke and Dan Buckley. Since the spring of their third year, the trio has met together in the prayer room every Friday at 8:00 a.m. to catch up, grab a hot cup of coffee, and study the Bible.

As happens often on a college campus, Ben, Eric, and Dan skipped the pleasantries and became friends first by living together in a house just a short walk away from the Rotunda.

By their second semester as housemates, the three guys, along with another, now-graduated housemate, wanted to dig deeper in their friendships. “It’s been a unique part of my Christian faith to meet these guys,” Dan says. “We can, yes, play basketball and talk about regular stuff together, but we can also share life together.”

Despite sharing a home, the guys chose the Study Center as the location for their study. “It might be cliché, but the Study Center is a home away from home,” Dan says.

“Having the free coffee definitely helps, too. We sometimes use commentaries, and that was actually one of the reasons we came to the Study Center the first time.”

“It’s the natural place to go,” Eric agrees. “It’s a central hub. I have a lot of good conversations here already, and we knew we could use the prayer room.”

to participate in Christian ministries from their first days on Grounds by attending the Study Center’s Move-In Day Lunch and joining Christian ministries as first years.

With high school experiences of Christian friendships that lacked accountability, both Dan and Eric hoped for settings where they could be encouraged and challenged to fully be themselves in Christ. As Eric puts it, “[In previous Christian groups,] I knew how to ‘put on the face’ that says ‘I’m doing well’ without giving much of myself. But through our study and at college in general, I’ve learned that my life, my thoughts, and my issues are not burdens to other people.”

For Ben, the study marks the fruit of recent conversion.

Transferring to UVA after a year at Virginia Tech, it wasn’t until the winter of his third year that, at the invitation of some high school friends, he picked up the Gospel of Matthew. While reading the Sermon on the Mount late on a January night, he became a Christian. This year following his conversion, his friendship with Eric and Dan has played a large part in encouraging his walk: “I would have been worn down without Christian community, without resources and support. [These guys] are my best friends.”

Right now, the guys are studying the Gospel of John, where they have been struck by the combination of Jesus’ truth and love. “Jesus spoke truth frankly, even if it was not pleasant for a lot of people to hear,” Ben says, “[and yet his honesty] is always contrasted with his love. His truth and love always parallel each other.”

“As we’ve been reading John,” Eric adds, “I’ve learned how direct and blunt Jesus often was with his disciples, calling them out. A lot of the time, the best way to love someone is just to tell them the truth. Especially with your best friends: you want them to be able to tell you where you’re wrong. Other people can see us more truly than we can see ourselves. It’s cool to see that in our study and our friendships.”

Though each guy is involved in unique Christian fellowships on Grounds, Eric, Ben, and Dan have been able to challenge and grow one another in their study of God’s Word. The trio have experienced the cost of friendship, and the grace of a God who pursued each of them and brought them together to sharpen one another. “I’m so glad I found and have lived with a core group of friends like these guys,” Dan says.

“There’s so much we’ve learned from each other in and outside of our Bible study.”

Coming from Christian homes, both Dan and Eric sought 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 S P R I N G 2018

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage

Center for Christian Study

PAID Charlottesville, Virginia Permit No. 144

128 C H A N C E L LO R ST R E E T, C H A R LOT T E S V I L L E , VA 22903 (434) 817 - 10 5 0 W W W. ST U DYC E N T E R . N E T A D D R E SS S E R V I C E R E Q U E ST E D

Exam Snacks MAY 3–5, 7–10, 2018 | 10:00 A.M. + 5:00 P.M.

Encourage our students during finals week by donating funds, providing desserts, or partnering with fellow parents to provide a meal! This spring, we will provide snacks twice a day (10:00 a.m. breakfast and 5:00 p.m. dinner).

We anticipate feeding 150 students per breakfast, and 225 students per dinner!

Interested in supporting this ministry event? Email Lisa Rohrer at examsnacks@ studycenter.net to get involved!

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