THE STUDY CENTER
LETTER FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Conversations from around the Study Center STAFF
DEAR FRIENDS,
It’s amazing how many conversations I can hear from my office at the Study Center. I’m not eavesdropping, mind you, but there’s just so much talking going on around here: a small group in the Nook next door perhaps, students standing in the hallway, banter echoing up from the kitchen downstairs. Of course, at one level that’s what the Study Center is all about. Our vision statement includes a commitment to “the wise discussion of Truth in light of the challenges of contemporary culture.”
So, one way to read this newsletter is with an ear out for all the conversations happening in and through this ministry. Those might include the remarkable array of topics in our discussion groups and Lunch Club (including prayer, liturgy, sexuality, work, Christian nationalism, and the problem of pain), the one-to-one pastoral counseling offered by our staff or the professional counseling offered by board member Marta McKinnon. We trust that the major events of this semester (two performances of C. S. Lewis on Stage at the Paramount Theater and a talk from International Justice Mission founder Gary Haugen in Wilson Hall) have led to further interaction and reflection. You’ll find lots of other examples in the pages that follow.
Of course, we would love to have you join in our conversations as well. We open many of our opportunities to the community as well as students, so we would welcome your presence. If you’re not on one of our biweekly (parent or community) emails, please sign up. I also hope you’ll listen in to our Conversations from Chancellor Street—the Study Center’s podcast with our latest classes, talks, and lectures (see back cover for details). Or drop by the Study Center, come up to the staff offices, and chat for a bit. We enjoy that kind of talking too.
YOURS IN OUR LORD,
Bill Wilder Executive Director
BILL WILDER Executive Director
FITZ GREEN Senior Director for Education & Programs
KATIE BLACK Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Women
RICK CAMPANELLI Director of Graduate Ministries
HANNAH FRITZEEN Director of Hospitality
STUART HORNSBY Director of Development & Parent and Alumni Relations
DREW MASTERSON Director of Undergraduate Ministries for Men
JAN MATHEWS Administrative Assistant
TRISH OWEN Librarian
DEBBIE RODRIGUEZ Director of Finance
LILLY WEST Communications Manager
DANIELLE WILCOX Advisor for Strategy & Advancement
Phone: (434) 817-1050
Email: info@studycenter.net Website: www.studycenter.net
Lunch Club
THIS SPRING MARKS the latest installment of our Lunch Club series, launched in 2020. During Exam Snacks this past winter, we asked students to submit difficult topics for us to wrestle with. Then, each Tuesday in February we met to discuss one of the following questions:
• Why do we pray?
• What is Christian nationalism and why is it so controversial?
• Why is the liturgical calendar so trendy?
• What were the origins of evil before the fall?
• Why do Christians disagree about the end times, and does it matter?
We believe that gathering around a homemade Study Center meal is the perfect time to tackle tough topics and life’s big questions.
At one gathering we hosted Walter Kim, President of the National Association of Evangelicals, who shared his insight on Christian nationalism and why it’s controversial. If you are interested in hearing that presentation or any of our other Lunch Club topics, you can find recordings at our podcast, Conversations from Chancellor Street. —LILLY WEST
What We’re Reading
THE PROBLEM OF PAIN by C.S. Lewis
During this Friday afternoon small group, Bill Wilder and Fitz Green are leading a group of students through one of Lewis’ most challenging and powerful books. In it he addresses with clarity and creativity the thorny questions about God that arise when we consider all the suffering in the world.
CULTURAL ENGAGEMENT: A CRASH COURSE IN CONTEMPORARY ISSUES
Eds. Joshua Chatraw and Karen Swallow Prior
After their Thursday evening dinner together, Katie, Drew, and the residents are discussing this overview of Christian theology and ethics applied to some of the biggest hot-button issues of our day, including politics, sexuality, and the environment.
Rush Hospitality
LITURGY OF THE ORDINARY: SACRED PRACTICES IN EVERYDAY LIFE by Tish Harrison Warren
Each week over dinner Hannah and the Interns are walking through this book about the spiritual depths hiding within our most mundane tasks and modern realities (like making the bed or sitting in traffic).
EVERY GOOD ENDEAVOR: CONNECTING YOUR WORK TO GOD’S WORK by Tim Keller
Fitz is leading a group of graduate students through this expansive modern classic on how to view our work in light of God’s kingdom.
This is what first-year student Molly Goodall had to say after she joined us for Rush Hospitality in January, when we served 1,000+ women.
“Watching people who might’ve never known about the Study Center light up at the sight of a warm and cozy house with snacks and smiling faces was so beautiful! I overheard so many conversations of people wondering what this wonderful place is, expressing gratitude for it, and hoping to learn more about it.”
Walter Kim speaks at the Tuesday Lunch Club series.
A semester of C.S. Lewis
His powerful theology explored
C.S. LEWIS HOLDS the distinction of being one of the 20th century’s most influential Christian authors and theologians. He has certainly influenced the thinking of many at the Study Center over the years. In February we helped bring his work to our students and the greater Charlottesville community in several creative ways.
C.S. LEWIS ONSTAGE
We partnered with the Fellowship for Performing Arts (FPA) to bring C.S. Lewis On Stage: Further Up and Further In to Charlottesville. Award-winning actor Max McLean used Lewis’ own words in this multimedia theatrical event at the historic Paramount Theater. McLean’s performance captured the author’s personality, eloquence, and wit—taking the audience deep into the soul of this influential thinker.
The performance explored what convinced Lewis of the divinity of Christ, why the BBC gave him a huge audience to deliver wartime talks (which would later become his famous work Mere Christianity), how Hitler influenced
the writing of The Screwtape Letters, and how Lewis’ profound insights on prayer, heaven, and the Second Coming of Christ influenced The Chronicles of Narnia. The Study Center was responsible for student participation, buying blocks of tickets and gathering 14 other student ministries to distribute those tickets on Grounds.
After the show, McLean offered a Q&A with the audience in which many students raised questions about Lewis and his life, how Lewis’ reluctant faith informed his theological imagination, McLean’s experience integrating faith and performing art, and more. A selection of Study Center-affiliated students met with McLean after this Q&A session for a post-show discussion.
FILM SCREENING
Leading up to the on-stage performance, the Study Center hosted a film screening of The Most Reluctant Convert , which dramatizes the early life of C.S. Lewis through his conversion at age 32. This film was adapted from a past FPA show of the same name, with
actor Max McLean starring as the older Lewis recounting his journey to faith. Students enjoyed the screening (and some homemade Study Center muffins), followed by a brief discussion facilitated by Drew Masterson.
SMALL GROUP
Not enough Lewis? This spring we also offered a small group on Lewis’ The Problem of Pain for interested students. While exploring this seminal work, we covered topics such as the power and goodness of God, human evil and the fall, heaven and hell, and animal pain. Lewis’ argument begins, “’If God were good, He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty He would be able to do what He wished. But the creatures are not happy. Therefore God lacks either goodness, or power, or both.’ This is the problem of pain, in its simplest form.”
Fitz Green and Bill Wilder facilitated the biweekly discussions, exploring Lewis’ honesty, clear thinking, and easy style throughout this apologetic work.
—LILLY WEST
In Pursuit of Justice
IJM founder visits UVA
THIS SPRING we welcomed Gary Haugen, CEO and founder of International Justice Mission (IJM), to deliver a lecture on UVA Grounds: “The Struggle for Justice and the Recovery of Moral Knowledge.”
Before founding IJM in 1997, Gary was a human rights attorney for the US Department of Justice, where he focused on crimes of police misconduct. In 1994, he directed the United Nations investigation into the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide. In this role, he led an international team of lawyers, criminal prosecutors, law enforcement officers, and forensics experts to gather evidence that would eventually be used to bring the perpetrators of the genocide to justice.
Gary has been recognized by the US State Department as a Trafficking in Persons “Hero”—the highest honor given by the US government for anti-slavery leadership. His work to protect the poor from violence has been featured by such media outlets as
Foreign Affairs, the New Yorker, Times of India, Forbes, the Guardian, and National Public Radio, among others. He is the author of several books, including Good News about Injustice (Intervarsity Press) and, most recently, The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence (Oxford University Press).
In his March lecture, Haugen asked: How do people persevere in prolonged struggles for justice? Can a contemporary university like UVA form students who will struggle for justice in the world? He contended that if a university aspires to form men and women to be great and good, it must recover the pursuit of moral knowledge.
This event was held in partnership with UVA’s Law Christian Fellowship and co-sponsored by the UVA chapter of IJM. If you couldn't make it to our lecture in person, check out the Study Center’s podcast, Conversations from Chancellor Street, for a recording of this lecture as well as other lectures from our archive.
—LILLY WEST
The UVA Law Christian Fellowship was founded over a half-century ago by law students who wanted to understand how to be faithful to their calling to follow Jesus, in the study and practice of law. Among that founding group were students who had also helped start the Study Center. For decades since, the Study Center has supported LCF financially, in discipleship and mentoring, and by serving as a link between a legacy of hundreds of LCF alums and each successive class of new law students. Each week, LCF members gather for prayer, fellowship and sharing, book clubs and Bible Study and, of course, softball.
What makes the Study Center special to you? We asked...
“The Study Center embraces the gifts of individuals: knowledge, mercy, hospitality, etc. What a beautiful way to bring people together as a body harmoniously working to encourage and edify us in our journey of sanctification. The Study Center models the way the body is supposed to love and give.”
—LILLIAN BUCHANAN (FIRST YEAR)
MAKING ROOM Building Update
FOR MONTHS the expansion had been covered by scaffolding and tarp. Then, finally, it came down and, like a gift being unwrapped, the new building was revealed. We couldn’t be more pleased. Of course, there’s much more to be done. Exterior painting is needed and much interior work, though it continues apace. The new expansion space for the library (top, right) and the larger meeting room (bottom, right) is taking shape as we aim for those spaces to be completed this summer.
We praise God for His provision of this expansion through our incredible Study Center family. Please continue to keep the construction project in your prayers. We are eager to fully open our newly enlarged home on 128 Chancellor Street this fall.
SUPPORT OUR MINISTRY
The Center for Christian Study relies on generous support from alumni, parents, and community members. As our ministry continues to expand, our financial needs are also increasing. Would you help us meet our Annual Fund goal of $858,186?
Give online at www.studycenter.net/give, send a check using the enclosed envelope, or give through the UVA Fund.
Scan the QR code to the right for all of our giving options. (EIN 51-0192618)
“The Study Center is the place where I am seen and known, where I can bring my questions, and where I am cared for. I love being part of continuing their work through giving and helping them care for UVA students.”
–ABBY CORNWELL, CLASS OF 2023
Scan to see the month-bymonth building progress.