Beginning The School Year — By Faith

Phillip A Bishop,
Exercise Physiology,
University of Alabama

[Aug. 28, 2011] –






I once was a Naval Flight Officer and our aircraft had landed for a few hours in Rota, Spain. I was in the Air Force base book store when a small paperback caught my eye. The book was, This Beats Working For A Living, by Professor X, who explained that he would be expelled from the profession if colleagues discovered his identity.

I’m not sure why, but I read the brief book with gusto and marveled at the great job the anonymous author was describing with genuine enthusiasm. I had no thoughts of higher education as a career.

It would be about eight years before I joined academe. As an assistant professor, I learned that some parts of Prof. X’s book were a bit exaggerated, but that the professorate was truly a wonderful career. After 26 years, it strikes me that our job offers opportunities unlike any other. We get paid to travel, read, think, and occasionally we get invited to speak, inside and outside the USA. Because we get paid to study, we can become one of the world’s foremost experts in our narrow field of interest.

People of Influence

We are people of influence. We influence students, colleagues, and sometimes the public. If we play our cards just right, people may even be interested in what we think, write and say. God is not impressed, but I am.

God called all believers to go into all the world and make disciples. I have been fortunate to travel to a large portion of the world. Making disciples has been a bit more challenging. Both have been rewarding.

I think about some of those I have influenced a bit over the years as a professor. There are Paul and Matt, Eric, Andy, and Matt #2, Eric #2, Jay, Wes; there are Stasia, Justin and Stephen, Ryan, Annie, Corey and Krista. I have tried to influence a lot more, in fact every person with whom I have had contact.

How much impact have I had? I have no idea. We walk by faith, not by sight.

I don’t really have any good measure of my effectiveness, but that’s not stopping me. I can’t make my students learn, I can only create the best learning environment and circumstances. I can’t make a disciple; I can only pray and create the best environment and circumstances. Fortunately, God’s call to professors doesn’t involve peoples’ responses, only our obedience.

New Approaches, New Ideas

After 26 years, I have found some things that seem to effectively influence students for Christ. But, I am always looking for new approaches, new ideas, and new means for influence. I have to be on guard against making my students MY disciples, and instead point them towards Christ.

The temptation we Americans face is to lay up for ourselves treasures on earth; but moth and rust consume and thieves break in. So, I have to constantly remind myself of that treasure in heaven, and that’s worth the effort.

At the start of a new school year, I resolve to try once again to help make disciples, and leave the results to God.

© 2011 Phillip A. Bishop

Higher Learning

Walter Bradley,
Mechanical Engineering,
Baylor University

[Feb 6, 2011] –

What do students learn from our silence?

In my seven years of taking undergraduate and graduate courses, none of my professors were willing to identify themselves as Christians. Conversely, there certainly was no shortage of professors willing to ridicule Christianity.

This absence of a Christian presence in the university began to rock my own spiritual foundation in a very significant way. I began to wonder if there was something fundamentally incompatible between education to the level of a Ph.D. and my Christian faith. Thankfully, God preserved me from what could have been spiritual disaster.

My Intention

When I became a professor, I thought it would be fantastic to be for my students what no professor had been for me. That was my intention, and it has been part of my opening day routine at public universities, where I taught for more than 30 years, as well as more recently here at Baylor. But I must tell you that I wasn’t always so willing to say anything about my personal faith.

The first semester that I attempted to do so, I went to that first day of class ready to include it. But I was afraid. I wondered whether there was a reason there were no professors in the academy who were open about their faith - they had all been fired. (That wasn’t true, but I didn’t know it at the time.)

That night when I went home I told my wife Anne that I had been silent. She encouraged me not to give up. The second class period I again intended to say something about my faith. But I was still afraid. This went on all semester.

Finally during the very last class period I let my students know that I was in fact a Christian. But it was too late for them to stop by my office and talk about it if they wished – at that point they just wanted to take the final exam and go home.

First Impressions

At least I had said something about my faith. It was a beginning – a baby step. I learned from this. Now one of the most important goals for my first day of class is to connect personally with my students. Our first impressions are among the most lasting ones, (see Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink) so I have become very intentional in my actions.

After explaining the course objectives and reviewing the syllabus, I make sure to:
• introduce my family with photos of us playing tennis and snow skiing;
• talk about flying a Cessna 172 that I rent as a private pilot;
• say that my Christian faith is the foundation on which everything else I do is built;
• take pictures of the students in groups of four.

Using these pictures with their names on them, I can usually learn all the students’ names by the end of the third week. It facilitates classroom discussions when I can call on each student by name.

Anne and I saw our first two years in academia as an experiment to see if God in fact wanted us to make this a career. Now over 40 years later I can say it has been a great journey for us. If I had tried to lead an exemplary life on campus, but said nothing about Christ, I might get the glory. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to glorify God by identifying myself as a follower of Jesus Christ. Even if it took me awhile to learn.

© 2011 Walter Bradley

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