Graduate students vs. young professionals in ministry

Graduate students, by definition, are enrolled in a course of study at a university to earn a degree that will further qualify them for professional employment. Although one could presumably find a well-paying and satisfying job with a bachelor's degree, graduate students share the hope that a master's or doctoral degree will lead to increased salary and status, flexibility in work projects, and the opportunity to study a topic in depth. Some people switch disciplines between their undergraduate and graduate studies. Of course, there are sometimes more self-serving reasons for going to graduate school, such as delaying the inevitable job search and entrance into the "real world", continuing to be near college friends or in the college environment, and parental/professor/peer pressure (good grades = readiness for graduate school).

Whatever the reason, graduate students are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They're not undergraduate students any more; that piece of sheepskin is certainly well-earned and somehow that intervening summer completely changes a new graduate student's attitude towards undergraduates. However, graduate students aren't truly young professionals either, mostly because their salaries are too low. At least, this is true at major research universities like UC Berkeley or MIT, where the majority of graduate students focus full-time on their studies during the course of their degrees, even if officially they are supported by a "teaching assistantship" or "research assistantship" mandating only 20 hours of work per week. I rarely heard of anyone at MIT holding down an additional outside full-time or part-time job. This is not the case among the several graduate students I've met in DC, many of whom do work full- or part-time in addition to completing their masters' degrees. Perhaps, in non-science masters' programs, there is not adequate financial support for students, necessitating salaried work in order to not be in massive debt upon graduation. There is also the notable fact that the majority of MIT graduate students live on-campus or very close to campus, making the campus community quite close-knit.

So, are graduate students then best served by specific on-campus graduate Christian ministries, church young professionals' ministries, or non-specific church-wide ministries? For a specific example, MIT has a Graduate Christian Fellowship affiliated with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship, of which I was an active member/leader during my years in graduate school. Park Street Church has a Café ministry to young professionals in their 20's. GCF and Café had many activities in common, including large group worship/fellowship meetings, small group Bible studies, prayer meetings, and service projects. Park Street Church itself had neighborhood small groups, adult education (aka Sunday School), Cityworks urban outreach, choir, soli deo gloria (arts ministry), among others. How should an MIT graduate student choose between these all? I'm not even mentioning the smorgasboard of activities found at other churches in the Boston/Cambridge area.

Since I've been out of graduate school for a year and a half now, I can confidently assert that graduate students need on-campus small group Bible studies, or at least regular meetings with other graduate students. These peer-group Bible studies are vital not because graduate students study the Bible better with other intellectuals. Rather, the graduate school experience is long, difficult, and discouraging, and nobody understands this better than one's peers who are also undergoing the same long, difficult, and discouraging indenture. This shared understanding is the key to effective prayer support and encouragement. Of course, this also involves one-on-one discipleship and leadership training for the small group discussion facilitators.

The other unique aspect of graduate student ministries is the integration of faith and work. Nowhere else does one think critically about how the Christian faith is not separate from, or incompatible with, the academic calling, whether it be in natural/physical sciences, technology, law, business, humanities, social sciences, etc. Rather, one's Christian faith should encompass all of daily life, not just church on Sundays and Bible study on Wednesdays. I definitely miss thinking and dialoguing about the ethical Christian implications of copyright law, or what science is actually present/not present in the Bible, or how my "secular" scientific research is actually related to God's creation, or how to share my faith in the workplace without fear of repercussion.

Most graduate students I've known at MIT have complained that they are not involved in church at all, and the only people they know at church are other MIT people. My solution to this dilemma is to keep the MIT-specific small group Bible studies, and have monthly lectures by Christian MIT professors on how they've personally tied in their faith and academic work. Perhaps there should also be a regular discussion group on responsible technology. Other than that, graduate students should be actively involved in adult education, service projects, and arts/music ministries through their local churches, and seek out opportunities to fellowship and pray with the church-wide body of believers.

Meeting Miss America

The GCF Fall retreat at Toah Nipi was a blast, but the coolest part was meeting Erika Harold, Miss America 2003.

On Sunday morning, we all gathered for worship in the main room of the Hebron building. After singing some praise songs, we were all sent off to have some quiet time before meeting up again. I hung out near the lake for a while before it got too cold, and then went back to the main room.

Jon came in, and sat in one of the front rows. To his left, someone had spilled something, so no one could sit there. Two guys sat one seat over from him. Then a girl sat two seats over from him on the right. I was initially really shy and didn't want to sit in between them (too much effort to walk in front of people in a narrow row). So I sat behind Jon, next to Yang.

At some point I realized that no one was going to sit in between Jon and this girl, so I said, "Hey, Sweet Jon, I'll sit next to you." So I went ahead and sat next to Jon, with the girl now one seat over from me on the right. I then made some small talk about how I hate sitting in the back when really tall guys sit in front of me. The girl in front of me was so worried. She said, "Oh, am I too tall?", and even stood up to see. I replied that no, she was fine and that in general girls are not too tall for me.

At that point, the girl next to me mentioned how she was the shortest one in her family, and how her three siblings would constantly tease her by saying, "Erika, you're so short." Immediately, something clicked in my mind. I laughed, and introduced myself as Cynthia from MIT. She said she was Erika from the Harvard Law School.

I asked where she was from, and she said Illinois. At this point, I said, "Erika, I think I know you from somewhere, but I'm not really sure." She said, "Oh, really?" I said, "Where in Illinois are you from?" She said, "Champaign-Urbana". At this point, I said, "You're Erika Harold, Miss America." And she said, "Yes, I am." I said, "Oh my gosh, you're the first famous person I've ever met!"

She was amazingly sweet and normal. I told her I couldn't really remember what she was doing on TV, besides crying that she had won Miss America. She mentioned that she was featured in her church (Assemblies of God)'s national magazine, and back home sometimes people looked at her funny, like they couldn't believe it was really her. Also, she said that she didn't really like Chemistry because her teacher in high school wasn't very good.

I felt so blessed to have met her and talked to her. Check out the pictures from the retreat.

GCF tall ship cruise and ice cream social

On Tuesday Kevin invited GCF exec on a two-hour tall ship cruise out of the Boston Harbor. The ship was called "Formidable". I brought my camera and everything, but seriously, I didn't really want to take any pictures. I just wanted to be peacefully sailing on the water, out in the middle of almost nowhere, and relax. It was a fun cruise. I got to see a lot of the Harbor, and I thanked God for giving me this chance to love the water and enjoy His creation.

On Wednesday, the Hardcore Bible study hosted the Tang ice cream social, an orientation event for new students who will hopefully come to GCF. I had been under a bit of stress in terms of scheduling this social. The other socials pretty much just met in the same place and at the same time as their Bible studies. So it would have made more sense for us to do it in Building 66. However, I strongly felt that Tang needed a social, since the west end of campus tends to get shafted a lot, in terms of location and also because not many GCF Exec'ers live in Tang (only for first years).

I thought we had an out, since Yang lives in Tang and could handle the room reservations. However, the Tang officers decided to be uncooperative and not allow any reservations for either the 24th floor lounge or the BBQ pits until September 13! That's so late. The rationale was that those areas should be open for new students who just want to hang out. I was seriously conflicted. Where did God want us to have this social?

Eventually I was convinced that God did want us to have the social at Tang, and the weather looked to be sunny. Then Hurricane Frances showed up, and the weather forecast suddenly looked to be rainy all day Wednesday. I was really sad, and prayed really hard for the weather to at least be cooperative from 6-8 pm.

And guess what? God is good, all the time! Not only did it stop raining in the morning, the skies were clear and the air was warm during our social. Many first years came, but more importantly than just coming for free food, they actually stayed and talked to us. More important than quantity is quality. I met the new ChemE's in Tang, and hopefully we established some good rapport and got them connected to the bigger Christian community at MIT. We also got several people from Westgate to come too. See, I think they were looking for a west campus social as well. They would have been neglected had we not done it in Tang.

All in all it was a wonderful success. I couldn't have pulled it off without the huge number of Hardcore people who showed up to help. John and Ken bought ice cream. Daniel, Andy, and Michelle helped me carry stuff there. Ji-Jon, Kevin, Jon, David, Zianette, and Johanna all showed up too to talk to people. It was wonderful, and I felt so blessed.

Oh yeah, Donald showed up too. I seriously thought I was seeing a ghost when I saw him. Me: "Aren't you supposed to be in Louisiana?" Him: "Yes, but I'm in town for an interview with Lincoln Labs." Oh. Well, it was certainly a surprise, and so nice and kind and thoughtful of him to think of us during his busy and whirlwind trip. I hope his interview went well.

GCF Exec retreat minutes

The theme of the retreat was to think of a leader as a visionary or sower. In the past, we've thought of a leader as a shepherd. We first studied 1 Chronicles 29 to see how David was an example of a good leader (in all instances below, unless otherwise specified, "he" refers to David):

• He appointed his son as a leader
• As a leader, he set a good example
• He had a clear vision: 1. building a house of God (temple), 2. keeping God's people united in following God, 3. making sure the temple was the national and spiritual identity (symbolizing Judaism)
• In contrast, Solomon was not a good sower
• He got the materials ready for the temple, and the plans to make it. He tried to pass on the
• vision to the people
• He was passionate and a strong leader, and his passion rubbed off on the people
• In his prayer, he asked God to give his people and Solomon perfect hearts that were right with God
• He set up good counsels for his son
• He made all these sacrifices, including his personal wealth, which set an example for the people
• The nation should remain faithful
• There was no guilt manipulation

A good visionary requires faith and inspires faith:

• Clarity about reality (people trust your ability to do things)
• Hope for the future (Tufts students had to not be ashamed of IVCF)
• Wisdom regarding the process (small steps)
• Willingness to take risks (relational, trying something new)
• Articulation (the means to spread the vision)
• Confidence in God (prayer; don't plan/envision something you're not going to pray for)

There is a creative tension between "vision leaks" and "vision burnout". If you spread yourself too thin, your vision is too vague.

Next, we discussed the events we did in GCF last year. In large group, we had speaker events (Kevin, Lindsay Brown, Mary, Ming Tong, Priscilla Kelso, Ron Barndt, Ian Hutchinson, Andrew Sears, and Gordon Hugenberger) and non-speaker events (Harvest party, testimonies, praise nights, mission in life, 40 DOP, Harvard Ed School potluck, Soli Deo Gloria, Children's museum, 1/4 marathon, G2G, Brian Bucher's IAP talks, gay marriage).

We also reiterated IVCF's mission statement: "In response to God's love, grace, and truth. The purpose of IVCF USA is to establish and advance at colleges and universities witnessing communities of students and faculty who follow Jesus as Savior and Lord, growing in love for God, God's word, God's people of every ethnicity and culture, and God's purpose in the world." Four areas are emphasized: missions, spiritual disciplines, community, integration of faith and work.

There is a big difference between leadership recruitment (trying to fill holes, focus on the fringe, and leading to burnout) and leadership development (building relationships, providing tools, focusing on the core for the sake of the fringe, and leading to growth).

We moved on to small group vision. We focused on community and knowledge building. Ways to build community include: eating together, keeping a journal of prayer requests and how they were answered, meeting up with people outside of the regular meeting time, sharing "real" prayer requests, doing service projects, and taking holiday trips. Ways to build knowledge are: observation → interpretation → application (with an emphasis on application), and working on balancing different levels of spiritual maturity and closeness.

We then discussed large group vision. Is large group an onramp to small group, or vice versa? It provides an intermediate level of intimacy between a church and a small group. We divide large group attendees into three camps: participant, consumer, and seeker. Our current large group format is geared primarily to the consumer, which is good for them, and never mind us (participants) so much. Instead, we should focus on the participants, which would be good for us and good for everyone. We also stressed that we should have a clear focus and purpose for each week's large group meeting. For example, testimony nights are for participants. General talks are more for seekers. The overall purposes for large group are the integration of faith and work, witness, and growth. Some of the reasons people dislike large group are that they feel the need is already met by the church, and that the quality is too variable.

Finally, we discussed our personal vision for GCF. Here's mine: My personal vision for GCF this year is for us to be more trusting and caring of one another, so as Christ loved the church, we should love each other, even those that are difficult to love. I will partner in advancing that vision by setting a good example to people in my small group and other Christians, and constantly improving in my Christian walk and devotion.

GCF Exec Retreat thoughts

I haven't written for a while, but there's a lot of stuff going on in my mind, so why not start with a recap of the GCF planning retreat this past weekend.

Instead of going to Toah Nipi as usual, we went to the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center in Greenfield, New Hampshire. This camp is run by the Episcopal Diocese in Massachusetts. The camp was so nice! It is brand new, so everything was clean and pretty. The buildings all had the pretty pitched roof and wood beams that I like so much. The food was yummy, the bugs weren't too bad (though I did get a massive bite on my left arm), and the weather was awesome.

I liked the low ropes course the best. The first team-building exercise was the wide see-saw plank. The ten of us had to balance so that the plank was perfectly horizontal. At first, we were all egotistical and wanted to all do a bit of balancing. Everyone thought that they could lean just a tad so that it would work. Eventually we decided to have nine people stand perfectly still, feet together, in the middle of the plank, and have one person (Jon) handle the minute balancing at the edge. And it worked! We had to learn to put aside our own egos and trust someone else to do the job.

The second exercise was the ropes course. There was a metal rope stretched between five trees (so four segments, yeah!). The ten of us had to walk on the rope from start to finish, all while holding on to either a person or a tree at all times. That means, no lunging, no solo walking, etc. People who fell off had to start over at the end of the human line. I was pretty scared that I would fall off, but somehow I managed to stay on. I think God blessed me with great balance at that time. I was pretty calm too. We learned how to work together, and not be discouraged. Also, people at the finish line had to work together, and not just jump off, since a minimum of four people were needed for the last stretch to work. All in all, I would say that we did grow closer as an Exec team.

I have notes from the planning part, that I'll post later. BTW, Daniel took some very good pictures.