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Responding pastorally to student questions

Shiao Chong, former Christian Reformed campus minister to York University, recently posted about his experience with questions and concerns around evolution. While questions around evolution have decreased among most of the students we work with, his wise pastoral response to that question provides a helpful guideline as we respond to other questions we receive around such things as AI, sexuality, and vocation.

Chong writes that it matters first of all “WHO you are talking to about this issue makes a big difference as to how you talk about it. For sure, talking to atheists about this issue is different than talking to Christians about it. And even among Christians, there are differences too . . . . For example, talking to evangelical students, especially those who came from an anti-evolution background, tend to be filled with tension, anxieties, and sometimes even animosity!”

In asking how he, as “a Reformed campus pastor, should speak about evolution and human nature to Christian students from an anti-evolution background” he answered as follows:

“I should speak of human evolution by addressing the underlying theological and ethical fears or anxieties that students have about accepting human evolution. In particular, I need to assure them that human evolution does not undermine biblical authority. Secondly, I need to assure them that human evolution does not undermine humanity’s role as the image of God. And finally, that it does not undermine any of the Christian ethics that rely on human dignity as the Image of God.”

He goes on to explain further what he means by that.

Such a response is deeply pastoral in that it helps people see how God cares for them and encourages them to trust God and the Bible, even as they ask hard questions about what to believe and how to live.

– Brenda Kronemeijer-Heyink

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Comparing campus ministry to trees

Biblical scholar Elizabeth Robar, in a recent communication from Scriptura wrote about the metaphors of grass and trees in Psalm 92. There it says that the wicked spring up like grass, but the righteous flourish like a palm tree and grow like the cedars of Lebanon. As both seem to flourish, she asked what the difference was. The answer she gave was time.

Grass grows quickly and “looks wonderfully successful – but it doesn’t last. A tree, however, can last forever, even as “growth happens slowly, season after season.” And as Psalm 92 points, such trees can “still bear fruit in old age.”

This is an encouragement to us doing the work of campus ministry, where we throw out seeds: some become grass, some become choked by weeks, and yet still some become trees where we only see the fruit years later. As Robar notes, Psalm 92 invites us to recognize that “The work, repetition, waiting, disappointments, and joys of an ordinary life can all become places where God forms people who are rooted enough to bear fruit for decades.”

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A prayer for higher education

The following prayer Interceding for Those in Higher Education is an adaptation from a prayer written by Emily Umulis and posted on the Women Scholars & Professionals website. We are using it at the first GCF of the year.

Lord, you are present to your people throughout the world. You have called us to learn, love, and serve within the universities where you’ve placed us. Hear us now as we bring them to you.

Lord, we pray…

  1. For the leaders in higher education, including presidents, provosts, governing councils, deans, department heads, and all who manage internal operations and external relationships that influence the flourishing of the University of Toronto: give them wisdom as they navigate complex systems. May the decisions they make and the actions they perform nurture the well-being of the university and the lives of the people within it.
    • We pray, both aloud and in silence, for the leaders we know:
    • “Lord, hear our prayer.”
  2. For faculty who teach, mentor students, conduct research, and take part in various service obligations balancing day-to-day tasks with pressure to achieve in an increasingly competitive environment: give them insight as they order their days, create boundaries between work and life, and prioritize the demands on their time. Fill them with wisdom and grace as they bring words and influence into people’s lives and engage in research that furthers our understanding of your world.
    • We pray, both aloud and in silence, for the faculty members we know and work with:
    • “Lord, hear our prayer.”
  3. For graduate students who often work countless hours in solitude, studying a topic few people in the world understand, and feel caught between their own needs or desires and the power structures in which they live and work: give them peace and hope. Fill them with a sense of your presence and connect them with others in meaningful ways.
    • We pray, both aloud and in silence, for the graduate students we know and work with:
    • “Lord, hear our prayer.”
  4. For undergraduate students who are often both excited and overwhelmed as they navigate new independence and spaces of need: meet their longing for beauty with your presence, ground their identity in your love, and breathe your Spirit into all the ways they long to impact the world.
    • We pray, both aloud and in silence, for the undergrads we know and work with:
    • “Lord, hear our prayer.”
  5. For those who serve the University without long-term titles, including adjunct faculty, operations managers, grounds and cafeteria workers, who navigate power systems in which they are not at the top and serve in positions that are often overlooked: provide financial stability, open their eyes to see the impact they have, and speak truth and justice into the systems that affect their lives.
    • We pray, both aloud and in silence, for the we know or have seen at work on campus.
    • “Lord, hear our prayer.”

Lord, we bring to you the places where you have called us and the people there. Fill us with your Spirit, bless the work of our hands, and make us to be a redeeming influence in our classrooms, departments, and universities. May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen.”