Associated Baptist Press - 5/28/2008

Associated Baptist Press
May 28, 2008 (8-55)

IN THIS ISSUE:
Furman faculty, students divided over Bush speech
Pass the Popcorn: Christians struggle to decide how best to engage culture
Pass the popcorn: Christians called to make culture; let God handle transformation
Pass the Popcorn Analysis: Engage culture without assuming it
Pass the Popcorn: Popular culture challenges Christians to ‘think outside the box’
Donor offers giving challenge at BTSR
Bluefield College board approves strategic plan
CBF worker reaches internationals at Mississippi State University

Furman faculty, students divided over Bush speech
By Robert Marus

GREENVILLE, S.C. (ABP) – Students, administrators, faculty and alumni of Furman University are in an uproar over a speech by President Bush, scheduled for the school’s May 31 commencement exercises in Greenville, S.C.

The controversy at the moderate school – located in one of the most conservative parts of one of the reddest states in the Union – has played out in local and national media. The spat has prompted arguments over censorship, academic freedom and respect for graduating seniors among students, faculty, administrators and alumni of the historic Baptist liberal-arts college.

“Under ordinary circumstances it would be an honor for Furman University to be visited by the president of the United States. However, these are not ordinary circumstances,” began a letter of objection that originated with the school’s faculty and was signed by more than 200 professors, administrators and students. It referred to the way that the Bush administration sold the Iraq war to the public as well as its treatment of terrorism suspects, handling of environmental and scientific issues and promotion of deficit spending.

“We are ashamed of these actions of this administration,” the letter continued. “The war in Iraq has cost the lives of over 4,000 brave and honorable U. S. military personnel, wounded more than 13,000 military personnel so severely that they are unable to return to duty, killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians, will cost more than 2 trillion dollars, and has severely damaged our government's ethical and moral credibility at home and abroad. Because we love this country and the ideals it stands for, we accept our civic responsibility to speak out against these actions that violate American values.”

The letter was posted on the school’s official commencement-information website shortly after Furman officials announced that Bush was scheduled to speak. A group of conservative Furman students then drafted their own statement, gathering more than 500 signatures from current students as well as some faculty, administrators and alumni.

The response, orchestrated by Furman’s Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow, quibbled with some of the faculty-organized group’s criticisms of the administration. But the bulk of the statement criticized what it described as a “publicity stunt” by the faculty.

“Count us among the disappointed and embarrassed -- disappointed at an administration that acquiesced to irresponsible faculty demands, and embarrassed by a faculty that sacrificed professionalism for publicity,” it said.

“Unfortunately, some professors seem intent on turning what should be a celebration of their students’ accomplishments into a forum to air their political differences with President Bush. ‘We object’ sounds open-minded and charmingly contrarian, but not when the ‘objection’ is entirely unrelated to the president’s commencement speech.”

The statement requested that administrators remove the faculty-led objection statement from the school’s website. If that request was denied, the conservative group said, it requested that its statement be posted alongside the objection.

Administrators refused to remove the original objection statement, but agreed to post the conservative group’s manifesto alongside it.

The response statement also objected to reports that some professors had asked administrators to be released from their contractual obligation to attend commencement exercises, and asked administrators not to grant such requests.

Administrators refused the student request, and issued a statement explaining their response to the conservative group’s demands.

“Furman will sustain its longstanding policy whereby individual faculty members must request permission from the dean of the Faculty to be excused from commencement. Those faculty members who have cited conscientious objection to the president's visit have been excused and, as always, all such requests have been treated with respect and confidentiality,” the administration statement said. “The intense discussion about the participation of the president of the United States in Furman's commencement reaffirms the university's foundational commitment to being a crossroads of competing ideas and perspectives.”

Bush has become one of the most unpopular presidents in modern history, with his approval ratings at or near the lowest levels for any president since polling firms began tracking such statistics.

According to the Greenville News, Bush’s appearance at Furman was the result of overtures to the White House by South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican and Furman alumnus. Sanford’s office contacted Furman president David Shi, who had to gain the approval of the graduating class’s student leaders to change the school’s tradition of featuring only student speakers at commencement exercises. According to the News, none of the students objected – although not all class officers attended the meeting.

Bush has made only two other appearances at graduation exercises this year. On May 4, he addressed graduating seniors at a high school in Greensburg, Kan., which was virtually wiped off the map a year before by a powerful tornado. On May 28, he was scheduled to address graduating cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.

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Pass the Popcorn: Christians struggle to decide how best to engage culture
By Jennifer Harris

(ABP) -- If Christians don’t learn to engage the popular culture that surrounds them, they will drown in it, experts insist.

“Christians tend to hear the words ‘popular culture’ and react as if spitting something yucky from their mouths,” said David Dark, author of Everyday Apocalypse: The Sacred Revealed in Radiohead, the Simpsons and Other Pop Culture Icons and The Gospel According to America.

But popular simply means “of the people,” he said. “It is never something we exist objectively from. It’s like the air we breathe, the language we use. … If we’re thinking, ‘Now we’re going to engage pop culture,’ it’s too late. We’re already soaking in it.”

Jeffrey Overstreet, contributing editor for Seattle Pacific University’s Response magazine, freelance movie reviewer, and author of Through a Screen Darkly and Auralia’s Colors, agreed.

“We are born into a pop culture,” he said, describing that culture as the very temporary, disposable details of a particular time and place.

Overstreet didn’t always see the importance of connection to culture. He grew up in a family that encouraged him to avoid pop culture and “steer clear of anything that did not have a clear connection to church,” he said. Rock music was questionable, and theaters were “dens of sin, contaminated by culture.”

Under the guidance of teachers, he realized complete separation from culture wasn’t the model Christ set.

“He was to be found at the corner pub, surrounded by messed-up people,” he said. “He was there among them, but he was different. He was compassionate.

“The more I look at it, in order to have a meaningful influence on society, we need to live fully engaged lives. How do we do that without hearing the stories told [in the wider culture]? Without listening to the music played?”

If Christians aren’t engaged in culture, they will not change the world or have an impact on society, said Greg Fiebig, associate professor of communication and theater at Indiana Wesleyan University and former theater director at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo. “We’re not going to do it. Period.”

He said Christians, especially in Christian academia, tend to live in a bubble. “People isolate themselves,” he said. “There is nothing wrong with isolating ourselves -- Jesus did -- but if we don’t know how to exist in the larger culture when we emerge, we have failed.”

Instead of hiding from culture, Christians can use it as a learning tool, Fiebig said.

“When I show someone a movie or present a show, I’m telling a story that needs to be told,” he said. “Jesus spoke of loving and caring for people where they were. The last thing he did was judge people. It is harder for us to judge when we are willing to listen to their story.”

Part of the learning experience is realizing that Christians don’t have a monopoly on the truth, Dark said.

“We are learners of Christianity,” he said. “It’s weird the way we talk, as if truth is something we have over other people. That’s no way to talk about faith, as if it is property. … When we view our faith as a bragging right or a secret password, I don’t know how we think others will be attracted to that.”

Instead, that type of view cuts Christians off from their neighbors, Overstreet said.

“We need to see and understand our neighbors,” he said. If Christians only pay attention to items of culture that affirm their own worldview, “we don’t understand what the world looks like to them.”

Christ went to the woman at the well and began asking her questions, he said. He didn’t simply bombard her with the gospel.

He added that people know when they are the subject of marketing campaigns. “So much of Christian art is just advertising for Jesus,” he said. “If we just keep shouting, we shouldn’t be surprised when people react like we are salesmen.”

He recalled driving under an overpass where someone had spray-painted in big letters, “Jesus is the answer.” Underneath, in a different color, another person had responded, “Yes, but what’s the question?”

Christians shouldn’t be handing out answers to questions that haven’t been asked, he said. Instead, pop culture can be used to kindle questions.

But engaging culture will, no doubt, lead to viewing, reading or listening to objectionable content.

“As a Christian, I believe it can be insightful to critique movies for what they might have to say about important aspects of our lives,” said David Thomas, associate professor of rhetoric emeritus at the University of Richmond and freelance writer for Christian Ethics Today.

“I’m less interested in whether a movie contains language that offends me, or has scenes that depict sex or violence, than I am in determining whether the stories and characters ring true, and in what the characters’ moral and ethical choices lead to.”

That’s not necessarily a widely held view among many believers. “Christians tend to believe that films have the power to single-handedly disrupt or uproot a person’s spiritual development if they contain corrupting elements,” said Chad Johnston, production assistant for Allen Press in Lawrence, Kan., and adjunct online instructor in communication and film at Drury University in Springfield, Mo.

“I do think people should be discerning about what they watch, but throwing out the baby with the bathwater -- and sometimes the bathtub -- is a flawed method of encountering and dealing with media.”

He compares watching films to meeting people. When meeting a person, it is easy to dismiss him or her due to a simple disagreement, but perhaps at the expense of a potential relationship or opportunity for growth, he said.

“It always surprises me that Christians will dismiss an ‘R’-rated film, yet read ‘R’-rated books in the Bible, like Judges,” he said.

“I tend to think that life is ‘R’-rated and should not be experienced without a Parent -- i.e., our heavenly Father. After all, how can we handle the tougher realities of life, being as fragile as we are? So I recommend that if you are hesitant to watch a particular film, you should ask yourself why, and perhaps do some research. If you are still uncomfortable with seeing it, or you simply feel it is bankrupt of any value spiritually, by all means avoid it.”

“To think of a human story as objectionable is not fair,” Dark observed. “If all we do is count bad words or feel offended, we are not relating to the world we are called to love or the world God so loved.”

But that does not mean anything goes, he emphasized.

“I wouldn’t say anyone needs to walk into dangerous places,” Overstreet said. “Each person needs to know their own strengths and weaknesses. But a lot of ‘R’-rated films are profound movies.”

The importance lies in knowing how to interpret films, which may be difficult for those who have never studied literature or other arts, Overstreet said.

Fiebig added that the American culture has lost a lot of ability for interpretation because of the tendency to be individualistic. “Movies are not meant to be seen in the privacy of your own home,” he said. “They should be communal, with time for discussion.”

Dark agreed that too much such privatization has occurred. Typically, he said, Christians will watch, listen or read, but pretend the stories aren’t important to them when they step into church. “We are not living out loud to one another,” he said.

When Christians view things in isolation, they often miss the redeeming value, he said. “When we live isolated lives, we often hold wrongly applied guilt, as if our enjoyment is somehow separate from our relationship with God.”

Thomas’ church tries to break through the isolation by offering courses in faith and culture. He worked with Doug Gebhard, a pastor in Rockingham, N.C., to design a liturgical film class that accompanied the seasons of Lent and Advent.

“The movies we chose had a Lenten or an Advent theme,” Gebhard said. “David explained rhetorical devices in the film -- plot, symbolism, etc. -- while I pointed out theological themes [like] suffering, sacrifice, redemption.”

Gebhard has led other classes that reached beyond film.

“I hoped to prod people of faith to look at movies, listen to music, read novels with a lens of faith,” he said. “What spiritual messages can you see in Star Wars? The Matrix? Ironman? Where is Christ found in Springsteen’s anthems? U2’s music?”

Johnston also partnered with a friend to lead a film class, called Sanctuary of the Cinema, at University Heights Baptist Church in Springfield, Mo., where he lived until last year.

“Our goal was to explore films through the interpretive lens of Christian spirituality -- to see the light of God in the light of the silver screen,” he said.

The class met in the upstairs college Sunday school class, which featured comfortable chairs and couches and a projector to watch films on a large screen.

Sanctuary of the Cinema was advertised at local college campuses, coffee shops and an independent movie theater. As a result, the class was a diverse group. “Some of them were churchgoers, and others were a bit leery about the whole thing being set in a church,” Johnston said.

The group watched independent, art and foreign films together, then discussed the film, using questions from a faith perspective to help guide discussion.

Despite differences among the class members, “we all bonded because of the beauty of cinema,” Johnston said. “I think it’s because cinema is capable of reminding us all of what we share, rather than how we differ. Narrative cinema tells the sorts of stories that are common to all of us, and we therefore feel like we have a share in what’s happening onscreen.”

And, ultimately, that viewing can lead to Christ. “I have come to see the silver screen as a window overlooking a theologically charged world,” Johnston said. “As I look through this window, I find that I am better able to understand who God is, who I am, and how I relate to God and others. It is not a substitute for the Bible, but rather a supplement to it.”

A starting place for finding films to use in discussion is the Arts and Faith websites’s Top 100 Spiritually Significant Films list, published at www.artsandfaith.com/t100. The list is compiled by voting members of the site, including Overstreet, and is updated each year. The website also features discussion groups on film, music, literature, visual art, theater and dance, and television and radio.

Fiebig helps lead a film festival at Indiana Weslyan. Last year, the first year of the festival, they decided to screen Hotel Rwanda, a film depicting the true story of Paul Resesabagina, a hotel manager who helped house over a thousand Tutsi refugees during the Rwandan genocide.

A student from Uganda who had lost family members during the struggle attended the screening. He began the discussion after the film by announcing he could not stay, due to the fresh emotions the film conjured, but he asked the other students to pray for Rwanda and Uganda.

“It was an amazing moment,” Fiebig said. “In a room full of college students, you could hear a pin drop. A Hollywood film became a worship service.”

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Pass the popcorn: Christians called to make culture; let God handle transformation
By Ken Camp

(ABP) -- Andy Crouch feels uncomfortable when Christians talk about “transforming culture” or “making an impact on society.”

But he strongly believes churches should do far more to encourage Christians to make culture -- right where they live.

“I’m all for cultural transformation -- in fact, I believe it’s a very good phrase for what God seeks to do in every human culture. But transformation is surely out of the reach of any human being’s activity or agency. It really is something only God can do in any lasting and deep way,” said Crouch, an author and documentary filmmaker.

“People who study culture carefully always come away impressed by how much more culture has transformed and shaped us than we will ever transform or shape it. Still, beginning with our original creation and call in the Garden [of Eden], we human beings have always been culture makers. We cultivate and create in our specific cultural contexts, and in those local places we can do a lot of wonderful things. But transformation is not up to us; it’s up to God, which is actually tremendously freeing.”

Crouch, editorial director for the Christian Vision Project at Christianity Today International, has written a book on the subject. Culture Making: Recovering our Creative Calling is due for release by InterVarsity Press this summer.

When it comes to creativity, Christians have made their mark in literature of all kinds -- from popular fiction to acclaimed work such as Marilynne Robinson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Gilead, he said.

“Music is the other place where Christians have been successfully offering up innovative cultural goods for at least a generation now,” he added.

From American Idol contestants singing contemporary Christian music selections to classically trained musicians performing works by Christian composers such as John Tavener and James MacMillan, Christian influence permeates music, he noted.

“We’ve always been a people of the word, so it makes sense that there would be a strong Christian presence in literature. We value music in worship, so Christians have done well in that area,” Crouch said. “Where we have not been represented as much are in areas the church has either avoided or viewed with suspicion -- film, dance and the visual arts.”

In part, he sees the plethora of Christian musicians compared to the dearth of Christian graphic artists as a simple matter of supply and demand.

“With the decline of public arts and music education, the church has become the last significant reservoir of amateur expression in music. It’s the place where young musicians are given a chance to develop,” Crouch said.

While nearly all churches encourage musical involvement because it’s an essential part of worship, churches often fail to encourage other creative expressions because they are not viewed as useful, he added.

“Do we only value what the church needs?” he asked.

But some Christian groups have developed to nurture aspiring artists. The Act One program in Hollywood trains screenwriters and producers, Christians in the Visual Arts has entered its second generation, and programs like the New York Center for Arts and Media Studies trains young artists in Manhattan under the auspices of the Christian Council for Colleges and Universities, Crouch noted.

“The visual art world is stunningly insular and hostile to professions of faith, but Christians are doing serious, good work and will be better represented there in years to come,” he said. “It just takes time.”

Christians have made inroads into the movie industry but not much in television for one simple reason, Crouch noted -- market economics.

“One advantage movies have over television is they can be much more narrowly targeted, and they are driven by consumer demand without the intermediation of advertisers,” he said. “So, movies tend to be produced successfully for much tighter niches than TV -- and Christian consumers are certainly a large enough niche to be of interest to Hollywood.”

Crouch firmly rejects the idea Christians have to break through into high-impact major media markets in order to influence culture in a big way.

“I really resist the word ‘impact.’ Impact is high-energy and almost by definition short-lived. And human cultures are designed to resist impact -- to change only slowly and organically,” he said.

“I also resist the idea that we should let the world define for us what is big. Certainly, some Christians are called to live and work in major media markets or in various kinds of cultural epicenters…. But to seek to have an impact there is almost always not only to miss our Christian calling, but to distort our cultural calling as well.

“The great good news of God’s redemptive story is that we all can be part of it, in whatever location we are called to be. The question of where we are called to make culture is a matter of just that -- calling, not of strategy for cultural impact. And all of us are called to cultivate and create somewhere.”

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Pass the Popcorn Analysis: Engage culture without assuming it
By Jay Smith

(ABP) -- I’ve got to be brutally honest; I’m not a Rob Bell fan, although many of my students are. He has two best-selling books: Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (2005) and Sex God: Exploring the Endless Connections between Sexuality and Spirituality (2007).

Additionally, he has completed three “teaching” tours, the most recent in 2007, where he visited America with his “The Gods Aren’t Angry” tour. Each tour was staged in a secular venue with theatrical lighting and the ever-hip, culturally relevant Bell at its center.

Although I disagree with much of Bell’s theology, this does not mean that I don’t appreciate what he is attempting: an engagement with culture. “Culture” is the matrix of human activity and structures that give life significance. In Christian theology, culture, like humankind, has experienced the Fall.

As sensationalist and provocative as his titles are, Bell is attempting to be relevant to “fallen” postmodern culture. Many young believers and spiritual seekers, feeling disenfranchised from the modern church, have flocked to Bell’s tours, podcasts and books. In Bell, they have found a kindred spirit -- someone who has experienced their disenchantment with the modern church, yet one who seems to have found a way to connect them to an authentic, relevant faith in God through Jesus Christ.

Regardless of what position you take on Rob Bell, he forces each of us to deal with the issue of culture and its relationship to our theology. This is an age-old struggle. It is the struggle of the Israelites with the Canaanites, Jesus and the various Jewish sects, as well Paul and the Greco-Roman culture of his day.

Theology and culture are locked in an eternal struggle until the end of days.

Interestingly, Christians can claim that the Bible lands on both sides of the debate. On one hand, Paul seems to encourage an engagement with contemporary culture in the form of his sermon on Mars Hill (Acts 17:22ff).

On the other hand, Paul states that we should not “conform” to the world in his letter to the Romans (Rom12:2).

But if it is an age-old struggle, why then has it erupted with such a vengeance today?

A simple explanation is that culture is changing at a faster pace than ever previously understood. Technology advanced at such a rapid pace in the 20th century that it outpaced our ability to understand its moral implications. So, culture becomes a swamp of ethical and theological questions amidst a global technological explosion.

Complicating this situation, it would also seem that some of the philosophical concepts that helped sustain our modern culture are being questioned today. Thus, although the scientific, technological and philosophical ideals of modernity have been a great benefit to us, these ideals simply aren’t enough to sustain us spiritually.

Consequently, we now live in a culture of difficult change where the very basis of modern Christianity is being questioned at every turn. How are we to proceed as faithful followers of Christ in such a chaotic cultural climate? How can our theology meet this challenge?

Let me suggest a two-fold answer: engagement, not assumption.

First, we must engage culture, which I believe to be the very heart of our Christian mission. This is the legacy of the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19-20) and the witness of Paul on Mars Hill (Acts 17). The church is the transformative agent of Christ’s love within culture through the direction of Scripture and the power of the Spirit (Luke 10:25-27).

Nevertheless, in this engagement, we do not assume or acquiesce to culture. Christ transforms it (Romans 12:2; 1 John 2:15).

As Christians, we have something unique to offer to our world -- the witness of Jesus. As Baptists, we affirm the centrality of Christ and the authority of Scripture as our sole rule of faith. That is the “what” of our assumption.

The Scriptures, as the book of the Spirit, then give guidance in regards to the “how” of our practice. What the Scriptures do not address directly will stand in tension with our engagement of culture.

A vigorous attempt to understand and engage culture, without surrendering to its secularizing philosophical tendencies would benefit the church well in the third millennium.

So Rob Bell and others of the emerging generation, you’ve thrown down the gauntlet to us all. Thank you.

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-- Jay Smith is assistant professor in the School of Christian Studies at Howard Payne University in Brownwood, Texas.

Pass the Popcorn: Popular culture challenges Christians to ‘think outside the box’
By Leslie Adams

HOUSTON (ABP) -- It can be difficult to hear God’s word in today’s media-saturated culture of iPods, YouTube, satellite radio, and DirecTV with over 500 channels and on demand movies.

That’s the conclusion reached by two culture observers on the Houston Baptist University campus.

“We are shaped by popular culture far more than we think -- and not just the young people,” said Louis Markos, professor of English at Houston Baptist University and a C.S. Lewis scholar.

“Hollywood has taught us what love and marriage mean (or don’t mean), what things we should value and what things we should not value, and what it means to be successful. We are also more influenced than we think by the whole celebrity culture. Still, popular culture can be good when it presses Christians to think outside of the box and to identify those deeper longings that we all yearn for.”

Jon Suter, a professor who teaches American popular culture and science fiction as well as other literature courses in the graduate program at Houston Baptist University, also commented on the duality of popular culture.

“The popular culture contains much that is bad, even toxic,” Suter said, “but there is also much that is good and worthwhile.”

Suter and Markos agree it can be difficult for Christians to determine what is worth watching or listening to and what is not.

“The challenge for the modern Christian,” Suter said, “is that it is difficult to recognize which is which.” Good examples are out there, however. “I think one Christian writer and speaker who has done a fine job using popular culture to tell the sacred narrative of the Bible is John Eldridge,” Markos said.

So, is anything good coming up for the summer season?

“The most exciting film of the summer promises to be Prince Caspian,” Markos said, referring to the second film in a series dramatizing Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia anthology. “I only hope it will be as faithful to the book as the film version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. If it is faithful, we will discover what it means to live in a post-Christian culture in which the old stories have been turned into mere myths.”

Markos hopes the character of Prince Caspian will become “a positive kind of pop icon for young people who yearn for a revival of true courage, beauty, and chivalry.”

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-- Leslie Adams is director of marketing and communications at Houston Baptist University.

Donor offers giving challenge at BTSR
By ABP staff

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP) -- The Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond could receive up to $1 million in new giving by the end of next April due to an anonymous donor’s challenge to churches, seminary officials have announced.

The donor -- apparently a seminary trustee -- will match designated gifts from churches given from May 1 this year through April 30, 2009. Gifts that qualify for matching funds include donations from churches that contributed last year above and beyond their previous giving as well as 100 percent of gifts from churches that did not donate to the seminary within the prior 12 months.

“Recognizing the high priority BTSR gives to local church ministry, a donor has provided an incentive to nurture the relationship between local congregations and the seminary,” said BTSR President Ron Crawford, according to a seminary press release. “We expect to grow the list of churches that directly support BTSR from 68 to well over 250. Gifts from local congregations will secure the future of BTSR.”

More than 600 churches currently support the seminary through budget giving to the Baptist General Association of Virginia. Several dozen congregations contribute directly to BTSR through designated gifts.

As of May 10, churches had given $25,000 in gifts eligible for matching funds.

Westover Baptist Church in Richmond is among financially supportive congregations that already has contributed a new $1,000 gift.

“Our school is suffering a financial crunch. We’ve tightened our belt, reduced expenses and balanced our budget. One of our trustees has made a generous offer,” noted Cecil Sherman, interim pastor at Westover and former coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

BTSR graduate Donna Hopkins Britt led her congregation, Calvary Baptist Church in Roanoke, Va., to become a first-time contributor.

“This generous donor has challenged our church to consider the importance of theological education for Christianity’s future, and then to take a bold step toward that future by making its first donation to the school,” she said.

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Bluefield College board approves strategic plan
By ABP staff

BLUEFIELD, Va. (ABP) -- Bluefield College will focus on academics, global service, expanded resources and partnerships as part of its new five-year strategic plan.

Trustees of the Virginia Baptist school approved the four-part plan at their April board session. The strategic plan stems from a newly adopted vision statement: "Bluefield College will be a nationally recognized Christ-centered liberal arts college, preparing innovative learners and transformational leaders to impact the world."

The plan includes four primary initiatives: to strengthen and expand academic offerings and to create a culture of mission- and service-learning; to help students understand and improve academic support for the impact of calling and giftedness on vocation, including developing student leadership skills; to enhance the college's resources; and to foster mutually beneficial partnerships between the college and its stakeholders.

At their spring session, trustees also approved plans for the construction of a new residence hall, the school's first on campus in nearly 30 years.

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CBF worker reaches internationals at Mississippi State University
By Laurie Entrekin

STARKVILLE, Miss. (ABP) -- Diana Bridges is an avenue to God in Northern Mississippi for internationals like the Muslim woman who always asks Bridges to pray for her.

“God listens when you pray,” she told Bridges.

With a call to missions that began at age 13, Bridges has a heart for internationals. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship commissioned her as a field worker in 2007, after she already had spent 10 years working with internationals through the Baptist Student Union at Mississippi State University, located in Starkville.

She also has been director of Crossroads International Friendship House, a ministry focusing on the needs of international families in Starkville for seven years.

Although a small university town of about 20,000, Starkville has an international population of close to 1,000 individuals. Mississippi State hosts more than 600 international students representing some 70 countries, including India, China and South Korea.

When internationals arrive in the United States, they often need help orienting to a strange new community and culture. Bridges has taught English classes at the university, led weekday ministries for family members, hosted Bible studies, helped parents get school-aged children involved in soccer or other after-school activities and accompanied women to doctor’s appointments.

“The heart of my work is building relationships in the international community, meeting the needs that I’m able to meet, sharing my faith as I share my life,” the Texas native said.

“Many of their needs decrease with time, but the need for friendship and a sense of community doesn’t. The level of trust that develops over time allows for the fullest sharing of the gospel.”

Last fall, Sun, a Chinese national, told a conversational English class, “You all have a God, and I would like one, too.”

Bridges invited Sun to join her Bible study, and soon Sun was attending church regularly with Bridges. During the Christmas season, Sun read the entire Bible. By spring, she had accepted Christ and was baptized on Palm Sunday.

“She then moved to another state,” Bridges said. “But the last time I heard from her, she was teaching Bible school in a Chinese language church.”

A partnership with World Neighbors Association, a local organization that provides opportunities for internationals to share their cultures with the community, has helped connect Bridges not only with internationals, but also with other denominations and groups that share her desire to build friendships across cultures.

The organization hosts Thanksgiving and Christmas events. Each spring, it also hosts the International Fiesta at Mississippi State. According to Bridges, it is the international community’s biggest event of the year, attracting more than 1,000 people.

Bridges encourages churches interested in reaching out to international populations to make contact with local colleges and universities. Many international students look for volunteer conversational partners, she said.

“Try to figure out what’s already going on first to avoid unnecessary duplication,” she noted. “Look on the university’s website for international activities and learn about the population before you start planning.”

Bridges dreams of growing a network of churches committed to intercultural ministry.

“We all need to take a look at the numbers,” she said. “There are large concentrations of international students in states where CBF has a sizeable presence. Texas, my home state, has the third-highest number of international students, and Florida is fifth at 31,000. These numbers don't include visiting scholars or family members, so the number is really much higher.

“If we want to raise a new generation of intercultural ministers, we don't need to go far. We just need to open our eyes.”

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