Risk Brings Reward

Even so, it wasn’t until I connected with Dennis Beck, a staff member with Cru’s Faculty Commons Ministry, that I managed to take the “openly identifying as a Christ–follower in the classroom” plunge. That’s not to say that I hadn’t mentioned Christ or spirituality at any point in my thirty years of university teaching at four separate institutions (Drake, New Mexico Highlands, and Murray State universities, and now the UD). I had simply never spoken up in a way that was loud and “risky” from the very beginning of a class.

The idea didn’t originate with me. 

It followed my attendance at a “Common Call” conference for Christian faculty in 2019.  During the conference, I heard Dr. Walter Bradley, Distinguished Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Baylor University, describe his initial sheepishness in being forthright with his students about being a Jesus follower early in his career.

After a number of aborted attempts at being bold, he managed to briefly tell one of his classes about the impact of Jesus on his life. One thing he told them resonated strongly with me: “I hope you will see that it (his faith) makes a great deal of difference in how I treat you in this class.”

So on the first day of my general chemistry lectures in spring, 2020, while telling the students a bit about my family, my interests, and my academic background, I also told them that perhaps the most important thing they could know about me is that I am a follower of Jesus, and by that I meant something far more profound than mere church attendance, and I hoped they would find my being a Jesus-follower caused me to treat them with respect, integrity, and grace.

What was the impact of this step of faith?  I recently read my spring, 2020 student evaluations. They included not a single mention of my statement.  Why?  Perhaps there was insufficient opportunity to build on the statement because I underwent an emergency appendectomy early in the semester. Perhaps it was because our campus’ COVID–19 lockdown began shortly after my convalescence. Perhaps there were other reasons.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter because of two effects it had on me. 

First, it exhilarated me.  Risk brings reward, and I felt excited about publicly identifying as a Jesus follower in the classroom. 

Second, during the long grind of online teaching from March through May, recalling the statement goaded me to treat the students with the Christ-like equity and patience I had promised.

I plan to continue to make similar statements on the first day of class in future semesters, whether I am teaching online or in the classroom—as long as I continue to find the boldness, that is.