Officials at Alabama’s three Baptist institutions of Christian higher education did not hesitate when asked which model matched their school — engaged, of course.
“Engaged” is 1 of 4 categories outlined in the Mennonite Brethren theological journal Direction article on “Christian Higher Education: Engaging Society and Culture” by Merrill Ewert.
The institutions in the engaged category are described as ones that “examine their own basic values and faith commitments but then are also purposeful in promoting service and outreach in uniquely Christian ways. They are both high on reflection and high on action. … [T]hey are engaged.”
The three other categories are cloister, activist and minimalist. Those in the cloister category are high in reflection but low in action. Institutions in the activist category are high in action but low in reflection, and schools in the minimalist category are low in both reflection and action.
“[Engaged institutions] … build partnerships with people, communities and institutions in ways that promote student learning while also solving real-world problems,” Ewert explains in the article. “Professors draw on their disciplinary scholarship not only to teach students in the classroom but also to address the needs of society.”
Scott Bullard, senior vice president and academic dean of Judson College in Marion, said the professors at Judson partner with the school’s administration and office of faith-based service learning to ensure learning and spiritual growth take place inside and outside the classroom.
“We actually don’t separate … intellectual growth and spiritual growth,” he said. “They are symbiotic and synergistic.
“Our motivation for service is unmistakably Christian,” Bullard said, noting examples such as:
- an honors project in the social work department focusing on the importance of friendships for the elderly which includes Judson students spending time with residents of a local nursing home,
- an art class working with students in a school district whose funding for the arts has been taken away and
- an accounting program helping Marion residents with tax returns.
“These projects, while similar to those that occur at many institutions, are buttressed at Judson by the gospel of Matthew’s idea that Christians in particular are to feed the hungry, visit the prisoner (and) take care of widows and orphans.”
Judson President David Potts echoed those sentiments.
“We take very seriously the words of Christ where He calls us to outreach and ministry with the poor, those in prison and those held captive by various life issues.
“Not only do we do good things … but we are actually using what we are teaching and learning in the classroom,” he noted. “Service components are part of the syllabi and part of the work of the class.”
‘To the least of these’
At the beginning of each new school year, the service outreach initiatives are launched with a day where students, faculty and staff are sent to work in area schools, workplaces and ministry offices. At the close of the day the Judson teams come back together to read Matthew 25.
“We use that time to think about the difference we will choose to make in outreach in our community in the coming academic year,” Potts said, noting Judson is the only private college in Alabama to be listed as a community engagement institution by the Carnegie Foundation.
The other three Alabama schools listed in that category are Alabama, Auburn and the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
“Think about the … millions of dollars they spend on outreach and service as part of their mission and look at Judson College in the middle of the blackbelt with a service-learning budget of under $70,000,” Potts said. “It is extraordinary that Baptists can claim support for an institution that has such a distinguished record of service and outreach.”
The University of Mobile (UMobile) also has made a name for itself with faith-based service, President Mark Foley said.
“One day each fall we cancel classes for Project Serve so that students, faculty and staff can volunteer with their academic areas in 63 locations across two counties,” he said, noting the various departments also serve in other ways throughout the year.
Serving others
For instance, “during the past five semesters the School of Christian Ministries students, faculty and staff have served more than 48,000 hours locally,” Foley said. “According to the IRS valuation of the monetary worth of volunteer hours, that amounts to an investment in our community of over $1.1 million.
“If we want our graduates to be change agents, we need to provide our students with opportunities and examples of how to effectively use their knowledge and talents to effect change,” he said, noting the following examples of how that is played out at UMobile:
- business students starting and operating a clothes closet at a local community center,
- the basketball team helping with field day at an elementary school and
- ministry students tutoring athletes at a local high school.
“A defining vision for the University of Mobile is the idea of ‘Changing Lives to Change the World’ by integrating learning, faith and leadership to produce graduates capable of effecting change,” Foley said. “We do this in ways that identify us as a highly engaged university that equips and empowers students to solve real-world problems from a distinctly Christian worldview.
“A university changes the world through the influence of her graduates — men and women of character who have mastered a body of knowledge according to their degree, who know how to think, who know what they believe and why they believe it, who have the courage to live and work according to those beliefs, and who have the willingness and the skill to use their influence in appropriate and effective ways to change the world around them,” he explained. “Our emphasis on a Christian worldview across all academic disciplines is key to impacting students and preparing them to effectively use their influence.”
‘Faith into action’
At Samford University in Birmingham, Dana Basinger, assistant dean for Howard College of Arts and Sciences, is one of many professors who incorporate service into the classroom.
“That is how students learn to apply the theories they hear to the realities of the world,” she said. “That’s also how they learn to put faith into action. For instance, students in my classes provide tutoring and other after-school services for Birmingham’s Restoration Academy.
“Samford students become so committed to the needs of those whom they are serving that they continue to volunteer long after my class has ended,” Basinger said.
“And that’s just one of the many examples where our students serve here and around the world,” she said.
“Service learning has been a hallmark of Samford University for decades, and the current generation of students is more committed to it than other recent generations. We don’t have to coerce them into action.”
‘Proactive and positive’
J. Michael Hardin, Samford provost and vice president, added that the faculty and staff lead the students in proactive and positive academic learning and in how to think about the world from their faith perspective.
“We have faculty in many fields whose research is nationally recognized and often is based on the individual’s experiences in how they apply the research in their profession and in the community,” he said. “Our faculty and staff also actively lead our students to serve others.
“Last year alone, our students engaged in more than 719,000 hours of community service across the spectrum and around the world,” Hardin said. “We make service learning an integral part of the curriculum, both on the undergraduate and graduate/professional levels.
“And we do that without compromising our identity as an academically rigorous university fully committed to our Christian mission.
“At Samford we teach our students that it does not matter who to fault for the problems of the world,” he said. “Our goal is to do the work of God’s kingdom here on earth and for heaven because of the hope for the future that is exemplified by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, as reflected in Scripture.
“Our job at Samford is to help students understand the concept of being the new creation of God by engaging them in doing and serving.”
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