The Final 4D Dinner of the Semester with Dr. Wesley Burks

This semester, I have discovered that estimating in advance the number of attendees for our 4D Dinners is an inexact science, to say the least.  Factors such as the weather, students’ exam schedules, and an unforeseen wave of late-breaking enthusiasm can dramatically impact student turnout.  Some weeks, we prepare dinner for 30 and only 20 students are able to come; other weeks, the tables are set for 20 and then 30 students attend.

Our last 4D Dinner of the semester on November 21st was one of those unpredictable Mondays.  It was a cold evening on a short week of class, the day before many students were set to depart Chapel Hill for Thanksgiving break.  Taking these things into account, we estimated 25 students would attend and we cooked and arranged the place settings accordingly.  At 5:55 pm, I noticed a burgeoning crowd of new faces congregating by the front door.  I went out to welcome these visitors and discovered that two different student small groups from Chapel Hill Bible Church had decided to attend the 4D Dinner as their group’s fellowship time for that week.  I then met several Medical students who had heard about the dinner from a classmate and who had made the trek to the Study Center for the first time because they had a particular interest in that evening’s speaker, Dr. Wesley Burks (Executive Dean of the UNC School of Medicine).  After 15 minutes of meeting and greeting these guests, we finally circled up to bless the food, and then everyone transitioned into the dining room. 

I was reminded of Jesus’ miracle of five loaves and two fishes that evening as somehow our meal prepared for 25 was able to comfortably feed the 40-or-so attendees.  Paul’s exhortation from Romans 12:10 to “prefer one another” came to mind as several Study Center regulars willingly gave up their seats to first-time visitors, and instead sat on couches and even the floor.  The dining room was hectic, but also alive with conversation and with new acquaintances being made.  It was a beautiful sight to behold and a fitting end to a semester of wonderful Monday night meals.

At 6:35, I introduced Dr. Burks and handed him the floor.  He proceeded to give an excellent address which included a brief overview of his life story along with a more detailed account of the discernment process that led him to the realization that God was calling him to the vocation of medicine.  He shared about his experiences practicing Pediatrics and also in university administration with UNC hospitals.  He brought along a copy of Every Good Endeavor, a book co-written by Tim Keller and Katherine Alsdorf, and he recommended it as a particularly helpful resource for students with questions about how their faith relates to their vocation.  One of the practical pieces of advice that Dr. Burks shared that evening was that he strongly encourages pre-Med students (and other students planning to go to graduate school) to take at least one year away from school after undergrad to get some work/life experience before continuing on in their field.

After he concluded speaking, there was 10 minutes of question and answer time and then we prayed for Dr. Burks to draw the evening to a close.  Several students stayed beyond 7:15 to continue getting to know one another or to ask Dr. Burks a personal question.  The evening was an excellent reminder to me to trust in the Lord’s provision in every circumstance (especially when we seriously underestimate our number of dinner guests!).  We’d like to thank Dr. Burks for closing out this semester’s lineup of 4D guest speaker dinners; we are already looking forward to the return of these dinners and to new speakers next semester!

UNC Alum Jason Brown on the Journey from Football to Farming

What leads a professional football player in the prime of his career with a multi-year, multi-million dollar contract offer on the table to give up football entirely, and to instead start a farm that doesn’t turn a profit?  This was the question on the minds of 50+ attendees as they overflowed the Study Center dining room on Monday, October 3rd to enjoy a family-style dinner and to hear from UNC alum and former NFL Center, Jason Brown.

The meal that evening will go down in Study Center lore.  Friends of the Study Center (and accomplished chefs) Judy Hill, Sue Ellen Thompson and Dee McIntyre pulled out all the stops: honey glazed ham, baked sweet potatoes that had been gleaned from Jason Brown’s farm, green beans, sister Schubert rolls, and desert platters.  Multiple students remarked, “this was just like having Thanksgiving Dinner here at UNC!”

After 40 minutes of dining and informal conversation, Jason Brown was introduced and proceeded to respond to the question that we’d all been eager to hear him answer.  Jason spoke about how even though he was a Christian during his 7-year NFL career, the trappings and temptations of fantastic wealth, materialism, fame, and constant travel had an impact on him.  He began to realize the effect these things were having on his walk with the Lord and on his marriage.  As Jason prayed for discernment, he sensed God calling him to let go of his NFL career and to pursue a new, bold venture: starting a farm in Louisburg, NC, near his hometown of Henderson.  Faithful to the call, Jason turned down several lucrative NFL contract offers and he, his wife Tay, and their growing family all moved back to NC to create what is today known as First Fruits Farm.

Jason’s story resonated tremendously with the students that evening.  Although Jason, Tay and their children had to head out immediately after his talk, the night did not end with their departure.  Several students stayed late into the evening discussing Jason's incredible story, what it means to obey God’s call, and what it might look like for their faith to shape their own respective vocations in a profound way.

Study Centers in the NY Times

What is it like to talk about things that matter at UNC? Is it always a fight? Do people listen, even when doing so is uncomfortable?

I'm happy to say that Christian study centers have been lauded as one of the few places where big questions are openly raised and answers are hazarded and even taught.

A UNC professor, Dr. Molly Worthen, penned an op-ed for the NY Times in early 2016 titled “Hallelujah College.”

“[Some] evangelicals have poured their energies into a different sort of Christian organization, one that has been proliferating quietly for decades at universities around the country: Christian study centers. These are not ministries, exactly, and what they do is not old-fashioned evangelism. Typically they occupy private buildings off campus and exist independently from the university, beyond the reach of nondiscrimination policies. The first study centers appeared in the 1960s and ’70s, but their numbers have mushroomed since 2000. The Consortium of Christian Study Centers counts 20 members — a small but significant number considering that many are embedded in the most prestigious universities around the country.

The centers position themselves as forums where students can hash out the tensions between their faith and the assumptions of secular academia — the same assumptions that have assailed more traditional ministries. They are, in a sense, spiritual “safe spaces” that offer cozy libraries, reading groups and public lectures...

Today many evangelical leaders are fond of proclaiming American Christians’ new status as a moral minority, but these students and campus ministers are the ones who are actually living that reality. It has prodded them to seek serious conversation about humans’ profound disagreements over morality and the nature of truth — questions that campus liberals, despite their professed concern for dialogue and critical thinking, often avoid in the name of tolerance and inclusion.

“We think it’s more constructive to talk about differences,” said [a junior at Columbia University]. Minority status sometimes has a funny way of turning people into more thoughtful critics of the culture around them.”

— Molly Worthen, "Hallelujah College," NY Times (Jan. 16, 2016)

Click here to read the article in full. 

Bonhoeffer on becoming a Christian

From studying scripture to listening to scripture

"I plunged into my work in a very unchristian way, quite lacking in humility. I was terribly ambitious, as many people noticed, and that made my life difficult and kept from me the love and trust of people around me. I was very much alone and left to my own devices; it was a bad time. Then something happened which has tossed about and changed my life to this day. For the first time I discovered the Bible. Again, that’s a bad thing to have to say. I had often preached, I had seen a great deal of the church, spoken and written about it – but I had not yet become a Christian. Instead, I had been my own master, wild and undisciplined. I know that what I was doing then was using the cause of Jesus Christ for my own advantage, and being terribly vain about it. I pray God that it never happens again. Also I had never prayed, or only very little. For all my loneliness I was rather pleased with myself. Then the Bible freed me from that, in particular the Sermon on the Mount. Since then everything has changed. I have felt this plainly, and so have other people around me."

Bonhoeffer had written two dissertations and served as a pastor, yet he says he was using the cause of Christ.

For Bonhoeffer, the transition point happened when he discovered the Bible again.

When is the last time you listened to scripture, reading it not to further your causes and efforts, but as a Word from God? Do other people look at you and see how scripture has changed your life?

Our prayer is that in showing hospitality and giving people fresh questions, they will read scripture again as if for the first time, listening for the voice of the God who changes us.

Life @ UNC: My Life as (Pseudo) Superman

This is the first post in our Life @ UNC series. Contributing is Matthew McKnight, a rising sophomore from Charlotte, NC. Matthew is involved in the UNC Honor System, participates at Reformed University Fellowship (RUF), and is a leader with Young Life. This summer, he is working on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

When I look back on my first two semesters at UNC, I see a year marked by personal difficulty, personal growth, and the ever-present grace of God.

I arrived as a first-year at UNC with a chip on my shoulder and a burden on my heart.

Without a merit scholarship, athletic team, or club affiliation to call my own, I came to Carolina thinking I needed to prove my worth. I felt burdened to be more than a small fish in a large Carolina Blue pond.  I thought my value as a person derived from achievement, in and out of the classroom. My ambition, simply and facetiously put, was to try to become superman

In my first semester at Carolina, life as “superman” quickly got crazy. I joined an athletic club team, an intramural team, student government, the honor system, two campus ministries, and a Bible study while trying to achieve a perfect GPA, make friends, and further my relationship with the Lord. Seeking worth in activities was totally exhausting and I knew I couldn’t keep it up.

Therefore, in my second semester at UNC, realizing a life as “superman” was unsustainable, I turned my focus to academics. The classroom was a place where I knew I could succeed given enough hard work; my grades replaced activities as a frame of my self-image, the self-portrait in which I could control every brushstroke. Therefore, midway through the second semester, when my grades didn’t turn out as I expected, I was crushed. For the first time in my life, anxiety reared its ugly head.

Driven to maximize study time, I stopped going to church, reading the Bible, exercising, eating well, or investing in relationships. I was so anxious about my grades and proving my worth (to myself of all people!) that I started carrying duplicate textbooks, extra batteries, bluebooks, and scantrons with me at all times as academic insurance against any surprises.  My anxieties culminated in sleepless nights and in my final history recitation, when, after receiving a low grade on a minimal homework assignment, I started shaking uncontrollably. I was miserable and knew something had to change.

My body told me what my mind had refused to fully acknowledge: my priorities were completely out of order.

In my insecurity, I had put becoming “superman” above walking humbly with the Lord. I had bought into the lie that I could determine my own value and establish my own worth. In that demented journey, I had lived as if my resume and outward accomplishments would reveal my inner-greatness.  Threatened with the insurmountable demands of a life established on my own terms, my body started to give up on me.

One passage of scripture in particular spoke to me in that place.

“1 Peter 5:6-7 says, “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because he cares for you.” ”

As Christians, we are called to humility before God in recognition of our own weakness. Trust me, personal worth is not an object to be achieved or a quality to be discovered by looking inward. It is a mindset mercifully granted by an unconditionally loving God, bestowed when we look to Him with trust.

Receiving my worth from someplace (or someone) else has brought me a measure of peace. I can’t definitively say my deep sense of worry is now entirely gone, or that I have completely reoriented my priorities towards Christ. My spiritual walk is a work in progress, and I know that change takes time. However, I can definitively say I have learned God’s grace extends to all people, from those struggling with anxiety to those trying to be “superman.”