The Work of Discipleship in a Christian University

Here are a few phrases I’ve often used that I’m now trying to work out of my vocabulary: “…a foot in both worlds.” “…bridging the gap between church and university.” It’s not that my passion for those kinds of things is waning; it’s more that I think those kinds of phrases have already caught me up in a false dichotomy, especially if we are talking about a Christian university. The heart of the problem I see in phrases like that is thinking of the church and the university as two entities, divergent in their missions.

Distinctly Christian universities don’t stand apart from the church; they are a part of the church. To appeal to Paul’s provocative metaphor, a Christian university is a part of the body of Christ with a distinctive function, but still part of the body, like any part of our own bodies (1 Cor. 12, Rom. 12). Phrases like the ones I’ve named above are a bit like saying, ‘I stand at the intersection between my shoulder and my lung, trying to hold the two together.’

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been developing a bit of a thought experiment called What If Christian University, or WICU for short. Basically, it asks, ‘What if…’ regarding many aspects of life at a Christian university, appreciating what has been and considering what might be possible. Today, though, I’m considering this: What if the Christian university really was understood as a part of the body of Christ? How would that shape the way we do our work? How would that change the kinds of conversations happening among church and university leaders? How would it shape what happens in the classroom?

I’m limiting myself to this brief claim today, because I have a lot of work to do for a Christian university that isn’t a thought experiment: Christ as the head of the body unifies the work of discipleship.

Christ as the Head of the Body

“He is the head of the body, the church,” we read in Colossians 1. Paul’s employment of the body metaphor spans several of his letters, but here we gain insight into how the body of Christ works. As the head of the body, Christ unites the parts of the body. That is, like our own bodies, the parts function together when they are united by the head.

This carries implications for those like me who work at a Christian university, pursuing truth and inviting students to join us in that quest. Here I have in mind an image of Jesus walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee. They were walking together, learning as they went (I love that Jesus is a teacher), and guided by Jesus. That didn’t mean they didn’t walk into difficult situations or ask difficult questions. Following Jesus tends to mean you’re probably headed into places where life isn’t neat or tidy, and the pursuit of the truth rubs against the status quo uncomfortably. The disciples, though, followed Jesus as the ‘head’ of their metaphorical body, and it united them in their mission. Were there disagreements among them? Certainly! They were all committed, however, to following Jesus.

What if those of us who render our service at Christian higher ed institutions saw ourselves like that? What if we understood ourselves primarily as those who are following Jesus, our head, who unites the parts of the body? How might that shape the way I approach my work or manage disagreements with colleagues?

The head of the body, too, unifies the parts of the body so that they function together, and if Christ is the head of the body, I have to pay attention to the way my work is unified by the head. I am not disconnected from the head, severed from the body of Christ. This is the kind of work that calls me to be connected to Christ, the head of the body, and follow him as a disciple into the thorniest of questions and situations.

The Work of Discipleship

If my work is to stay connected to the head and follow Christ as a disciple, the work of Christian higher ed is also rooted in discipleship. As a distinctly Christian university, that also means that the university participates in the mission of the church by making disciples. What does that mean for education? It means that Christian universities are called to educate as discipleship, and that’s precisely what makes the work joyful and enlivening!

I have in mind here another discipleship scene: Jesus approaches Peter on the lakeshore and asks him to follow, telling him, “I will make you fish for people” (Matt. 4:19). Two things are functioning here: acquisition of skills and a vision for how to use those skills.

Part of education involves the acquisition of skill, whether that be in researching, writing, coding software, or taking vital signs. We need to be careful, though, to not reduce education to acquiring skill. Education also involves casting a vision for how those skills will be used.

Jesus is speaking to those who have acquired job skills as fishermen, but he wants to reorient those skills toward the purposes of the kingdom he is bringing. That, to me, is a large part of the work we do at Christian universities. These institutions are the part of the body of Christ that not only equip students with skills but also offer them a vision of how those skills can be used according to Christ’s kingdom. We disciple aspiring educators, business professionals, medical professionals, social workers, etc. to use their skills in a way that participate in God’s work of making all things new. What a joy!

Christ’s headship and the work of discipleship remind us that the church and the Christian university are not two separate entities with two separate missions. “For just as each of us has one body with many members,” Paul wrote to the Romans, “and these members have different functions, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others” (Rom. 12:4-5).