Check out our most highly recommended resources for faculty to begin a new academic year with a fresh, renewed vision for Christ and the academy.

This series offers the opportunity to learn from Black faculty, researchers, and graduate students, as they share their scholarship in their areas of teaching, research or practice.

Jesus treated the whole person, bringing physical, spiritual, emotional, and social healing.

Our goal in this Bible Study is to provide a robust biblical theology of God’s invitation to women to become equal partners with men in leadership in InterVarsity.

We all want community. Real community. Jesus is all about creating the kind of community that goes beyond just being known—how we live and love each other will change the world around us.

Workshops will be held from 3 – 4 pm (Workshops Session 1) and 4:30 – 5:15 pm (Workshops Session 2). Scroll to the bottom to download a PDF if you would like to print.

The ESN blog has partnered with Emerging Scholars as writers of content for and by graduate students and faculty. The material these writers have shared with the Emerging Scholars Network has been such an encouragement. Hannah Eagleson, an editor and writer for ESN collected some of the best resources for your reference as you plan events for your chapter, fellowship, small group, or prayer meetings. We are so grateful to the ESN Blog writers for these contributions.

Hear from Dr. Rick Donlon, plenary speaker at the Christian Community Health Fellowship conference.

Want to do more than survive graduate school? Whether you are new to grad school or returning this fall, the Emerging Scholars Network has encouraging advice in this offering of their most-read posts about surviving grad school as a Christian academic. Read more on the ESN blog's Graduate School Survival Kit.

We were honored to host these excellent presenters and guest speakers.

"Bridging the Divide: A Scientist's Search for Faith and Truth" is a delightful interview by NPR with Dr. Francis Collins, Director of the National Institutes of Health. He talks openly about his journey towards faith in Jesus and his experience being a Christian and a scientist/academic. We recommend it as a great interview to discuss with your students. 

Are there ways to strengthen friendships between faculty and to promote flourishing in their academic work?

Why is everyone so angry online? The internet seems to have brought the world together only so we can tear each other apart. Social media platforms have become toxic and polarizing environments.

Enjoy this non-exhaustive list of books we recommend for faculty gatherings to enjoy together.

Square inch Seminars include short “TED” like talks that share about following Jesus on your "square inch." This guide provides reflection questions and tips on how to write a 5-10 minute Square Inch Testimony as well as a template for how to hold a 45 minute Square Inch Seminar (that includes one Square Inch Testimony).

Here are a few things Chapter Advisors have asked in the past.

We’re all moving toward the unknown this fall. We don’t know what to expect, or even how to imagine what things will be like. It’s a critical moment when we can choose to follow Jesus on the journey, to walk by faith instead of sight. This collection of readings from the Emerging Scholars Network blog is designed to help you do that together. Built in are study questions, prayer ideas, and optional spiritual activities for groups meeting online or in socially distanced ways.

It may be hard to believe in moments like this, but that is what we are. Held in mercy. Held in powerful, everlasting love. Join us in choosing to be present in this moment and take a few minutes to read this message from Dr. Jean Neely, a professor at Azusa Pacific University. May we all take a deep breath of God's peace and presence.

How can you engage with faculty advisors on campus? How might a faculty advisor interact with InterVarsity students and staff? Art Wollum, faculty emeritus from North Carolina State University speaks on his suggestions after four decades of experience and a lifetime of love for students, faculty, InterVarsity and the university.

Associate Director of the Emerging Scholars Network, Hannah Eagleson interviews Andy Walsh about his book, Faith across the Multiverse, recently nominated for the Christian Book Award.

Through a challenging year, Professor Rachel Ferguson moves from an intellectual engagement with the Christian faith to a fuller understanding of discipleship, embracing new practices to truly dwell in Christ, leading to the spiritual transformation she needed, and that we all deeply desire.

Can an historian truly integrate their faith into their academic work? Cynthia Prescott tells her story of a journey into a deeper calling toward Christian scholarship.

From “Take a Long Walk: Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855),” an excerpt from Vintage Saints and Sinners: 25 Christians Who Transformed My Faith (InterVarsity Press, 2017) by Karen Wright Marsh<

You Don’t Need to Know Everything. Perhaps you’ve seen the poster that proudly proclaims “All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.” This is a clever list of light-hearted observations that can remind us to slow down and not take ourselves so seriously. And yet, here you are in graduate school...

July assignment for GFM New Staff Training: Wolsterstorff discusses three pitfalls in how to integrate faith and research, and how to avoid them.

Misunderstood. Alone. Aliens in a strange land. These are apropos descriptors for how Christian scholars often feel whether in the academy or at church.

I had grand expectations of my life as a faculty spouse. I imagined lunch with Erik on campus, hosting students in our home, and—as a family—all enjoying his summers off. I expected to be closely connected to the university; attending events on campus and enjoying all that the university had to offer. Little did I know what was ahead. Continue reading...

IVP has a vast collection of resources to help you build your Bible reference library—including commentaries, dictionaries, and more. Whether you are a pastor preparing for sermons, a professor putting together lectures, a student writing papers, or just a Bible nerd looking to deepen your study, we've got the reference resources you need. 

Andy Crouch describes, from close up, the life of the scientist and academic, and the gift it can be to pastor and nurture them as scientists and persons, helping them to understand their vocation as a means of grace.

In this interview from the ESN Blog, 2016 Christian Scholars’ Foundation Grant Recipient Carrie Bredow describes the psychology research she’s carrying out with the grant and talks about how her faith and academic work interact. For more information about the CSF Grant, see this post.

Thinking about a graduate school search in the social sciences, or advising students who are? In this two-part series, Kateri Collins shares advice, steps, and checklists to help plan a search process. Read more and find links to Kateri’s own graduate school search story, her suggestions on finding mentors, or her reflections on inhabiting transitional time well on the Emerging Scholars blog.

The Well interviews faculty, professionals, authors, and researchers about their work, faith, families, and more.

Michael Gehrling, National Director of International Graduate Student and Faculty Ministry, shares a story from his ministry reflecting on how the Holy Spirit led a Bible study group, he intended to lead in one direction, in an unexpected way.

The concept of Renaissance--with the focus upon “rebirth” and “incarnation”--engages students, faculty, and campuses.

A list of suggested InterVarsity Press (IVP) resources with a focus on the Four Commitments of InterVarsity's Graduate and Faculty Ministry. 

Showing the love of Christ to new faculty can be as simple as hosting a breakfast at the beginning of the academic year.

”Friends, keep showing up, keep praying, keep experimenting, and keep watching for signs of God’s kingdom on your campus. It’s about faithfulness, not numbers, and about a special work that God will unfold in your unique university context. The fruitfulness will come.”

Finding a mentor isn't easy. Here are a few ideas to help you make a connection.

This discussion guide is the main resource for study of the text of I Peter. Often there are more questions than could be well addressed in a single small group gathering, so you will need to make some choices about what to include for your meeting. You could spend more than one meeting on a given section of I Peter as well.

A Bible Study Guide of Psalm 111 for faculty groups.

Tom Trevethan shares a prayer service dedicating the academic year and seeking God's provision for your campus fellowship. We pray that your meetings with faculty may bring unity and encouragement.

Dwight Schwartz found that a pre-scheduled grad student luncheon turned into an opportunity to thirst together for Shalom.

Grad students are piling up large amounts of debt obtaining advanced degrees in hopes of advancing their careers. So, do you have to keep eating PB&J for years after graduation or is there a better way?

"The notion that God is a God of justice, as well as grace and love, allows oppressed people to have hope. When wrong is acknowledged and hope springs forth, it is possible to receive justice even when the system may let you down."

Read more from Dr. Alice Brown-Collins, Associate Regional Director of Graduate and Faculty Ministries (GFM), Northeast and the Area Director for Black Scholars and Professionals (BSAP), originally published on the Emerging Scholars blog.

What good is it if we gain academic prestige, yet forfeit our souls? Robert Kaita, Principal Research Physicist of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, offers his perspective and a Scriptural basis for aiming to serve Christ and achieve academic success simultaneously.

Ever feel like you are all alone, venturing into unchartered territories? As Christian graduate students, faculty, university staff/administrators, and campus ministers, university life is challenging. Lauri Swann offers scripture, prayer, and testimony of God's provision for us in this three-part series from Scholar's Compass, a devotional series from the Emerging Scholars Network:

​ May God use Lauri's words to encourage and bolster your faith to hear his voice and obey.

Bird-watching is more than a hobby for me. It is a spiritual discipline, a facet of a life of prayer, an extension of my seeking, seeing, and hearing from the Spirit of Jesus. Not only do the disciplines of bird-watching and contemplative prayer appear strikingly similar, but I also see parallels in the tools as well.

Joel Potter longed to have his philosophy students experience a good intellectual defense of the Christian faith.... What could he offer to the students at UAA to help them participate in meaningful discussions and relationships outside the classroom? What if there was something ongoing, he wondered, that would foster thinking and discussion about the Christian faith? 

A seminar to prepare students for graduate school.

Selected resources on science and religion from InterVarsity Faculty Ministry and ESN, featuring Elaine Ecklund, Francis Collins, Jennifer Wiseman, Robert Kaita, Jeff Hardin, Cal DeWitt, and many others.

A personal liturgy based on Psalm 90, written by Bobby Gross, national director for Graduate and Faculty Ministries. Use this liturgy to help you meditate on Psalm 90 and begin your day with prayer.

Micheal Hickerson asks David Naugle, author of Reordered Love, Reordered Lives: Learning the Deep Meaning of Happiness (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company) “What is happiness?”

Micheal Hickerson, maps out an ideal route to becoming a professor. There may be bumps along the way, but keep your destination in mind.

On November 3, 2009, the Indiana University Graduate and Faculty Ministry hosted a panel discussion on evolution and evangelical Christianity, in the midst of a campus-wide celebration of Charles Darwin. Panelists featured were Dr. Jeff Hardin (Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison), Dr. Tim O'Connor (Philosophy, Indiana University), and a pastor, Dr. Rich Holdeman.

Discussion questions for George M. Marsden's, "The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship" (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), introduction and chapters 3-6. You may find the quotations that follow most questions to be relevant, but they are no substitute for following Marsden's argument in full.

Carmen Acevedo Butcher, Associate Professor of English and Scholar-in-Residence at Shorter College, answers the question, “From a Christian perspective, why should anyone get a PhD in the Humanities?”

Kenneth G. Elzinga, Robert C. Taylor Professor of Economics at the University of Virginia, advises faculty on why and how to mentor. Originally presented at the ESN National Gathering at Following Christ 2008. (Part 2 of 2).

Is there a theological basis for academic mentoring? Tom Trevethan and Nan Thomas explore the question in a paper originally presented at the Maclaurin Institute’s faculty mentoring conference.

Conversations with C. S. Lewis, by author, philosopher, and Emerging Scholars Network member Robert Velarde. This Q&A with the author was originally published at IVPress.com.

This Bible study for faculty was originally presented at the Collegium on Christ, Knowledge and Wisdom at Union University.

At the Spring 2007 Vanderbilt Faculty Dinner, this “scavenger hunt” was used to break the ice between Christian faculty meeting for the first time.

How should we consider our calling to be Christians in the academy?

Faculty Ministry calls for Christian faculty to be redeeming influences within higher education, but to some, this sounds like too great a claim for the role of Jesus's disciples. Thomas Trevethan, InterVarsity Faculty Ministry staff, argues for a stronger understanding of what it means to be a redeeming influence and suggests a set of identifying marks of this redeeming influence.

This article is part of the Faculty Ministry Foundations section of the Faculty Ministry Catalyst Portfolio.

If you've never attended a Faculty Conference at Cedar Campus, we want to help you understand what you're missing! Here several participants from past conferences share their reflections on what a week at Cedar Campus with other Christian faculty meant to them.

A Resource for InterVarsity Staff

InterVarsity staff and Christian faculty have been working in partnership on campuses across the country since InterVarsity’s founding.

Download InterVarsity Staff & Christian Faculty: Partners in the Gospel on Campus

Couldn't make it to the Redeeming Reason conference in Chicago? You can still listen to the talks given by Dallas Willard, Cornelius Plantinga, and others.

In this essay, contributed in 2004, William J. Stuntz, professor at Harvard Law School, shares with us the lessons that his personal experiences with pain have taught him about hope, powerfully capturing the tension (and pain) Christians face as we look forward to Christ's second advent.

Looking for stories of faculty around the country who have found interesting and effective ways to be "salt and light" on their campuses? Each of these stories comes from the Faculty Newsletter, now called the Lamp Post, which InterVarsity began publishing in 1990.

Charles Troutman (a pioneer of IVCF in the 1930s) wrote, "There is no place like the university for the sharpening and expansion of Christian faith." Here is a prayer he wrote in 1960 which brings that grand vision down to each individual's desk.