Three “Great” Priorities for Christ-Centered Higher Education, Part 4

NATHAN A. FINN

This is the fourth in a series of four blog posts. The material was originally presented at the fourth annual IACE Faculty Development Conference, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, May 22-24, 2024. You can read the earlier posts here, here, and here.

The Great Commission is the third “great” priority for Christ-centered higher education. The Great Commission is the biblical mandate to proclaim the gospel and make disciples among all peoples. Bible scholars and missiologists argue that global disciple-making is a theme that runs from Genesis to Revelation.

The Scriptures paint a picture of a missionary God who is redeeming people from every tribe, tongue, and nation through the saving work of Jesus Christ. The Scriptures also tell us of a missionary people who share the gospel, make disciples of believers, establish new churches here, there, and everywhere, and contribute to authentic human flourishing as a foretaste of the new creation that is to come.

In the New Testament, the Great Commission is discussed in five different key texts: Matthew 28:18–20; Mark 16:14–20; Luke 24:48–49; John 20:21–23; and Acts 1:8. Among evangelicals, the Matthew passage is most often identified with the Great Commission because it’s the passage that so shaped William Carey when he helped inaugurate the modern missions movement in the English-speaking world in the late 1700s:

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

For the sake of space, I will focus my reflections on this familiar passage. Matthew 28:18–20 has a number of implications for Christ-centered higher education.

First, Matthew 28:18-20 reminds us that Jesus is Lord over all things: “all authority in heaven and on earth” have been given to him. Jesus is the Lord over each of our academic disciplines, over each of the courses we teach, and over every institution that is part of IACE.

Second, the emphasis in this passage is on making disciples, not just converts. In fact, the key verb in Greek is matheteusate, which translates in our English Bibles to “make disciples.” A key component of our task as Christian educators is to engage in what is sometimes called academic discipleship or intellectual discipleship.

As teachers, we are inviting our students to follow Jesus in the context of our disciplines, modeling for them what it looks like to think and live Christianly as scientists, or linguists, or historians, or psychologists, or health care professionals, or public school educators, or business professionals, or youth ministers. Discipleship is intricately connected to vocation—and education is where vocation is clarified and cultivated.

Third, while the emphasis in Matthew 28:18-20 is on disciple-making, the first step in that process is evangelism. Jesus commands us to reach unbelievers with the gospel and baptize them.

Some Christian faculty teach at “covenant schools” that require all students to be professing believers. This is true of seminaries, Bible colleges, and some liberal arts colleges and universities. Other Christian faculty teach at schools where some of our students do not profess faith in Christ. Whatever your context, you mustn’t be reticent to share the gospel with students if and when you learn that they are not Christians or are uncertain if they are Christians. I don’t think this means professors have exactly the same vocation as campus ministry professionals. However, it does mean we need to be willing to bear witness to our faith when there are opportunities to do so.

We should also be helping our students to understand ways to share the gospel that are contextual to the key vocations attached to our respective disciplines.

Here is the question: are you a role model for your students when it comes to evangelistic faithfulness. A willingness to proclaim the gospel to unbelievers and help students know how to do so may not seem very academic, and it certainly will not enhance our school’s reputation or help us advance in institutional rankings. But surely this is part of what it means for a Christian school to be Christian.

Finally, Jesus promises in Matthew 28:18-20 to be with us to the end of the age. He never leaves us alone and forces us to “wing it” when it comes to Great Commission faithfulness (or any other element of the Christian life). Our King is ever-present with us as we engage in the task of intellectual discipleship, working in and through us to help conform our students into the men and women he desires for them to be.

Here are some questions I think faculty can consider as they reflect on the implications of the Great Commission for the task of Christian higher education:

· Do your students know that you love the Lord and desire for others to know him and love him?

· If you are in situations where you become aware that a student is not a Christian, are you willing to share the gospel with that student?

· Do your students know what Christian faithfulness looks like in the context of the vocations most closely connected to your academic discipline?

· Are you preparing students to be disciple-makers in the vocations you are preparing them to embark upon after graduation?

· Are there ways you would be comfortable partnering with the offices of campus ministry or student engagement in your school as they focus on evangelism, discipleship, and spiritual formation outside the classroom?

Nathan Finn is professor of Faith and Culture and executive director of the Institute for Transformational Leadership at North Greenville University.