05/22/2026
Monday, May 4 was a quiet day on the University of Michigan campus, two days after the pomp and circumstance of Commencement in the Big House. At the Michigan Christian Study Center, however, twenty-five Christian professors gathered to share a meal and celebrate the end of another academic year. During the lunch, Professor Emeritus Steve Telian shared how his commitment to practicing Sabbath has sustained him throughout his academic career.
While professors at prominent universities in the U.S. occasionally make headlines by provocative statements, across the landscape of “secular” higher education, thousands of Christian scholars quietly live out their calling to do God-honoring research, teach and mentor students, and love their neighbors in the academy.
That’s the case at the University of Michigan as well. Often, when I mention to supporters that the Center has developed a list of one hundred Christian professors at the university, I am met with expressions of surprise. Indeed, one of the most gratifying developments in the Center’s brief history is not just its growing ministry to students but the cultivation of a vibrant community of Christian professors.
For example, in addition to the faculty lunch, several of us are reading a book together over the summer (Douglas and Rhonda Jacobsen’s Christianity and Intellectual Inquiry) and will discuss it next fall. And next month, several professors and their families will gather at a professor’s house for a cookout.
Throughout the academic year, monthly faculty discussion groups cultivate a sense of camaraderie among Christian scholars who can often feel isolated in their particular corner of the university. Last year at one of our discussions, a professor remarked that although she had taught at the university for over thirty years, attending a Center faculty event was the first time she had publicly identified as a Christian professor.
The Center’s ministry to faculty benefits our primary constituency—students—as well. To date, nearly forty professors have spoken at our Friday lunches, and the Center has introduced 180 students to Christian professors in their majors. One professor wrote to me, “I hosted a dinner for seven Christian undergrads at Ross, and our connections—and their sense of community at U-M—we all agreed came from the MCSC.”
Your support of the Center enables us to minister to more professors at the University of Michigan. As I mentioned last week, May/June is the Center’s key period to make plans and set the budget for next year. We look forward to another year of expanding the Center’s staff, maintaining our historic building, and offering a growing array of programs for students and faculty. Please help us achieve our Annual Fund goal of $200,000 by contributing now to a thoughtful Christian presence—and to supporting Christian faculty—at the U of M. https://www.michigancsc.org/annual-fund-gift
