The Society emails a couple of updates each month (e.g., the Addenda). If you signed up for these updates and are not receiving them, please check your spam folder and set your mail client to “never block the sender” for these email updates.
If you did not sign up and would like to get these updates to your email please click here. If you have any questions please reply to any addenda email or contact us here.
If you would like to volunteer for our Editorial Services team to assist other scholars in research areas similar to your own by reviewing and making suggestions on their work, please e-mail our Senior Editor, Bruce Barron.
The Society of Christian Scholars (SCS) limits membership to academics who serve in tertiary institutions (“higher education” in some nations) that enroll both Christians and non-Christians (open-enrollment) for the following three related reasons:
Please know that if you joined the Society via a credit card, then your real name is auto-filled into your Society member profile, a profile that all other members can view. For some members, this could prove problematic. Therefore, there are a number of reasons why using a member pseudonym might be right for you. For example, if you live in a country where using your real name causes security issues, then you might consider using a pseudonym by simply editing your profile.
Examples of Mentoring Objectives
Examples:
Publishing: I would like guidance for getting an article on [subject] published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Professional Development: I may have an opportunity in a year or two to move into an administrative position. What things do I need to consider now to prepare for such an opportunity? How do I know if it will be the right move for me?
Spiritual Development: As a new lecturer, I am extremely busy. I would like guidance on how to balance my prayer life and my academic life.
Integration: I would like to explore how I can better relate biblical truth to the issues in my academic discipline through my teaching, research, and/or writing.
As you consider requesting a mentor, please note the following major differences between coaching and mentoring.
Coaching vs. Mentoring: Major Distinctions
– Coaching
– Mentoring
Examples of Mentoring Objectives
Examples:
Publishing: I would like guidance for getting an article on [subject] published in a peer-reviewed journal.
Professional Development: I may have an opportunity in a year or two to move into an administrative position. What things do I need to consider now to prepare for such an opportunity? How do I know if it will be the right move for me?
Spiritual Development: As a new lecturer, I am extremely busy. I would like guidance on how to balance my prayer life and my academic life.
Integration: I would like to explore how I can better relate biblical truth to the issues in my academic discipline through my teaching, research, and/or writing.
As you consider requesting a mentor, please note the following major differences between coaching and mentoring. If you have any questions about whether coaching or mentoring is right for you, please apply and we’ll be glad to help you decide.
Coaching vs. Mentoring: Major Distinctions
– Coaching
– Mentoring
* These Governing Policies will be ratified by the Society Executive Committee by March 31, 2019.
Appendix A: Membership Fees
| ANNUAL SALARY | FULL MEMBERS | ASSOCIATE MEMBERS |
| Under $20,000 | $15 | $10 |
| $20,000-60,000 | $55 | $30 |
| $60,000-100,000 | $95 | $50 |
| Over $100,000 | $175 | $140 |
1For an explanation of member requirements and benefits, see www.SocietyofChristianScholars.org.
2In person or via audio or video.
3The Global Scholars Leadership Team is composed of the Global Scholars CEO and those he or she appoints to this Leadership Team.
The Society of Christian Scholars has a contract with Zoom™ that lets Society members use a certain number of minutes each month for a set price. We would like to reserve these minutes for society members to use with Zoom™ meetings of three or more people. By using your personal, free Zoom™ account for one-on-one meetings, you will help the Society save our monthly allotted Zoom™ minutes and, thus, help us save money each month. This will help keep Society fees more affordable.
Those applying for a Full or Associate membership are invited to apply for a Society scholarship if you cannot afford membership or if you are unable to pay (e.g., you do not own a credit card, credit cards are not accepted from your country, etc.). The scholarship application is available when you register for the Society.
…in the Holy Scriptures as originally given by God, divinely inspired, infallible, entirely trustworthy; and the supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.
… in one God, eternally existent in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
… in our Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh, His virgin birth, His sinless human life, His divine miracles, His vicarious and atoning death, His bodily resurrection, His ascension, His mediatorial work, and His Personal return in power and glory.
… in the Salvation of lost and sinful persons through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith apart from works, and regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
… in the Holy Spirit, by whose indwelling the believer is enabled to live a holy life, to witness and work for the Lord Jesus Christ.
… in the Unity of the Spirit of all true believers, the Church, the Body of Christ.
… in the Resurrection of both the saved and the lost; they that are saved unto the resurrection of life, they that are lost unto the resurrection of damnation.
The Society of Christian Scholars equips missional Christian academics to have a redemptive influence for Christ among their students, colleagues, institutions, and academic disciplines.
The SCS administrative team strives to serve you with excellence. How can we help you?
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Zoom™ lets you collaborate with up to 100 people (with no time limits) on a secure platform using features like a whiteboard, on-screen annotation, record and save, text chat, participant “hand raising,” and screen share.
An academic is someone called to the learned life. Being an academic means loving the pursuit, acquisition, and dissemination of knowledge and committing a significant portion of one’s life to this endeavor. An academic is committed to the noblest aims of the academy: discovering and promoting what is good, true, and beautiful and what leads to wisdom, human flourishing, and the common good.
Functionally, an academic is most commonly employed in a university position. In this post, he or she engages in three important duties: teaching, research, and service (though different roles and academic contexts require different emphases at various times). However, not all academics are employed by universities; some serve in institutes, at think tanks, or in private industry. What makes each of them academics is his or her vocation of pursuing, discovering, and disseminating knowledge. This role usually requires a terminal degree, but not always; in some cultural or research contexts, people with master’s degrees are functioning as academics.
Scripture affirms in various passages the serious intellectual inquiry and commitment to teaching that typify academic work today. For instance, Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, and the glory of kings to investigate a matter”; Proverbs 18:17 states, “Any story sounds true until someone tells the other side and sets the record straight.” Paul similarly says, “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). Peter implores: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Peter 3:15). As Acts 19:9 explains, Paul modeled this emphasis in his commitment to teach for two years in the school of Tyrannus (a proto-university in Ephesus). This work, like all labor, is to be done “as unto the Lord” (Colossians 3:23–24).
Beyond specific citations, the nature of Scripture itself supports the role of the academic. Consider, for example, the literary masterpiece that we know as the gospel of Luke. This was an enormous academic research undertaking, written from a historian’s perspective (Luke 1:1–3). Similarly, Paul’s letter to the Romans amply illustrates the impact of scholarly training of his era in its exegesis of Hebrew scriptures, logical organization, and style of argument.
Intellectual achievement and academic recognition should never be a Christian’s ultimate goal, but they are essential tools that support our effectiveness in mission and service.
To be Christian entails cognitive, performative, and emotional dimensions. Cognitively, to be Christian, one affirms the essential historic Christian faith, what C.S. Lewis called “Mere Christianity” and is expressed in such formulations as the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed. The Society of Christian Scholars has adopted the World Evangelical Alliance Statement of Faith as the essential codification of these core doctrinal beliefs. We believe it addresses all the core issues one must affirm cognitively as a Christian.
Second, the performative dimension of faith demands that a believer choose every day to live out, or “incarnate,” these beliefs in thought, word, and deed. She or he seeks to grow daily in Christlikeness, practicing spiritual disciplines, and increasingly evidence the “Fruit of the Spirit” (Galatians 5:22).
Third, is an emotional, affective, or existential aspect to the life of a believer. Christians experience God in ineffable ways. This may not be a regular occurrence, as God works in different ways in each of our lives, but for all true believers there is, to one degree or another, a metaphysical sense of God’s presence and direction. Paul describes this metaphysical experience in relation to salvation in Romans 8:16 and in relation to the believer’s communion with God in 1 Corinthians 2:10–16.
Finally, this is all lived out in a community of faith. As the triune God is a community of persons, he created us as communal beings as well, needing one another for health and flourishing. “Do not neglect to assemble together…but encourage one another…” (Heb. 10:25), and we sharpen one another “as iron sharpens iron” (Prov. 27:17).
To influence is to have a tangible effect on something. Christian academicians desire that, as a result of their work, others will experience a meaningful, positive influence on their lives.
Moreover, we want this influence to take a particular form—specifically, we want it to be redemptive. To redeem is to buy back, or to restore something to its original and proper condition. It is to reclaim and recreate. It involves taking something that is not as it should be and renewing it. Theologically, redemption means doing something that reverses the effects of the Fall, restoring what has been broken.
Ultimately, of course, God is the one who redeems all things and erases the effects of the Fall. However, he calls us into this work with him, to partner in his great drama of redemption. Hence, we are able, indeed called, to seek ways to exert such a redemptive influence on those around us in our daily lives.
Since everything in creation was affected by the Fall, and since God desires to redeem all things, the redemptive influence in which he calls us to participate extends to every aspect of creation. It includes seeing individual souls redeemed, but it is not limited to individual salvation. Rather, it involves redeeming everything that exists: ideas, relationships, institutions, the physical world, and so on. It, indeed, understands the gospel to be about individual salvation; but it is more than this. It is also about seeing all of fallen creation, which God originally created and called “good,” again made whole, expressing what is good, true, and beautiful as God initially designed creation to be.
Thus, redemptive influence results in shalom, human flourishing, and the common good. Such a redemptive influence will have three necessary and sufficient characteristics: (1) it will be intentional (not passive), (2) it will be done with excellence (not superficial or done poorly), (3) it will be done with missional intent (done in love for God and in love for neighbor).
That is a big task, one that challenges every believer every day, and reminds us of our dependence on God. But we hope that by working together as the Society of Christian Scholars, we can equip each other and greatly magnify our redemptive influence.
To be missional with respect to academia is to understand and perform our academic work as Kingdom work, as participating in God’s drama of redemption. It is to understand that we have a calling, or “vocation” (vocatio in Latin), that our task to accomplish, work to do, or part to play has been given by Christ according to his purposes. It is an understanding that our life is characterized by the “Missio Dei”—that all of life is part of God’s mission. It is an understanding that all of our gifts (natural and spiritual) and opportunities (including obtaining an advanced degree and a university post) are stewarded well in his service as part of the community of faith—the Church. It eschews the “sacred-secular” dichotomy by seeing God’s call, hand, and redemptive work in not only evangelism and discipleship but also in research, teaching, committee work, and administrative positions. In all these ways, we can bring God’s understanding of the true, good, and beautiful to full bloom in a university context.
Full and Associate Members*: A Full or Associate Member is a current or retired academic staff of a tertiary institution and others influencing higher education in similar ways. Graduate students also serving in teaching or research positions may join as Associate or Full Members.
Student Members: A Student Member is anyone pursuing an academic degree but not yet in an academic post.
Friends of the Society: A Friend of the Society is anyone supporting or encouraging missional Christian scholars (pastors, campus ministers, etc.)
*Scholarships are available for those applying for Full or Associate memberships.
Such as serving in an academic “think tank”, as a researcher in private industry, etc.
Full and Associate Members are invited to apply for a Society scholarship if you cannot afford membership or if you are unable to pay (e.g., you do not own a credit card, credit cards are not accepted from your country, etc.).
Employees of Global Scholars are not eligible for these grants. Currently, a separate grants program is being developed for Global Scholars fellows. For inquiries contact Liam Atichson: latchison@global-scholars.org.
| ANNUAL SALARY | FULL MEMBERS | ASSOCIATE MEMBERS |
|---|---|---|
| Under $20,000 | $15 | $10 |
| $20,000-60,000 | $55 | $30 |
| $60,000-100,000 | $95 | $50 |
| Over $100,000 | $175 | $140 |
*Scholarship application available when you register for the Society.
The Society partners with Crossworld for processing mentor applications; be prepared to submit the following information:
Once you have submitted this information, Crossworld will evaluate it and arrange for a personal phone interview.
After the application process and the Society’s approval, which will take about 2 weeks, the Mentorship Director will notify you and add your name and bio to the Society’s list of prospective mentors. If you have any questions, please contact the Mentorship Director at rbrown@scshub.net.
Institutional Partners are organisations which share the vision and values of the Society of Christian Scholars and partner with us to obtain our shared goals. Founding Institutional Partners are organisations involved in the establishment of the Society of Christian Scholars before March 1, 2019.