When I started as a professor ten years ago, I wondered how to go public with my faith. My own time as a university student and follower of Jesus had been a great journey of discovery: of life, of growing up, of traveling, of reflection, of learning…and all of this with Jesus himself and many great people.
To make my faith public as a professor, I created an online profile that listed things I am grateful for: surviving a severe bicycle accident, my wonderful wife, a son healed of cancer, friends, Jesus, a great job and so much more. I linked to this profile from my university website, so this simple word “Jesus” made me publicly visible as a Christian – and I discovered that people read it!
Contact with other Christians
Through this online profile, Jesus answered my prayers to get in contact with other Christians. One colleague found my profile and introduced me to a fortnightly prayer group at our university. We also got in contact with other Christians who are professors in our city.
Amazingly, most of us were able, within only a week, to arrange a meeting together. The nine of us who met considered it a divine leading that our full schedules had an empty spot on that day!
Students read our testimonies
This group of ten Christian professors started regular meetings, praying together, and also built a private website (www.christians.university). We each created a link from our university websites to that private website and we regularly hear from students who read our testimonies there.
At the beginning of each semester, I show two personal slides with photos of my family and with icons of organizations with which I privately feel connected. Most of these organizations are Christian, so this is another way I am public about my faith with my students.
Would my university object?
I also asked God, “What posters are wise to put on my laboratory’s walls?” There is no problem with pictures from my field (steel structures). But would my university object to my “Jesus” poster (see picture above)? After all, Jesus is an important figure in human history and as a professor I support students to come to their own opinions about him—like the 35 quotes from different people on the poster.
The“Jesus” poster has been prominently displayed in my office for years now, and so far, not a single person has ever complained about it. There is an additional benefit to me personally from the “Jesus” poster; it helps me to keep in mind that I am at work with Jesus all the time.
After 10 years, I still feel like a beginner and I have more ideas of ways to make my faith public. But there is one thing I already enjoy: the fact that every student, every colleague, in fact everybody I meet might already have read about me and my faith in Jesus online through our private website.
This makes Jesus very present in my thoughts (including during my lectures). I am looking forward to more things that God will do in the future!
