Cultivating Christian Life and Thought

At the world how to restructure this is family policy matters. Focus on faith addition with Thomas Graham past each director for NC family join us once a month is pastor Graham shine some light on the intersection between our Christian faith and engaging our culture. Thank you for joining us for this week. Special focus on for the firm would posted motors. I am excited to have as my guest gentlemen who made his own dream over Christian study center at his alma mater. Reality medicine. The executive director of the North Carolina study center whose mission is to cultivate Christian life and thought that UNC have a wonderful vision that propels them along.

And that is that the students that UNC would come to know Christ love and truth.

Thanks to the hospitality thoughtfulness of the joy of the extended Christian community medicine earned both his bachelors and law degrees from UNC and his masters in theological studies from Duke Divinity school. He worked with a number of Christian organizations as well as an interfaith diplomacy group in Washington DC and he currently serves on the board of the consortium of Christian study centers medicine. Welcome to family policy matters. It's great to have you on the show medicine.

We know that the intersection of faith in public life is is really a collection of individual people and stories as we begin our program this morning. Would you introduce our listeners to your personal story you know perhaps talk about your childhood, your young adult life.

Education, marriage, family and the boat is especially a moment or two to talk about the experiences that shaped your faith may well what order in Chapel Hill right to Christian parents actually remember being really and I accept you my heart that night and we ended up moving to North Carolina where my extended family is going and brave. I was influenced by don't like my mother. Trish and every fire at the doctors family life can really on the radar for me not only something personal spiritual office is a great way of the whole thing we going to First Baptist Church and my parents helped start a nondenominational church. I ended up actually at boarding school for high school at McCauley see and started going to church that public outcry and ended up going to UNC high school is a pretty quick time for me.

I was pretty careful to make moral decisions. Christianity was a lot to do with what I decided not to do that slowly grew into thinking Christianity and with how I study people and let me save my life to life. Not that I came in contact with the service that Tim Keller and this was back in the late 90s and Tim Keller has great job of bringing the riches of the Christian faith and his preaching, and I have a really massive impact on me.

I see on the number of different Street was always trying to balance being formed and having they also being engaged in the wider world, and I guess the other thing I highlight them back up. My life is just important that my family have played my grandfather but my grandfathers were Christians and I really grew up in a community to people who should have a what it's like to dictate not only a decent human being, but going to be a faithful, joyful, whole person. I love that that sounds like a wonderful wonderful adventure that you've been on the North Carolina study center come to be. I think that's a fascinating concept but what precipitated this success for the North Carolina study center.

Here also have a friend at UVA and place they called the call died in Charlottesville and especially a place to study and celebrate what makes the question about campus and enter all these great books to read all house there was That I copy all students. It was a resource center to help students learn to navigate the college experience and really push them toward maturity and never completely before 25 study centers and and really nothing about what would be blessed enough to be part of doing the study something in Chapel Hill back in 2004 and ask that question for playing in the back my mind thinking about what would be a good place to do in Chapel Hill and I really had no business reading that I should take that seriously thought experiment. And as the years go on a hike with a full law school, I wasn't clear to me exactly what work was getting a four and my dad had a conversation with the respect that you can only come to practice law and I think that to the attorney by left by the time you try to start a study center talk about and with that blessing and encouragement. I don't think he really he said it so obliquely that I thought my decision to do it. I researched a house in Chapel Hill. I must that Baptist convention, North Carolina.

This is font 2 acres for president of the University's house and ended up contacting the back for convention and we started talking and dreaming together about what work you do that took this position and limited at this beautiful house that they were there great partners as we can throw together what life would be listening to resource to listen to our radio show online resources for place of persuasion in your community website, alleging what you think is is the most important thing that parents can do to help prepare their students to keep and even grow their faith when they go off to college after perfectly what to stay rated. I really do think that having a loving and thoughtful, and fun family will give a student a place to come back. And what will really read them and who they are in Christ. Sleep well and I have four brothers and we all share the same fate of all people navigated college and places now fighting on one level or another. I think we all want to be like my dad and can set up the only thing growing up in a place where you you know results.

Each model Jesus differently because everybody everybody and I really think that ends up sticking with people just like children can spot a hypocrite from a mile away. Being consistent and leading straight back.

Life as a parent makes a way to make life harder for your children not take seriously the next makes it easier for the watch is something long-term that the five left another one response splitting his father, think to look at a lot of the catechesis methods that the church uses a lot of the written way back in the Reformed Church back in the set of accessories, and they were written against physicians, the people no longer really hold as much have to look at culture to see what assumptions are accurate and explain how the lives that were crystal by culture more widely, broadly, often simplistic and herbal fallacies that I will probably also spent some time think about you.

What are the buffet of life decisions that will be encouraged to make an audience actually good decisions and calculate thoughtfully yet so alternative. Great answer. I love that.

And now, let's turn the table around just for a moment and let me ask you this question. What advice do you have for students who feel challenged to abandon their faith, the faith of their childhood. Once they reach college what what practical advice can you offer them a line and lots of people who ask. I'm sure the question that you think is right and left Christians have been asking what it means to be a Christian to understand the world how to read Scripture getting some spice offended and said is very likely that people have asked the same question that you you are asking now is to update don't walk away from the fact without having heard someone explain exactly what your question and understand for me sometimes important question were in fact opportunities for me to go. The work is calling me to develop a more sophisticated way of understanding the world that I first thinks that I would say if you really honestly ask you questions.

I'm about to say.

I make sure you do it honestly, if you walk away from the faithful fertility questions are the reasons that you're going to see how she had Christ. The fact that the college and was very careful actually not make moral decisions that would slay me to then be dishonestly answer these intellectual questions makes perfectly good sense.

I like that answer very much what do you think is the most important things that the North Carolina study center offers both the UNC campus at large, as well as the individual student. I'm sure you're very pleased with how the Lord has blessed you with this ministry. So let's talk about those those most important things that you offer both campus at large and the individual student. I forgot to run the country on talking intellectually Christian formation case and affect leaders, hospitality, and so we welcome that we have a different 35 Partners are organizations you can use our space and a beautiful courtyard result. 2 acres and we have cutlery coffee and tea. We often at meals and people come here have ever understood that and that they want place to be an place to afterplay study The Space Concept That If You Look at the Formation Case. We Offer a Number of Different Seminars and Discussion Groups That They Be Able to Sleep Serious Questions Properly Are They Also Look at Your Copy Read Scripture or Cultural Issues of How They Intersect Elsewhere Fate Help Us Navigate on the 11th For Those Going on Right Now and We Also Bring a Number of Different Speakers for My Goals Is for Students to Make Compelling Christian Adults Who Are Ministers Surrounded Campus Ministries and What We All Think the Happiest Regular Pay for the Whole Psalmist of Charlevoix Pathology That We Bring an Christian Fact, the State Will Act As a People Sciences Is Normally Not and Then Finally We Offer Some Big Special That the Whole Campus so We Coordinated with Ministries and A Few Weeks Ago We Had an IP If I Come down to Veritas Talk and There Were over 500 People Who Came to and and This Is a Mighty Sciences Describing How Faith in Science Related to One Another and This Office Alike Is Very Comfortable Saying Publicly That He Thinks Jesus Rose from the Dead, so Ready like I Could Just Visit What You're Telling Me Medicine Working Our Listeners Go to Learn More about the North Carolina Study Center on It and See Study · Work and Study · Work Sounds Wonderful. This Is Madison It's Been Wonderful to Have You on Our Show Today and Then We Appreciate so Very Much for All Your Hard Work Serving the UNC Community by Providing a Visible and Tangible Presence of Jesus Christ to Those Students and Thank You so Much for Being with Us Today on Family Policy Matters. Thank You for Life Question That Award Matter 19th Edition Protection Family to Listen to Our Radio Show Online Resources and Information about Issues Important to Families and with Carolina Website Family.org and Follow Us on Twitter and Facebook