December 7,2015
Integrating Faith and Learning
In Rick Ostrander's book, he challenges his readers, as freshman college students to recognize that as Christians we have a responsibility to glorify the Lord with our minds. Not simply to ascertain schooling as the world so often as a way to induce employment to get a check and pay for the things that we like. However, by educating ourselves in how the world works, we have a deeper role in transforming the world to the way it ought to be "through the redeeming power of Christ".
Ostrander later goes on explaining what it means to have an integration of faith and learning. He states that it is not just simply "praying before class starts and it is not just relegated to the disciplines of theology and religion"(Ostrander, 2009 p. 94). Every discipline needs to take heed to the Christian worldview and see how this worldview explicitly and implicitly affects how we see and understand the truth in our majors.
When I made my decision to attend a Christian University I already had in mind that it was going to help deepen me with my faith and enhance spiritual life. From courses, to church's small groups, to chapel, a Christian education experience can help me become more in tune with my faith. In a Christian University, I do not have to explain myself as in my beliefs. If I were in a non-religious university I would have to explain my values, if I were among those who share my beliefs, it's a non-issue. For example, if I were not to go to parties, drink, smoke, and curse that might seem odd at a traditional college, but at a Christian school it is normal. At Vanguard and other Christian Universities, we are given an honor code. A set of rules we have to follow, for example,: "Refrain from the possession, purchase, or use of alcoholic beverages. Housing Gatherings Involving Alcohol or Drugs. Inappropriate, Lewd, Indecent, or Obscene Behavior or Language" (Student Code of Conduct, p.21). The school is structured...