Seven Habits of the Highly Effective Christian Graduate Student

Reposted from the Emerging Scholars Network by Bob Trube

How does one live well as a Christian graduate student? Bob Trube, GFM campus staff, has stewed over that question with members of the InterVarsity grad fellowship at Ohio State. Here are their recommendations of seven habits that should be incorporated into the life of every Christian grad student.

1. Spend regular time with God.

• Time with God is not another academic task. Rather it is time listening to God in scripture and prayer, meditating on Christian truth and its bearing on your life, and speaking to God in prayer about who he is, who you are, and what concerns both of you.
• Brief regular time with God is better than sporadic extended time. Regular time with God reminds us to live in dependence upon God throughout each day.
• Remember that regular time with God is not a “to do” to check off or a ritual to gain God’s favor. Rather it is a discipline that helps us to “practice God’s presence” throughout the day.

2. Spend regular time with your spouse or roommates.

• Grad school can be murder on those you live with. Your spouse may think you are married to your computer or having an affair with your study carrel. Your roommates may wonder when you are going to do your share of the cleaning around the apartment.
• Set aside regular time to be together, preferably when you are not “spent.” Give your spouse your best, not your leftovers. Plan regular “dates.” Don’t neglect physical intimacy.
• We find it helps to take some time weekly or more often to talk over and coordinate our calendars and see if our time use reflects our priorities.
• Pray together regularly.

3. Have a focused pursuit of your graduate studies with appropriate boundaries.

• Remember the axiom, “work expands to fill the time you give it.” Don’t make an open-ended commitment of your time to your studies but set boundaries that permit you to give appropriate attention to your academic work as well as to the other habits on this list.
• Take the first minutes of a work session to identify clearly what you are trying to accomplish so that you don’t needlessly fritter time away.
• As much as possible, set time limits for a task (e.g. I will compile that annotated bibliography by 4 pm today).
• You can’t read everything! Learn to skim, to use bibliographic resources, abstracts, etc. to familiarize yourself with the research literature in your discipline and to help you be selective in to what you give your attention.

4. Participate in the life of a local church.

• Participate in the weekly times of worship in your church. Contribute financially according to your means. While the time you have for other involvements is limited, find opportunity to share in fellowship and ministry with people who are not graduate students!

5. Meet weekly with other Christian graduate students.

• Life as a graduate student has its unique challenges. One of the gifts of fellowship with other grad students is that these are people who understand your world. Sometimes, they may also understand your excuses and challenge you in your walk.
• Make a commitment to at least one gathering of grad students that will become a non-negotiable in your schedule. Graduate students who don’t do this usually don’t intend to be out of fellowship — it just happens by default. Also, such a commitment helps foster deepening relationships by communicating that these people are important in your life.
• Look for and help nurture a graduate fellowship that helps you think about your calling as a grad student and about the lifestyle and intellectual issues that challenge you. This fellowship should also equip you for witness and ministry in the university.

6. Pray for opportunities to befriend and share Christ with grads in your department.

• In particular, are you praying for your office mates, the people in your study group, or those who “share” your advisor? While you are at it, are you praying for the salvation of your advisor?
• Do you believe that you could be instrumental in leading one or more of these people to faith in Christ? Imagine the impact our graduate fellowship could have if each person brought one other person to Christ!
• Take advantage of social opportunities like department happy hours or other informal get-togethers to build relationships.
• Witness is often a matter of being honest about who you are and what you believe when the opportunity arises. Pray for boldness to be straightforward with the truth in such situations.

7. Take conscious steps to integrate your discipline with your faith.

• Are you convinced that “all truth is God’s truth” — that the pursuit of truth in your discipline is pleasing to God? In Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell defended his participation in running events in these words, “When I run, I feel the pleasure of God upon me.” Is this so for you? Remember to give thanks for the moments of joy in your work where you feel God’s pleasure upon you.
• Often, integrating your discipline with your faith involves going back to the first principles of the faith and asking what bearing these have on the content and the practices of your discipline. Above all, this means staying close to Jesus and going deeper in your understanding of the faith. Unfortunately, many Christian grads and faculty have a highly sophisticated grasp of their discipline but an elementary level understanding of the faith.
• Seek opportunities to interact with other Christians in your discipline on this campus via articles and books and at conferences.

Citing Sources

Every historian knows the importance of citing all your evidence. Footnoting or endnoting can be a harrying process, nonetheless. Here are two things I use to help:

1) The Chicago Manual of Style Online has a listing of how to cite different kinds of sources. It’s not quite as exhaustive as the print version, but very handy and up to date.

2) The software EndNote is great for keeping and cataloging your sources. You can purchase the software or use the free online version. The program even allows you to pull citations right from the Library of Congress website so you don’t have to type in all the info.

Tip: Save Every Paragraph, Print Every Page

This may seem like overkill, but I was sorely reminded today of the volatility of computers when my froze up with three of my dissertation documents on the screen and unsaved.

I don’t hold to quite this extreme, but I have taken to saving everything on a jump drive before closing my computer for the day. I also attach drafts to unsent emails in my gmail account, so my docs are saved three places.

As far as printing, I print off a draft every time I share with my writing group or another editor, so at least every month. This has saved me several times. You can recycle all that paper later, but it’s a necessary back-up.

So choose your own level of better-safe-than-sorry, but don’t rely on your computer’s hard drive to be your only saving grace!

No Comparison

“When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.” (2 Cor. 10:12)

I have two problems with comparison. First, I compare myself to others. In grad school, that can be paralyzing. So-and-so finished his doctorate in just 3 years with 12 kids and a full-time job, what have I been doing? (And apparently I tend to exaggerate, as well.) Or, she got the fellowship I applied for and I’m way smarter than she is!

Second, I compare myself with myself. Being intrinsically motivated is good, beating myself up over deadlines not met or goals unreached is bad. “I’ve done this so much better in the past!” Or, “I definitely could have pulled an all-nighter to finish this at 21, now I’m too old!”

I could go on in both these categories. But it’s not fair to anyone, others or myself. We all have unique circumstances that set us apart from other people and from our past. What we are able to do best right now is what matters. And there’s grace in that.

Guest Posts

I would LOVE to have you contribute a post here! Additionally, if you know a professor, author, etc. you think would like to contribute, please let me know. Just email me if interested!

Blog Entry Guidelines:

*Must discuss topics of faith and history

*400 words or less (consider sending two entries if you have more words!)

*All entries will be pre-screened by the Graduate Student Representative.

*Send entries as an attachment AND in the email body.

An Emerging Evangelical Intelligentsia?

Boston University’s Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs (CURA) is currently undergoing a study of evangelical intellectuals. It’s fascinating stuff.

If you are interested in taking part in their survey, email me and I’ll send you the details.

Breaking the Surface, Gasping for Air

Here is a poetic description of a woman facing that last step in the doctoral journey. Re-posted from This Ordinary Day:

I am sitting on the train. My PhD defence is tomorrow. I feel like I’m under water, slowly slowly drifting upwards. I can already glimpse the sparkling sun above me, magically sending rainbows my way. The heavy weight of the deep sea has lifted from my chest, and although I’m not yet ready to breathe, I can feel a strange calm, soothing my aching body for those last hours.

A long journey is coming to an end. It started with a jump into cold water, turned into a long and hard dive into unknown seas, and came to its close in almost complete darkness. Strange creatures accompanied me there, first colourful, then bleak and often frightening. From the darkness I followed the light, growing brighter and brighter by the day, the pressures of heavy dark water lifting ever so slowly, until I could see the surface again and realised the journey was almost over.

So I take these last hours to look back into the dark, to say farewell to those dark creatures who have made this journey frightening and intense, bumpy and deep. They have also made it MY journey, and although I certainly won’t miss them – deep down they’ve known this all along, and maybe that’s why they’re the way they are? – I want to face them one last time and carry their imprint in my heart forever as a token of hope.

Every journey, however difficult and dark, comes to an end. Every end is also a beginning, and I cannot wait to see this one unfold, up there, in the warm and sparkling sun.

* I am typing this from the handwritten version on the day of my defence. All is well, I can breathe now.

And… We’re Back!

Hello All!

I hope you had a wonderful summer and feel rested and ready for the fall semester.

I took a month off from my dissertation writing to rest and travel, and was reminded how important seasons of rest are. They are incredibly vital to academics, because we carry our work with us all the time. Choosing a life of the mind means it is not easy to forget our scholarly endeavors. When I came back to my writing, it was so much easier, because I had a fresh perspective.

So I encourage you to take a regular sabbath and put your work aside for a bit. Happy Fall!

Summer Hiatus

Hi Folks! I’m taking some time off from the blog to dissertate and travel. I’ll be available by email, so just check www.cfhgradstudents.com if you need anything!

Why Get a Ph.D. in the Humanities?

The current edition of the Emerging Scholars Review has some great articles on the benefit of Christians obtaining doctoral degrees in humanities. Check it out and let me know what you think!