May 2025 Supporter Update
Dear friends,
Last Friday afternoon, I closed the large cast-iron front gate of the Center for the last time this semester and walked over to the Diag. Students in caps and gowns posed for photos beside a big block “M” in front of Hatcher Library. It was a beautiful spring day, and amid the flowering dogwoods and redbuds, a mood of celebration was in the air as students and their parents looked forward to commencement in the Big House the following day.
The Center too has much to celebrate this past semester as God has blessed us with a growing Christian influence on students, faculty, and the broader campus community. Below is a summary of activities over the last month of the semester.
Christian community and hospitality
At our semi-annual Study Day Waffle Bar, the Center served 250 waffles to over two hundred students who came through our doors. The Waffle Bar has become a signature event at the Center and an important way that we live out our mission of Christian hospitality and extend the Center's reach to new students.
In our last Friday lunch, we heard remarks from our graduating seniors and prayed a prayer of dedication over them. It was so encouraging to hear students describe the impact of the Center on their college experience, both in providing them with Christian community and equipping them to love God with both heart and mind.
Graduation week also featured an open house for graduates, which gave students the opportunity to show their families this beautiful space that has served as a community for them during their time at Michigan. While it's sad to see these students leave us, it's also rewarding to know that the Center has played a role in forming them into mature Christ-followers who will bring a redemptive presence into their professions and communities.
Christian intellectual and spiritual formation
April’s Friday lunches continued to pack the second floor of the Center with students to hear from Christian professors and alums who model the integration of faith, learning, and living. Our most recent speakers were Jon DeGaynor (UM Engineering alum and corporate executive), Matthew Mayhew (UM alum and professor of Educational Studies at Ohio State University), Ray Kethledge (UM Law alum and federal judge), and Robert Neumar (UM professor of emergency medicine). I continue to be grateful for the accomplished scholars and professionals who are willing to share their faith journeys and insights with students.
Our Exploring Christian Theology course, led by instructor Monse Santiago, concluded its spring semester last week. Next fall, two dozen students will take Module #3 in our Program in Christian Studies, the History of Christianity.
Christian thinking in the academy
On April 14, over seventy attendees packed the Center on Monday evening for our symposium, “Can Government Still Work? Politics in a Polarized Age,” featuring Ph.D. candidate Josh Thorp, Republican politician Rusty Hills, and Democratic Mayor of Ann Arbor Christopher Taylor. Amid today’s tumultuous political environment, the Center modeled honest, generous dialogue between Christians and non-Christians, Catholics and Protestants, and even Republicans and Democrats.
Last Wednesday, the Center hosted a lunch event with Christian scholar Loren Wilkinson, professor emeritus at Regent College. Loren’s talk, “Religion, Art, and Science: Three Trees Rooted in Wonder," embodied a Christian Study Center’s commitment to “thinking Christianly" across a wide range of disciplines and was a wonderful example to our students of a lively and curious Christian mind in action.
Christian unity
The Center has hosted a bi-weekly prayer gathering for campus ministry leaders throughout the semester, and it continues to bring Christian faculty across the university together for our “Christian faith and scholarship” conversations. The month of May will feature year-end lunches for both campus ministry leaders and for faculty. Recently, the Christian Study Center took the notion of Christian unity to new heights when we hosted visitors from Ohio State University who have launched a new Center in Columbus and wanted to glean some insights from our experience thus far.
For May and June, the Center transitions to more limited hours for students who continue their studies into the summer. The next month will also include a year-end Annual Fund campaign to ensure that the Center's financial foundation continues to expand to support our remarkable growth. We continue to trust that God will provide for our increasing scope of Christian influence at the University of Michigan through the generosity of our partners.
Blessings,
Rick
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Dr. Rick Ostrander
Executive Director, Michigan Christian Study Center