The Michigan Christian Study Center began in the Fall of 2022 as a result of three primary influences. Rick Ostrander, who would eventually be the Center’s founding director, attended the University of Michigan as an undergraduate history major, completed his Ph.D. at the University of Notre Dame, and spent nearly three decades working at various Christian colleges and universities. In 2017, while living in Washington DC, Rick visited the Center for Christian Study at the University of Virginia. This experience sparked a dream in him to bring this new model of Christian higher education to his alma mater in Ann Arbor. Two years later, with assistance from Karl Johnson, the director of the Consortium of Christian Study Centers, Rick conducted a feasibility study regarding the establishment of a Center at the University of Michigan. With no building or funding sources identified, however, Rick concluded that the idea of a Center at Michigan was premature, and he moved on to other endeavors.

A second key player in the creation of the Center was Josh Welch. Josh majored in Computer Science as an undergraduate at Ohio University while also participating in Ratio Christi, a campus ministry organization that focuses on Christian apologetics. Later he completed a Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. While there he became involved in the North Carolina Study Center. In 2018, Josh took a faculty position in Bioinformatics at the University of Michigan and brought his enthusiasm for the Christian Study Center movement with him to Ann Arbor.

A third influence was a local church, Redeemer Ann Arbor. In 2015, pastors Bart Bryant and Jim Mong teamed up to launch Redeemer Ann Arbor, an interdenominational church in the Reformed tradition. In 2018, they purchased the “Shant,” a historic building located just west of central campus that had been built in 1878 by the fraternity, Delta Kappa Epsilon. A couple of years later, Josh and his wife Jeanna joined Redeemer. As the church began outgrowing its building, the leadership announced plans in the Summer of 2022 to sell the building and purchase a larger structure. This prompted Josh and Jeanna to wonder if the Shant might serve as the home of a Michigan Christian Study Center. They raised the idea with Bart and Jim, who responded positively.

In Spring 2022, therefore, Josh and Bart reached out to Karl Johnson at the Consortium of Christian Study Centers to inquire about launching a Center at Michigan. Karl introduced them to Rick, who by that time was serving as an academic administrator at Westmont College in California. Soon thereafter, this group formed a steering committee consisting of some local ministry leaders as well as Michigan alums such as Ross Business graduate Mike Faremouth, former Taylor University president Gene Habecker, and Michigan Law alum Dave Hazelton.

In the meantime, Josh and the Redeemer staff began preparing for a “soft launch” of the Center in Fall 2022. Redeemer furnished the building with study tables and coffee equipment, Josh planned a program of monthly faculty lectures, and the Center opened to students in August. Rick, thousands of miles away in California, devoted his evening hours to building a support network and fundraising for the new enterprise.

As the Center took shape, Rick increasingly sensed a call to assume a more active leadership role, something that was impossible from California. In March 2023, therefore, he and his wife made the decision to leave Westmont College and move to Ann Arbor. By July, the key ingredients of the Center were in place: Rick assumed the role of Executive Director, a governing Board was established with Dave Hazelton as chair, and later that month, Heidi Lemmerhirt, a Genetics Ph.D. from Michigan and local resident, joined the team as Director of Operations.

By August, with four student Hospitality Coordinators joining the team, the Center was ready for full operation in advancing four primary commitments:

Christian hospitality and community through providing a place of belonging and a setting for significant conversations about faith, learning, and living.

Christian intellectual and spiritual formation through mentoring, lectures, book discussions, and other activities.

Public events bringing a Christian perspective to bear on important issues in contemporary culture.

Christian unity by providing meeting space for other campus ministry groups and serving as a hub of Christian activity across the university.

By the end of the 2023-2024 academic year, the Center had brought hundreds of students into its orbit, established the foundation of a Christian faculty community, and hosted dozens of events. The Center was able to expand so quickly because of early and generous support by donors. In August and September of 2023, a matching gift campaign yielded over $120,000, and another significant contribution came in December.

A key asset of the Center is the building itself—an Ann Arbor historic landmark located just steps away from central campus, which the Center leased from Redeemer Ann Arbor. A potential crisis appeared, therefore, in December 2023 when a local organization engaged Redeemer about buying the building. Fortunately for the Center, the proposed deal did not materialize, but the possibility of losing the building led the Center’s Board to move more decisively to acquire the building. In spring 2024, therefore, a funding campaign was launched to raise a down payment toward the purchase of the building. Despite being just over a year old, the Center’s supporters contributed nearly one million dollars, and on August 9, 2024, the Center officially purchased the building from Redeemer.

Now in its third year of operation, the Center continues to expand its activities as it exercises a thoughtful Christian presence at the University of Michigan. It serves as a testament to God’s abundant blessing through the generous support of hundreds of individuals who share the Center’s passion for Christian community, Christian thinking, and Christian unity.