Christianity: Private or Public at KPU?

A new year at KPU! Today is the first day of classes, but a post-Christmas lull is still hanging over the campus. It feels as though the university isn’t quite ready to wake up and get back to work. I’ve been alone in my office most of the morning, plugging away at different emails, planning for the coming semester, and generally getting settled back into life at KPU. I’m looking forward to connecting with some students this afternoon before heading to a planning meeting for World Interfaith and Harmony Week coming up in February.

One new project that I will be undertaking with some students this semester is the implementation of an Alpha course. Alpha is a world-wide program that introduces the basic principles of Christian faith and life in a hospitable and generous way. Over the coming weeks we’ll be advertising for it around campus before having our first meeting on Jan. 25.

This is an evangelistic project. Though non-coercive, the aim is, truly, to spread the gospel, to grow the Church, to lead non-Christians to faith and hope in Jesus. And, as always on a campus like KPU, I am uncertain of the endeavour. Not that I doubt its importance or worth. But KPU represents an educational institution which displays in many aspects of its life a complete indifference to questions of religious faith and practice. It is highly pluralistic; students, staff, and faculty come from all different faith backgrounds. But in that pluralism there is a real privatizing of religion. Christian faith, or any faith, is then interpreted as just a “personal choice.” And in presenting a program like Alpha I worry that Christian faith is understood in just such a private, personal way.

But I also struggle with wondering whether there is not an advantage to faith being a private thing, or if not “advantage” at least a neutrality. Because KPU is, largely, a safe place. Perhaps, from my theological perspective, it is a rather uninteresting and boring place, but I don’t really know what would be gained from insisting on the public nature of Christian faith, especially when many faiths and worldviews seem to co-exist very peacefully. What would a public Christian faith even mean in a place like KPU?

However, I do trust that Jesus is lord of all creation, not just our private lives. And when the love of God in Jesus is not made public or when religion in general is privatized, there is usually someone else’s interests who are being served. I don't exactly know who that might be at KPU, but I attempt to remain vigilant and aware. So I’m moving forward with this Alpha program with some perplexity and uncertainty, but hopeful that the lordship of Christ over all creation will somehow, by the grace of God, be made known through a simple introduction to Christian belief.