Dallas Willard’s ��Ƶ Ministry Roots

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Tue, 24 Sep 2019 13:45:24 +0000

September 24, 2019

Gordon Govier

Dallas Willard’s ��Ƶ Ministry Roots

��Ƶ’s Graduate and Faculty Ministries marked its 30-year anniversary at the GFM annual staff conference this year but the story of Dallas Willard shows that ministry to graduate students and faculty is buried much more deeply in the DNA of ��Ƶ. This was celebrated earlier in the year during a meeting of the faculty fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW). As the faculty members and administrators gathered at the University Club, they were regaled with memories of the days when Dallas was a UW graduate student.

Dallas received his Ph.D. in philosophy at the UW, living and studying in Madison from 1959 to 1965. He was hired at the University of Southern California (USC) in 1965 and taught philosophy there for the next 47 years, until just before his death in 2013. Along the way, Dallas also became a leading evangelical writer and speaker, influencing many thousands through books like The Divine Conspiracy.

Gary Moon’s biography, Becoming Dallas Willard (��Ƶ Press), describes the five years spent in Madison as a graduate student and lecturer as a critical time for Dallas. Despite having previously attended three Christian colleges, being ordained in a Baptist Church in 1956, and pastoring at two churches, Dallas still looked for a transformational faith. “I was almost terminally ignorant about God and soul,” he said later.

Discovering Spiritual Disciplines

At UW, Dallas discovered a new dimension of faith through the practice of spiritual disciplines. “What I had thought were merely the discarded practices of futile religion were actually things that, if rightly used, would help people change,” he observed.

One of the spiritual disciplines that Dallas practiced was the regular Sunday night fellowship with a handful of other graduate students in the home of UW Geography professor John Alexander, who was the ��Ƶ undergraduate chapter faculty sponsor, and soon to become ��Ƶ president.

"He (Alexander) felt that there was a need for something for the grads; he opened his home on Prospect Drive for us,” recalled Mary Daniel, emeritus professor in the UW Department of Spanish and Portuguese. “At Dr. A’s house nothing was off limits. You could ask anything.”

In the foreword to the study guide for The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas attributed many of the basic teachings from the book to this formative period. “Part of the first chapter comes from graduate school days when I was active in ��Ƶ Christian Fellowship,” he wrote.

What Dallas appreciated about ��Ƶ, he said at another time, “was that capacity to be biblically serious, to hold to the central teachings of what Lewis called ‘Mere Christianity,’ and yet to be open enough to be willing to discuss anything.”

The Dilemma

Dallas faced a hard choice as his time at UW came to a close. He received his Ph.D. in 1965, and during the previous year he had not only been a UW lecturer, but he also pastored the Arena Congregational Church in a small town outside of Madison. Would he return to the pulpit as a full-time pastor or follow philosophy into the academy? What would it be, the pulpit or the classroom?

Finally, the answer came. “The Lord said to me, ‘If you stay in the churches the university will be closed to you. But, if you stay in the university, the churches will be open to you.’ I knew the Lord said it to me because I sure didn't have enough sense to understand what it meant at the time,” he concluded.

So Dallas accepted the invitation from USC to move to California. He became a fixture in the philosophy department, chairman from 1982-1985, and recipient of the USC Associates Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1977.

Joe Thackwell, ��Ƶ’s Director of University Partnerships, got to know Dallas and his wife Jane as he planted a graduate student and faculty chapter at USC. He learned that Dallas would write his phone number on the board and tell students they could call anytime, “although if it was dinner time he may not answer.” Joe noted, “The call to pastor through his professorship was a family call that implicated his whole life in the way that missionary and pastor’s families often experience.”

Dallas spent hours and hours listening to students in his office and made a habit of long lunches with students and faculty, engaging them deeply. “He also made himself available to the whole Christian community at USC,” Joe said. “When he taught at the Trojan Christian Faculty and Staff Fellowship the numbers swelled.”

Working with former students and current USC staff, Joe established a memorial plaque that now hangs in Mudd Hall, the home of the USC Philosophy Department. The plaque lists four worldview questions that Dallas used in his lectures and listed in his book, Knowing Christ Today. Joe believes that it is the only such memorial to a professor on the USC campus.

Dallas almost never said no to an invitation to speak. Through his counseling, books, and lectures about Christian living he was able to disciple as many people as a professor as he could have as a pastor, maybe more. And the formative fellowship he attended during his UW days illustrates the importance of graduate student ministry.

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University of Southern California

Saying Yes: A Freshman’s Leap of Faith

gordon.govier@intervarsity.org — Thu, 14 Nov 2013 21:58:48 +0000

News

November 14, 2013

Kathryn Brill

Saying Yes: A Freshman’s Leap of Faith

When freshman Alissa Fairchild arrived at the University of Southern California (USC) this fall, she knew exactly what she was looking for: a chance to share God’s love with others. “I wanted to embrace any opportunity God had for me,” she said. God honored her request and gave her an amazing way to show his love to the people right in front of her, impacting not only them but also Alissa herself.

Embracing God’s Call

It started when Alissa, a new member of USC’s ��Ƶ chapter, attended an event where students ministered to each other in prayer. At this prayer meeting, Alissa saw firsthand God’s transformative power as students were healed from physical and emotional pain. She and her prayer partner had many opportunities to bless people through prayer. Alissa described it as an “amazing experience.”

It turned out that the prayer meeting was only the beginning, though. As Alissa left the event, she felt a call from God to pray in an unexpected place: “I was standing outside my dorm building, and I looked up to the window of my fourth floor suite, which I share with seven other girls, none of whom are Christian. When I looked up at my room, God told me, ‘Go up there and pray for your roommates.’” Although Alissa thought it sounded a little crazy (how would two atheists, four agnostics, and a Buddhist react to being prayed for?) she went ahead and said yes to God’s call. “There was a chance that they would completely shut me down, but there was also a chance that they would say they wanted prayer. And if there was even the slightest chance, I had to ask them,” she said.

Stepping Out in Faith

Alissa got back to her room and found four of her roommates there. They asked her how her evening had been, and she started telling them about the prayer meeting. She was beginning to get nervous about how she might approach them about prayer when her roommate O., an atheist, mentioned that her throat hurt really badly. “There is no way it could have been clearer that I needed to pray for her,” said Alissa. When Alissa asked her if she wanted prayer for her throat, O. responded, “I would love it if you prayed for me.” As Alissa prayed, she asked God not only to heal O’s throat, but also to fill her with his love. O. told Alissa afterwards that her throat felt much better and she felt “loved and at peace.”

Another roommate, an agnostic named H., witnessed Alissa praying for O. and said, “I wish that I was sick so you could pray for me!” Alissa explained to her that she didn’t need to be sick to receive prayer, and “she was so excited to be prayed for,” Alissa said. In the end, all four of Alissa’s roommates who were home received prayer. Alissa asked God to make his presence known to her roommates and give them an awareness of his love. All four told Alissa that they felt happy and loved as a result of the prayer. “I was absolutely overwhelmed by how God was moving in the lives of my roommates,” she said.

The Power of Prayer

God’s work in the lives of Alissa’s roommates didn’t end that evening. Alissa has offered to pray for her roommates whenever they need it, keeping the door open for future spiritual conversations and encounters with God. One of her roommates has gotten curious about Christianity, asking Alissa a lot of questions about Jesus and even exploring the Bible. “I can’t wait to see what else God does in my dorm room and at USC,” said Alissa. “I know he has big plans for both.”

As a result of this experience, Alissa now has a greater confidence in God’s ability to work in anyone’s life, no matter how hostile they might initially seem to Christianity. “People are searching for meaning and hope in their lives, and that is exactly what Jesus can provide for them,” Alissa said. “Although reaching out to non-Christians might seem really scary and intimidating, God will give us all the right words to say.”

News Keywords

USC

University of Southern California

Prayer

USC

Dallas Willard’s ������Ƶ Ministry Roots

Dallas Willard’s ������Ƶ Ministry Roots

Discovering Spiritual Disciplines

The Dilemma

Saying Yes: A Freshman’s Leap of Faith

Saying Yes: A Freshman’s Leap of Faith

Embracing God’s Call

Stepping Out in Faith

The Power of Prayer

Dallas Willard’s ��Ƶ Ministry Roots

Dallas Willard’s ��Ƶ Ministry Roots