Faith, Life, and Learning Online: Promoting Mission Across Learning Modalities

By David S. Dockery

Faith, Life, and Learning Online is an invitation for faith-based institutions to take bold steps toward integrating a holistic mission of spiritual formation into the online learning environment. For Christian higher education, faith integration is a matter of mission, not modality. Regardless of whether learning happens in the traditional classroom, through hybrid models, or exclusively online, Christian universities have a missional mandate to continue their long legacy of forming students of competence and character. While traditional campuses continue to provide unique and meaningful opportunities for students to grow in their faith, online learning has opened new avenues for engagement and development of spiritual formation. As such, all Christian higher education institutions are now called to take advantage of this unique technological moment to continue to offer transformative opportunities for the holistic integration of faith, life, and learning in the online environment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Release date: Apr 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781666705706

David S. Dockery

David S. Dockery (PhD, University of Texas System) serves as president of the International Alliance for Christian Education as well as president and distinguished professor of theology at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Previously, he served as president of Union University and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is a much-sought-after speaker and lecturer, a former consulting editor for Christianity Today, and the author or editor of more than forty books. Dockery and his wife, Lanese, have three married sons and seven grandchildren.

Book preview

Faith, Life, and Learning Online

Promoting Mission across Learning Modalities

Edited by Brant M. Himes and John W. Washatka

Foreword by David S. Dockery

Faith, Life, and Learning Online

Promoting Mission across Learning Modalities

Copyright © 2022 Wipf and Stock Publishers. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Cascade Books

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-6667-0568-3

hardcover isbn: 978-1-6667-0569-0

ebook isbn: 978-1-6667-0570-6

Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

Names: Himes, Brant M., editor | Washatka, John W., editor.

Title: Faith, life, and learning online : promoting mission across learning modalities / Edited by Brant M. Himes and John W. Washatka.

Description: Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2022 | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: isbn 978-1-6667-0568-3 (paperback) | isbn 978-1-6667-0569-0 (hardcover) | isbn 978-1-6667-0570-6 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Web-based instruction. | Distance education. | Internet—Religious aspects.

Classification: LB1044.87 F50 2022 (paperback) | LB1044.87 (ebook)

01/07/22

Table of Contents

Title Page

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Contributors

Introduction

Part 1: Continuing the Legacy

Chapter 1: The Current State of Online Spiritual Formation

Chapter 2: A Holistic Approach to Christian Faith, Life, and Learning

Chapter 3: Building a Culture of Collaboration

Chapter 4: Assessing Faith, Life, and Learning

Chapter 5: Faith, Life, Learning, and Institutional Identity

Part 2: Faith, Life, and Learning in the Curriculum

Chapter 6: Christian Worldview

Chapter 7: God’s Story

Chapter 8: Diverse Faith Perspectives

Chapter 9: Faith through Academic Disciplines

Part 3: Faith, Life, and Learning across the University

Chapter 10: Coaching for Faith Formation

Chapter 11: Incarnational Practices for Faith Formation

Chapter 12: A Call to Cultivate Mission across Modalities

Bibliography

Foreword

David S. Dockery

David S. Dockery has been involved in leadership of Christian higher education for nearly three decades in his service as President of Union University; as President of Trinity International University/Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; and as President of the International Alliance for Christian Education. He previously served as board chair for the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities and as President of the Evangelical Theological Society.

Those serving in the world of Christian higher education have been asking important questions over the past three decades, since the rise of the internet, related to educational methodology and delivery systems. What began in the minds of many as the next step beyond correspondence studies has developed into a multifaceted educational enterprise. This observation is not to suggest that full support for the innovations known as online education were readily present across the board in higher education. In fact, much pushback was experienced by those technologically savvy early adopters. Several institutions began to offer online courses, but few dared to enter into the territory of online degree offerings.

With new initiatives in the realm of social media and the expanded opportunities that came with widespread internet service in the early years of the twenty-first century, things started to change. More and more institutions entered the world of online learning, forcing accrediting agencies to make decisions about the possibility of online degree programs. Could such programs be offered in every discipline? Should these programs be designed primarily for undergraduate students or graduate students? Nontraditional students or traditional students? Christian institutions often entered the field with reluctance since their understanding of education extended beyond the delivery of information, focusing on the importance of personal formation and campus community.

Within the last decade, Christian educators began to explore ways to bring together their passion for spiritual formation with faithful pedagogy in online formats. The road was not easy and reluctant administrators (not unlike yours truly) needed to be convinced that faith formation and personal transformation could take place in a digital educational context. I served as a campus president at two institutions for nearly a quarter of a century and I can assure you that I was not alone in raising questions about the credibility and viability of such programs. While most in recent years had moved toward embracing and supporting online initiatives, there remained serious doubters and holdouts until 2020. When COVID-19 issues became front and center, everyone became an online educator, at least in some sense.

Over the past decade in particular, I and others have been helped by the writings of Kristen Ferguson (Excellence in Online Education: Creating a Christian Community on Mission), Steve and Mary Lowe (Ecologies of Faith in a Digital Age: Spiritual Growth through Online Education), and Timothy Paul Jones and others (Teaching the World: Foundations for Online Theological Education). Now the book you hold in your hand, Faith, Life, and Learning Online, courageously and convictionally offers a proposal for serious and faithful Christian education not just by providing occasional courses or even full degree programs, but by establishing an entire online institution. Moreover, they have convincingly made the case that faith, living, and learning can be brought together in virtual format to advance institutional mission. Their contention is that faith and learning are essentially matters of mission not modality.

I have watched with great interest as Los Angeles Pacific University has developed, pioneering new territory for Christian higher education. Not only are these innovative educators committed to excellence in online education, to borrow the phrase from my friend Kristen Ferguson, they are also deeply dedicated to bringing the Christian faith to bear on every subject across the curriculum. It is a bold undertaking and most likely paves the way for many other Christian institutions to follow in the days ahead.

While Los Angeles Pacific University (LAPU) is pointing the way forward in the digital space, they are also calling others to take seriously the work of bringing together faith and teaching as well as faith and learning, highlighting and distinguishing the priority of mission. Doing so makes their space in the educational world doubly distinctive. By this I mean that they are not just seeking to create an environment in which the implications of the Christian faith are allowed to exist; they are seeking to offer distinctive content in a full-orbed digital delivery system.

If indeed the primary question that the contributors to this fine volume are seeking to answer is primarily one of mission and not modality, we must ask, what is meant when we talk about the work of faith and learning? The words of Jesus in the first and greatest commandment (Matt 22:36–40) make it quite clear that the followers of Christ are to love God with our minds, as well as our hearts. Learning to think Christianly, to be a thoughtful Christian, to ask how faith bears upon and informs teaching and learning, shapes the way we think about every academic discipline as well as all aspects of life. To love God with our minds means that we think differently about the way we live and love, the way we worship and serve, the way we work to earn our livelihood, the way we learn and teach.

Such thinking means being able to approach every discipline from business to biology, from English to economics, from art to zoology from the vantage point of the Christian faith made known to us in God’s general and special revelation. It means thinking in accord with the pattern of Christian truth. Such an approach to education involves recognizing that all knowledge flows from the one Creator to his one creation. Specific bodies of knowledge relate to each other not just because scholars and students work together in community, not just because interdisciplinary work broadens our knowledge, but because all truth has its source in God, composing a single universe of knowledge.

Genuine Christ-centered education involves more than the passing on of content to our students. It also means the shaping of character and moves toward the development and construction of a convictional way of seeing the world by which students are able to see, learn, and interpret life from the vantage point of God’s revelation to his people. Such an approach to education fosters intellectual seriousness, encouraging students to grow in their understanding and appreciation of God, of his creation and grace, and of humanity’s place of privilege and responsibility in the world.

Those who serve and those who study at faithful Christ-centered institutions, whether more traditional institutions or online institutions like LAPU, are called to explore and engage subject matter in a way that questions autonomous reason, recalling instead Augustine’s model of faith seeking understanding. This distinctive approach to teaching and learning recognizes that wherever truth is found, it is the Lord’s, even as men and women struggle with the great ideas of the past and the pressing issues of today, carrying on debate in pursuit of this truth. Such a lofty aspiration can only take place in learning communities in which our minds and hearts are renewed by God’s Spirit (Rom 12:1–2). This understanding of education is accompanied by an authentic sense of humility that acknowledges that God, the source of all truth, knows all things and we do not.

This task will be intellectually challenging, with great implications for all aspects of life. The best of the Christian tradition points today’s educators in this engaging direction. Intentional Christian thinking is derived from the unifying principle that God is Creator and Redeemer. It seeks answers to the fundamental questions of human existence. It calls for educational efforts across the curriculum to flow from a coherent and comprehensive way of seeing the world. While it looks to the past to reclaim key aspects of the Christian intellectual tradition, it emphasizes the need to be aware of contemporary cultural, societal, and ecclesiastical trends.

An approach to teaching and learning from the vantage point of the truth once and for all delivered to the saints includes both an engagement mindset as well as the humility to acknowledge that we wrestle with complex and challenging issues, which are often filled with ambiguities. Even with the help of Christian Scripture and the Christian tradition, we recognize that we are finite humans who see as through a glass darkly. Ultimately, Christian thinking grows out of a commitment to sphere-sovereignty, confessing the lordship of Jesus Christ, whether in the arts, the sciences, the humanities, the social sciences, or professional studies.

A commitment to faith and learning, whether in a single online course or in an entire online curriculum, will help students develop a way of seeing and engaging God’s world in such a way as to joyously contemplate a wide range of ideas. Such an approach holds out hope for restoring the endangered virtues of kindness, humility, love, grace, truth, beauty, goodness, honor, justice, and purity (Phil 2:1–4; 4:8). Learning to think Christianly is not just an expression of one’s personal piety. Rather, it is an all-consuming way of life, applicable to all spheres of life. Helping faculty and students think in this way has never been, and will not be, easy, but the rewards for doing so are great for faculty members, students, for institutions, as well as for church and society.

To the extent that this approach to Christian education can be put into practice, guiding students in these important matters, we will begin to see a holistic development of intellectual, moral, and character formation take place. At the heart of this distinctive Christ-centered approach to education is the belief that God has revealed himself to us in creation, in history, in our conscience, and ultimately in Christ, and that this revelation is now primarily available to us in Holy Scripture. This revealed truth is the foundation of all we believe, teach, and do at Christian institutions. This framework enables students and faculty to interpret the world, the great ideas of the past, the issues of the present, the events of human history, as well as our responsibilities toward God and one another in this world. We pray that in doing so we will see a new generation of students, a new generation of online learners, who have been informed, formed, and transformed in the educational process, becoming thoughtful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ who love God with heart, soul, strength, and mind.

Faithful Christ-centered institutions of higher education are needed today as never before, and we certainly need institutions like Los Angeles Pacific University to help lead the way in the online space. We commend John Reynolds, Wayne Herman, Brant Himes, and John Washatka for their initiative and efforts related to this project. Let us pray that the essays found in this book will lead to the development of a new generation of engaged students who will become instruments for establishing a Christian presence in the world. May this timely book become a means for renewing hope and for renewing minds and hearts, as well as for extending God’s kingdom in this world, even as we pray for all involved in the work of Christian higher education, especially in these new, developing, and expanding online contexts.¹

1

. I have benefitted from and drawn from the following sources: Cartwright et al., Teaching the World; Lowe and Lowe, Ecologies of Faith; Ferguson, Excellence in Online Education; Dockery, ed., Faith and Learning; Dockery, Renewing Minds; and Dockery and Morgan, eds., Christian Higher Education.

Acknowledgments

This book is an example of the power of collaboration (and of the consequences of running with ideas). The initial idea for the book emerged in December 2017 , when Los Angeles Pacific University faculty gathered in San Dimas, California to participate in extended meetings that were held in conjunction with commencement ceremonies. During one of the meetings, John Washatka tossed out the idea that we should write a book about online learning. This led Scott Edgar, Wayne Herman, Brant Himes, and John to meet for breakfast before commencement at Flappy Jack’s on Route 66 in Glendora for further brainstorming. After sketching out some ideas, the four agreed to meet monthly to continue the conversation.

The Book Project, as it was dubbed, gained further momentum in April 2019 when Brant met with Michael Thomson, acquisitions editor at Wipf & Stock, at the Kuyper Conference and the Henry Symposium on Religion and Public Life at Calvin University, where they discussed the need for a book about faith formation and online education. The relevance and timeliness of the book were heightened even more with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in the spring of 2020. With higher education institutions scrambling to migrate quickly to online learning, it was clear it was time to pull all of our ideas together and write the book.

The project would not have been possible without the support and assistance of many people. While we cannot list everyone individually, we are grateful for all the help and encouragement which helped to bring this idea to a reality. In particular, we want to thank a few groups of people whose help was critical to the success of the project. University president John Reynolds provided valuable resources and support and contributed the chapter on building a culture of collaboration. Scott Edgar and Wayne Herman provided foundational suggestions and ideas in the brainstorming stage of the project, and they each contributed chapters. In his role of chief academic officer, Wayne provided ongoing advocacy for the duration of the project. Wayne also deserves an honorary editor title for his feedback, edits, and comments as the manuscript was being produced.

The chapter contributors who provided the book content were invaluable, as were survey and interview participants consisting of LAPU faculty, staff, and students, and scholars and practitioners from other institutions. The book was edited to provide a consistency of tone and voice throughout, while striving to preserve the unique style and expertise of each individual author. We hope the finished product represents well both the ideas of each author and our overall collaborative efforts to share our passion and commitment to faith and learning. We also wish to thank Michael Thomson, Rodney Clapp (our editor at Cascade Books), and the capable team at Wipf & Stock. We know the book would not be in your hands or on your screen without their gracious guidance and work.

Brant Himes, Bend, Oregon

John Washatka, Mason, Ohio

Contributors

Carrie M. Akemann, Senior Success Coach at Los Angeles Pacific University.

Scott D. Edgar, Adjunct Professor in Humanities at Los Angeles Pacific University.

Wayne R. Herman, Vice President, Chief Academic Officer at Los Angeles Pacific University.

Brant M. Himes, Associate Professor in Humanities at Los Angeles Pacific University.

Shannon N. Hunt, Assistant Professor in Psychology at Los Angeles Pacific University.

Lisa D. Phillips, Assistant Dean at Los Angeles Pacific University.

John C. Reynolds, President of Los Angeles Pacific University.

John W. Washatka, Associate Professor in Humanities at Los Angeles Pacific University.

Introduction

Disruption

An international conversation is taking place about the increasing disruptions, challenges, and opportunities facing higher education. While there is a steady stream of books, articles, conferences, and blog posts about the shifting state of postsecondary education, David Staley and Dennis Trinkle captured many of the poignant issues in their 2011 article aptly titled, The Changing Landscape of Higher Education. ² The authors identified and described ten changes that were taking place at the time, using language like disruptively and dramatic, and employing the metaphor of an earthquake by using terminology such as seismic and tectonic. Even though the article was written over ten years ago, there appears to be no slowing of the changes nor a diminishing of their impact.

Three forces of disruption, one of which is identified by Staley and Trinkle, bear further attention. The first is the rise of what is now understood to be post-traditional students (what the authors described as the changing ‘traditional’ student).³ The term is explained in more detail in chapters 2 and 3 of this book, but generally refers to students with a profile that substantially differs from traditional students. Universities finding post-traditional students in their population are being forced to grapple not only with curricular issues (e.g., andragogy v. pedagogy), but with student support issues as well.

The second disruptor is the trend of shifting enrollments, due in part to the circumstances of post-traditional students, whose responsibilities and commitments hinder them from enrolling at a traditional, campus-based institution. A brief analysis of enrollment data (both undergraduate and graduate) of Title IV institutions from 2012 to 2018 shows that while overall enrollment decreased by 7.1 percent, the number of students studying via distance education (those enrolled in any distance education courses) increased by 27.2 percent, and students enrolled in any distance education increased to a total of 35.3 percent of all enrollments.⁴ Notably, these trends are before the COVID-19 pandemic, as Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) data for the past two years is not yet available. However, the National Student Clearinghouse has produced a report showing that enrollment dropped by 2.5 percent from fall 2019 to fall 2020.⁵ Other data for spring 2021 shows undergraduate enrollment is down 5.9 percent over the same time last year, but the exception to that decline was online institutions, which saw undergraduate enrollments increase by 2.2 percent.⁶ What remains unclear, however, is how the pandemic specifically affected enrollment (correlation is not causation). Overall enrollments are trending away from traditional students attending college in a campus environment.

When it comes to Christian institutions specifically, overall enrollment in Christian higher education institutions (HEIs) declined by 0.4 percent (with undergraduate decreases offset by graduate increases) from roughly the same period (2013 to 2018). However, enrollments of students taking online classes (some or only) increased by 46.1 percent, fueled by a 71 percent increase of undergraduate students. Chapter 12 provides a broader context and more information regarding this data. Those institutions, faith-based or otherwise, that depend on enrollments generally, and traditional students specifically, are being forced to rethink enrollment strategies.

Christian HEIs may be particularly interested in the third disruptor: the rise of post-Christian culture.⁷ A post-Christian culture is the follow-up to a postmodern culture, and provides the predominant cultural and worldview backdrop of today’s students. Gene Veith sees a post-Christian culture as the result of a growing global pluralism generally relativistic in nature. The resulting post-Christian culture’s regard for Christianity ranges anywhere from indifference to outright antagonism. Developing a learning environment that is supportive of post-traditional students also requires anticipating the worldview of enrolling students. The concept of worldview is developed and applied more fully in chapter 6.

All three disruptors—changing students, changing enrollments, and changing culture—are requiring administrators to develop new strategies in order to attract and support students. These disruptions have created obstacles when it comes to Christian HEIs fulfilling their missions to integrate faith, life, and learning, especially for those educators having a reluctance for anything other than a traditional, campus-based environment. However, those obstacles also created opportunities