Select Page

making-the-most-of-time

Joseph McRae Mellichamp
Emeritus Professor of Management Science
The University of Alabama
Faculty Commons National Field Representative

As the new academic year begins, I would like to ask you to consider how you are investing your time.

If you are like most professors, you are under a tremendous amount of pressure to teach, to do research and publish, and to engage in various service activities in your university and in your field.  And these things are all important.

I have always maintained that if we don’t do a good job in the classroom, our students aren’t going to be very interested in anything we might have to say about Jesus, or anything else for that matter.

Pulling Our Load

And if we are not doing and publishing credible research and pulling our load in our departments, colleges, institutions, and disciplines, our colleagues will not be much interested either.  We need to be succeeding in these important areas in the life of an academic.

But we also need to be succeeding as Christ’s ambassadors to the university.  We need to be reaching out to students and colleagues with the love of Christ.  For most of us, we will have to be very intentional about this. But that doesn’t have to be a huge time burden.

In 25 years of ministering on the university campus, I rarely spent more than an hour or two a week in ministry activity. Over the span of a career, an hour or so a week can amount to a significant investment, especially when it is committed to the sovereign hand of the Lord.

Recently, I received an email from a Faculty Commons staff representative who had given my book, Ministering in the Secular University, to a young professor.  This assistant professor said:  “I want to thank you for the book on being a Christian faculty member. I have enjoyed reading it thus far. The book suggested identifying yourself as a Christian so I made sure to do that on the first day of class.”

A Few Hours A Semester

I thought, “How opportune!  This professor probably has their whole career ahead of them, and is really getting off on the right foot.  If they remain faithful to commit a few hours a semester as a Christian professor reaching out to students and colleagues over the course of their career they will have made a huge investment for the Kingdom.”

As you begin this new academic year and new semester, I would challenge you to carve out some time for ministering in the secular university, and to make this a priority.

The apostle Paul said,

“Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men but as wise,

making the most of your time, because the days are evil.”                                 —- (Ephesians 5:15,16)

Have a wonderful school year.

©  2006  Joseph McRae Mellichamp