The Counter-Cultural Calling of the Christian Professor as Advisor and Mentor 1

Carol Woodfin

When we think of faith-learning integration, we most often consider the professorial role from the perspective of teaching or researching. While both of these are crucial, it is also important to examine our relationships with students. Those of us teaching at Christian colleges and universities have numerous possibilities for contacts with students. We serve as advisors, usually to a significant number of students. Since we teach many courses, we have substantial contact each year with as many as two hundred to three hundred students. We often have an “open door” policy for our offices. How does the fact that we are Christian scholars affect, even transform, the relationships we may have with students?

Christian faculty must take a more active role in modeling a Christian professional life and in forming significant mentor relationships with students. As role models in our classes and in casual settings, our task goes far beyond merely adhering to any doctrinal or lifestyle guidelines set by our colleges and universities. We also need to consider the attitudes we project about our own calling as Christian intellectuals and professors. Often we need to communicate better the delight and privilege we have of serving God through our profession. If, for example, we constantly lament that few Christians value the life of the mind anymore, but then project a cynicism, bitterness, or weariness to our students, we defeat our purpose of furthering the joy of Christian scholarship and contribute to a disintegration of faith and learning.

We also must model a biblical attitude toward our work, and work in general, and help students think about their own careers in a way that counters worldly models. Americans tend to view their work either as a means of gaining wealth and prestige or as something to be avoided or minimized. Consider how work is portrayed in television comedies such as Friends, which most college students watch religiously. The show portrays attractive, fashionable, and funny people, yet none of them finds meaning in or through their work or contributes much to society. Note also Americans’ current obsession with planning for a leisurely retirement.

In The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (2003), Os Guinness notes, “In the gospel there is an antithesis to the world that we dare not relax, a cost to discipleship that we cannot waive, a challenge to obedience that we must not conceal, and a scandal to faith that we should never airbrush away” (210). I want to consider this premise as it relates to one particular aspect of our calling as Christian professors—that of advisor and mentor, in matters other than the specific content of our disciplines. In these roles, we may influence students to uphold a view of their calling as Christians, a view that is vastly different from what they would receive at other institutions of higher learning, and one that differs from the world’s vision of success.

As Christian professors, we have a tremendous opportunity to influence students. Frank A. Brock, in An Educated Choice: Advice for Parents of College-Bound Students (2002), makes the point that, before coming to college, students have had little ongoing contact with adults, sometimes even including their parents. The relationships we have with students in the advising and mentoring role may be the first time in their lives they actually relate to an adult in a meaningful way. Certainly, it will be one of very few times in their lives that they have closely observed adults at their work. We have to be fully aware of our potential influence, to use it carefully, and to develop it.

Our students are in tremendous need of guidance. An American Medical Association and National Association of State Boards of Education study claims, “Never before has one generation of American teen-agers been less healthy, less cared-for or less prepared for life than their parents were at the same age” (Willimon and Naylor 13). This generation comes to college out of what William H. Willimon and Thomas H. Naylor calls “The Culture of Neglect”; they are an “abandoned generation.” They are fragile, insecure, and lacking confidence about their future (16).

College students do get an education outside the classroom, and, if professors do not have a role in that education, we may not like what they are getting. Guinness writes, “We grow through copying deeds, not just listening to words, through example as well as precepts, through habit and not just insight and information” (The Call 81). Willimon and Naylor assert that people “grow up and develop social skills and critical thinking ability” through “observing, imitating, confronting, and arguing with those with more experience in life” (90) and suggest that a professor be a “wise friend” to students (89). A 1989 Carnegie Council of Policy Studies in Higher Education concluded that “undergraduate education in America could be improved if more attention were given to the emotional and social development of students” (88).

Several studies have shown that increased faculty-student contact is sadly lacking in many colleges. The 2001 National Survey of Student Engagement examined colleges and found that even in schools receiving positive responses in areas such as academics and campus environment, the area of student-faculty relationships was the weakest. At least forty-five percent of freshmen said they never discussed ideas from their classes or readings with a faculty member outside class. The fall 2003 survey of incoming freshmen, published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, claimed that only thirty-five percent of students said they expected in their time in college to “communicate regularly with professors” (30 Jan. 2004). In other words, sixty-five percent did not expect to communicate regularly with their professors! According to a 1989 Carnegie Foundation study, seventy-five percent of the student respondents said not a single faculty member on their campuses knew them by name (Chronicle of Higher Education, 14 April 1995, cited in Willimon and Naylor 45). A group of Duke University faculty who recognized their need to better integrate the classroom and other campus activities claimed, “The students crave to have more of us” (Willimon and Naylor 88). According to the Student Engagement Study, schools that had higher positive numbers on student-faculty relations also had students who performed better in the classroom.

So what can be done to counter some of these negative trends? I want my university to produce graduates who have grown intellectually and spiritually in their college years, who are ready for hard work and service in various professions, and who have the tools for continued learning throughout their lives. What do students learn by watching us, through contact with us both in and out of the classroom? What should I be modeling to them? The best model of work, career, and calling is found in the Bible. Several books listed in the works cited and additional resources at the end of this article deal with the idea of “calling” and a biblical doctrine of work. I will not discuss them fully here, but a few points on a biblical attitude are worth noting.

First, we need to follow the admonition in Colossians 3:23-24: “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men…. It is the Lord Christ whom you serve.”2 God created work; it existed before the fall. It was meant to be purposeful and delightful but became toilsome with the fall. We would not always have satisfaction or joy in it. In a fallen world, even good jobs will have their share of drudgery and disappointment. There will be no perfect match, no perfect job. Yet work is still upheld by God’s sustaining grace and is still something to be valued. There are many biblical passages that speak of the rewards of work and reveal that God delights in work well done. Genesis 4: 20-22 mention the birth of music as well as crafts and trades. Exodus 35:35 speaks of the craftsmen for the tabernacle: “[The Lord] has filled them with skill to perform every work of an engraver and of a designer and of an embroiderer, in blue and in purple and in scarlet material, and in fine linen, and of a weaver, as performers of every work and makers of designs” (italics in the original). In Isaiah 65:21-23a, the prophet characterizes the future kingdom for the Lord’s people as follows:

And they shall build houses and inhabit them; / They shall also plant vineyards and eat their fruit. / They shall not build, and another inhabit, / They shall not plant, and another eat; / For as the lifetime of a tree, so shall be the days of My people, / And my chosen ones shall wear out the work of their hands. / They shall not labor in vain. (italics in the original)

Reaping the rewards of one’s labor will not always be achieved in this world, but the description of such an idyll is noteworthy in that it includes work and productivity, not a portrayal of absolute leisure, as the reward. When work appears futile, however, we may still praise God, as in Habakkuk 3:17-18: “Though the fig tree should not bloom, / And there be no fruit on the vines, / Though the yield of the olive should fail, / And the fields produce no food, / Though the flock should be cut off from the fold, / And there be no cattle in the stalls, / Yet I will exult in the Lord, / I will rejoice in the God of my salvation” (italics in the original).

The Bible also teaches us that we have limits in our work. The command to keep the Sabbath should not be viewed as something to be observed as a legal restriction, but as a gift from God to help us realize our limits and permit us to rest (Exod. 20). We have truly forgotten this gift in modern America. Those of us in Christian service professions often have even more trouble drawing the lines. How can it not be God’s will to do as much work as we can for Him? If we work all day Sunday on our classes, will that not mean that we are serving Him better in our calling? The Sabbath command in the book of Exodus reads, “You shall work six days, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during plowing time and harvest you shall rest” (34:21; italic in the original). Is this perhaps the equivalent of “not even during exam week”? The biblical ideal is clearly cyclical patterns of work and rest.

The Bible offers few examples of people with career success by the world’s standards, which indicates to us that such a goal should not be central to a Christian’s calling. Abram, later Abraham, was successful with his flocks in Ur, but then God asked him to give it all up and “live as an alien in the land of promise” (Heb. 9). Solomon had wealth and wisdom but fell into idolatry and faced rebellions; the kingdom divided soon after his death. Indeed, there are plenty of warnings about the potential problems of wealth and greed. In Luke 12:15, Jesus states, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions” (italic in the original). We are to keep our work focused on what is of eternal value, and even those of us working in Christian institutions need to be continuously reminded of this. Christian colleges must take care not to succumb to a worldly model of career in the way their faculty and staff view their careers, in demands placed on employees, or in their curricula.

We may apply numerous examples of mentoring in the Scripture to our advising task. Deuteronomy 6:6-8 challenge the older generation to constantly pass on to its children the faith of their fathers wherever they are. We find an exemplary mentor-protégé relationship in Paul and Timothy, his spiritual son. There are also the early Christians in the book of Acts, who lived in community with each other and studied the teachings of the apostles. Jesus followed rabbinic techniques in his discipling: there were questions and answers, set meeting times, and specific teachings to learn (Sloan 364). He and the twelve disciples also spent time with each other, eating, traveling, fishing, and resting. The term discipline means “the process by which one learns a way of life” (Berryman 366). It requires a relationship between a master who knows something, and the learner, a type of apprentice. Christ’s discipling is indeed a good model for teaching not only a body of knowledge but also a way of life, and is something we can still capture through our roles as mentors.

Christian professors should help students not to be obsessed with career choice and with finding God’s exact will for their lives in some miraculous flash of insight. As R. Paul Stevens aptly warns, “Within evangelical Christianity there is a ‘guidance-mania’—the fear of not being ‘in the centre of God’s will’” (The Other Six Days 82). One helpful workbook for students, Larry Burkett and Todd Temple’s Money Management for College Students (1998), reveals that even some Christian efforts to guide students in career choice causes students to feel pressured. The authors urge students to choose their majors as soon as possible, preferably before they arrive in college: “Changing majors in college favorably compares to switching lines at the grocery store. You’re free to make the switch, but you lose your position in line and generally have to start at the end of another line” (9). Burkett and Temple also estimate that a change in major potentially costs a student about $68,000 in additional tuition and lost earnings by delayed graduation (10). Possibly this is true, but perhaps the pressure to decide on a major too early, or a view of college solely as career training rather than educating the whole person, is more at fault.

A difficult task of the advisor and mentor is helping students to recognize weaknesses that need work and to assess their abilities realistically. Their dreams should not be shattered. Tremendous weakness or lack of ability can sometimes be overcome with hard work and trust in God, so it is important not to squelch that possibility. The example of Moses in the Bible may encourage us. However, it is not doing students a favor to constantly “pump them up” with unwarranted self-esteem about abilities they do not have, or further a completely unbiblical “you can be anything you want to be” attitude. Finding appropriate ways to encourage without offering false hope is difficult. Paul, in I Corinthians 12, speaks of the different gifts in the body of Christ. We need to help students realize that everyone has numerous gifts and is of ultimate value to the Lord. If students know and sense that we value them as people, apart from their performance, or lack thereof, then some very natural conversations about their strengths and weaknesses can occur.

As faculty members, we can help counter the worldly model of success by modeling a modest standard of living. This may not be a problem for those who teach at Christian colleges, but our lifestyle should be one that is visibly enjoyable, reasonable, and within our means, which is increasingly difficult in a culture that makes going into debt at an early age all too easy. Do students see that we are spending our money on worthwhile things? Students can be invited to our homes to see that we live comfortably yet modestly. Entertaining students is so easy. You do not have to clean up the house—just put out a bowl of fruit, make peanut butter and jelly or cream cheese and olive sandwiches, cut off the crusts and slice them diagonally, and it is a treat! I still remember going to the home of a professor of Russian history at Wake Forest University. His house was within walking distance of the campus and was full of books and interesting souvenirs from his travels and from living in Russia.

Faculty must model spiritual growth and maturity, so tending to this area of life is of the utmost importance. It is very easy to get lost and to neglect our own spiritual growth. We need to be in a church that provides assistance in this area, but we will probably also need to do more and read more. We need to set ourselves a goal of reading through the Bible each year, or each summer, and, say, five theological books a year; listen to the Mars Hill Audio Journal for interviews with people writing and thinking about Christianity and culture; and read some of their recommendations. Theological books may be something we assign in class, e.g. Augustine’s Confessions or John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress. We could have a brief devotional in some of our classes and read a passage from a Christian classic that addresses work and calling or other issues. (See Richard J. Foster and James Bryan Smith, eds., Devotional Classics; Richard Schmidt, Glorious Companions: Five Centuries of Anglican Spirituality; or Thomas Oden and Christopher Hall, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture). We could put a passage at the top of handouts or on our syllabi. We could provide a quote for the day on the board, tying it into what we are studying that day, if possible.

What are some steps we can take to get students to think about their own calling? I can talk about these issues more as they occur in my classes. Palm Beach Atlantic University offers a wonderful general education curriculum—the humanities and honors—that takes students through readings in history, philosophy, and literature. In these classes, the topic of “the good life” naturally comes up. What is success? Speaking about ancient Greeks or medieval warriors, we can cause students to reflect on what their values are. What professions were valued then, and why? What professions are valued now, and why? How do ancient pagan views compare with a biblical view, or with twenty-first century views? We need to advise our students to take courses that deal with ethics, philosophy, or the meaning of life. It would be beneficial for colleges to emphasize minor courses of study, rather than conveying them as something essentially tacked on to the major field. Students would benefit from taking a minor in an area unrelated to their major, for example, biology for a history major, or accounting for a music major. Perhaps some of the concerns students and parents have about majoring in something “useful” could be countered by students majoring in a “professional” or “practical” field, then leaving the minor open to something pursued out of sheer interest and passion—or vice versa!

As advisors, we can encourage students to read books such as Guinness’s The Call and Arthur F. Miller, Jr.’s Why You Can't Be Anything You Want to Be (1999). We may consider offering a Bible or book study on the issue of work and calling. Another study I would like to see offered on college campuses is one on financial matters. The question of financial responsibility and stewardship is closely linked to being able to pursue God’s will in one’s life and profession. Financial bondage through debt or irresponsibility can limit students’ ability to pursue a profession that God has called them to do. Earlier treatment of this problem could help to avert it. As Frank A. Brock notes, “Most college graduates will end up making average salaries—yes, higher salaries than what those with just a high school degree will make, but nonetheless, just average salaries” (19). Colleges need to help students be aware of this fact, particularly as they consider educational or other debt.

Students today are accustomed to material prosperity. They may have had televisions, computers, and other gadgets in their rooms at home. Most had good clothes, their own rooms in nice houses, cell phones, and a car. Even secular magazines note the problem of affluence on young people’s developing financial responsibility ( Kiplinger 54). If students expect to have all of these things as soon as they finish college, they may make career and life choices not based on God’s calling but solely for material reasons. As former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple said, “To make the choice of a career of profession on selfish grounds, without a true sense of calling, is ‘probably the greatest single sin any young person can commit, for it is the deliberate withdrawal from allegiance to God of the greatest part of time and strength’” (Guinness, The Call 46).

Today’s students have enjoyed much independence with minimal responsibility. We have the interesting paradox of young people who are in so many ways immature in terms of thinking and a sense of responsibility, but who are well beyond their years in what they have seen in the media and even experienced in their own lives or those of their friends: sex, violence, divorce, drugs, teen suicide, and depression. As professors, we need to know our students and, at least to some extent, be familiar with what they are watching and what music they listen to. We need not become totally immersed in youth pop culture to do this. I do not believe we should watch all of their favorite shows so we can be simply “cool” or make conversation about them in order to “relate.” Their music particularly can give us a profound insight into their values and concerns. I include a Modern Music Festival in the final semester of our humanities core. Students bring a piece of music to play for the class—something that is meaningful to them. They have to tell the class why they chose it and write an essay on the musical selection, tying it into some of the themes we have talked about in class. This is always a moving experience, and I have gained insight into what their struggles and joys are. The students take this assignment very seriously, and it opens doors for good discussions on what is important in life.

We need to take opportunities to spend informal time with students and be seen by them outside the classroom. Students should see us reading. For media-saturated young people, it can be a novelty to observe someone quietly sitting in the snack bar and reading a book. We can mention to our students interesting books we have just read. If it is a scholarly or religious work, students will know we are still growing intellectually and spiritually. If it is leisure reading, they may realize that reading can also be a form of entertainment. We can eat lunch with students and sometimes stay for supper in the cafeteria. Do students ever see us after hours or on weekends? Some observers speak of two campus cultures: before 5:00 and after 5:00, when all the “adults” go home. Should we perhaps sometimes be there? We can attend evening campus activities, musical events, plays, and lectures. I am always moved by how much it seems to mean to students when we attend their performances or events. Expressing interest in students by our presence builds trust and may open doors to meaningful conversations on other occasions. Applauding a C- humanities student who is a brilliant actor or volleyball player can help him or her to treat our lives and discipline with more respect. It may also lead to conversations on different gifts and abilities as a factor in determining one’s calling. We need to be in our office when we say we are going to be there, and even sometimes when we have not said so. We might miss a great opportunity for a conversation with a student if we are not around when he or she drops by. The faculty member who only comes in to teach his or her classes, making no time for students outside class, has no place on a Christian college campus.

We need to develop our conversational skills so that talking with students about their lives comes naturally. We must be good listeners. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Life Together (1954), writes of “the ministry of listening” in a Christian community. He asserts:

The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love to God begins with listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them…. Anyone who thinks that his time is too valuable to spend keeping quiet will eventually have no time for God and his brother, but only for himself and for his own follies. (97, 98)

Students will sometimes talk continually if they know we are available for this, but we can be a very real influence as they sort through their thoughts out loud, just by listening and asking some good—even pointed—questions. E-mail is also a great tool. Recently I even had an opportunity to exchange e-mail with a future student and was able to interject some comments on education and calling and to recommend some readings. Our students will never forget the time that we take for them.

Finally, we need to pray, really pray, for our students—even with them, if appropriate. As Bonhoeffer states, “A Christian fellowship lives and exists by the intercession of its members for one another, or it collapses” (86), and “He who denies his neighbor the service of praying for him denies him the service of a Christian” (86-87). A former student of the great Southern Baptist ethicist, Thomas Buford Maston, wrote that he “did not just teach with words.” He taught “by touching lives, by demonstrating love, by commending as well as correcting, and by caring.” He invited students to his home for “meals, fellowship, and conversation.” He kept a list of his graduate students—a total of about 100 over the years. This was his prayer list. He would stay in touch, writing letters or calling to encourage them (Allen 9). A recent book by Alexandra Robbins and Abby Wilner speaks of a “quarterlife crisis” many young people experience in their twenties as they enter their careers or face new choices in their lives after college. If we develop foundational relationships with students while they are undergraduates, we will find that we can continue to be a positive influence on students even after they graduate. I am finding this to be increasingly true the longer I am a professor. I now have many opportunities to stay in touch with former students and to continue to advise and mentor them.

We do not need to be perfect or always to have it together to be able to model to students a life of devotion to Christ in all things. We can be honest about issues. We should pray for relationships to develop and for opportunities to arise so that we can minister to students. We should keep our eyes and hearts open for students and provide for them a model that may counter at least some of the negative cultural trends of society today.

Notes

1 An earlier version of this paper was delivered at the Baylor University Conference on “Christianity & the Soul of the University,” Waco , Texas , March 24-27, 2004.

2 All biblical quotations in this article are taken from the New American Standard Bible (NASB).

Works Cited

Allen, Jimmy R. "Thomas Buford Maston: Baptist Apostle of Biblical Ethics." Christian Ethics Today Dec. 2003: 6-10.

Berryman, James. “Discipline.” Holman Bible Dictionary. Ed. Trent C. Butler.

Nashville: Holman Bible Publishing, 1991. 366-67.

The Bible. New American Standard Bible.

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together. Trans. John W. Doberstein. New York: Harper & Row, 1954.

Brock, Frank A. An Educated Choice: Advice for Parents of College-Bound Students. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002.

Burkett, Larry, and Todd Temple. Money Management for College Students. Chicago: Moody, 1998.

Guinness, Os. The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life. Nashville: Word, 2003.

Kiplinger, Knight. “Combating Entitlement.” Kiplinger's March 2004: 54.

Miller, Arthur F., Jr. Why You Can't Be Anything You Want to Be. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1999.

Robbins, Alexandra, and Abby Wilner. Quarterlife Crisis: The Unique Challenges of Life in Your Twenties. New York: Penguin Putnam, 2001.

Sloan, Robert. “Disciples, Apostles.” Holman Bible Dictionary. Ed. Trent C. Butler. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishing, 1991. 362-66.

Stevens, R. Paul. The Other Six Days: Vocation, Work and Ministry in Biblical Perspective. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000.

Willimon, William H., and Thomas H. Naylor. The Abandoned Generation. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995.

Additional Resources

Books and Articles

Albom, Mitch. Tuesdays with Morrie. New York: Broadway Books, 1997.

Bass, Dorothy C. Receiving the Day: Christian Practices for Opening the Gift of Time. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000.

Bolles, Richard Nelson. What Color Is Your Parachute: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters and Career-Changers. Berkeley: Ten Speed Press, new edition every year.

Butler, Trent C., ed. Holman Bible Dictionary. Nashville: Holman Bible Publishing, 1991.

Ellis, Lee, and Larry Burkett. Your Career in Changing Times. Chicago: Moody, 1993.

Foster, Richard J., and James Bryan Smith, eds. Devotional Classics: Selected Readings for Individuals & Groups. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.

Guinness, Os. Prophetic Untimeliness: A Challenge to the Idol of Relevance. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2003.

Hardy, Lee. The Fabric of this World: Inquiries into Calling, Career Choice, and the Design of Human Work. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990.

Helm, Paul. The Callings: The Gospel in the World. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1987.

Hickman, Martha Whitmore. A Day of Rest: Creating a Spiritual Space in Your Week. New York: Avon, 1999.

Hilton, James. Good-bye, Mr. Chips. New York : Little, Brown and Co., 2004.

Horton, Michael. Where in the World is the Church. Chicago: Moody, 1995.

Marshall, Molly T. “Keeping Sabbath: Christian Ethics for the 21st Century.” Christian Ethics Today Oct. 2000: 12-15.

Marshall, Paul. A Kind of Life Imposed on Man: Vocation and Social Order from Tyndale to Locke. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1996.

Meilander, Gilbert. “Vocation: Divine Summons.” Christian Century 1 Nov. 2000.

Modern Reformation 8 (May/June 1999). Issue entitled “By the Sweat of Our Brow,” on vocation.

Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books. New York: Random House, 2003.

Oden, Thomas C., and Christopher A. Hall. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1998 ff.

Ryken, Leland. Redeeming the Time: A Christian Approach to Work and Leisure. Grand Rapids: Baker, 1995.

Schmidt, Richard H. Glorious Companions: Five Centuries of Anglican Spirituality. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.

Stevens, R. Paul. Seven Days of Faith: Every Day Alive With God. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2001.

Swenson, Richard A. Margin: Restoring Emotional, Physical, Financial, and Time Reserves to Overloaded Lives. Colorado Springs: NavPress, 1992.

“Take Back Your Sabbath.” Christianity Today Nov. 2003: 42-43.

Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here For? Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002.

White, Joe, and Jim Weidmann, eds. Parents Guide to the Spiritual Mentoring of Teens. Wheaton: Tyndale House, 2001.

Websites of Interest:

www.collegeboard.com. Click on “Choosing a College” then “Majors and Careers.”

www.crown.org. Financial planning website, it offers tools and resources on careers. They have materials specifically geared to college students.

www.indiana.edu/~nsse. Report of the National Survey of Student Engagement.

www.marshillaudio.org. To order Mars Hill tapes, on Christianity and culture.

Note: A listing does not necessarily reflect the views of the author.

CAROL WOODFIN <carol_woodfin@pba.edu> is Associate Professor of History at Palm Beach Atlantic University, West Palm Beach, Florida, where she also teaches in the Honors Program. She received her Ph.D. from Vanderbilt University. Her publications include “Reluctant Democrats: The Protestant Women's Auxiliary and the German National Assembly Elections of 1919” in The Journal of the Historical Society ;“Southern Baptist Relief Work in Germany After World War II” in Baptist History and Heritage; and a translation from German into English of Sigmund Widmer's Zwingli: 1484-1984 (Theologischer Verlag Zurich, 1983). Dr. Woodfin also published numerous news and feature articles while working as associate to the editor of the European Baptist Press Service in Zurich, Switzerland. She is currently working on a book on the Protestant Women's Auxiliary (Frauenhilfe) and social ministries in the twentieth century.