As a university committed to the Great Commission, our key mission is to center Jesus
and the Word of God in our work as academic professionals. The TLC offers support
for faculty as they navigate the possibilities in their classrooms, service activities,
and scholarship.
Faith-Centered Teaching
Nehrbass (2024) categorized faith integration activities in university programs in
two big buckets. One is faith formation and the other is faith integration. These
two distinct terms are used interchangeably in many discussions as well as in the
current body of research. However, separating out those two and planning for faith
formation activities in addition to faith integration activities will strengthen the
student experience in the classroom.
Definition
Faith formation activities develop Biblical knowledge and Christian worldview perspectives
in the students. These are important experiences that shape students and are often
precursors to well-developed faith integration experiences.
Examples
In class examples include prayer time, Bible reading, class devotions, and explaining
scripture passages that will be later used for faith integration activities.
Resources
The TLC has provided two processes (REAP and SOAP) for structuring devotions and has
curated several devotions to serve as examples. Click on the link below for more information:
The TLC ascribes to this definition of academic faith integration.
Academic faith integration is the work carried out by Christian faculty members when
they meaningfully bring the scholarship of their discipline or professional practice
and the scholarship representing insights and perspectives from Christian faith into
dialogue with each other, applying that dialogue and its results to their research,
the courses they teach, and their discipline-related products resulting in disciplinary
perspectives that are uniquely informed by faith and/or faith perspectives that are
uniquely informed by the discipline or profession (Kaak, 2016, p. 192).
Examples
Nehrbass (2022) shared four pathways for doing faith integration including foundations,
pedagogies, practices, and perspectives. For example, professors can share how they
used their understanding of Biblical principles to inform their professional practices.
This is one of the key aspects of the Christian vocation model (Sherr et al., 2007).
