God is on the Move at Harvard – and in our World

God is working!

A few years ago, one of our close friends from grad school received a call from the dean of Harvard Law School. Originally from Nigeria, our friend is a woman of great faith and prayer, and was a professor at another school. The dean essentially said, “We would like you to come to be a tenured professor here and start a Program on Biblical Law and Christian Legal Studies at Harvard Law School.”

If that had been me, I would have assumed it was a prank call.

But it was real. Our friend picked up, moved back to Boston, and started the program. She invited trusted leaders onto an advisory board (Jeff being one of them). She invited leading Christian speakers to share at small events on campus. She and others began teaching classes that explored the biblical foundations of the law – courses that were flooded with so many non-Christian students that they had to add more capacity. She connected with the rich networks of Christian students, professors, and student-ministry chaplains on campus, and helped create others. And they all kept praying.

And this past weekend … wow.

The program’s small staff, alumni, and volunteers convened an unprecedented conference on the campus of Harvard. Faith & Veritas 2023 was a gathering of hundreds of Harvard’s Christian alumni from around the world. From Thailand and Scotland, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. Leaders from the right and the left. There were C-suite executives of household-name companies, founders of high-flying startups, government leaders, and brand-new graduates. Great leaders of the faith – and those just trying to hold on – packed the seats.

And tears were in our eyes as we joined in worship of Jesus in spaces where He is often ignored or ridiculed (often asking one another, “Can you believe this is happening?!”). We listened to challenging talks about living as followers of Jesus today, and honored the small local churches and often-exhausted pastors and church lay leaders who have humbly served students and the Boston community year after year, often with limited resources, many of them wondering if their work was even making a difference.

One of those pastors baptized me, two months before I graduated.

In life after life, those faithful, loving men and women have made an eternal difference.

Which brings me to the theme that came out of the gathering last weekend.