Youth group retreats and long band trip bus rides often included games like Desert Island, where you had to pick one book, one type of food, or one person to keep you sane on a desert island for the rest of your life. On youth group events, the Bible and Jesus seemed like either cheesy or cheater answers while the same ones probably wouldn’t come up in the back of the bus on the way to Idaho for a jazz festival. The trick was to figure out what essential items you like today, and wouldn’t be driving you crazy by tomorrow (I’m hopeful that Spice Girls and McDonald’s never made my lists).

Since becoming a full-time Academic Advisor and full-time doctoral student, I’ve been learning more about my own essentials list: those things that must be part of my life to keep me happy, sane, and moving forward with the tasks of the day. I was surprised to learn during the Lenten season that meat is actually not on this list. I have not eaten meat for 45 days, and for the most part haven’t missed it. Yes, there was a point during a run when I stopped to check my GPS and the smells of a near-by Red Robin almost floated me through the front door. And no, I have not found any vegetarian options from a near-by taco truck as good as their chicken burritos. But surprisingly, this year’s experience has been much easier than giving up caffeine two years ago. I’ve even been inspired to try out a weekday vegetarian lifestyle after feasting on lamb this Sunday afternoon.

Sara Bareilles is definitely on the list as she has become the soundtrack to my doctoral studies. The three albums I have downloaded are shuffled and repeated as I write papers each weekend. Her poetry is inspiring. Her voice is beautiful (and I can totally mimic it in the car when no one else in the whole wide world can prove otherwise). And the fact I discovered her due to a very short blind date experience brings a mischievous grin to my face (thank you Bill!). And when I was in a darker place earlier this spring, it was “Let it Rain” that repeated over and over in the car as the echo of my search for strength and transparency.

Other items on the essentials list include caffeine (perky just doesn’t come naturally after 6 hours sleep), my Home Community (for friendship and accountability to step away from the computer screen), the Rogue Runners I’m getting to know (PRs and laughter), and Once Upon a Time (can’t decide if I like Snow White or the Evil Queen more this year). There are more things that I’m discovering I have to hold onto and let go of during this season of my life, but at the core I can build a pretty great day by running around in the woods, having lunch with a friend, spending a few hours homeworking at Starbucks, and then watching OUAT on my comfy blue couch. I feel blessed on this Good Friday that these joys are possible most weeks at some point or another.

Okay, back to Sara and my Thriving Literature Review…

St. Francis of Assisi once said, “Preach the Gospel at all times; if necessary use words.”  A few generations later, John Lennon explained that “Life is what happens while you’re making other plans.”  I believe that somewhere between these two famous men is the concept of academic ministry.

I’ve been defining and refining this concept in my own life and work for over five years now, since I started my working life as a Records Office Assistant.  My daily tasks primarily included transcript evaluations, printing transcripts, recording grades, directing foot traffic, and processing add/drop paperwork.  I met with almost every student, faculty, and staff member from campus, as well as prospective students and alumni who needed paperwork completed or had wandered into the wrong area of Egtvedt.  I loved the variety of questions, tasks, and people to work with.  What I didn’t love was that all of these interactions were often 5 minutes or less, and that my role was primary to make some predetermined goal take place, not to enter into conversation about the purpose and implications of that goal.  And there were many times, especially during the quiet summer months, that I was quite bored.  During the slow times, when all of the grad checks, transcript requests, and evaluations were completed, I would work on archive transcripts.  Oh yes, my free time project was doing data entry for students who had attended the college more than 30 years prior.  To keep myself relatively sane, I looked at these transcripts in the same way that I had once looked at a blank page in a coloring book: it was not truly “alive” until it was complete.  As a child, I had to be careful with my color decisions because whatever character or creature I was coloring would be that shade of blue forever.  And now I had a duty to Joe Student to enter his grades correctly because that made his history real and forever.

If you’ve read this far then you may be wondering what archive transcripts and data entry has to do with ministry.  My proposal is that academic ministry is what happens thru the paperwork, through the data.   For four years I’ve served as an Academic Counselor to a rich variety of students.  Some have been open about their goals for their education, shared about their families, and been friendly during interactions no matter how significant or trivial.  Others have mentioned tuition costs in every email, questioned the ethics of the staff, or coyly mentioned a friend in the legal field.  They all worked with me because they wanted to graduate, and my role with paperwork was what got them there.  These students contacted me for a task oriented purpose, but I believe we can offer them so much more.

For example, in one of my cohorts there were a husband and wife who came in for degree planning.  They took turns with one in the car while the other came into my office (if I had realized the arrangement at the time I would have suggested a more air-conditioned option, but hindsight is 20/20).  I met with the wife second, I believe, talked through her course needs, which were minimal, asked about her experience so far, and chatted a bit about her work.  The conversation was not too memorable and we made plans for how she would be able to graduate on time.  All was set, done, and happy to move forward.

Over a year later I learned from classmates and current instructor that this student’s mother had died while she was in class.  I was invited to the funeral, as was the rest of the class, a week later.  I had to go.  There really was no question, because if there was I would have found a pathetic, but acceptable, excuse not to drive 40 minutes for a funeral on a Saturday afternoon while family was in town.  But I had to go; I just didn’t know why yet.

The why became clear at the end of the service, as the attendees stood in a circle for the benediction.  I had been listening to stories for over an hour about a good woman who was truly loved by family and will be missed.  And now for the first time I was standing next to my student, who noticed me there for the first time.  In her eyes was complete shock.  I had not RSVP’d or anything for this event, and the invitation was general not just to me, so she stared at me for about 10 seconds with confusion slowly shifting to appreciation.  In that moment, and for the rest of the benediction as she hugged me, I was not Meg, I was not her Academic Counselor; I was her school embracing her.

A few weeks later she sent me a card, “I remember when you mentioned to our cohort about some student thinks you a ‘stalker.’ Hahaha.  I really don’t mind that now especially not that I know how passionate you are with the students you adviser.  Thank you so much for being there for me and my family.”

I share this story for the same reason that I share about entering archive transcripts.  I came to know this student through the paperwork, through the data that can get so boring and so tedious.  But without that paperwork, this student would have never walked into my office; I would never have had the beginning of a connection to serve her later through.  Once upon a time those transcripts gave me connections too; brief ones to history and to the potential future.  And the classroom is the same balance of required attendance, reading, and assignments which leads to discussion, enlightenment, and hopefully transformation.  We as humans have goals, such as to earn a degree and get a better paying job, and those wants help us to get to our true needs, like to connect with another human and find more meaning to life than just a paycheck.

Academic ministry is preaching the gospel through the planning of a life.