Grander Stories

DISPLAY:

We’re Not Alone

Criminal justice professor draws colleagues into Christian community and service After years of feeling alone as a Christian professor on campus, Dr. Laurie Kubicek assembled a supportive group of believing faculty and staff. In the spring of 2015, they launched the Christian Faculty and Staff Network at California State University, Sacramento (Sacramento State). Colleagues describe […]

The Checkbox Life and Cicadas

I remember each of my children’s university commencements, but one will not soon be forgotten. One of my kids was running late to graduation and sped into the stadium parking lot at the last minute, sprinting – gown flapping in hand – to make the processional line. After the ceremony, as lunch grew near, we inquired: […]

Lunch with a Purpose

Over the years, perhaps what I’ve appreciated most about the Missional Moments is hearing what God is doing on other campuses and gleaning ideas from other faculty. In February 2020, David Janzen from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo shared a Missional Moment about his “Life Lunches” — connecting weekly with students to talk about anything except classwork.  I loved […]

God Never Fails to Surprise

To my knowledge, I never had a Christian professor during my decade of undergraduate and graduate studies. When I became an assistant professor, I wanted to be the Christian professor I never knew. . While I had my own idea of how that would take shape, God fulfilled my desire in surprising ways. Soon after arriving […]

Silence Speaks Volumes

There are many situations in which silence is the best response–indeed, often, “silence is golden!” But silence all the time, or at the wrong time, “speaks volumes,” though not the message we need to be sending. I often think of my students from rural Alabama whose Christian parents were terrific but only had a high […]

Overcoming Uncertainty

For several years before I retired as a professor and extension entomologist at Oklahoma State University, I was involved with the Faculty Commons ministry. As retirement approached, I believed God was calling me to become more active as a retiree and support the local faculty ministry in campus activities such as welcoming new OSU faculty, […]

My Mission Field

I joined the Animal Science Department at the University of Missouri on June 1, 1980, and by the mid-1980s, I began wondering if I had missed God’s will for my life. Even though I had prayed a lot about whether I should enter graduate school, I couldn’t see the eternal value in the work I […]

Showing UP

It is Friday morning, 0730, to be specific. Sitting alone in a cold conference room in the College of Nursing, I wonder how many would attend this week’s prayer time. Each week, the attendance fluctuates. Besides me and my co-leader, there are three to six professors that may walk in the door. There were days […]

Simply Follow

My first teaching experience came at Cal State Chico, an institution where I was surrounded by fellow Christians and many international students who presented consistent opportunities to invite students to our home and share our faith. When God brought my wife and me to Cal Poly Pomona (CPP), I envisioned much the same, but bigger, […]

God Moves Quickly at Times

“Lord, how do I fit into Your plan with Faculty Commons at this campus? How might You use me now as well as when I retire?” This was my question as I was doing an impromptu prayer walk on August 21, 2021. It was a week before our fall semester was to begin. My term […]