In the Institute's most recent print newsletter, Pete Lackey, our new campus minister, answered some questions about his new role and vision for Mars Hill Students. Below you can find the entire interview.

MacLaurin Institute: Tell us about your background and how you came to be at the Institute.

Pete Lackey: The circuitous route through which God brought me to the Institute is really difficult to relate briefly. But there are some major landmarks.

I'm originally from a small town in southeastern Oklahoma (McAlester), where a lot of my family still lives. But after high school, I moved to Dallas to pursue an undergraduate degree in Biblical Studies at Criswell College in hopes of one day serving in a rural pastorate back in Oklahoma. But I fell in love with theological scholarship and stayed at Criswell after my B.A. in order to work on a master's degree in theology/history. During this same period, God began to open my eyes to wider global needs through short-term mission trips to places like Sri Lanka, Chad, Chile, Brazil, etc. But in the kind providence of God, a professor-mentor took me under his wings and began to explore the possibility with me of more serious academic work in the area of philosophy or philosophy of religion. As a result, I ended up at Yale Divinity School studying with Nicholas Wolterstorff. Upon graduation from Yale, I moved to New Jersey to work with a local church there. (After three rigorous years at Yale, I was questioning whether I really wanted to pursue serious scholarship after all!) Two years in New Jersey (and some painful experiences) convinced me that I was in the wrong place. In a tale too long to tell, I made my way to Minnesota in the summer of 1996 hoping, at first, to align myself with the life and ministry of Bethlehem Baptist Church.

But shortly after arriving in Minnesota, I ran into Larry Snyder down at L'Abri in Rochester. After finding out that I now lived in the Twin Cities, he asked if I'd ever heard of the MacLaurin Institute. I hesitantly explained that I had not. So he encouraged me to locate Bob Osburn at the Institute and to start attending Institute-sponsored lectures. I did. From lectures, I moved on to participating in MacLaurin-hosted Bible studies and other events. Over time, I found an ever-increasing number of individuals who shared my concerns for Christian scholarship, cultural engagement and a credible intellectual witness.

My first real "working" connection with the Institute, however, came when I volunteered to help out with MacLaurin's library. For four hours each week, I'd made my way down to the Institute office to catalogue books, rearrange shelves and talk with Scott Noble. As our conversations continued, my interest in MacLaurin's work on campus at the U of MN grew. Before I knew it, I was asked to teach an evening Greek class for the Institute. The experience was so rewarding for me that I agreed to repeat it. And my connection with MacLaurin deepened.

Throughout this entire period of volunteer attachment to the Institute, I was working as a freelance copywriter and an "adjunct" middle school writing teacher. But in January of 2006, I began to explore the possibility of working with InterVarsity. When my initial overtures to IV didn't pan out, the Institute approached me and asked if I might consider working with MacLaurin's Mars Hill Students. I wasn't really sure what all that entailed, but I accepted anyway. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Institute: Can you describe your ministry to students at the Institute?

Lackey: The Mars Hill vision is a really unique one. In a word, it's all about assisting students with their "cognitive conversion." That is, in the fragmented world in which we live, it's really easy for students (and others) to embrace a faith that is "spiritually" robust but "intellectually" inadequate. The result is an unhealthy compartmentalization of faith, life and studies—and eventually vocation. My goal with the Mars Hill Students is to help students first to realize and then to actualize the truth that Jesus Christ exercises jurisdiction over every realm of thought and life—even the university! Together, we explore what this means as students and as future leaders in the various spheres of our culture. So you might say that my ministry has several sides to it: apologetic, pastoral, theological, philosophical, social and cultural (to name only a few). In pursuit of this vision, I'm seeking to establish both a community of student dialogue partners as well as a network of enriching mentoring relationships (with and between students).

Institute: What do you see as the biggest intellectual challenge for Christian students at the University of Minnesota?

Lackey: This is a tough one! I've already met scores of students struggling with a host of intellectual questions regarding the faith they possess or the one they're thinking of abandoning. And the issues are all over the map: naturalism, materialism, relativism, skepticism, etc. But the chorus I keep hearing sung in different keys is one that might be summarized with the term constructivism. Put simply, students are encountering (as an assumption more than an assertion, it seems) the idea that knowledge is "constructed" in such a way that the possibility of locating "truth" can not be realized. Taken to an extreme, of course, such an idea might relativize all claims to "truth." Unfortunately, many of the students I meet have come from their church youth groups ill-prepared to meet this challenge. This translates, for some, into an almost debilitating emotional intimidation and/or, for others, a motivation to set the (dogmatic!) claims of the Christian gospel to one side forever. Learning how the plurality and particularity of perspectives on campus can be reconciled with the veracity of the Christian worldview is a (the?) major challenge for many students.

Institute: What sorts of things can students (and parents) look forward to this year from Mars Hill Students?

Lackey: Well, we're planning to launch a couple of new and exciting initiatives this year. For example, we hope to kick off the 2007/08 academic year with an intensive (perhaps week-long) orientation for students to help them think about what it means to integrate their Christian vision with their life and work as students. We'll also be helping InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Network by serving as a pilot project for a new curriculum they're producing on the nature of Christian scholarship and vocation. And we're already making plans to co-sponsor a number of events (debates, lectures, dialogues, etc.) with other student groups on campus (like the Campus Atheists and Secular Humanists). We also hope to take our faith off campus this year through involvement in a number of different service projects around the Twin Cities. And in February of 2008, we'll be joining a couple of other campus ministries in hosting the first ever Student Apologetics Training Conference at the U of MN. Beyond all this, we'll be launching weekly and monthly meetings devoted to dialogue with each other and local Christian scholars and professionals to build both our student community and Christian vision. And, of course, we'll be participating in MacLaurin's full program of lectures and events throughout the year. There could hardly be a better time to get involved with the Mars Hill Students!