Meet The Prof

MTP 75: Anita Stephen, Why Do So Many Christian Professors Limit Their Faith to Sundays?

• Shane Hartley • Episode 75

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In this episode, we interview Anita Stephen, Clinical Assistant Professor of Nursing at the University of Florida. Anita challenges professors not to compartmentalize their faith but to live it out boldly and naturally in everyday academic life. She shares how God reshaped her heart from striving and self-focus to listening and kindness, and how that transformation now shapes her relationships with students, colleagues, and the broader campus community.

Read more about Anita Stephen online: https://meettheprof.com/view/professors/entry/anita-stephen/

Resources from Faculty Commons, a Cru ministry:

Watch MTP on YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/@MeetTheProfOfficial/videos

You can support Shane Hartley's ministry with Faculty Commons, a Cru ministry, at this link: ⁠⁠https://give.cru.org/0424344⁠⁠

Hello everybody and welcome to Meet the Prof. I'm Shane Hartley. So glad you could join us. This is a podcast where I interview Christian professors with questions I get from college students. And our goal in every single one is to encourage Christ-centered conversations on the college campus. In the studio today, even though this is a virtual studio, we have Anita Stephen. And Anita is a Clinical Assistant Professor of Nursing at the University of Florida. Anita, it is great to have you. Welcome to Meet the Prof. How are you doing? Great, I'm doing great, praise God. Good. So the very first question I have for you is I went to Florida State undergrad. You're at University of Florida. Can we still be friends? Is it even worth us doing this interview? I don't know, I gotta think about that. Okay, as long as I don't relinquish my orange and blue. Right, you're representing well there on our screen for viewers who can see on YouTube or elsewhere. uh I'm very eager to get to know you, appreciate this time with you. And you are passionate about being a good listener. So I'd love to hear when did this start for you? When did this become important to you. it seems like it's an ongoing thing for me to do that, to be a good listener and to be kind, because I feel like I wasn't. In the past, it was all about me and uh what I wanted. uh And especially in academia, everybody wants to be on the top. And you have to speak more than you listen. You when you go to meetings. You're up front. Yeah. So I felt God telling me to, you know, just be quiet and listen, listen to others more and to show kindness, even when kindness is not shown to you through maybe verbal, you know, attacks or, you know, not uncalled, but just, that just happened at the heat of the moment. And so um Have you ever had any of those that you can share? had a uh colleague who just always very argumentative with me and not wanting to hear what I had to say. At the end, one day I lost my cool. I'm smiling when I say it, but it wasn't a nice thing. And I felt terrible after. Here I am, a senior colleague um that just lost her cool. oh did go, made an appointment to see her and apologize. And um And I realized that I need to really make a conscious effort and not to take things to heart. And uh otherwise uh it's gonna hurt me as a Christian because that's not what Christ-like behavior is. So... How did that go, that conversation? the person heard me, but I could still tell and feel that there was still that maybe the hurt I have to tell you today, that colleague and I get along very well. That's great. It was something I prayed about. I prayed for the colleague. There's still times where this colleague might say things, but I just listen, smile, nod, and rephrase something. So it's really taken a hold of me. not to make that behavior come out again. I don't know if it will, but I'm going to try really hard not to do that. How common is it in your department or you think in other departments for one faculty member to apologize to another faculty member? I don't know. haven't seen personally, um there's lot, there's incivility that occurs. I haven't seen too many apologies. I just know because of my occurrence that I'm sharing, but. uh There's something very humbling to... it's humbling. It's, it's, we're in a academia is, you know, everybody wants to be right. Everybody wants to look intelligent. Okay. So, and it becomes a back and forth argument, or instead of a, agree to disagree type of, You know, it takes it to heart. People take it to heart. I've seen it in my other colleagues and it's something you really have to work hard at. I feel like you really have to work hard at this. I think it's less in nursing and you're in a field where everyone is committed to caring for others. Do you think you have the same amount of arguments and disagreements as other people? Definitely. Yeah, you would think nursing the caring profession, but we're all human beings and people sometimes push people's buttons. I realized that for me, I need to, even in the Bible, it says to overlook an offense is you know, it's a great quality. I want to be able to emulate that. Yeah, another verse that comes to mind is where love covers over a multitude of sins. And you're really talking about a goal of loving those in our department or just loving anyone in our life that we could cover over some things. em That's really helpful. Well, so you've already mentioned a couple of Bible verses. So I know you're comfortable with me asking you some spiritual things. And I knew you were a Christian anyways, being on Meet the Proph. having your testimony on meettheprof.com. uh I would love to ask about the part of your testimony that involved you being raised in the church and being involved in a church, fairly involved it sounded like, while still being a non-believer. And then coming to a turning point in 1992, you said, where a pastor, your pastor sat with you and explained that you weren't understanding some of the things of the Bible because you don't know the author personally. So I would imagine that some faculty or even students who would read your testimony might think, um how can you be in the church and involved in the church and call yourself in at that point a non-Christian? Aren't the two synonymous? Like what's the difference between being involved in the church and being a Christian? Can you explain that? Sure. it's like a routine job almost. You go do it and then you get out of it and then you do something else. You never develop a relationship with the Lord and Savior. You don't understand what the Bible is telling you. You read the Bible and maybe you just don't understand it. probably a version that maybe you need to get a simplified version or maybe even, uh you know, praying and asking God, help me to understand this. Because I know personally, I did that. I would go to church, do the church things, read the Bible, but it wasn't speaking to me. It wasn't changing me. uh So I seek, I started seeking, okay, what does this mean? Now with the technology, we can Google things. What is the meaning of this? um What is the Hebrew meaning of this? And it's so interesting that, you know, when you do go seeking and you get these answers, it changes you. And I feel like that this is how God works in us, each of us, that uh whatever it is, for me, it was changing my heart, molding it to be like his. And I'm still a work in progress, but I have a heart for his heart, what he cares for. And what a good encouragement we could actually ask God to help me understand this. I mean, it makes sense that he would want to if someone is seeking. And he says in the Bible, if you seek me, you will find me if you seek me with all your heart. So what's your relationship like these days with the Bible? I wish I didn't have to stop reading it and doing other work. just enjoy it. I make it a point to read early in the morning before I get out of bed. a Proverbs each day. Today is the 19th, so I read Proverbs 19. So it's just a continual each month reading this. I do a New Testament lesson in the morning. then I also in evening, I do a Psalms and Old Testament. And I'm actually reading about Saul. it just, when I read it, uh I think there was one verse where when he was anointed, he was shy after Samuel anointed him and he was hiding. And then uh I think there was a trouble with one area of Israel and the people needed help. And it says that the Spirit of the Lord stirred him to get up and move to go fight for these people. And I was thinking, wow, there goes the Spirit right there in the Old Testament. Yeah. So, and I was thinking, I want that. I want to be stirred to do the Lord's will. I want the Spirit to stir me to do His will continuously. Me too. And we miss that. mean, if we if we don't read it real carefully, we miss it. I mean, I've read that Old Testament, I don't know, so many times. But but now, you know, it's like a like uh a different book I'm reading that understanding and that feeling is it's nice. Well, even though you wish you could just always read the Bible, I think the world is glad that you don't just stay in your bed all the time reading the Bible in the morning. You are getting up and living out the Bible, too. Yeah. Well, so would love to talk about your relationship with students. And to start us off, you know, we take questions from college students and I have a question for you from a student named Staley. Take a listen to this question. Thank you, Staley, for your question. That is a wonderful question and one that uh needs to be asked. As a Christian professor, all students, all faculty are important to me. I haven't gotten any kickback from the LGBTQ students or faculty. Actually, I'm really good friends with the faculty members, several faculty members that are LGBTQ. my job is to share the love of Jesus Christ, regardless of their beliefs. And if I can do that, I feel like God is just smiling on me as a nurse, we take care of everyone. And I can't choose and say, I don't want to take care of this patient because of their beliefs. am going to take care of them and they get to see Christ in me. That's a wonderful testimony in itself. Anita, how have you seen your love received by your colleagues who are part of the LGBTQ plus community? How have you had the opportunity even of expressing love in those kind of conversations? I um treat them like anybody else. I hug them. I ask them uh if there's anything I could pray for. And a few of the people, faculty and students will come and ask, can you pray for my mom or can you pray for my dad? I said, definitely, we'll do that. uh I want to be there as a light in the college for them. Well, tell us some about your ministry to your own students. I know that you have been involved uh caring for your nursing students and have had some ministry experience with them. So what have you seen God do? What kind of open doors has he given you over the years? Yes. Well, usually students come see me when they don't do well in their exams or the class. And in my office, I have a lot of Bible verses and things around and I have a cross and I have like a lot of little stickies on my computer with Bible verses. Really? Sometimes they're not doing well at all. And I'll ask them, I'll go over the, you know, their questions and things and I'll ask them, you, would you like me to pray with you? And um some of them says, yes, yeah, definitely. I've had one student says, no, uh no, thank you. And I said, okay, I still think of that student, I pray for her, I don't know what her relationship is, um but you know, it's just how it plays out. There is a Christian nursing student organization. My colleague and I are pretty involved with that. Is it the Nursing Christian Fellowship or is it called something else? It's just a nursing Christian fellowship. Okay, we have that here at UNC Wilmington. And so we had, we did a friends giving and we had about 30 students. I invited the Cru leader and she came and gave her a little testimony and talked about a mission trip. Two of those students from that group are in Dominican Republic. They should be coming back this weekend. We also met with the students right before the spring break on a Friday for dinner at a. Mexican place here. and surprisingly, we had nine students and out of the nine, five were men. Is that right? Yeah, I was really me and the other colleague of mine. You were like, wow, this is the first time we had more more male students come in. But I'm so happy. And and I think one question I posed to them was Okay, what are you going to do to carry and keep this moving to the next cohort? Because that's important. eh And having a safe place where students can see faculty in a different kind of light, because otherwise, you know, you don't see faculty and students getting together for dinner. So it was very nice. you know, just sharing and I think this they ask a lot of questions. Oh, how did you do this? Or how, and I just answer those questions. And, you know, that most of the time is how did you get into nursing and, you know, what did you do or with any pitfalls or have you ever gotten angry at anybody? I think I asked, I got asked that last Friday. Really? yeah, I get angry, but you know, when they see me, I'm always smiling and happy, you know. I said, yeah, I do get angry, but I have to really step back. I said, there's a space between the stimulus and response. I have to take care of that little space. Well, if any of them listen to this interview at the beginning you were talking about in the past that you've made progress in this area. That's really good. Well, so when was the time that you got a glimpse of how God was working in the life of a student or specifically maybe a time where you got a glimpse of God using you in the life of a student? Well, a couple of times as an educator, students have come to my office to ask me to pray, especially when they were having tough exams. So I would come and I said, sure, yeah. So they would bring their friends, some not even Christians, and here we are praying for their exam that they get clarity. It's amazing. Yeah, so I just, I have an open door policy um that they can come in and ask me anything. So uh I want to keep it like that because I don't want uh students to be hindered. you can't ask this professor anything or I just want them to ask me, you school, uh you know, personal. um And then some of them, you know, share, this is what they're going through. some of the stories are hard, but I offer prayer and um yeah. And we have a certain, we have a lot of students in the Christian fellowship to just, who are not, you know, devout Christians or not Christians at all that came out of a need. Really they're more and more like on fire now. really? They became Christian. I have heard stories of people belonging before they believe. That there's been Christian communities that invite them in, that you belong with us, be with us, and it's before they believe. The believing comes afterwards. That seems like a real powerful way of sharing the gospel. Well, I would love to hear some about your involvement with our ministry, Faculty Commons. uh I have colleagues that are there, Howie and Nance Kauffman at the University of Florida on staff with Faculty Commons. How did you meet them? How did you get involved with Faculty Commons at all? And tell us some about uh that ministry for you. So before I mentioned that, I wanna mention when I worked as an educator in the hospital, I was told by my boss not to mention any um Christian things or Bible verses, because I was a supervisor and an educator there. And she had mentioned, no putting any Bible verses, don't talk about God. ah But God always had my heart to do education. And I loved it. I love teaching and education. So he opened a door for me at UF. When I came to UF, uh I met uh a colleague named Jennifer Elder who uh introduced me to Cru. She said there's a Faculty Commons actually. And I heard about Cru, but I never heard about Faculty Commons. So She took me to a luncheon that Faculty Commons had once a month luncheon. I went there and I was hearing a lecture about how this professor shared the gospel in her class or his class. And I went to a couple of luncheons. I was like, wow. I said, I'm in the right place. I didn't know I could share. So I started being bold and sharing. uh Christ in my classrooms and to my students saying that I'm a passionate follower of Jesus Christ. I met Howie and Nance um and it just actually took off from there. They asked me to present one time. I presented. Then I got into this Faculty Commons group uh with Bill Hager and a bunch of other faculty from all over the United States. Faculty Fellows. Yeah, faculty fellows, I couldn't be in a better place. oh Blessing that God opened all these doors for me to just spread his light. So I feel like I'm in the right place exactly where God wants me to be. So I am so happy to be part of uh Faculty Commons and faculty fellows and to hear all the things that other people are doing throughout the United States and bringing uh the gospel to colleges. m You know, one thing that I hear a lot is that there are Christian professors on campuses across the world, and yet many times they keep their faith separate to just Sundays or serving in their church. And when they're in the weekday, they're focused on work and uh maybe don't feel like they have time to do activities like you've talked about a luncheon, or faculty Bible study, what would you say to a professor who's living their life on campus focused exclusively on their career? and uh keeping ministry uh separate to just being in their church even on Sundays? I would say you're missing out because oh that is a very small part of your life. When you look at what God has for you, the eternal life is He's here, He put us here for a purpose. And if we don't do our part in doing His calling, He will get someone else. And this was told to me a long time ago. And when it was, it It really took my heart and squeezed it because I don't want God to get someone else because I'm not obedient. So if you're a Christian, you have to shine the light. The gospel is that we need to spread and tell everybody else. And it doesn't have to be oh verbally saying constantly, oh, I'm a Christian, say, you can share something. I go with my family to church every Sunday, here's a picture of us in church or these kind of something, how do you deal with stress? Students will ask and I'll say, pray about it.

And I tell them, Philippians 4:

6 be not anxious about anything. But by prayer and I have these Bible verses that I memorize. try to memorize Bible verses. I may be able to pop up and maybe help somebody. Definitely. Yeah. All right. So I'm going to put you on the spot. Like what's one of the verses that you have memorized that mean a lot to you? Oh, I love Philippians 4-6 that I talked about.

can, uh, Philippians 4:

13. I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. And I love this verse because it is a verse that's simple and it's good for students because, it really helps them. It's not. Yeah. On your own. That was one verse that I taught my kids. And I remember when my daughter was in track. and she was had to run and she said that she was she couldn't she says I couldn't do it mom but I kept on thinking of I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength and she finished the race. I love the Psalms and a lot of the verses in the Psalms so there's there's one Psalms 73 um 23 to 26 that I just memorized. It's, I am always with you. You hold me by my right hand. You guide me in your counsel. And who have I in heaven you? Or I have nothing I desire on earth besides you. Afterwards, you'll see me. in your glory. My heart and my flesh may fail, but you are my portion and my strength. mean, I don't know if I have some words, but these kind of things build me up. Bible is filled with these verses that really build us up and we have to take hold of it in this world. Mm-hmm. Wow. Thank you for sharing those. You've shown that not only in your story was the Bible a real catalyst for change early on, but it's still very much a part of your spiritual growth now. And um that's inspiring. There's a lot of things that distract and so easy for me to get busy and even doing good things. but I love your example of making a priority of God's word. Well, I'd love to ask you uh what advice you might have for students who are struggling with doubts about God. If you did have one that came to your office and was struggling with having doubts, can you trust the Bible? What would you say to students like that? It reminds me of what Billy Graham said a long time ago. If you're in a plane and you were given one percent chance to live, um would you take that? And I was thinking that is how I see the Bible. Either you could take it or not. if If you uh look at it and uh read it and maybe see what is it telling you, you hear about it, you decide. You take a look at it and read. And I guess the book of John is in the New Testament would be the perfect book if you're new to the faith. So for students, you don't have to believe what I say, but... uh Take the Bible, just read this book and see if it speaks to you. And it will. at the very least to give it a chance. Yeah, give it a chance. is there anything else that you would want to talk about? Anything that we haven't touched on? So, no, I just reiterate to professors, please don't be shy about sharing the word because if you profess you're a Christian, we have to do our part. Otherwise, God will find somebody else and we don't want that to happen. And for students, don't give up, seek, knock. and the door will be uh opened and answered. Hmm. Anita, you've talked about a lot of steps of faith that you've taken on campus, letting your students know you're a Christian and offering to pray. What do you think might be your next step of faith that God would have you take on campus? Currently, I took a big step of faith. I became the president of our faculty organization, something that I would never picture myself doing because I have to be in meetings with all the faculty. I conduct that. But I'm just trusting God in my weakness. He is my strength. And that's all that I do because I'm not uh an acclaimed researcher. There are a lot of them in our faculty, but each of us bring a gift. So everyone comes together for the business of the college. to move the college forward. I'm so thankful that you are there at UF and I really appreciate you being on Meet the Prof. Thank you for this time. you're welcome. I truly enjoyed all these questions.