Identifying Yourself as a Christian - Using Your Web Page

It is becoming more and more common for university faculty and staff to have their own web pages. These pages often include an individual's educational background, courses being offered, office hours, conferences being offered, texts of research papers published, links to other sites, and similiar items. When you view these pages you get a quick snapshot of what is important to each individual.

Let me suggest that your web page might be used to let those who visit it know that your relationship with Christ is an important part of your life. A long testimony might not be an appropriate way of doing this, but let me suggest some more subtle ways to identify yourself as a Christian.

• Quote a verse of Scripture or Christian author on your page.

• Identify yourself as a member of your local Christian Faculty/Staff Fellowship with a link to their home page. For a partial list of campuses with faculty web pages, check out: http://clm.org/menus/facgwhere.html.

• In your schedule, mention the meetings of your faculty fellowship with a link to the meeting schedule if there is one.

• Have links to other resources on the web with a Christian perspective. This is especially helpful if they are related to your field. A good general resource list to link to can be found at: http://nersp.nerdc.ufl.edu/~cff/resources.html.

• Develop a web page for your faculty fellowship where members can put a more upfront testimony. You can then link to your testimony from your university page.

• When appropriate, add notices of special outreach meetings to be held on your campus.

Would you like to see a good example of how this can be done? I'm sure there are many, but Dr. James Keesling, mathematics professor at the University of Florida, has a web page with some of the ideas above. Check it out at: http://www.math.ufl.edu/~jek.

Don't forget to put your web address on your syllabi and tests so that students can find it easily.

Scripture: I Peter 3:15 - "but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence."

Action Point: Do you have a personal web page? Try out one or more of the ideas above. Don't have one? There are plenty of Christian students on your campus who would love to help you develop one. Ask your local campus ministry leaders or pastor.

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