If a bridge was ever constructed in Southeast Michigan with the purpose of bringing together scholars and theologians, Adrian College would seem to be a fitting home for such a landmark.
Campus Chaplain Chris Momany is not only an ordained deacon and elder of the United Methodist Church, he is a history buff, social justice advocate, author, teacher and firm believer that sometimes simpler is better for the church.
And if you’ve never heard of Asa Mahan — spend five minutes in a room with Momany and you’ll quickly realize that one of the founding fathers of Adrian College in the late 1850s is alive and relevant on campus today thanks to Momany’s affection for his theoretic and principles.
Mahan was a vigorous proponent of emancipation — not surprising considering Adrian College was part of the Underground Railroad and still today is a major proponent of ending human trafficking — and Momany especially likes his writing’s about Christian perfection and holiness.
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| Not For Sale human-trafficking awareness group. |
Posters and fliers litter campus denoting a new “Intrinsic Worth” campaign that students have spearheaded and Momany believes Mahan’s interpretations of what it means to be a socially active Christian are germane for the 21st century.
The worship team seems to agree, often donning T-shirts with Mahan’s likeness on them, affirming their desire to be involved in people’s lives through Christian love.
“The real core value is that he is interpreted holiness as love, which is a Wesleyan idea,” Momany said. “Mahan did that and then you say, OK, how do you interpret love? And he basically said love is an affirmation of the intrinsic worth of people.”
Marrying his in-depth “church knowledge” with his more academic side, Momany has written a book titled Doing Good: A Grace-filled Approach to Holiness, set to come out through the Abingdon Press sometime between March and May 2011. He said it is a relatively short four-session study guide for churches and leaders to use as they explore what the true definition of holiness is and what it should look like in the church.
“We have holiness churches, holiness traditions, and often holiness is thought of as separation or being separate or set aside or of a pure realm,” he said. “I don’t deny that, but if you look at Jesus as the expression of God’s love, it’s radically participatory, so what I do is I argue for a holiness that is not removed and separate, but involved and affirming. And I actually use this language of intrinsic worth.”
Freshman Lee Schriver, who grew up at Millington UMC, said what he appreciates abut his chaplain is he takes his knowledge and perspective and uses it to empower and educate the students.
“Chris is really a great guy,” he said. “He has said he’ll do whatever it takes to meet the student’s needs and I’ve seen nothing to suggest otherwise.”
One major need Momany has helped address is the pre-seminary program he played a big role in getting off the ground.
He teaches Christian Social Ethics and Philosophy of Religion among other offerings and he said 15-25 students annually weave pre-seminary classes into the rest of their curriculum.
Three Adrian College graduates are currently enrolled at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary and another is attending Wesley Theological Seminary in D.C.
Momany said the reason he’s a chaplain is simply because he loves the students and enjoys watching them grow spiritually and academically.
“We have a (pre-seminary) student who wrote a paper on the ‘Jesus Movement’ of the 1970s and then she went to the Jesus People USA (Covenant Church) in uptown Chicago with the Grand Ledge United Methodist Church. So she was able to do an upper-level religion class that studied this movement, write a research paper…and then go there,” he said. “She did the whole soup kitchen thing, housing advocacy and Jesus Movement worship thing.”
The gusto Momany sees in some of the young adults around campus is inspiring to him — but as a long-time United Methodist he thinks the church could take some notes from a generation focused more on acceptance and love.
“My concern is that some of the trendy stuff about growing the church and transformational management, leadership and stuff like that…I think it has a tendency to worship power a lot more than to express love and borrowing imagery from the corporate world is not the way to go,” he said.
“Businesses operate on conditional models, ‘if you are this way, than that,’ because they’re about making money — and the church has the greatest message in the universe and that’s God’s unconditional love is offered to you through the cross and resurrection. Why are we afraid to share that message?”
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