ENGAGE forms teens to bring positive change even during these days of unrest

Summer program shapes ministers of reconciliation through theological study and personal experiences at historic civil rights sites

Janel Shoun-Smith | 615.966.7078 | 01/20/2021

After a summer of racial unrest and a year of political dialogue that has been anything but civil, many Americans are searching for ways to bring positive change to the nation’s future. 

Lipscomb University’s ENGAGE Youth Theology Initiative, a pre-college program offering a deep dive into theology and contemporary issues, is showing today’s teens how they can become the change they wish to see in the world.

ENGAGE has been showing 26 teens a year since 2017 how to “take up their places in the quest for ‘justice, mercy and faithfulness’ in both the public square and in our churches,” said Frederick.

The program is now taking applications for its July 2021 hybrid program for rising high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors who may earn college credit over the course of eight days this summer.

Zoom classes will take place July 6-9, and an on-campus residency is scheduled for July 12-15. Field trips to various sites along the Civil Rights Trail in downtown Nashville will also be part of students' experiential and interactive learning.

“We believe ENGAGE can teach students how to have difficult conversations around issues of race, justice, and equity with honesty, empathy, and civility,” said Claire Frederick, program director of ENGAGE, which is housed in Lipscomb’s College of Bible & Ministry.

ENGAGE instills this message through a unique narrative approach—exploring the overarching narrative of the story of God in Scripture, America’s historical narrative around issues of civil rights, justice and equity, and the students’ personal narratives. 

Students from all over the nation representing a diversity of Christian congregations gather for 8 to 10 days to answer the call to racial justice and healing; learn the histories of both the church and the U.S. civil rights movement; and embody what it means to live a life of Christian leadership and service.

“Through ENGAGE I learned to be comfortable being in uncomfortable spaces,” said Trey Phillips, a 2017 and 2018 ENGAGE participant from Nashville who now attends Lipscomb University. “While the country was not quite going through the same strife it is now (when he attended ENGAGE), the program allowed me to learn how to voice my opinions and concerns in a passionate but respectful manner. 

“The perspective that has stuck with me the most is that everyone has a story and a reason for believing what they do whether it is correct or not. It has helped me to become more confident and articulate in sharing my story,” he said.

In addition to studying theology and doing vocational discernment with university professors on the Lipscomb campus, students also travel on a pilgrimage of sorts to historical sites and memorials of the U.S. civil rights movement. 

Past stops have included the 16th Street Baptist Church and the Edmund Pettus Bridge, both in Alabama. This year's tour will feature the newly opened National Museum of African American Music, the Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library, Fisk University and historic locations of the 1960 sit-ins, all in Nashville. 

A highlight of past tours has been the Tuskegee Human and Civil Rights Multicultural Center, where participants personally meet Fred D. Gray, a legendary civil rights leader, lawyer, author and church elder (who celebrated his 90th birthday last December). 

“What students learned from Dr. Gray is that one doesn’t have to be employed by a church or called to preach in order to be used for God’s Kingdom purposes,” said Frederick. “Gray made the world a better place by using his talents as a lawyer—challenging unjust segregation laws, representing victims of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and defending the rights of people like Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr.”

“Students today are eager to discover how their faith and vocation can connect to ongoing challenges in society, like disparities in education and access to health care, criminal justice reform and mass incarceration and economic inequality,” she said. 

“I knew so little about the experience of people of color in this country before the program, and afterwards I was able to share what I learned easily with my friends and family,” said Walden Hicks, a senior in Cookeville, Tennessee, who attended the program in 2018 and 2019. Hicks has since procured an internship with a Cookeville organization that advocates for the rights of the poor and needy in the area, an opportunity he says he would not have pursued prior to participating in ENGAGE.

During the ENGAGE summer program, students share their personal narratives in community on a daily basis, practice active listening and conflict transformation and enjoy firsthand experiences such as standing where The Children’s Crusade participants stood in Birmingham in 1963.

Thus ENGAGE students discover that “they don’t have to wait until they’re older to take actions that can impact the world right now,” Frederick said. “Encountering both history and the biblical text,” she said, “Students begin to understand themselves as ministers of reconciliation.”

In the past year, some ENGAGE students say they have found themselves being “unfollowed” on social media or have experienced firsthand anger and hostility in their communities. But those same students say they are equipped by the concepts they learned in ENGAGE to deal with the racial tensions they see around them. 

“I have learned about the difficulty of reconciliation, and when to seek that ideal out,” said Hicks. “Many in my community don’t want reconciliation, and sometimes you have to provide them the seeds and wait for them to grow. I’m still learning this skill, but my second year at ENGAGE especially helped me learn when patience or action is needed.”

“The past year I did find myself in a space where I can feel like a reconciliation minister,” said Phillips. “People began unfollowing me and writing me off, but I was successful in gathering people who were willing to ask me questions and learn more about what I was posting. To me that feels like a modern evangelism to be able to reach so many people with a few button clicks.”

Past ENGAGE participants who went on to enroll at Lipscomb University have become involved in the Diverse Student Coalition, the Student Government Association, Collegiate 100—Black Men of Middle Tennessee, the IDEAL program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, the Student Scholars Symposium, internships in church ministry, study abroad programs and the ENGAGE program itself, giving back to today’s participants.

“ENGAGE stands to play a critical role in developing a new generation of leaders with moral and spiritual grounding who can connect their convictions to their analysis of contemporary challenges and lead organizations with vision and creativity,” said William Turner, Lipscomb’s special counsel to the president for diversity and inclusion and an elder at Nashville’s Schrader Lane church of Christ, which has seen a number of its young members both attend and serve as student leaders for the program. 

“The students who come through the ENGAGE program leave with a mindset of change and justice,” said Phillips. “If we truly want to reach a state where everyone is equal and all wrongs are righted, then investing in this program and these students is an easy first step.”

Click here to learn more about ENGAGE’s application criteria. ENGAGE begins accepting applications from high school students (ages 15-18) beginning Jan. 15, 2021. Space is limited to the top 26 candidates, and early applicants will be given priority consideration. 

NOTE: At this time, Lipscomb University leaders are hopeful that we will be able to safely host an in-person event in July. Any changes in these plans will be communicated at least 30-days in advance, unless changes in governmental regulations or CDC recommendations require more immediate action.

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