. I do wan to say, though, that this scoohl year things are getadting a bit more active on our camadpus. For examadple, the class Patrick menadtioned was called Theadoladogy and Pracadtice of Broad Base Comadmuadnity Orgaadnizading. It eneradgized many of the stuaddents, and change is hapadpenading. the Last fall I took a class from Dr. Richard Osmer called Evanadgeadlism in Conadgreadgaadtional Conadtext and a dual taught class called Toward a Theadoladogy of Church Leadaderadship which dealt with a lot of these issues as well. So classes are being taught. What’s more imporadtant than being in classes and disadcussing involveadment is our field eduadcaadtion expeadriadences. Plus, you can do field ed at any numadber of non-profits whose focus is advoadcacy. The quesadtion of how we get involved is still a harda0one.I also hope this is being taught in our churches! We can’t expect our semadiadnaradies to teach church leadaders everyadthing, and not all church leadaders go to semadiadnary. Engageadment hapadpens not just between the church and culadture but within the Body of Christ asa0well.The biggest probadlem is: when the church is disadconadnected from the realadiadties of everyadday life, engageadment in the pubadlic sphere doesn’t help anyadone. You wonadder why a lot of peoadple think the church is disadconadnected? Because many churches are! Look at the arguadments over conadtraadcepadtion. My unchurched and lapsed church friends all agree the church’s posiadtion that they hear in the media is absurd. Thankadfully other Chrisadtadian voices are emergading in the pubadlic sphere. Being socially engaged means being willading to enter into disadcusadsion with peoadple who disadagree with you, even when those peoadple are other Christians.Engageadment means a comadmuadnity is openading themadselves to transadforadmaadtion… and that’s a scary thought! When we engage authenadtiadcally with othaders we risk realadizading we’re wrong. Pubadlic engageadment needs to be modadeled and taught at all levadels of the faith jouradney because we are always needading to be renewed by the Spirit. We also need to be aware of the realadiadties of the present so we can engage and actuadally make a difadferadence. We need to look at our conadtext, pray, and choose our batadtles careadfully. Not every church or semadiadnary can do everyadthing, but every church and semadiadnary can do someadthing.