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Contributed photo/Mary K. Pope Briggs began work as Emory & Henry College’s chaplain in late June. The Marion resident loves being back on the campus where she was an undergraduate student.

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Speaking the language of God and college students

By STEPHANIE PORTER-NICHOLS/Staff

This summer, the Rev. Mary Briggs has devoted work time to Facebook, the online social network site.
While many employers might object to hours spent on the Internet, Emory & Henry College’s leadership is pleased with the pursuit of its new chaplain.
Mark Graham, E&H’s executive assistant to the president, lauded Briggs’ exploration of Facebook to observe the social interactions of the private college’s students. Graham said that anyone who works with young people understands the difficulties of getting and keeping their attention. Different tools must be employed, he said. Graham emphasized the importance of the college chaplain being able to communicate to students “in their way, communicate on their terms.”
Briggs, the mother of a 15-year-old and 10-year-old, understands the challenges. In a recent interview, the Marion resident compared learning to communicate with students to learning a new language.
However, she also believes that even online young people are searching for the same relationships that other individuals are. Speaking at Marion Senior High School’s baccalaureate this spring, Briggs asked the graduates to consider who would be on Jesus’ Facebook page. She advised them to build strong relationships that will be supportive of their faith.
She hopes to encourage E&H’s students in the same way.
As chaplain, Briggs said she wants to facilitate opportunities for the students to interact and help each other explore and sustain their faith.
Students, she said, are often struggling to find their place in the world. Many of them are hearing things about religion they’ve never heard before, Briggs pointed out.
Often, the chaplain said, “They don’t know why they believe what they believe.”
She plans to act as a spiritual coach “to help them figure out the answers for themselves.”
Briggs, who is an elder in the United Methodist Church, also said that many young people are fascinated by Jesus and want to serve him but have been hurt or disillusioned by their church.
A founding board member of the Loaves and Fishes Food Pantry in Chilhowie and a current Project Crossroads board member, Briggs can talk firsthand about the value of service.
“Outreach is my passion, to make a difference in people’s lives,” she said.
The college views that aspect of Briggs’ work as vital.
Graham said E&H believes part of the chaplain’s work should be to “instill strong values and a commitment to community service … that students can build upon for the rest of their lives.”
Graham also believes that as a minister who has served churches in Buchanan, Marion, Saltville and Chilhowie, Briggs will be an asset to students who want to pursue a religious vocation.
Briggs said she felt the call to ministry when she was a teenager, but given the small number of women pastors, she didn’t express the desire until she graduated from E&H in 1986.
From E&H, she went to Duke University’s Divinity School and earned her master of divinity degree in 1995. While in Durham, N.C., she served as the youth minister at First Presbyterian Church and as the development intern at the Divinity School.
Briggs’ grandfather was a circuit-riding Methodist minister, and the chaplain gives significant credit to her parents’ influence.
“My parents really embodied what it means to be faithful Christians and faithful members of the church.”
Briggs described her father, who died just over a year ago, as “a quiet saint of the church” who personified witness, loyalty and faithfulness.
With the window behind her desk open allowing a breeze from E&H’s stately trees to fill her chapel office, Briggs’ happiness about the new chapter of her ministry is evident. She describes the joy of “being able to be in ministry in a place that means so much to me. It’s like coming back home.”