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The Christian Mind Project
Christ at the Center of the Life of the Mind.
Every January, fifty Christian college students gather at Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C. to ask what it looks like to follow Jesus faithfully in the academy — and to meet the scholars already doing it.
Join Us for Our Next Conference
January 4–6, 2027 • Museum of the Bible, Washington, D.C.
During the first week of the new year, fifty Christian college students with demonstrated academic promise gather at Museum of the Bible for three days of lectures, tours, and workshops. Together you will explore what it looks like to impact culture as an intellectual — in vocational ministry, business, government, and higher education.
Every successful applicant receives a travel stipend and free housing for the conference.
Why This Work Matters
Four convictions shape the Christian Mind Project. Open each one to read more.
Universities and Culture
America’s most prestigious universities predate the country’s founding, and they have radically affected the country’s thinking, preparing future leaders to lead. Universities create and redefine culture. Professional intellectuals at universities cure physical diseases, discover new commercial technologies, and promote a vision of social progress.
Although Christian denominations founded many of the earliest universities, traditionalist Christians are underrepresented at these institutions relative to their presence in the population. Christians participate in politics nationally and respond to regional problems through their local congregations, but they have little presence in secular private schools and public universities.
The Social Sciences and Humanities
The academic subject areas most relevant to culture have the least Christian presence, and they self-report the highest level of bias toward religious conservatives. Scholars in these areas research and write on controversial topics related to race, class, and gender, which directly inform public conversations on abortion and women’s rights, DEI protocols, LGBTQ advocacy, and the role of government.
Because an ideological monoculture produces sectarian research, the end product cannot beget anything other than a cultural war. Universities, especially their liberal arts faculties, need ideological diversity. They need Christian scholars of the highest academic caliber in order to achieve true intellectual diversity.
The Christian Mind Project
The Christian Mind Project establishes a network between churches, college ministries, and Christians in higher education already committed to gospel presence in the academy, with the express goal of identifying early undergraduate students of promise who might excel in graduate school. Historically, secular professors have mentored secular students, resulting in a secular monoculture by the first year of graduate school.
The project engages fifty college students each year — ideally during their freshman or sophomore year — in a vocational call meeting that presents the strategic role of the university and the opportunity of service. Teams of résumé coaches meet with students at academic conferences and remotely to ensure that they are building an outstanding academic portfolio and a research program, which will ultimately support compelling applications to graduate schools during the fall semester of their senior year.
Local Congregations and College Ministries
The Christian Mind Project will not replace the spiritual oversight believers receive through their local congregations, or the unique opportunities for outreach offered by national college ministries.
The project also recognizes the graduate and faculty ministries that have been addressing this need for decades, and encourages students to participate with them throughout their graduate school experience.
Voices from the Conference
“Noblesse Oblige. It is the idea that beyond the charge given to every Christian to make disciples of all nations, we who are doubly blessed with the faith and with positions of influence in the world must doubly use our access to bring Christ into our various fields.”
“CMP helps empower young Christian students to take a Christ-inspired, gospel centered, values laden approach to their career in academia.”
“The main purpose of CMP was to show that it is possible to live a life of excellence in a secular society in such a way that gives God the glory. It is almost as if we have been given a mandate to continue staying true to our Christian values in a secular world, while influencing society through whatever career we pursue.”
“CMP was a rallying cry for support for young students considering academia.”
“CMP opened so many opportunities: to connect with fellow student believers beyond our own campuses, to meet and hear from prominent scholars in academia who have thought a lot about what it means (and how) to be a Christian in academia, and to return to our own schools with great encouragements, new learnings, and emerging questions.”
“Being connected to other students who share both a deep love of academic learning as well as a personal faith in Christ is so important to understanding we are not alone. Learning to integrate our faith within our field of study is essential to being a strong Christian in academia.”
“As Christians navigating secular academia, we ought to move forward with a faithful presence, remaining true to our convictions and maintaining a heart to take part in God’s kingdom in our current and future vocation, while also maintaining intellectual humility.”