LeTourneau President

Who are the poor?

Immediately following His wilderness journey of temptations, Jesus beings His Galilean ministry by announcing that He has come to preach good news to the poor.  Since then, believers have interpreted these to be the poor in a political and economic sense.  Others have seen these to be the poor in spirit. 

The distinction seems to be a stumbling block for many who are seeking to live out their Christian faith.  Are we instruments of God's gospel to the economically poor or the spiritually poor?

John Stott addresses the question this way:  "The only way to resolve this dilemma is to say that both are correct, since Jesus taught both.  The poor in the Old Testament are both the humble poor who cry to God for mercy and the oppressed poor who need to be liberated.  Further, 'the gospel comes as good news to both.  The spiritualy poor, who...humble themselves before God, receive by faith the free gift of salvation...The materially poor and powerless find in addition a new dignity as God's children, and the love of brothers and sisters, who will struggle with them for their liberation from everything which demeans and oppresses them.'"

Christ followers in the workplace labor beside both the materially poor and the spiritually poor.  We have good news for both.  Our lives can demonstrate God's unconditional love to both.  Living out our faith doesn't mean choosing to feed the poor or to preach the gospel of salvation.  It means doing both.  Our Christian faith in the workplace can change eternity for those around us...and eternity begins with their material lives today. 

 

 

Washington DC: many problems, LETU is part of the answer

Marsha and I have just returned from our annual meeting with the presidents and spouses of our fellow CCCU institutions.  The meeting was held in Washington which also gave us an opportunity to learn more about important federal initiatives that will impact higher education and LETU.  I have returned both challenged and encouraged.

President Obama gave a motivating State of the Union address the evening before we arrived.  As he should, he called Americans to the important task of preparing our nation for success in a changing world.  I found the mood much more somber and realistic, however, on Thursday as Randy Yeakley and I visited with leaders in Congress.  “The federal government is broke,” Senator Cornyn told me Thursday.  Perhaps he was being influenced by a report issued that morning by the World Bank which called on the U.S. to move quickly to reduce budget deficits.  I left the Senator only to find emails waiting with reports of similar conversations now underway in Austin where the State of Texas finds itself $20 billion short of balancing the budget.

Even though we are not a public university, the prospect of less government spending on education is significant to LETU and all other private universities.  Most of our students and their families take advantage of government subsidized student loans, direct grants like Pell from the federal government and TEG from the state, and federal tax deductions for family tuition expenses.  LETU has also benefited from NSF, NIH, DOE and other government sponsored grants for research, teaching, and student success. 

Molly Brand who leads ACE (American Council on Education) spoke to our CCCU group and reminded us that the increase in federal government aid to our students has been dramatic.  It is reasonable to assume this increase in government spending can’t continue and may well be reversed in the years to come.  Indeed, the first draft of the new Texas state budget includes dramatic reductions in grants to many of our current and future students. 

With smaller aid programs, public officials will want to award student aid in the most effective way possible.  Much of student aid today goes to students who never graduate from college.   Too many student loans go to students with little prospect of a job that will allow them to repay those loans.  It is smart for our government officials to expect universities to be accountable to students and to taxpayers. 

This is where I’m encouraged.  Inherent in our Christian values, LETU cares deeply for our students.  We want them to be successful:  to graduate in a timely manner and move into gainful employment.  I see this heart every day at LETU as I observe you serving our students and going the extra mile to prepare them for the holy calling we believe is theirs.  In the lives of both our faculty and staff; on our traditional residential campus and in our non-residential programs; I see the kind of stewardship that is God-honoring and invaluable to a nation that needs to achieve more while spending less.

Yes, our retention and graduation rates are behind many of our peers.  Too many LETU students never earn their degree.  Some take so long to graduate and are so burdened with student loan debt that they are less effective as Christ’s ambassadors in the workplace.   But as government agencies, regional accrediting bodies  and students themselves call us to do better, it is obvious that we are capable of meeting the challenge.  LETU academic programs are highly regarded and our graduates move into significant employment.   We have the right people with the right heart to provide the academic and community support necessary for students to achieve an LETU degree.  My visit to Washington has reminded me that all of you are not part of the problem but instead part of the solution for our nation and our state. 

The "everlasting" workplace

All work is important to God.  I know some days and in some situations it is a challenge, but I have experienced that when you invite God to come into your workplace, he can demonstrate the eternal impact in daily routines.

We all have work of eternal impact:  those in professional ministry and those laboring in workplaces outside the church.

In my quiet time this morning, John Stott introduced me to James Stalker and his 1879 book, Life of Jesus Christ.  Stalker wrote of Jesus the carpenter:

It would be difficult to exhaust the significance of the fact that God chose for his Son, when he dwelt among men, out of all possible positions in which he might have placed him, the lot of a working man.  It stamped men's common toils with everlasting honour.

Seeing our workplace as a place where the "everlasting" is done changes everything.

LETU Professor Named Fulbright Scholar

The U.S. Department of State recently reported that only 9 professors at private universities across the state of Texas who were named Fulbright Scholars this academic year.  The Fulbright program is the nation's flagship academic exchange program that promotes outstanding university faculty who will teach and study outside the U.S. 

LeTourneau University is home to one of these 9 Fulbright Scholars.   

Dr. Juan Castro, LETU Finance Professor is serving as a Fulbright Scholar to El Salvador.  Dr. Castro has a passion for Christian higher education and for fighting poverty around the world.  You can read more about him at http://www.letu.edu/opencms/opencms/_Other-Resources/Media_Room/NOW-Features/JuanCastroNOWsummer2010.html

 

 

Longview Commencement Speaker Understands the Workplace as a Calling

Our commencement speaker in Longview today is Joel T. Allison, the President and Chief Executive Officer of Baylor Health Care System.  Baylor Health is one of the nation's largest health care systems and Mr. Alison is consistently recognized as one of the most powerful people in the health care industry.

Mr. Allison recently told the Dallas Business Journal that growing up on his family's farm in Missouri taught him the value of hard work and the joy of learning to love the Lord.  Mr. Allison told the Journal that he considers his health care career a calling.  "This is my mission," he says.  "This is my ministry."

What an honor to have Joel as a speaker for the December 2010 graduates!  His life demonstrates our mission here at LeTourneau University -- a life lived with the understanding that God calls each of us to our own unique mission field.  He encourages us to claim our workplace as our place of ministry to God and to our fellow man.

Who are you eating with today?

A large group of LeTourneau students, faculty, and staff are in Dallas metro area prisons.  No, there hasn't been some kind of mass moral failure.  They are in prisons with Bill Glass Ministries sharing the mercy they have experienced in knowing Jesus Christ.  I am excited to hear their accounts of what God is doing in places so removed from the churches where most Christ followers have assembled for worship this Sunday.

One of our tendencies is to limit our pursuit of God to the church campus on Sunday.  Living out our faith doesn't seem to extend to our workplace or our neighborhood.  We seem to define our faith as hugging our brother and sister in Christ on Sunday morning.  Touching the lives of others outside our "church family" on Monday is not a priority.

Of course, Jesus didn't live that way.  In Matthew 8 and 9, we read that Jesus touched and healed a leper, the least of the least in that society.  We read that Jesus marveled at the faith of a hated Roman soldier occupying by force the Jewish homeland.  Jesus had every reason to turn away from this Centurion but instead He answered his faithful request for healing.  Jesus had mercy on the demon-possessed homeless.  And when he called Matthew out of his workplace to follow Jesus, the religious leaders of the day pondered, "Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?'

I thank God for LeTourneau staff and students who made themselves available for prison ministry.  For the rest of us, we don't have to go into a prison to "eat with tax collectors and sinners."   We don't even have to step outside our daily lives but we do to yield to God's compassion for the hurting, weary, and confused.

Matthew concludes that Jesus was motivated by a heavy heart for all -- all  our neighbors, not just those at church with us this Sunday.

But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd.  Then He said to His disciples, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.  Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." (Matthew 9:36-38)

Trustees Approve New Initiatives to Implement Strategic Plan

The LeTourneau University Board of Trustees concluded their Fall 2010 meeting Friday.  We are beginning the exciting work of implementing our "Every Workplace.  Every Nation" strategic plan.  Here's an update on three of the important decisions made at the meeting.

University Encourages Development of New Ministries

Growing as a university of global influence is one of our strategic objectives. With our talented faculty, high-ability students, and a culture of ingenuity in Christian service, God has uniquely equipped us to join His call to love one another and make disciples in every nation.  We have specific skills and resources that allow us to minister in ways not possible for other ministry organizations, churches, or universities.

To support the important work being done on our prosthetic knee and other emerging technologies and services, the University will create a new subsidiary corporation.  LeTourneau Empowering Global Solutions (LEGS) will oversee new ministries that emerge from our faculty and students. What is happening with our innovative prosthetics will happen again on our campus in the future:  faculty-student teams will create innovative solutions, sustainable worldwide, that ease human suffering and point people to the hope of Jesus Christ.  These projects will come from all of our schools, not just engineering, and go beyond the work in prosthetics. 

The new corporation will provide leadership and oversight as these ministries grow and various contractual and commercialization opportunities arise.  To insure these new ministries remain true to the values of LeTourneau University, the governing board of this new corporation will come from the University Board of Trustees.  The university president will also serve as the chief executive officer of the new corporation.  The new corporation will develop strategic direction, execute agreements with government and non-government organizations worldwide, provide for management, and maintain working agreements between the subsidiary corporation and the parent University.

Capital Improvements Approved for Longview Campus

Our strategic planning of the last two years identified capital issues that would hinder the growth of the Longview campus between now and 2015.  The most critical need (residence hall bedspaces) was addressed last year with the start of the new residence hall.  Last week, Trustees approved a comprehensive capital improvement plan that will address other needs of students, faculty and staff.  The plan includes both new construction and renovations.  Projects will be started as funding is identified and commence in a particular sequence that allows for the relocation of certain existing office space.

The first improvement project is an expansion of the Glaske Center that will add faculty office space.  With relocation of departments from  Longview/HHH, much needed expansion of faculty office space can happen across campus.  This project is funded and construction will begin as soon as practical.

Near the Glaske Center, our master plan now includes a new academic building where the Development and Student Services buildings now sit.  We have launched a number of new academic programs in the last three years and as they grow, this new academic building can provide classrooms, labs, and offices.  We will plan the details of this new academic center in the near future as we experience enrollment growth and identify construction funding. 

Our Estes Library has served us well but was constructed for a smaller and very different student body and faculty.  An extensive redesign into a modern learning commons has been planned which will require relocation of the second floor administrative departments.  Funding of the library improvements is still pending but we will move soon to relocate the admissions office into a new welcome center at the front of campus.

The Heritage Center will be our point of welcome for guests to campus.  It will house the admissions, alumni, career services, development and president's office.  The RG LeTourneau history exhibit on MSC 3 will be relocated to this new building where it will be linked to the historical equipment and the LeTourneau burial site.  This facility will allow first-time guests and returning alumni to reconnect with the history of our founder and the university as well as learn about our vision for the future. 

We will have space for 1,200 residential students when the new residence hall is complete.   Gathering space for such a group of students to meet together outside of class is inadequate.  With current administrative offices and the LeTourneau museum relocated from MSC, the Memorial Student Center can be renovated into a much-needed student center with expanded food services, student organization meeting space, and study space.    

With more than 200 student athletes in our NCAA program and a student body that enjoys intramural sports, our current athletics facilities are inadequate.  A plan to transform our existing fields into an athletic village has been created.  It includes improvements to our inadequate fencing and lighting, reconfiguration of the soccer and baseball fields, and the improvement of seating and concessions for students and parents who come to support YellowJacket athletics.  We are also identifying needed improvements inside the Solheim Center.  These improvements will be made as God provides the resources.

Many of you have been involved in the planning of these projects and our Trustees recognized your good work.  We will continue to share updates and renderings of the new facilities as they are developed.

Trustees Add New Members and Elect New Leadership

Nancy Mendez has been elected to chair the LETU Board of Trustees.  Nancy has served on the board since 1990 and her father Justin Longenecker was also a leader of our Board decades ago.  A former LETU student, Nancy now lives in Whittier, CA where she serves as assistant city manager.  Patrick Bertsche was elected vice chair.  Pat is a 1989 LETU graduate.  Ken Moore was elected secretary and Merle Stoltzfus was re-elected treasurer.

Three new trustees joined the board at this meeting: Joe Bickley of Montgomery, TX, Tim Morscheck of Portage, MI, and Jim Schreder of Yorba Linda, CA.   

 

Great companies still recruiting Great LETU students

Another jobs report was released to the nation this morning and it doesn't encourage.  The unemployment rate in the U.S. continues to remain high, 9.6% for September.  In that month, the economy lost 95,000 jobs according to the report.

To look at this another way:  nearly 15 million are unemployed and looking for jobs.

I do see encouraging news here at LeTourneau University however.  Some of the world's greatest companies are coming to campus this fall to interview LETU students.  Here are a few of the employers here this fall to recruit our students:

Caterpillar, John Deere, EOG Resources, Energy Future Holdings, Lincoln Electric, Rockwell Collins, National Oilwell Varco. 

In my last blog entry, I pointed to data that demonstrates a college degree is more important than ever.  The unemployment rate for those without a college degree is double the rate for those who have earned a degree.  College remains a meaningful investment.

Congratulations to Steve Gatton and our LETU Career Center and to our dedicated faculty who are educating some of the nation's highest potential students.

 

Another reason to earn a college degree

The poor economic conditions provide another reason to earn a college degree.

The Wall Street Journal reported on September 20 that college graduates have more job security in this time of high unemployment.  The unemployment rate for workers with at least a bachelor's degree was 4.6% in August.  This compares to 10.3% unemployment for those with a high school diploma. 

That's a significant difference.

Conor Dougherty writing in the Journal:  "It's not only that the college educated earn more, but that they are far more likely to keep their jobs when times get tough."

The article goes on to say that earning a college degree is no longer the "slam dunk it once was."  I agree.  Graduating from college offers no guarantee of success.  But the common sense answer to the basic question remains:  Wouldn't you rather go through times like this with a college degree than without?

If you are wondering, having a college degree pays in the good economic times also.  The earnings of workers with a bachelor's degree or more grew 20% during the expansion years of 1979-2007.  Workers with graduate or professional degrees did even better (31% growth).  During the same time period, the earnings of workers with a high school diploma fell.

I was the first in my family to earn a college degree.  It changed my life.  It changed the lives of my children.  College is still the single most important transformational experience in our society.  And because it is such a significant place, the world needs Christian universities like LeTourneau as an alternative to secular institutions.  Christ-centered higher education prepares individuals for economic success and also for eternal significance.   

"Fighting for My World View"

On a quiet Saturday after a hectic week, two books out of the UK caught my attention.

Cambridge professor Stephen Hawking has written "The Grand Design" to offer his view of the origin of the universe.  Or I should more appropriately write 'his view of the origin of the universes.'

Hawking notes that Christianity has concluded that God created an intelligent universe that functions according to deliberate and sophisticated design.  He disagrees.  "Many people would like us to use these coincidences as evidence of the work of God...That is not the answer of modern science...It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

Dr. Hawking is an imminent scholar and I can't refute his conclusion that the laws of gravity allow universes to appear spontaneously from nothing.  I don't know leading-edge physics well enough to argue against his conclusion that "our universe seems to be one of many, each with different laws."

His conclusions do seem to leave me with a choice:  have faith in the wisdom of the ancient and Holy Bible which describes a God who designed the universe or have faith in a scientific religion that gravity appeared from nothing so that many universes could appear from nothing including one where random coincidences resulted in the creation of all complex life that we know.

I think it a greater leap of faith to believe in Professor Hawking's explanation than to believe in an omnipotent God as intelligent designer and sustainer of life.

The other book out of the UK is Tony Blair's "A Journey: My Political Life."   His introduction as excerpted in the Wall Street Journal today caught my attention:

"Personally, I have never felt a greater sense of frustration or indeed a greater urge to leadership since leaving  Downing Street.  I enjoy my new life much more than my old one, and find in it huge purpose.  I am fighting for my world view, but in a different manner from that of being in conventional office."

"I am fighting for my world view."  That statement describes the trustees, faculty, staff, and all leaders within the LeTourneau University community.  In a world increasingly hostile to the Christian faith; in an economy that threatens the funding of Christian ministries; and in a political climate that challenges where Christian universities should be allowed to operate according to the tenets of our faith, we are fighting for our world view.  A world view that begins by disagreeing with Professor Hawking and 'science' and goes further to describe this Creator God as one who is reaching out with love to claim every person on this planet as His child.

Mr. Blair goes on to say that the Western world has lost its way.  We doubt our mission and have become feeble and unwilling to defend our values.  He was not writing about Christianity but will some future historian write the same about 21st century Christians.  I fear that.    That's why we have been so focused at LeTourneau to keep Christ at the center of all we do.  Thinking about 'fighting for our world view' is a good way to stay focused.