Faith Can Work: LeTourneau University is Training Young Christian Leaders to Enter the Workforce
TwoTen spoke with president of LeTourneau University Dr. Dale A. Lunsford about the importance of training graduates and future-graduates to bring Christ into the workplace. Read what he and the university are doing to achieve this in the article below...
Just outside the window of the LeTourneau University president’s office stands a new, two-story student center currently under construction. It is one of many transformations made in the past six years by the university’s new leader.
When Dr. Dale A. Lunsford assumed the presidency of LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas on July 1, 2007, he was the first new president in over two decades. His first year as president, he lived in an apartment on campus, eating meals with the students, attending their athletic events and worshipping with them at Sunday evening services.
Those experiences proved invaluable and led to improvements to dining facilities and athletic fields, aviation and engineering facilities, as well as construction of a new 200-bed residence hall on the university’s 162-acre campus in the piney woods of East Texas. The university also expanded its academic degree programs to be more comprehensive, while retaining its historically strong reputation in the STEM programs (science, technology, engineering and math).
Yet, one of the president’s first hurdles was to assure the school’s alumni all over the world that this Christ-centered university was steadfast in its commitment to its heritage. Lunsford led the university in 2008 to distill its identity in a new vision statement:
Claiming every workplace in every nation as their mission field, LeTourneau University graduates are professionals of ingenuity and Christ-like character who see life’s work as a holy calling with eternal impact. - LeTourneau University’s Vision Statement
“This mission is part of our DNA,” Lunsford said. “It goes back to our founder R.G. LeTourneau, who founded [the school] 65 years ago. He was not a pastor, not an evangelist, but was a highly successful businessman who worked in the earthmoving and offshore oil drilling industries. He was a man of great faith, and the institution was founded and continues to operate with the idea that the workplace is a place of ministry.”
LeTourneau University students are taught that excellence in their career field honors God, and the school’s strong reputation enables many of them to graduate with several offers in hand because of emphasis on work ethic and practical, hands-on learning.
“We are called in all that we do to be God-honoring, and that means God gets the very best of our effort,” Lunsford said. “As people of faith, we should be the market leaders in everything we do. We should be challenged to be the very best. The question is not: Am I going to be successful, or am I going to be a godly man? You’re going to do both. In fact, your success is going to point to and honor God. It’s not a choice.”
“Profit is not a bad thing. Success is not a bad thing. And being the number one in market share is not an ungodly thing at all,” Lunsford said. “It is about the way you do it. It is about the culture. It’s about standing on the conviction that we can be a loving, God-honoring, affirming culture and still be very successful. Some don’t think Christian values will work in business, so they don’t try it. We beg to differ.”
Every workplace in every nation is a mission field, a place of ministry...
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