Supporting and Encouraging Christian
Business Faculty in the Public University
Eric D. Bostwick,
University of West Florida
Greg L. Lowhorn,
Pensacola Christian College
Christian Business Faculty Association Annual Conference, June 27-July 1, 2011
Mount Vernon Nazarene University: Mount Vernon, Ohio

 Purpose and mission of the CBFA
 Secular work as sacred service
 Recommendations
2

 What is the purpose of the CBFA?
(Lemler, 2004 CBFA Conference Proceedings)
 Christian Business Faculty Association
 Intentionally and distinctly Christian in perspective and operation
 Not merely religious or moral
 Christian, as opposed to Humanist,
Muslim, Hindu, etc.
3

 What is the purpose of the CBFA?
(Lemler, 2004 CBFA Conference Proceedings)
Christian Business Faculty Association
 Attentive to those activities within the various fields of business
4

 What is the purpose of the CBFA?
(Lemler, 2004 CBFA Conference Proceedings)
Christian Business Faculty Association
 Comprised of those who teach business, as opposed to business students or corporate leaders
5

 What is the purpose of the CBFA?
(Lemler, 2004 CBFA Conference Proceedings)
Christian Business Faculty Association
 Intended to support, encourage, and allow for the mutual fellowship of its members
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“The mission of the CBFA is to assist and encourage Christian business faculty in the study, integration, teaching, and application of Biblical truths in service to the academy, students, and the business community.”
(CBFA website)
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 What: To assist and encourage
 Who: Christian business faculty
 How: Study, integration, teaching, and application of Biblical truths
 Why: Service to the academy, students, and the business community
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 Service to God through nonecclesiastical pursuits is assumed in the CBFA mission
 Therefore, we promote:
 Faith-integration scholarship and application for business
 Training students to enter and be successful in the field of business
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 Vocation (Latin):
 Economic choice of life work
 Faith-informed choice of life pursuit
 Augustine: vocation limited to ecclesiastical offices
 Luther: direct communication between God and man allows man to know and do God’s will in any area, including vocation
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 Colleges and universities founded for religious purposes have “left their first love”
(Rev. 2:4)
 An educational divide between sacred and secular has emerged
 Public institutions: where one does not expect to meet God
 Christian institutions: where God is expected to be met
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 Christian professors at public institutions often must confront:
 Challenges to their biblical worldview (some potentially legal)
 The relationship between their worldview and their academic discipline
 The application of their world-view to teaching and relationships
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 CBFA publications resound with assertions that a secular business vocation can be service to God
 We should extend this assertion to the public university classroom
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 Yet Martinez (2006) notes that the
Christian business academy is doing less to help practitioners than practitioners are doing to help themselves
 This is equally true, if not more so, for Christian business faculty teaching at public institutions
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 Can faith-integration occur on public university campuses?
 Not state-sponsored religion
 One’s world-view, regardless of what it may be, will affect one’s actions
 Christians should recognize and accept their instrumentality where they have been placed by God within
His economy for His purposes and for His ultimate glory
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 Hindrances to the expression of faith in business do not nullify our beliefs or efforts in that arena
 Mature faith-integration:
 Cannot be limited to the Christian university educator, the Christian employee or Christian entrepreneur
 May be best lived out when it contrasts most sharply from its surroundings
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 Challenge for the CBFA
 Question the desire for secular recognition for the work we do here
(Martinez 2006)
 Why do we seek this recognition?
 The unbelieving world hates Christ’s words (John 15:18-25)
 The words of Christ are foolishness to those who lack the Holy Spirit (I Cor. 2)
 Does not reduce expectation of rigor and excellence (Eccl. 9:10, I Cor. 10:31)
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 Challenge for the CBFA
( cont.
)
 Encourage, support, and foster work that is important to the CBFA
 Coordinate meetings and resources with other organization, especially
Christian organizations
 Website resources for faith-integration
 Doctoral candidate stipends
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 Challenge for CBFA contributors
 Build upon, apply, support, and defend vocation as service to God
 Expand collaboration between
Christian and public university faculty
(Dyck 1999)
 Consider applications within the public university classroom
 Legal contributors’ instruction on public university “do’s” and “don’t’s”
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 Challenge to Christian Faculty at
Christian Universities
 If you can be intentionally and explicitly Christian, DO SO !
 Consider how what you say and do could help or affect your fellow
Christians teaching at a public universities
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 Challenge to Christian Faculty at
Public Universities
 Direct some research toward Christian topics and publication outlets
 Use Christian scholarship as a catalyst for spiritual outreach
 Support, join, and/or start Christian campus ministries
 Consider your testimony before others
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Supporting and Encouraging Christian
Business Faculty in the Public University
Eric D. Bostwick,
University of West Florida
Greg L. Lowhorn,
Pensacola Christian College
Christian Business Faculty Association Annual Conference, June 27-July 1, 2011
Mount Vernon Nazarene University: Mount Vernon, Ohio