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In the fifth episode of the third season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Wayne D. Lewis, Jr., President of Houghton University. Lewis begins by discussing the levels of attention presidents in the United States need to exert in relation to decisions being made in Washington, DC as well in their respective state capitals. By doing so, presidents can, when needed, serve as informed lobbyists on behalf of their institutions. Lewis, however, also cautions presidents not to allow those levels of attention to dictate the highest allegiances exercised by their institutions. In contrast, the relationship their institutions share with the Church as reflected in their missions must dictate such allegiances. Lewis then describes how his calling to education originally began with a calling to serve in the criminal justice system. Prior to his appointment as President of Houghton University, that process included service teaching high school, teaching collegiate undergrads and grad students, serving as the chief education officer for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and as the dean for a college of education. As Houghton’s president, Lewis discusses the process he utilized when developing the institution’s current strategic plan and his appreciation for the thoughtfulness his predecessor and the board exercised when approving the short strategic plan that was in place during the first two years of his tenure. Lewis then closes by echoing themes he noted at the beginning of his conversation, particularly themes concerning the relationships Church-related universities share with the Church and, in this instance, how those relationships impact the academic vocation as exercised on campuses.
Todd Ream: Welcome to Saturdays at Seven, Christian Scholar’s Review’s conversation series with thought leaders about the academic vocation and the relationship that vocation shares with the Church. My name is Todd Ream. I have the privilege of serving as the publisher for Christian Scholar’s Review and as the host for Saturdays at Seven. I also have the privilege of serving on the faculty and the administration at Indiana Wesleyan University.
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Our guest is Wayne D. Lewis Jr., President of Houghton University. Thank you for joining us. As a public policy scholar and practitioner, in what ways, if any, do private college and universities need to cultivate an awareness of their priorities apart from policy decisions being made at state and national levels, and also perhaps in concert with those decisions? Where is the independent operating sphere for them, but also where is there perhaps overlap?
Wayne D. Lewis: That’s a great question. And, you know, I’m thrilled to be here to have this conversation with you. Appreciate the invitation.
You know, as I think about how we might develop our priorities and how we go about developing our priorities apart from state, local, federal government, I’m always centered in the reality that students and families are choosing private institutions in my case, private, religious, private Christian institutions whether they articulate it or not, as an alternative to what is in the public sector.
There are obviously high quality public school options that are available to students who want to pursue post-secondary education. I think it’s incumbent upon us to make sure that we are mindful of creating the type of opportunity the type of educational experience that would be attractive for our student base, for our family base. That’s critical.
Now for me at Houghton University, as, as I think it’s probably similar for most of my peers in Christian colleges and universities across the country, it is cultivating an experience that is intentionally grounded in the Word of God, where we integrate a really high quality academic experience with our Christian faith. One where generally the community, the Christian community is incredibly important to what we do. So it’s not just the integration of what we’re doing in the classroom with our Christian faith, but that we’re cultivating a Christian community where young people and scholars are living and learning together and modeling what it looks like, what it feels like to be a Christian community.
We can’t just teach about being a Christian community or talk about Christian community, but at the Christian college of liberal arts and sciences, we get the opportunity to do that in community together with our students. And that’s what I think draws families and students to our institutions. That’s apart from what’s happening in, in government and in policy at the state and at the federal level.
Now, we also recognize, however, that we are part of the larger, the broader higher education ecosystem. And there are elements of that ecosystem from a policy standpoint that for most of our institutions, not all, but for most of our institutions that we work in concert with. And that for some of us, I mean quite frankly, we’re in some ways dependent on but most notable one being students access to federal and state financial aid.
The public, the citizenry makes those dollars available to students to attend not just public institutions, but private institutions because as citizens, we have deemed it important that young people and not so young people have access to private education in addition to public education, with the belief that all of those, those places are contributing to a community, a citizen citizenry a a nation where people are better educated, better informed, and thus can make better decisions take care of each other, and create a more prosperous nation for us all.
Todd Ream: What advice would you offer then to your fellow presidents in terms of cultivating an awareness of what’s going on in terms of policy making decisions in their respective state capitals as well as in DC? And then at what point do presidents perhaps need to be prepared to invest in lobbying? So not just be cultivating an awareness, but also investing in lobbying in those spheres.
Wayne D. Lewis: I think it is critical that we as presidents keep a close eye toward what’s happening in Congress, the president’s office at the federal level in the courts well as at the state level in our various capitals and in the state courts. As I mentioned previously, the decisions that are being made there, the policies that are being promulgated, they do have very significant implications for our operation. Financial aid was the first one that I mentioned.
But consider as well as, Christian institutions, what happens in the space of religious liberty has tremendous implications not just for how we operate, but for an institution like mine, frankly has implications for whether we can operate. If, if we are, and we are in fact founded on and committed to operating as a Christ-centered institution, if the US and state constitutional protections that allow us to operate as an institution that is, that is grounded in our faith, if those dissipate, if the Constitution is changed, if statutes are passed, that begin to infringe on that ability, then the serious question becomes, can we continue to operate?
And presidents need to be mindful that anything can happen in government. Just because something has been in place or there have been protections in place for a long period of time does not mean whatsoever that things cannot change. And so there are, there is always advocacy happening at the state house. There’s always advocacy happening at the federal government. And one of the things I think that, that could potentially lull people into a sense of false security is not seeing change.
But rather than recognizing change as the absence of activity, we should recognize that change generally happens, or stasis generally happens, when there is advocacy happening on both sides of an issue and there is not able to be movement in one direction or the other. If you lose advocacy on one side of that issue, you are likely to see change going in a direction that may or may not be advantageous for you.
Todd Ream: Thank you. Amidst keeping their eyes and ears open to what’s going on in DC and their respective state capitals, in what ways do you think presidents also need to cultivate an awareness of the Church being a public that their institution is called to serve and with which their institution is called to interact?
Wayne D. Lewis: It’s critical. I think for most of us, we recognize that we work in partnership with denominations, with local churches, with the broader Church of Christ and, and recognize that there are functions that we provide as Christian higher education institutions that we believe obviously are very important, but we are not the local church and we are not denominations. And to fully realize who we are to be I would contend as the Church, it takes higher Christian, higher education institutions and the Church working in partnership, working in concert.
For an institution like Houghton, which is in fact a ministry of the Wesleyan Church, a denominational entity, we do have relationship with the church, generally with denominations and local churches that are outside of our denomination, but we have a special relationship with our founding and sponsoring denomination, the Wesleyan Church.
The Wesleyan Church believed it important enough for us in 1883 to found an institution for the purpose of providing an intentional Christ-centered education for young people. We continue to carry that mission. And the added significance for us is that we do it in a way that does not keep out people who don’t have the means to pursue education, private education, often at more expensive places. That continues to be an important point of emphasis for us.
Todd Ream: Thank you very much.
I want to ask you now some biographical questions about the development of your sense of vocation as an educator. You earned a bachelor’s in criminal justice from Loyola University of New Orleans, a master’s in urban studies from the University of Akron, and a PhD in educational research and policy analysis at North Carolina State University.
To begin, I gotta go back to your time in New Orleans and ask, what’s the best meal you ever had while you lived down there?
Wayne D. Lewis: My goodness, that’s hard. I don’t know that I’ve ever had that specific question. And I don’t know that I can answer.
But the one that comes to mind for me was one of my staples. My wife and I loved this dish at a restaurant that I think they’re still open. Copeland’s in New Orleans serves a dish called crawfish ravioli, which is one of our absolute favorites. And so when we get back to New Orleans, generally we make sure we get to Copeland’s so that we can have some of that.
Todd Ream: Some crawfish ravioli. There you go. Excellent. Thank you.
Now going back to your bio then and some of the details, you know, your undergraduate major was criminal justice, but at what point in time did you decide not to go into law enforcement, at least as a formal expression of your vocation?
Wayne D. Lewis: No, it’s a, it’s a great question. You know, I started working in law enforcement as a college student. So as a college student, I was working for the Orleans Parish Criminal Sheriff’s Office while pursuing the degree in criminal justice with the intention of continuing that career in law enforcement.
While I was in college, one of my major professors was at the time, the Deputy Chief of Police in the city of New Orleans, and had a remarkable GED to PhD story of his own.
Todd Ream: Wow.
Wayne D. Lewis: He was one of the people I think that inspired me most as a, a young person pursuing higher education. And he saw something in me and encouraged me to go to graduate school. Prior to our conversations and his encouragement, it was my intention to continue that career in law enforcement and maybe go to graduate school at some point, but it wasn’t on the front burner for me.
And so I decided that I would go to graduate school right after finishing my undergraduate degree at Loyola. And I majored in criminal justice in urban studies in my graduate program because it’s what he majored in. And at that point I was patterning my career after his career.
Well, I got to graduate school, maybe midway into my first semester, and graduate school was a life changing experience for me. I started to see myself for the first time as a young scholar. I fell in love with books. I fell in love with learning, the pursuit of knowledge in a way that I could have never imagined just a few years previously. And by midway into that first semester, I was a different person.
Now, with that said, I finished my master’s degree. And I was still intending to continue a career in criminal justice, in law enforcement. I was actually in the hiring process for a federal law enforcement agency. And it was my mom who encouraged me, quite possibly out of fear, to consider a career in education. There was a post-baccalaureate teacher education program that she’d heard about. And she was the first person in my life who had ever recommended that I consider a career in education.
So she shared that information with me. I decided to check it out and decided to give it a try. I applied, was accepted, and started in a post-baccalaureate program in teacher education at the University of New Orleans back home and, and went into the classroom as a classroom teacher, first at Booker T. Washington High School in New Orleans.
Todd Ream: Wow. Thank you. Left that, you know, sort of career aspiration, you know, behind in some ways when you went into education. But very few college presidents can rightfully say to young people who may be in their office after not working and playing well with others, I worked in New Orleans Parish in law enforcement.
Not a lot you’re gonna generate here that’s gonna scare me, so.
Wayne D. Lewis: That is true.
Todd Ream: It’s a helpful skillset still to this day, potentially.
Are there any other mentors besides your undergraduate professor and your mom who you would identify and then perhaps authors who helped you fall in love with learning and with education when you were a graduate student?
Wayne D. Lewis: Sure, sure. I mean I’d say my mom and my dad both were critical mentors for me. I think I pursued a career in law enforcement in large part because it’s what I saw my dad doing. Growing up my dad had spent time as a deputy in that same agency in the Orleans Parish criminal sheriff’s office. I remember as a young kid very clearly, wearing his shirts to play around the house. And so it was, it was really, it was a really great opportunity for me to kind of walk in his footsteps for that time.
In addition, I would say as I got into teaching, my mentor teachers became incredible mentors and role models for me. I believe firmly in teacher education that we have to do a great job of preparing students to go into classrooms day one and be as prepared as possible to serve students well.
But I understand as an experienced teacher that most of what you really learn about being an effective classroom teacher happens on the job. And mentor teachers play an incredible role in that process. So my mentor teachers were incredible in that, for me.
In terms of books, this is a great question because my master’s degree in urban studies, while different, obviously a different discipline, a different field than education and education research, was critical and has been critical in shaping what I would do with my education career.
Because it was, it was during that master’s degree program that I started to learn about explore some of the really incredible challenges we face in highly impoverished urban communities, challenges related to economic inequality, challenges related to housing, challenges related to crime, to education. And so while not in education yet, education was a part of that broader system that I was studying as a master’s student.
And, I believe that it played a role in my ultimate decision to go into teaching because I saw teaching, especially in a high poverty urban district, which was the New Orleans Public Schools, continues to be the New Orleans Public Schools, as an opportunity for me to have a role, in trying to address some of those challenges.
So authors and books that were critical for me during that time period, Jonthan Kozol’s work Savage Inequalities was really pivotal for me. Paul Tough’s work, Whatever it Takes, as he chronicled the work of Geoffrey Canada and the Harlem Children’s Zone, and thinking not just about the role that effective schooling could play in moving the academic achievement of students.
But recognizing that it takes consideration of the entire community and how do you create an ecosystem around children and families that is supportive and conducive to success because you can’t just change what happens in the classroom and ignore everything else that they’re experiencing. So those would be critical for me during that period.
Todd Ream: Thank you. In addition to serving as a classroom teacher in a public school setting, you also served the Commonwealth of Kentucky as its Executive Director of Education Policy and programs in the education and workforce cabinet, and then as Kentucky’s Commissioner of Education.
Would you describe the discernment process that led you to serve in those capacities, and in what ways did you find that work as an educator fulfilling?
Wayne D. Lewis: At the time, immediately before I went into service and state government, I was a faculty member, a full-time faculty member at the University of Kentucky. I had recently earned tenure and promotion and was, you know, setting the stage for what the next part of my career would look like. I was directing doctoral programs in educational leadership and educational policy in the college of education.
And the opportunity came, the invitation came to join a new administration, an invitation that I did not expect. And so spent some time in thinking and praying with my wife about what that opportunity might look like, whether we felt like this was a space God was leading us to. And ultimately where we landed through that, that period of discernment was this was an opportunity to lead and have an active role in trying to address some of the challenges that I was studying.
I mean, an opportunity that most people don’t get, not just to study, challenges that come, come about as a result of poverty, challenges related to, to inequality, but, but to actually get to work in government to address some of these things. And so we worked out an arrangement with the University of Kentucky in that first role where state government essentially bought out 100% of my time.
So technically I was still a tenured faculty member at the University of Kentucky but on loan to state government as executive director of education policy and programs and had the opportunity to work with the general assembly to advise the governor as, as education policy advisor and work on education policy from early childhood all the way through post-secondary education.
So at the early childhood level, we were creating a new unified system for monitoring, evaluating, holding accountable early childhood education, all the way to post-secondary education where we were dipping our toe at the time in what performance-based funding might look like at the higher education level. So really critical opportunity.
And then you know, was, was blessed with the opportunity to serve the Commonwealth of Kentucky as Commissioner of Education as chief state schools officer, which, which has in fact been just one of the greatest honors of, of my life in, in serving Kentucky’s students and families and the, the great people at the Kentucky Department of Education.
Again, just something I could have never fathom to be able to have a hand, a direct hand in what I believe God was doing through the Kentucky Department of Education in, in trying to positively impact the lives of young people through schools and through, through career training.
Todd Ream: Thank you. I want to transition now to your appointment as president of Houghton University. Can you describe the discernment process that led you to accept that appointment?
Wayne D. Lewis: Sure. So at the time I was, I had left state government. I was serving as dean of the school of education at Belmont University in Nashville. And we loved Nashville. We had only been there a couple years.
Frankly, the only reason we’d even opened ourselves up to the possibility of moving was to my wife’s desire, and I supported to want to be closer to family. And so while we didn’t open or launch a search per se, we opened ourselves to the possibility that if something came up that was a good fit and that would get us a lot closer to her family, to where she grew up, and we would at the very least, consider that possibility.
So at that time, I had no experience with Houghton whatsoever. I had never visited Houghton. Frankly, I had never heard of Houghton. I had never visited western New York. I had some familiarity with the Wesleyan Church, but I was a member of the United Methodist Church at that time.
And so I remember the first Google search I did when I heard from the search consultant who was working the president’s search at Houghton, because I went to to Google Maps and and I wanted to see how far away Houghton was from my wife’s hometown, which is Warren, Ohio, and was shocked to learn that it was just over three hours away. And that initial search was the reason we even opened the conversation.
Now as we went through the process, we learned that there was just incredible alignment between Houghton’s history, mission, purpose, and who we were, who we are as people. So in addition to geographic proximity, it was just alignment in terms of theology, mission, purpose, and it was the visit on campus that made it absolutely clear that this is the place that God was calling us in this season of our lives.
My prayer going into the finalist visit at Houghton was, “God, would you make it just absolutely clear for me where you’re calling me to, where you would have me to serve?” And God answered that prayer.
Todd Ream: That’s great. Thank you. What advice then would you offer individuals seeking to discern whether they are also called to be university presidents?
Wayne D. Lewis: The first is, is absolutely a, I’d say a call to prayer and seeking, seeking to hear from the Lord, in terms of where the Lord is calling you, how the Lord is calling you, and, and where and how in that season of your life, I think is, is critical as well.
The second thing I’d say is a very honest assessment of the gifts, the abilities that the Lord has given you, understanding whether or not there is alignment between your particular skillset and the presidency.
I don’t view the calling to the presidency as a hierarchical calling. And just to, to flesh that out a little bit I’ve heard sometimes from aspiring administrators in, in talking or thinking about the presidency to say something along the lines of, well, it feels like the next thing, like it feels like the next right thing, kind of moving up the hierarchical chain.
And, and, and frankly this is just Wayne’s perspective, I don’t believe that’s what the presidency is. I believe God has equipped us with certain abilities and skills and dispositions. And sometimes those abilities and skills and the seasons in our lives align with particular positions.
For me, for example at one point in my life I felt like those things aligned perfectly with the professorship and, and for some people, that calling that the way God has wired you and equipped you, will mean you can spend a career becoming and being a master professor. And God knows we need them. We need master professors in the classroom, master professors who are shaping not just the learning experiences of young people and students but who are mentoring other scholars who are coming up and playing critical roles in the development of curriculum and in the development of programs.
And if that’s the way God has wired and equipped someone to do that work, you know that that’s, that’s different I believe, than my particular calling. But my calling is no higher than that person’s calling. It’s just different.
In this season of my life and as I was discerning whether or not God was calling me to the presidency He, He showed me some things about the way I was wired and the gifts that He’d given me in the areas of engaging people, in the areas of vision and strategic leadership and, and bringing people together and, and moving people collectively toward achieving a common purpose. I was able to see those things through some of the experiences that I’d had along the way, and that, along with prayer and discernment, helped me to understand that this was a fit, that this was an alignment.
But I reject really, pretty, pretty firmly the idea that this is a hierarchical-type thing. The vice presidents I have the privilege of serving with are my colleagues, the deans, the faculty members, I have the privilege of serving with, they are my colleagues. And yes, I have a particular role as president to play that I don’t shy away from, but my role is no more or less important or critical to the health and the success of the institution than theirs is.
Todd Ream: Thank you very much. The role that you play in as you understand it at Houghton, can you describe, if at all possible, what a typical day may look like? Or maybe it might be easier if we talked about typical week or typical month. What consumes your time and how do you decide how to prioritize your time?
Wayne D. Lewis: I think it does change, not just day by day, week by week, but I’ve, you know, now just finished my fourth year at Houghton and I’m starting to see what some, some more experienced presidents have said. And I recognize it myself as well, that even in a presidency, you go through different seasons. And so what my time, the way I spend my time today looks different than it did even two or three years ago.
So for me, typically right now, what I’m doing at, at least about a quarter to a third of my time is around engaging our stakeholders, engaging our alums engaging friends of Houghton having the privilege of telling Houghton’s story to new audiences, to audiences maybe who have just heard about us on the surface, bringing friends to the table, who would be interested in investing, in and what God is doing here at Houghton.
We have been extraordinarily blessed, but we’ve got some, some priorities that we’re working on that we’re trying to marshal resources, to make some progress on residence renewal. We’re all trying to continue to update and keep up with the needs with digital infrastructure. Those are critical for us. So that’s a big chunk of my time.
Another pretty big chunk of my time, I would say, is spent with the cabinet. And for me, those are my vice presidents and chief officers. And so we meet together once or twice a month, where we’re updating each other on, you know, our priorities, the things that we’re working on, but also thinking collectively about how we’re working together in harmony to achieve the, the bigger mission and bigger priorities of the institution. That’s really important time because, as a cabinet, they collectively get to hear from me, and I get to hear the details of what they’re working on.
And then in addition to the time that we spend together, I’m meeting with cabinet members two to three times a month individually, so that we have the opportunity to, to dialogue about their challenges, their opportunities, the things that they’re considering. It is critically important to me that vice presidents and chief officers are empowered, that they are supported and that I’m providing the resources and the support that they need to be able to do their jobs.
I’m not at all a micromanager. I don’t want them looking over their shoulder and asking me should I do this or should I do, should I do that? I want them going forward and leading in the ways that God has equipped them and empowered them to lead.
Todd Ream: Echoed in some of the comments that you made about efforts that are being made on campus were components of the Excellence for the Glory of God strategic plan that was established. Can you talk a little bit about when you came to Houghton, how you assessed the institution’s potential, and then how that potential was then crafted into that plan as you all are implementing today?
Wayne D. Lewis: Yeah, one of the things the board and my predecessor president did that I think was, was really, really a great idea was they developed and implemented a relatively short-term strategic plan that unfolded this way. So she had a year of implementing that three-year plan. The first year, I had the opportunity, my first year, I had the opportunity to implement year two of that plan. And then in year three, the last year of that short-term plan I could develop with our leaders and our stakeholders what the next strategic plan would be.
And I think that was a critically important decision, one I appreciate, because I didn’t have to hit the ground immediately with the charge of developing a new strategic plan for the institution. I had the opportunity to be here for a year to get to know the institution, the people better understand what I thought those opportunities and challenges were.
So as I got here on the ground, that first year was a big year of learning, spending time with people. You obviously have fires that come up, things you have to address, you address those things. But more than anything, I wanted to have the opportunity to learn and to listen and to, to, to understand what Houghton’s unique gifts, what Houghton’s unique niche might be in this space and in this time.
So as we did that things emerged, particular academic programs, particular strengths that we have emerged. And you, you take the opportunity to build on those things, to build on things where the institution has already made significant investments, places where you see already that young people and families are already coming to you in large numbers. And you build on those strengths, but you also see what are those areas of liability, what are those areas of challenge that we should address relatively quickly?
And so we spent a year working together collectively, bringing stakeholders together, multiple iterations of that plan, because what is as important as what is eventually written on the paper is the buy-in that you have with the community toward, toward implementation of that plan. Otherwise, it just becomes something that sits on a shelf rather than providing the strategic direction that you need for accomplishing the mission of the institution.
Todd Ream: Thank you. As our time unfortunately begins to become short, I do want to make sure that I ask you for your reflections, especially as someone who has served as a faculty member, as a dean, as a commissioner of education, and now as president, how you understand the academic vocation, and in particular, what qualities or characteristics define it?
Wayne D. Lewis: I love being an academic. I would say I call myself a scholar-practitioner or practitioner-scholar. I think throughout most of my career, I’ve had the opportunity to integrate, both my, my scholarly identity as well as having the privilege of leading and practicing in that space. I didn’t know that would be a part of the opportunities that God would give me, but that’s the way my career has unfolded.
I’d say the academic vocation in terms of things that are, are critical for it and that are, that are central to it is one, really top-notch preparation. I think academics have to be extraordinarily well-prepared.I think they have to be very well-educated people. And that means going means going to great institutions and spending the time that’s necessary, to study to explore.
I think it’s also critical that in the academic vocation that you have people who are curious people, people who enjoy questions and searching for answers. I think one of the, I’d say two things stand out for me in terms of my own learning and development as an academic is one coming to the place, and I think this was probably near the, the end of my PhD program, where you recognize that what you don’t know is so much greater than what you do. And I can remember that evolution in my own development, kind of going through education and you feel like, wow, I’m learning. I’ve got these skills and I know these things. And then eventually I felt like I got to the place where I just said, wow, I don’t know much.
And, and the other part of that, and I think this, this ties in with the type of preparation—we have people who know how to learn. So you recognize that there’s so much that you don’t know, but what you do have, in addition to a curiosity, is that you’ve developed a skillset and the ability to systematically approach answering questions. Because most of us don’t continue for the rest of our lives just getting more degrees and getting more, more certificates. Hopefully we’ve developed the skillset, the ability to do that on our own. How do we continue to learn? How do we continue to grow?
I’ll give you one anecdote that’s been really powerful for me. And that’s been when I was getting ready to graduate, my dean at NC State asked me where I was headed. I told her I had a faculty position at the University of Kentucky, and she said something that that really set me aback and it probably slightly offended me at the time. She said, wow, that’s great. Now you’re going to learn something. And I remember thinking, wow. What does she mean, she meant by that?
But a year into the faculty, I remember reflecting back on that conversation and thinking, she was exactly right. Because I think I learned more in my first year as a faculty member than I learned throughout my entire PhD program.
Todd Ream: Thank you. Right along these lines then, when seeking to exercise this understanding of the academic vocation, what virtues do you believe are most important to cultivate and what vices do you also believe are most important to confront?
Wayne D. Lewis: I think it is important as Christian scholars in particular, to be cognizant of our grounding and our lens. And this may tie into both questions actually. It is a myth, it is a dangerous myth that anyone can think or speak through a lens that is unbiased. Every person, every group, any institution is using some type of lens. The only question is whether or not that lens is explicitly articulated or not. There’s always a lens.
And so as Christians, we should not shy away from the fact that our lens is in fact the Word of God, that we do believe the things that have been central to historic Christianity, that are part of biblical doctrine and have been for generations. That’s, that is our starting place and the lens through which we see the world, and we should, without apology, approach our work in that vein.
Without this sense of almost shame that I see from some folks that, well, you know, folks outside of Christian higher education, they’re not using a lens, that type of lens through to do their work. That people are always using a lens. I think we are actually much more transparent and should be much more transparent in Christian higher education in saying that we believe the Bible to be the Word of God and it is foundational to the way we approach our work.
Todd Ream: Thank you. As we close our conversation then, for our final question I want to ask in what ways do you think the health of the academic vocation on a Church-related university campus, say such as Houghton is reflective of the health of the relationship that the university shares with the Church?
Wayne D. Lewis: I think that’s the million dollar question. And I think we have some work to do. One of the challenges we have in thinking about the academic vocation on Christian college campuses is there are not many research universities that are Christ-centered institutions. And so, you know, for our faculties at collectively across Christian higher education even, you know, many of us have faculty members who got their undergraduate degree and maybe even a master’s degree at a Christ-centered institution but most of us have gotten doctoral degrees, terminal degrees at secular institutions.
And so as you come into the Christ-centered institution as a faculty member into the academic vocation, I think it, it is necessary that we do some critical reflections on what we’ve learned and what the experiences are that we’ve had, so that we can prepare young people who are trusting us and their parents who are trusting us, through a lens that is not tainted, through a lens that is indeed a biblical lens, recognizing just that our experiences, our most recent experiences in doctoral programs have not been that. And there have likely been elements of our preparation that have shifted us in some ways away from that.
Todd Ream: Thank you very much. Our guest has been Wayne D. Lewis Jr., President of Houghton University. Thank you for taking the time to share your insights and wisdom with us.
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Thank you for joining us for Saturdays at Seven, Christian Scholar’s Review’s conversation series with thought leaders about the academic vocation and the relationship that vocation shares with the Church. We invite you to join us again next week for Saturdays at Seven.
