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In the forty-first episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Philip J. Schubert, President of Abilene Christian University. Reflecting upon his personal experience at Abilene Christian University (ACU), Schubert opens by exploring the role satirist publications play on college campuses. When the president is the focus, Schubert discusses how such efforts can allow leaders to seem more approachable. He shares how boundaries concerning such forms of humor can be cultivated as well as how satirist publications can help communities differentiate the trivial from the critical. Schubert then shifts to unpacking his calling as an accountant, the variety of previous roles he filled at ACU, and how his underlying rationale for his service as president is focused on creating an environment in which students can flourish in their own ways as he did when an undergraduate. Schubert closes by discussing the relationship ACU shares with the Churches of Christ (or Restoration movement) and how that relationship animates the academic vocation that educators at ACU exercise.
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. Our guest is Phil Schubert, President of Abilene Christian University. Thank you for joining us.
College satire or humor publications have a long history in American higher education and when exercised well, such efforts allow students with opportunities to exercise their unique talents, provide constructive ways to relieve stress, and forge lighthearted forms of comradery. When exercised poorly, unfortunately, their efforts can prove harmful or even divisive on a campus.
Students at Abilene Christian have published The Optimist since 1912, and on April 1st of each year, the editorial staff of the Optimist publishes the Pessimist, which in their words, not mine, is the annual satire edition that includes entirely fake stories for satirical purposes.
For example, in 2022, the lead story was that an Abilene Christian fraternity was funding the purchase of land allocated for the university’s molten salt nuclear reactor, the NEXT Lab, in order to establish a goat farm. In 2023, the lead story was that while in search of plutonium, two time travelers of Back to the Future Fame, Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown were caught breaking into NEXT Lab. I guess the funding for the Goat Lab failed to materialize for that fraternity there on campus.
In 2024, Rusty Towell and his colleagues with NEXT Lab were likely relieved that you grabbed the lead story and inspired by the Barbie movie, you reportedly embarked on a mission to quote “channel your inner ‘Ken-nergy'” end quote. One student was so inspired by your “Ken-ergy,” she said that you were the glitter glue that holds the Barbie Dream World University that is Abilene Christian University together.
In what ways, if any, did such a story impact your interactions with students during that time?
Phil Schubert: Oh man, that’s a great reminder. I chuckle because I’m never surprised and I’m always thankful for the great sense of humor that our students have. You know, I love it when our students want to be creative and I really enjoy and even invite them doing so in a way that involves me.
I think it’s great that they see that I’m not willing to take myself too seriously. And part of what I want to always do is be relevant to them, understanding what they think is fun. You know, we’re appropriate leaning into that, allowing them to make fun of me and, and the role of leadership that can often feel a bit stuffy and removed and distant. And I want them to know that that’s not the type of leader that at least I want to be perceived as being.
So, I remember that issue very well. And I even think there was a picture or two and those, man, those made their way around social media. I had friends that I had been in school with that somehow got ahold of some of those. And, of course I never heard the end of that. It was a lot of fun.
Todd Ream: Colleagues with the NEXT Lab obviously provide you with some competition there on campus in terms of capturing the imagination of students. But why do you believe college and university presidents are often the focus of satirical or humorous efforts launched by their respective student bodies?
Phil Schubert: Well, of course our jobs often require us to be serious and serious-minded if you will, and appear in formal settings. You know, we, we give speeches and we address crowds and we dress up and put a tie on, and, and so I think there’s a natural tendency for people to kinda look at, at a college president and, and think, hey, is this a person or is this a role of leadership that can’t have a little fun sometimes?
And, and so when you’re on a college campus and you’re around a bunch of 18 to 21-year olds, one of the things you realize is they like to have fun. And, and they enjoy laughing and, and I want to laugh with them. And so I, I think it’s just a natural tendency to, if the president creates the environment on his or her campus, to let students know that that’s okay, that it becomes a, a bit of a fun thing for them to do.
It’s part of the way I think they feel closer to leadership, and I often reflect on that and think that when students can feel that proximity and they don’t feel like that leadership is too far removed, than it really enhances the culture on a campus of community and togetherness. And, so I love it, that that’s important to them and I want to try to encourage them within limits, of course to continue to engage in those types of things. We all love to laugh and need to laugh.
Todd Ream: In what ways, if any, do new presidents need to be prepared for, and at times even welcome such efforts?
Phil Schubert: I think it’s great relationship building, right? When you can, we all know that when you can laugh at yourself and not take yourself too seriously, it makes everyone around you less guarded. And I think quite frankly, that’s the job of a leader.
People are closer to being their best when they’re comfortable rather than when they’re uptight. I think all of us know that. And the ability to kind of build relationships that are authentic, but they’re not one-dimensional in terms of being serious and, and stuffy and control all the time, I think we’re naturally going to have a better opportunity to get to know one another and create a community that feels warm.
Without the warmth and the humor, I think sometimes you can create a real distant feeling that doesn’t serve your leadership well. And I think that’s a good lesson for new presidents, especially even with faculty. This is not just a student issue, but the ability to sit down and have a meal with faculty members and be able to laugh and be able to make fun of yourself.
And that, that opens the door to let people, to remind them that you’re just like they are, you’ve been put in a place of leadership, but at the end of the day, you’re just another person on the journey that God’s given you to try to do what you can with the skills that you have. And none of us are perfectly outfitted for that journey.
Todd Ream: Yeah, thank you. In what ways, if any, then, do presidents need to indicate to students where the boundaries for such expressions of satire or humor may exist?
Phil Schubert: Yeah, I think that all of us, not just presidents, but all of us in a community, we shoulder a responsibility to shepherd the community in the right direction, right? So while satire and humor can be fun, there are occasions and there are few and far between.
I think our students generally have really good judgment. They may step over the line. I’ve always said, and not just in this dimension, but in, in many, I want ACU to be a great place to make a mistake where the implications and consequences aren’t nearly as significant to a student’s life or to their career and they’re in a community with people who truly care about them, that want to help provide learning from an opportunity where maybe a mistake was made.
And so I think our responsibility just to lean in when we see something, and there have been some occasions in my journey. I’ve been in this role now 15 years, and when students are attempting with a pure spirit to do something funny, but it clearly crosses a line, I think we just have to be quick to call it out and say, hey, listen, I’m not questioning your motive but I want to show you how this can be perceived and interpreted by some, and you may not have thought of that, but want to call your attention and ask you to be more careful.
Todd Ream: Yeah, thank you. For those of us who serve as educators, whether it’s in the classroom or in the residence hall, curricular, co-curricular, how can we help students then cultivate habits where humor is exercised well?
Phil Schubert: I think one of the biggest things is, is just to, I don’t know what the right phrase is, but, but walk all the way around the car, right? I mean, I think that’s one of the things we’re trying to teach students in every aspect of life is perspective. Perspective is a really valuable thing. And we all know that we can’t have full perspective when looking at something from a single dimension or direction. And so in most aspects of life, the ability to encircle a particular situation or a circumstance, walking all the way around the car, so to speak, and looking at that from multiple viewpoints before making the decision or acting on something is really important.
In this case, I think oftentimes that means really being able to anticipate and consider how others will receive the humor, especially those who may be the object of the humor and helping encourage students to always have that mindset that maybe they need to try it out on, on a target audience of friends. Maybe they need to ask an adult or two to look over if there’s some level of concern, and then they need to really try to put themselves in the situation to be of those on the receiving end and ask, how would that feel if it was you? I think continuing to focus them on that does a whole lot of good in terms of keeping them out of places.
Todd Ream: Yeah, thank you. Before we move on to a different sort of set of questions, I want to ask how those habits then can lead our communities to differentiate between trivial matters and consequential matters in a world where they seem to vie for our attention and present as being almost equal?
Phil Schubert: I’m a big believer that there’s room for both, right? We don’t always want to be dealing with consequential, serious issues of major substance. To your point, that’s where we bring in humor. You know, the ability to laugh, the ability to be silly at times, something that is part of the recipe for a good healthy culture either in a family, in a relationship, in a community like we have on university campuses. And so, I think that as we need to model that as leaders, as administrators and faculty, we need to celebrate appropriately the times when we want to laugh, and enjoy being together in a lighthearted way.
But then we also need to be, we need to be students of the big questions, right? We need to help our communities think about their life, God’s call for their journey, the big questions that that creates for them to answer, because all of our institutions, those of us who focus on faith-based higher education are, are attempting to help our young people answer the big questions of life.
And so we need to be able to bring those to the table in authentic and comfortable settings routinely throughout the curriculum and the journey of a student toward their, toward the attainment of their degree in a way that causes them to realize, hey, this is something that’s really important. And I’m going to put the humor aside for a minute. I’m really going to lean in here and think about this big picture question.
Todd Ream: Yeah, thank you. I want to transition now to ask you some questions about your own sense of vocation and how it developed over the course since your college years. You were an undergraduate at Abilene Christian, earned a Bachelor’s in Business Administration in Accounting, earned an MBA from Duke University, and an EDD from the University of Pennsylvania.
I want to start first by asking you what drew you to the study of accounting?
Phil Schubert: You know, that’s a great question. So I grew up in a family with two older brothers. I’m the youngest of three. And our father was a career full-time pulpit preaching minister in the Churches of Christ, which is our denominational heritage here at Abilene Christian. And so I’m not sure what it says, but all three of my two brothers and I, all three of us came Abilene Christian studied accounting, and our dad was a preacher.
So he would make a joke and say, I’m not really sure what that says about the ministry. But my three boys went to Abilene Christian, all studied accounting and each of my brothers went different directions with that. And, and I kind of make a joke and say, and I, look at me, I became a college president, so you can prove that, we’ve proven that you can do just about anything with an accounting degree.
So I had a grandfather growing up that was very business-minded and, and he was a great mentor as my dad’s dad, did a lot of different things in business. I really enjoyed being around him. He had a lot of influence in my early years, and I think it’s probably some of those early conversations, being with him in some of the business settings, helping him look over things, not because he needed it, because he wanted to teach me and, and mentor me that drew me into the, the field and the study of business, in this case, specifically accounting.
Todd Ream: Now I ask this question, as the son of an accountant who then went on and studied theology, but in what ways does accounting and the practice of accounting yield a sense of joy for you?
Phil Schubert: You know, that’s such a great question. I’ll, you know self disclose here, which some of the listeners may find surprising, but I’ve been asked occasionally over my career, hey, what does your perfect day look like? And if I’m really being honest in answering that question, if I were just to, to draw up a perfect day, I would draw up a day in which I come into the office, close my door, open up Excel, sit behind a mound of data and absolutely go crazy trying to analyze it every which way and find the insights that it offers the needle in the haystack, if you will. And that is so stimulating for me. And then figure out what to do with those insights to do something great the next day.
And there were times in my early career when I was in more closely focused in the practice of accounting or related areas, even for the university where I got to do that occasionally or many days. Well, I haven’t had a day like that in, I bet, 20 years. There’s not been a day that I sat other than when I was writing my dissertation, which was a quantitative study naturally because that’s what I’m drawn to.
And so it does bring me joy. I’m known as a data analytics president. I love information. I love charts and graphs. I love being able to tell stories with numbers and information, and so it does bring me joy. I love, I love the way that you asked that.
Todd Ream: Well, perhaps this is then embedded in what you just said, the answer to this next question, because these may have been days when you got to find those needles in haystacks, but after you graduated from ACU, you served as an auditor with Arthur Anderson. What lessons did you learn while serving with them that perhaps have influenced your understanding of university finance and university operations today?
Phil Schubert: Yeah, that was a great job. A wonderful starting job for me. I learned I learned about business. I learned how businesses ran, how the economic engine performs in different industries for-profit, non-profit. And so it gave me a foundation for the understanding of how the financial underpinning of any organization is so incredibly important.
I also learned how to work in a team. When you’re in an audit setting, you’re working with an audit team in every situation. I learned how to deal with all kinds of different people. When you go to audit a company it’s not always comfortable when you’re going and asking 20 questions to the people who work at that company about the sufficiency of their accounting practices and whether or not they did something right. Or maybe there’s been a mistake or an error, an error or an omission.
And so you learn at a very early age, right out of college, a lot of really great life lessons on how to work with people, how to work on a team, how to be thorough. And the last one is, it’s hard because you work hard. I worked a lot, and I learned the value of hard work and, and ensuring that your contribution was commensurate with what was being asked and expected of you. And, and I value that job still to this day.
Todd Ream: Yeah, thank you. Before you were appointed president in 2010, you served in a variety of roles at ACU, including student financial services, as the chief financial officer, and as the executive vice president. Would you please describe the process of discernment that led you to accept these subsequent appointments at ACU?
Phil Schubert: Yeah, sometimes people say, how did you become a college president? And my answer is, well, I was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I woke up and all of a sudden it happened. Some of that’s a blur and I attribute it to, you know, God’s hand of guidance in our journey. I mean, all of us have visions of what our journeys are going to be and rarely are they exactly that. And those of us who are people of faith know the way in which God leads us through the twists and turns, the hills and valleys, the expected and the unexpected parts of our journey.
And it’s such a beautiful thing because, you know, he’s always with us and, and there’s always purpose and meaning behind it, even if we don’t see it. This is a great place with tremendous people who I knew well because of my time here and my family’s legacy here and in my early days of being in, in a role at Abilene Christian. And naturally, my training was in a finance background, and so I assimilated into some of those jobs.
The, the first job that I had at the university was when a, a great mentor of mine, a man by the name of Dr. Gary McCaleb, who was one of the greatest mentors I’ve had in my life, who was working at the university when I was two years into my job at Arthur Anderson after leaving, called me over the Christmas break and said, hey have you ever given any thought to coming back and working at ACU? I think you could be a phenomenal contributor to what we’re trying to do, and you’re the perfect person. And I know you well and I think you would love it. And I’d never had thought of that, and it was his influence that ended up bringing me back to ACU.
And really, I came with the intention to be here a couple of years, finish my CPA, get some experience, let my wife finish school, and then I was going to go on to law school, combine my law degree with CPA. I wanted to be a tax attorney and work on business combinations, mergers and acquisitions. Well ,that was in 1993. And here, and here I am still at, at this place and have had a variety of roles.
When it came time for my predecessor to begin thinking about stepping down and retiring he came to me and, and said that actually before I even knew, he was retiring, he asked me to consider going on and, and getting some additional education. And I really wasn’t that interested in doing that. And he really pushed me hard. And so I did got the MBA, as you noted at Duke and the, and that literally, a week after I’d finished that degree program, he came back and said, hey, we’d really like you to go on and get a doctorate and, I said, oh, I’m too tired. I want to take a break. He said, well, you don’t really think there’s time for that, so let’s keep moving. And because of his encouragement, I went on and, and got the EDD, which were both amazing experiences for me. The transformation, the stimulation, the opening of perspectives that came through those, both of those programs was life changing for Phil Schubert.
And then right on the heels of me completing that degree, not that these were related or connected in any way he shortly thereafter announced his retirement and we began a search at Abilene Christian. And my family and I had to decide I still remember it was a November 1st application deadline, you had to declare if you were interested. And of course, I was having conversations with people behind the scene. At that time I was in the executive vice president role here, and I remember the long discernment process, the back and forth and the emotional decision to try to decide, do I want to put my name forward? And obviously we ended up doing that.
Todd Ream: For individuals considering whether an appointment as a university president is part of their calling then, what advice would you offer them based upon the experience you’ve had in 15 years that you’ve had serving as a president?
Phil Schubert: Well, my first piece of advice is, it’s the greatest job in the world if you have a passion for the place. And I don’t know that you could do this job well if you don’t truly have a passion for the place in which you’re that you’re serving as leader.
I love that about my role. I mean, I tell people all the time I had the best experience anyone possibly could have had at Abilene Christian University as a student. And so to be in a role, right, could just show up to work, I found people that believed in me, that saw things in Phil Schubert that I never saw in myself, and it showed me the value of what happens in life when you have people around you that believe in you, that push you, encourage you to be more than you thought you could be.
And I think, man, that’s one of the most beautiful pictures of what a higher education journey should look like, especially within a Christian framework. And so to be in a job where I get to come to work every day and try to ensure that students coming behind me had the same type of experience that I had, and I know many of the other alumni who attended here had, I can’t think of anything that could be greater than that, especially knowing that such a huge part of that is development of our faith as people who want to serve God and make the world a better place according to the kingdom.
Todd Ream: I can’t provide you with a full day of working with Excel spreadsheets and finding needles and haystacks, but I’ve got a couple of questions now, if I may, about the financial model that is at play in Church-related higher education and higher education writ large.
A growing number of voices argue that that model, the model, especially for residential, four-year undergraduate education is unsustainable. In your estimation, is that model sustainable or is it unsustainable in its current form?
Phil Schubert: Well, the key phrase you put there is in its current form, and so, you know, I, my answer, my short answer is yes, it’s sustainable. However you define current form you know, it is, that’s a key phrase because we all have seen the need to change, and that’s a, that’s a way of life, right? In any industry, you can’t do things like you did 20 years ago and expect them to be effective and successful. And that’s true of higher education as well, and it’s true of Christian higher education.
So, I think all of us as leaders have to be conscious and understanding the areas of challenge and, and the hurdles that are part of our business model. We have a very high cost model when you have a residential setting with a tremendous amount of, of fixed assets and buildings and facilities that push costs up, and you’ve got to, in many of our cases, a desire to have a low student to faculty ratio to promote relationship and mentoring opportunities among faculty and students.
And so all the places you look, it drives the cost up. And so, you have to be creative and, and diligent and, and maybe the better words, even tenacious on ensuring every single year, every single day and month, you’ve got teams of people who are looking for how to do what you do, protecting the essence of the experience, but gaining efficiencies where you can.
I think if you have that determination, that resolve, absolutely, the residential undergraduate higher Christian higher education experience is absolutely sustainable, but it’s going to continue to take smart people who make wise decisions about how to maintain the essence and be able to change around the periphery.
Todd Ream: Are there any new models that perhaps we need to be exploring that could bolster or strengthen that form of higher education or perhaps new sources of revenue that may be available that can help sustain it?
Phil Schubert: Well, it’s probably all of the above. I don’t know that there’s a single magic bullet or even one’s answer that would be the only one I would give on those lists.
We’ve obviously seen the emergence of significant focus on online learning. You’ve seen that at Indiana Wesleyan, one of the early leaders of how to harness an online education, and that’s even a different source of revenue, right?
If you look under the hood, typically at what online education looks like across America, it’s not the same demographic. You’re attracting a different type of student who was a different segment of the market, older students who are typically working full-time and many of whom have families. And so the residential, undergraduate experience has never been something that they had considered.
So it’s not as if in many cases, they’re choosing to say, hey, I’m going to choose either residential or online. I think I’m going to go online. It’s that you got two completely different segments of the market that one product really doesn’t fit the needs of, of that particular constituency. And so I think that that’s important to recognize. Yes, all of us need to be creative in thinking about how to embrace new ideas, new ways of doing things, again, while ensuring protection of the essence of what’s at the core of what we do.
And, so a good example of that would be, well, we’re in online education, but we’re doing so as a Christian university where spiritual formation is one of the pinnacle outcomes of what we’re about, then we’ve gotta really be thoughtful about how to do that in online setting. And we’re around a lot of smart people, and if we set those goals out and create those areas of focus we can be successful navigating just about anything. So I tend to be an optimist in those type of areas.
But yes, that’s a great example. We need to be embracing new ideas, new ways of learning new segments of the market. But we can do that while still continuing to be, in essence, the institutions we’ve always been, in my opinion.
Todd Ream: Yeah, thank you. In terms of comparable models that are being employed, the residential undergraduate model by institutions with no religious commitments, in what ways, if any, are the challenges that those institutions are facing, you know, different from the ones that Church-related institutions are facing?
Phil Schubert: Yeah, I don’t know that, I would say that the challenges, if you’re looking at two residential undergraduate institutions, one being faith-based, one not, are the challenges significantly different. And I don’t know that I would suggest that they are. I think that that tends to be the same business model. It tends to be a different focus in some respects of how you do that.
I think clearly those institutions who maintain a faith commitment are focusing significantly greater time and attention on that aspect how, how do we incorporate spiritual growth and spiritual formation into the ethos of our learning environment, both in and out of the classroom in a way that is authentic and, and formative in significant ways to our students.
So if, you know, that would feel different clearly, but I don’t know that it represents a singularly greater challenge for us. So I don’t know that I would say they are.
Todd Ream: If I may, I’m going to slice this question just in one slightly different way here than now. In what ways, if any, are the challenges facing this financial model that sustains residential undergraduate education different for universities with NCAA Division I athletic programs, than, for example, universities with NCAA Division III athletic programs?
Phil Schubert: Yeah, that’s, that’s a good question. I do think that is different. I don’t even know what the right analogy is to characterize Division I athletics from a financial standpoint. So again, let’s reinforce that you’re at really focusing on the financial implication of Division I versus Division III.
And I would not have said this five years ago, so we moved to Division I in the third year of my tenure, which would’ve been I guess 2013. So we’ve had now about a 10-year run. Or 11-year run in that domain. And it began as a really great thing for the university. We’ve had a lot of really major benefits from that mostly academic alignment between our student-athletes and the rest of the student body, and we were seeing sign pretty significant diversion or chasms that existed when we were a Division II athletic institution, which you ask about Division III.
But I think the thing that I would focus on is the change in the last five years because there’s been a tremendous amount of change in Division I athletics over the last five years with the emergence of player compensation philosophies, the transfer portal, it’s always been an arms race, but it feels like that has taken on a, a just a different level of trajectory and straight up. And so it feels for, at least my institution, almost as if there will never ever be enough money to swim in the mainstream of that market of Division I athletics.
And so, we have to choose our position there and recognize the limitations that are inherent in not being able and not being willing, quite frankly, to funnel as much money into the Division I sports that we offer as many institutions who may have a greater focus on athletics when we have so many other things here that are, that are more important.
Todd Ream: Currently ACU participates or most of the sports teams participate in the Western Athletic Conference, the WAC, is that correct?
Phil Schubert: That is correct, yes. All of them.
Todd Ream: Yep, thank you. Unfortunately, as our time gets short, I want to focus our questions here and make sure that we make the most of that time, and in particular talk about the academic vocation as it’s exercised by educators at Abilene Christian.
The theological commitments that define Abilene Christian are derived from the relationship that the university shares with the Churches of Christ or otherwise referred to as the Restoration Movement. Would you please detail some of those commitments that are most critical in terms of how life on campus is animated in relation to that tradition?
Phil Schubert: Yeah, so some of the things that kind of characterize traditional Churches of Christ in our, our heritage is maybe one big one is, is there’s not a governing body in Churches of Christ. So every congregation is autonomous. And, and that even goes a little further in that we, there’s this phrase that I don’t know, maybe it’s a Church of Christ phrase, maybe it’s not, but it’s called the priesthood of all believers.
I began to hear it early on in my life, and the idea is that, that, at least in our heritage in Churches of Christ, we’re very focused on life of the mind as it relates to theology and the idea that that every individual takes some level of responsibility to discern from Scripture how God is leading them to live their life.
And, and so we, we don’t necessarily—we have a high view of clergy and ministerial staff, but maybe not in the same way that you might find in a more hierarchical church denomination or, or religious affiliation where the pastor or the clergy are deemed to have this greater insight into the theological meaning of certain things.
Instead we say, hey, every, all of us are on that journey to discern and to study. And so I think that creates a certain culture, you know, at a lower level, maybe a little more informal. Our heritage, one of the things is we didn’t typically use instruments and we, you know, a lot of our congregations today do, and we do that on campus some, and, and sometimes we don’t.
But it was one of the defining things early in Churches of Christ is, well, they’re acapella, they don’t, they’re non-instrumental. We believe in baptism for the remission of sins and full immersion. And so those can be more cultural sometimes and may differ in the context, probably not the baptism piece, but worship styles and services are going to, there’s a range of what is reflected in Churches of Christ, so you see remnants of that on our campus.
We host chapel on a daily basis here, and it reflects some tradition in the Churches of Christ. We clearly are focused on helping our students learn Scripture. And so we have 15 hours of required Bible as part of our general education curriculum. And that’s the focus on, we think it’s really important that you study Scripture, that you know what it says, that you can make decisions for your life on how to live based on what we believe the Bible is teaching you.
And then of course, you know, most of our faculty come from a background in Churches of Christ as part of our heritage. And so those were all important parts of the connection to our past, as well as, proximity to our future as being a faith-based institution whose journey has been within a specific denominational heritage.
Todd Ream: How would you then, thinking about the Christian academic vocation as it’s exercised by individuals on campus who serve in educational capacities, how would you define the characteristics and qualities of that vocation and in what ways are they reflective of this relationship that ACU shares with the Churches of Christ?
Phil Schubert: I think for me, you know, when I think about higher education and the vocation, as you put, in higher education, I think what we’re after is we’re, its discovery of knowledge, which I think is a kind of a given. But maybe more importantly, it’s the discovery of self and discovery of purpose. And I think if, if we step back and ask what are we really trying to do in the lives of young people, it’s to help them learn and grow their perspective and their horizons so that they have a better sense of who they are, that self-awareness, a self-actualization to know me.
And then be able to, to take that further and say, so what’s my purpose in this life? And if you’re a faith-based institution, you have history with churches like we do, well then you bring in that spiritual component that the purpose is inextricably tied to the fact that I’m created in God’s image and that He has a purpose for my life. And I’m on a journey to try to discover and live into that.
And so everything that we do is intended to, to focus students down that road of those three things, understanding better, what is out there in the world and make sense of knowledge, understanding themselves, and then maybe most importantly, understanding their purpose as being created in God’s image.
Todd Ream: Thank you. When you bring newly minted PhDs to campus as new faculty members or hire new hall directors or student activities directors, student leadership programs directors, these people who influence at a high level the education that students receive, what are some of the professional development practices that ACU invests in order to help faculty members be able to share this sense of the calling that has defined the institution?
Phil Schubert: So one of the things I’m sure many institutions have similar functions in, in our, on our campus we have what’s called the Adams Center for Teaching and Learning and that’s really a faculty development arm. It’s intended to be for the benefit of faculty and it is fully staffed with a team of people whose role it is to help faculty grow and mature and become better teachers, better with greater ability to infuse the concepts of Scripture into their discipline in a way that’s relevant, to be able to be with colleagues.
And so a lot of it is peer-to-peer where clearly those groups, the team that staffs that center is, are tapping some of the best in different areas of our campus. Seasoned faculty have great and deep experience to come in and mentor the younger faculty by saying, well, you know, here’s something I’ve learned over the years and in this particular domain, here’s something I would really recommend and, and share their own journeys, what’s worked and what hasn’t.
And I think that serves as a pretty big comfort to our new faculty that not only does it help them become a better professional. There’s so much of, of all of our institutions that it helps them engage in the personality of the institution because they’re hearing from people that have been here and done what they’re doing for some period of time. At least by somebody’s account, have done it really well.
And so it helps create culture, right? It is, they talk about here’s what I do here and here’s what I do there. And here’s, I tried this, it didn’t work, but over the years, I’ve really leaned in here. And that starts to build upon itself and continue to push forward a culture that is reflective of the people that make it up.
Todd Ream: Thank you. Before we close our conversation then, today, I want to ask you, in what ways is the health of the academic vocation that’s exercised by educators on campus then related to or reflective of the health of the relationship that the university shares with the Church?
Phil Schubert: At a faith based institution, those feel like they’re so closely tied together. You know, the idea that all of us, it’s kind of hard if you’re a Christian, it’s kinda hard to think about anything significant in your life without the dimension of your identity before God, right? So what’s a job or what’s a career? What is your purpose?
And so we’re trying to help students answer the biggest questions in life about their own identity, the identity of the people around them. Who is God? What is my purpose? And every one of those in a Christian community is infused at its core with a spiritual dimension that stems from us being created in God’s image, and intended to fulfill his call for our lives.
So I just think those things are, are inextricably tied together, and I think that’s probably the greatest thing about Christian higher education is all of the things that the world would say are important anyway take on such greater meaning when they’re overlaid with the fact that we are God’s creation and we are His design, and He is calling us into and a meaningful life.
Todd Ream: Yeah, thank you. In the years to come then, in what ways do you think the Church-related university could be of greater service to the Church and perhaps then in turn, the Church could be of greater service in relationship with the university?
Phil Schubert: It’s always a mutually or should be a mutually beneficial relationship. Clearly, our institutions that are faith-based or are training the future leaders of our Church, the ministers, across all different areas of ministry, whether it be preaching, teaching, and all the other aspects of ministry in a Church.
So that’s a service that’s kinda right out of the gate. You’re seeing that we’re helping infuse the leaders of tomorrow with a passion, the understanding of the value of the Church, and the design by God for us to be in community with one another, traveling on our spiritual journey to become more of who He’s called us to be.
I think that the Church similarly does the same thing, right? Because you’re really talking about helping people through their entire life journey in a church congregation and their fidelity to their spiritual mission. You are raising families, developing families who have great commitment to their spiritual journey.
And from those families are the students who come to our institutions. Those are the, the people who grew up in churches who understand the value of a spiritual journey that gives meaning to your life and the joy that you find when living according to God’s call are those families most likely to want to send their children or, and their children have desire to come and, and receive a Christian higher education.
So, I think we help one another by continuing to perpetuate the fact that yes, we’re all here for a purpose, designed, destined by God to do his will in the world, and we’re all in this journey together.
Todd Ream: Thank you very much. Our guest has been Phil Schubert, President of Abilene Christian 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.
