In Crisis, Wall Street Turns to Prayer

Brethren,

The financial carnage on Wall Street continues, although as Christians, we should be elated that many people there are turning to PRAYER! Churches, pastors, and Christian business leaders are now uniting to organize various prayer-and-fellowship sessions not only in the churches but also in the streets as well. In the words of Christianity Today’s Tony Carnes, who wrote the special article below:

How Christians respond to the crisis will be a test of their wisdom, courage, integrity, and compassion for the mighty as well as for the humble. One executive told CT, “Our response will answer the question, ‘Who is Jesus on Wall Street?’ “

Will Wall Street finally know Jesus is? This, my fellow-believers, is what we must pray for!

-Nene Rubrico

*Pls visit my weblog at:  blog.biblical-perspectives.org

[Erratum: In my earlier blog, "With Wall Street in Turmoil, some Turn to Religion," Morgan-Stanley(MS) was cited as one of those investment firms that suffered bankruptcy. That should have been Merrill-Lynch, which ran to the SEC for protection. MS is still solvent but, like Goldman-Sachs, has converted itself into a financial holding company.]

=====================

In Crisis, Wall Street Turns to Prayer

 

Financial meltdown triggers prayer sessions citywide.

 

Tony Carnes | posted 9/19/2008 11:53AM

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/septemberweb-only/138-53.0.html?start=3

Starting early last Sunday morning, the turmoil in New York‘s financial markets triggered a spiritual response among Christian leaders reminiscent of the response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Cell phone text messages quickly spread calls to prayer. “Barclay has pulled out of Lehman deal,” one announced. Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers was finalizing bankruptcy papers; Merrill Lynch was clinching its deal to sell itself to Bank of America. Monday would be devastating.

Many Wall Streeters realized that the crisis could be earthshaking. A. J. Rice, well-respected CEO of the hedge-fund firm Pomeroy Capital, says, “Most people think this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. In 1987 we had a dramatic shock, but the other shoe didn’t drop.” This year, a whole lot of shoes have dropped. Wall Streeters have lived with a constant sense of foreboding.

First there was the January sub-prime market crash and its ongoing problems; then the collapses of Bear Stearns and, most recently, Lehman Brothers; and now Merrill Lynch’s loss of independence. More than 350 banks are on a watch list circulating on the street. “I was surprised and unsettled when Bear Stearns went under,” says Rice. “I worked for them at one time. I knew we were in untested waters.”

How Christians respond to the crisis will be a test of their wisdom, courage, integrity, and compassion for the mighty as well as for the humble. One executive told CT, “Our response will answer the question, ‘Who is Jesus on Wall Street?’ “

Bishop Roderick Caesar of New York City‘s Bethel Gospel Tabernacle, which has a number of members from Wall Street, says that the crisis is so fundamental to our world that “the church has to be poised for the moment and be prepared to work together.”

Last Sunday night many Wall Streeters could not get to sleep. After midnight, an executive at one of Wall Street’s leading investment banks, who requested that his name and his company’s not be used, lay in bed watching CNBC report that his competitors were going by the wayside. “I was surprised how quickly it had come. By 8 P.M. we knew how Monday would open. I prayed, very selfishly, that my company would not be on the list.” He worried “about my family, the economic environment, my church, and community.”

His wife rolled over and asked, “Are you really worried?”

“No,” he told her. “I am just interested in the news. I work for a really good company.”

She asked again, “Are you stressed?”

He weighed what was important to them and answered, “Even if the worst happens, we will still be together as a family and have Christ who loves and cares for us.” Reassured, his wife turned back over; 30 minutes later her husband turned off the television. He needed to be at work very early the next morning.

On Monday, Christians on Wall Street set up special prayer meetings for the week. First came the special prayer conference calls on Monday and Tuesday nights. Then, starting Wednesday, extraordinary prayer meetings were scheduled at Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Deloitte, and elsewhere. Pastors began planning to gather for a sidewalk prayer meeting outside of the stock exchange.

Mac Pier of the New York Leadership Center started getting calls from friends who were losing their jobs. “Of course, I prayed with them that God would give them the spiritual and financial resources they need.” Pier says that the Wall Streeters who called him were stunned. “It was unnerving to them because of the speed [at which] it happened.”

Rice received a lot of calls, several from friends at Lehman who were distressed by the devastation of their colleagues. One told him, “I have never seen grown men cry like that.” A consultant to several financial companies relates that one friend called to say, “I need to see you to talk me off the ledge.”

NYC-area pastors also began calling their members who work on the street. Rice got a call from his pastor, Jeff Ebert, of New Providence Presbyterian Church in New Jersey. Fred Provencher at Cornerstone Christian Church, also in New Jersey, asked his team to keep tabs on anyone who might need help. This Sunday he will preach that “things get worse before they get better. Amid the people’s groanings, God will be revealed.”

New York City is the center of the world for most members of the financial community. One chief operating officer of a multinational firm that services Wall Street banks told CT, “It’s like the old Sinatra song: ‘If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere.’ So you go around with a little swagger.”

Rice says the emotional impact of the current crisis on Wall Streeters is amplified by attitudes like those described by the chief operating officer. “There is an element of, ‘I am master of my fate. I put in 18-hour days and am making it.’ Then, this crisis pulls the rug out from under them. This may be the first dislocation of their lives. Their savings have disappeared in 15 minutes.”

Churches and ministries in NYC also face tests as their funding may drop. Many ministries already report that the year’s funding has been flat. Over the summer, Shiloh Bible Camp in New Jersey received cancellations of most of their reservations due to the cost of travel and economic uncertainty, though they were able to find other campers to fill their schedule.

Ministries in particular are facing big gaps in funding. Wilson Goode, former mayor of Philadelphia, thinks that “in the longer term there will be less money going to congregations, religious institutions, and social programs.” One ministry reported that one donor this week had to cancel his $150,000 gift. Churches’ funding is more stable because they rely more on weekly tithing than year-end gifts. Cornerstone’s Provencher says, “Our weekly giving is steady. You might say our base is flat with no gravy.”

Some Christians in NYC hope that God can use the crisis for good. Pier says, “God can use this situation as he did in the 1857 Layman’s Prayer Revival that started on Wall Street to draw people to a fresh recognition of our absolute dependence on his grace and love.”

Mike Faulkner, pastor of New Horizon Church, says, “Honestly, I am praying God will bring healing and revival.” He recalls how during the 1930s Wall Street crash, Central Baptist Church on Manhattan housed people who had lost their homes. “The church should be available in every way for people on Wall Street who maybe didn’t think much about God before.”

Bethel’s Caesar hopes that “the two-hour-per-week Christians will get faith in their bones” so that it will last. “When you are in a fox hole, people make crazy promises. Afterward, they ask God, ‘Can we renegotiate?’ ” Harry Tucker, a longtime strategic adviser to Wall Street executives, believes that God has put “us in crisis to grow our courage.”

Goode brought an optimism based on his ministry to children of prisoners in NYC: “By faith we know that tomorrow will always be better. One should be comforted that righteousness will prevail. Those Christians on Wall Street can go back tomorrow and simply wait on the Lord. I have investments and if these don’t turn out the way I think they should, it is still God’s will.”

Tucker says the tough times return people to foundational principles: “On the street these principles don’t resonate when the gravy train is running.” The vice chair of a Wall Street investment firm observes the struggle within himself: “You come into this environment and it sucks it out of you. You know, I am often repentant because I realize, man, I just … I never say and do stuff like this outside this environment on Wall Street.” For him, the crisis is also a cleansing.

Other Christian money people also refer to working on Wall Street as working on “the dark side,” with an environment that is “absurdly secular,” “out of balance,” and “egoistic.” One trader says, “Some of the times when I get on the train, it’s like I go to the dark side.” Nowadays the trips are especially bleak. One chief operating officer says that maybe Christian faith can stand out as a light of compassion and truth. “We should not be intimidated by the magnitude of the darkness of the times, but [should] realize how quickly the light stands out in all that darkness. We need to turn around and realize that one match lights up all of Shea Stadium when it is pitch black. If Christians walk like Christians, we can do it. Prayer, first of all. So before any general ledger closes, we should pray over the books.”

Tony Carnes, based in New York City, is a senior writer for Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today.

 

With Wall Street in Turmoil, Some Turn to Religion

With Wall Street in turmoil, some turn to religion

 

Brethren,

 With the financial “meltdown” on Wall Street, America’s financial center (and perhaps, of the world) – where once solid-rock companies like Lehman Brothers, Morgan-Stanley, and American International Corporation (AIG, which incidentally reinsures our largest insurance company, Philamlife) and giving regular employment to about 100,000 people worldwide – now face bankruptcy. The domino-effect on the financial markets and banking system from America, to Europe, to Asia is now just being felt. Indeed, 7 or 8 of our Philippine largest  banks reportedly have admitted to about PhP 17 billion exposure in Lehman Brothers alone. Fortunately for all, the U.S. Congress plans to step in with a $700 billion rescue package for its  distressed companies. But many wonder if this will be enough.

 All these events can only give the Christian something to ponder on.  What has gone wrong with America? The world?  What needs to be done?

 For an answer, Christians usually turn to 2Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by my  name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven  and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”(NIV). Quite comforting, I admit. But note that this advice is addressed to “people who are called by my name,” meaning, CHRISTIANS. But what about NON-CHRISTIANS? Are they not entitled to God’s forgiveness too? Aren’t they capable of the same humility believers have? Cannot non-Christians repent too, of their sins, and claim God’s forgiveness? We have a hint of what goes on in God’s mind as expressed in Isaiah 55:7- “Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts.Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and [turn] to our God, for he will freely pardon.”

  In other words, wickedness can emanate BOTH from a believer and a non-believer alike! All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. However, Scripture says that forsaking/turning away from wickedness can assure us of God’s mercy. Perhaps this is happening to Wall Street now, as the article below indicates. Is it a wake-up call for America and the rest of the world? Only time will tell.

 

- Nene Rubrico

* Pls. visit my weblog at:

    blog.biblical-perspectives.org

 You may also post your comments there.

===============================

 With Wall Street in turmoil, some turn to religion

 

By Christine Kearney Mon Sep 22, 2:04 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080922/us_nm/financial_religion_dc

——————————————————————————————————

- “The economic financial crisis is a reminder that we cannot put our faith in riches, that we cannot put our faith in money”- Reverend Mark Bozzuti-Jones of Trinity Church Wall Street

——————————————————————————————————-

 

NEW YORK (Reuters) – As financial workers suffer through tumultuous times on Wall Street, some are turning to an old source of solace: religion.

Religious leaders said attendance was up at lunchtime meetings in New York‘s financial district last week, with many more people in business attire than usual.

That is hardly surprising, said Reverend Mark Bozzuti-Jones of Trinity Church Wall Street, given that people don’t know if their employers will survive from one day to the next.

“The economic financial crisis is a reminder that we cannot put our faith in riches, that we cannot put our faith in money,” Bozzuti-Jones said in his sermon at lunchtime on Friday, which he devoted to coping with the financial crisis.

A handful of men in suits and ties and women in business attire were among dozens of people at the Episcopal church, which was hit by debris from the World Trade Center collapse on September 11, 2001.

The church, which normally attracts tourists and a few financial workers, experienced an upturn in visitors this week, Bozzuti-Jones said. In the past few days he had requests for help to pay rent from those who had lost their jobs.

“People are just sitting there, praying or crying and definitely exhausted. There has definitely been an increase in the number of people who have come in,” he said in his office after the service.

The church was putting on special workshops and seminars over the next few weeks including “Coping with stress in an uncertain time” and “Navigating career transitions.”

Just a few blocks away, St. Peter’s Church has seen “a slight uptick in attendance among people in suits,” said Father Peter Madigan. St. Peter’s, a Catholic church, displays a cross found in the rubble of September 11.

“In the past couple of days there was high anxiety and trepidation,” Madigan said. “The situation we are faced with today by economic standards is very much unknown, uncharted territory and faith helps us deal with t oday by economic standards is very much unknown, uncharted territory and faith helps us deal with those situations.”

The Wall Street Synagogue is opening its doors nightly starting this week to accommodate Wall Street people. But rather than a rush of people last week, Rabbi Meyer Hager said he has noticed a change in his regular worshippers.

“I can see it on the faces of certain people who come here who are regular people — some work for AIG and other large banking houses — I can see the expression of strained concern,” he said.

He noted that the synagogue was founded in 1929, the year of the Wall Street crash.

A mosque located in the financial district about a mile from Wall Street did not return a call seeking comment.

Lou Janicek, who works as a financial adviser on Wall Street, said he had not considered attending a religious service, but said Wall Street would benefit if people applied the same morals they learned in church to the workplace.

“What you do at work matters as much as whether you regularly attend church or the synagogue or whatever,” said Janicek, who was brought up as a Christian. “If you are an accountant or you find yourself in an unethical situation, you can’t just stand by and let it happen — then you have another Enron.

(Reporting by Christine Kearney; Editing by Eddie Evans)

 

Nursing Home Plan

No Nursing Home for Me

About 2 years ago my wife and I were on a cruise through the western Mediterranean aboard a princess liner.
At dinner we noticed an elderly lady sitting alone by the rail of the grand stairway in the main dining room.
I also noticed that all the staff, ships officers, waiters, busboys, etc., all seemed very familiar with this lady.
I asked our waiter who the lady was, expecting to be told that she owned the line, but he said he only knew that she had been on board for the last four cruises, back to back.

As we left the dining room one evening i caught her eye and stopped to say hello. We chatted and I said, “I understand you’ve been on this ship for the last four cruises”. She replied, “yes, that’s true.”
I stated, “I don’t understand” and she replied, without a pause, “It’s cheaper than a nursing home”.

So, there will be no nursing homes in my future. When I get old and feeble, I am going to get on a Princess Cruise Ship. The average cost for a nursing home is $200 per day.
I have checked on reservations at Princess and I can get a long    term discount and senior discount price of $135 per day. That leaves $65 a day for:
1. Gratuities which will only be $10 per day.

2. I will have as many as 10 meals a day if I can waddle to the restaurant, or I can have room service (which means I can have breakfast in bed every day of the week).

3. Princess has as many as three swimming pools, workout room, free washers and dryers, and shows every night.

4. They have free toothpaste and razors, and free soap and shampoo.

5. They will even treat you like a customer, not a patient. An extra $5 worth of tips will have the entire staff scrambling to help you.

6. I will get to meet new people every 7 or 14 days.

7. T.V. broken? Light bulb needs changing? Need to have the mattress replaced? No Problem! They will fix everything and apologize for your inconvenience.

8. Clean sheets and towels every day, and you don’t even have to ask for them.

9. If you fall in the nursing home and break a hip you are on Medicare; if you fall and break a hip on the Princess ship they will upgrade you to a suite for the rest of your life.

Now hold on for the best! Do you want to see South America, the Panama Canal, Tahiti, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, or name where you want to go?  Princess will have a ship ready to go so don’t look for me in a nursing home, just call shore to ship.

P.S.  If you die they just toss your body over the side of the boat!
Send this to all who dream of a luxurious old age.
HAVE A GREAT DAY !

Not Again: Another Christian School in Crisis

Not Again: Another Christian School in Crisis

(This was earlier posted at up_crl@yahoogroups site)

Oh, no, not again! Another Christian school in crisis……

Situation:

Earlier the venerable Oral Roberts University was rocked by a financial scandal involving the founding members of the Roberts family and its  hand-picked Board of Trustees, on one hand; and, the students and faculty of ORU on the other. The  issue: bankruptcy and financial stewardship. Since then, a “white knight” has stepped into the picture with a rescue package, subject, however, to implementing sweeping reforms including the voluntary resignation of the founder’s son and president of the institution and a number of prominent evangelists.
As for Criswell College, this time the conflict is between: (a) the president of this small (300 full-time students) college founded by a famous conservative southern baptist pastor; and, (b) the current church pastor and concurrent school chancellor. Since both men belong to the same Southern Baptist denomination, it should have been a PERFECT “Faith- and-University” Partnership along similar lines conceptualized by our own UPCYM Alumni for CRL and U.P.! And, it was, for 38 long yrs.

But, it was not to be so always. As they say: the Devil is in the small details. And this “small detail” happens to be a building project that the Pastor/Chancellor planned OUTSIDE of the college campus. The President, on the other hand, saw it differently – it was to be a virtual TRANSFER of the school into another, bigger school: a “takeover,” actually, as the Chancellor admits.

Application:

Who among the two (who happen to each have doctoral degrees in theology)  is “right?” Why have their differences been “philosophized” rather than discussed in brass-tacks language? Have they prayed about it? As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one clear winner here:  that wily, cunning enemy – the devil – ever-ready to outwit us, again (2Cor 2:11).

-nr
============

Criswell Crisis

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/october/4.19.html

President resigns, alleging pastor plotted to sell school assets.

by Jim Jones in Fort Worth | posted 9/05/2008 10:19AM

————————————————————————————————————
- ‘[School Chancellor and Church Pastor] Dr. Jeffress has maintained that the school and its radio station are ministries of First Baptist Dallas, accountable to the church…  an objective study of Criswell College’s prospects should be done, including whether it might best be taken over by Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth… “all options” regarding the school’s future should be explored.‘- as reported by the Dallas Morning News
————————————————————————————————————

The late Rev. W. A. Criswell, legendary pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, founded Criswell College in 1970 as a bulwark of conservatism. The school and its leaders were prominent in conservatives’ rise to power in the Southern Baptist Convention.

Now some say the college’s future is threatened. Conflicts between college and congregational leaders over who owns the school’s assets culminated in the August 5 resignation of president Jerry Johnson. Officials said Johnson had “philosophical differences” with First Baptist’s leaders, particularly with Criswell’s chancellor and First Baptist’s senior pastor, Robert Jeffress.

Johnson made the months-long feud public in a news release August 1. In it, Johnson claimed that Jeffress “has been trying to cannibalize Criswell College to fund his building program at the church.” Johnson and Steve Washburn, a Texas pastor and Criswell trustee, said Jeffress wanted to transfer the college to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in nearby Fort Worth, sell the campus and its radio station, and use the profits to finance a new sanctuary for First Baptist.

Jeffress denied all accusations, saying there was no plan to sell the college or its radio station. He also said that to link the possible transfer of the school and sale of the radio station to a building program that is still in the planning stages was erroneous. However, Jeffress rankled some Criswell supporters by saying he wanted to launch a study to assess the “true condition” of Criswell’s finances and enrollment and see whether it still has a viable niche.

“Things have changed since the school was started,” Jeffress told Christianity Today. “Back then none of the seminaries had undergraduate colleges like Criswell. Now most, including Southwestern, have undergraduate programs. It is also no secret that over the past years, Criswell has faced enrollment declines and financial challenges.”

The Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools had imposed a 12-month probation against Criswell for failing to show “financial stability,” but recently lifted it. Interim president Lamar Cooper believes the commission erroneously counted a $3 million figure as a negative when they should have counted it as a positive.

Johnson and Washburn said the school is on sound financial footing, reporting a $7 million surplus this year. Jeffress, however, said that much of that money is endowment.

Cooper believes Criswell is needed as much as it was in 1970. “While the seminaries have made a theological course correction, most Baptist colleges are by and large not conservative,” he said. “There is still a need for a college like ours.” Many Criswell graduates and former staff have leading roles in the SBC, he said, including Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary president Danny Akin and Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission president Richard Land.

Southwestern president Paige Patterson served as Criswell’s president in the 1980s, when he led conservatives’ efforts to gain control of the SBC. Patterson recently sent Criswell trustees copies of a letter he had written to a Criswell alumnus. The letter stated that he has “no interest whatsoever in a hostile or even a sweet takeover” of Criswell.

Criswell trustees passed a resolution saying they would not transfer the Dallas school to Southwestern, but Jeffress said a transfer is still possible.

Patterson’s letter said Jeffress had called and asked if Southwestern would accept the college if offered. “I answered ‘Yes,’” Patterson wrote. “I would remember my 17 years there and the incredible contribution made by Criswell College to Baptist life, and would guarantee its future by name at Southwestern.”

Who has the authority to make such a transfer is in dispute.

Jack Pogue, head of the W. A. Criswell Foundation and a Criswell trustee, said a Dallas attorney he hired concluded that the college controls its own assets. “As a trustee of the college … it’s my obligation to protect those assets,” said Pogue.

But Jeffress contends that “the college and all other entities ultimately are accountable to First Baptist,” noting that the church must approve all trustees. “[A]ccording to its bylaws, Criswell’s membership is defined as the ‘membership of First Baptist Church of Dallas.’”

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today.

The Fall and Rise of Oral Roberts University

The Fall and Rise of Oral Roberts University

 

Brethren,

Oral Roberts was the mentor of world-famous evangelists Billy Graham, Benny Hinn, among others. He later founded in 1963 a school of evangelism, law, medicine and business – the Oral Roberts University (ORU) – which in turn produced the likes of preacher Kenneth Copeland, musicalist Don Moen, Matt Groening (The Simpsons TV show), and several major league baseball athletes and authors (like Dave Barton) and Michelle Bachmann, a congresswoman (R) from Minnesota which hosted the recent Republican Natl. Convention.

His son Richard Roberts assumed the school presidency in 1993, and soon thereafter allegations of financial improprieties and immoral conduct began to surface against Richard and his “first lady,” Lindsay. Its Law School closed in 1986 while its huge Center of Faith Medical Hospital closed in 1989, citing financial difficulties, even as the Roberts family continued to live a lavish lifestyle. Several lawsuits from whistle-blowing professors and students forced Richard to resign in 2007.

Fortunately, billionaire Mart Green came to its rescue in early 2008 by donating $70 million but at a hefty price, namely: (a) the entire Board of Regents must be replaced, (b) the school curricula restructured to conform more to “traditional, pentecostal” lines, (c) separate the accounts of the ORU Fund from that of the Roberts family foundation fund, and, (d) run the school as if it were a business. Slowly but surely, ORU is now recovering from years of financial abuse and hemorrage by its former owners.

What puzzles me about this case is WHY the school continued to be rocked by scandal even when it had a STAR-STUDDED cast of Regents, to name a few – Benny Hinn, Cresfo Dollar, Kenneth Copeland, Oral Roberts himself (90 yrs old and “semi-retired”), John Hagee, Marilyn Hickey, among others – supposedly to OVERSEE the spiritual and moral imperatives of the school? Wow, if this could happen in a school managed by supposedly Godly people….?

Could it have been a case of smug, morally-superior, pharasaically-blind men and women leading the school to its eventual destruction – the same qualities exhibited by some CHURCH and GOVERNMENT LEADERS nowadays against whom Jesus warned about?  I rather like what reader Brad Ryden said below, that “judgment begins in the House of God” (1 Peter 4:17). Indeed, we who are chosen to lead must understand that IT ALL BEGINS IN THE HOUSE OF GOD (THE CHURCH/US).  Are we being the Good Stewards that Jesus wants us to be, in whatever circumstances we are in?(Matt. 25:23).

Below, I have reproduced the article “Healing ORU,” and have bold-faced some items worth emulating, and red-marked others not appropriate to our Christian walk.

Warning:   The article below is quite long. Those who feel it’s a chore to read on may simply delete this post. I won’t be offended. But for those who want to go on, I say, it’s worth the “read.”

God bless!

NeneR

=================

Healing ORU

 

$70 million and Mart Green’s business acumen are repairing a scandal-scarred school.

John W. Kennedy in Tulsa | posted 9/03/2008 09:26AM

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2008/september/8.76.html

Ten months ago, Hobby Lobby heir Mart Green aroused both suspicion and relief among Oral Roberts University’s faithful. The retail whiz announced that his affluent family was planning to pump $70 million into the heavily indebted, scandal-scarred liberal arts school in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In May, Green generated even more excitement on campus when he announced that student dorm rooms would be rewired. The increased amperage will allow a curling iron and a computer to be plugged in simultaneously without blowing a fuse. But Green isn’t just redoing the campus electrical grid; he’s rewiring ORU’s body, mind, and checkbook. Currently serving as ORU board chair, Green recently said, “ORU must restore its broken trust, its battered reputation, and its beaten spirit.”

In October 2007, the tragic unwinding of ORU’s trust, reputation, and spirit began as three whistle-blowing professors filed a wrongful termination suit. They charged that Richard Roberts, president and son of founder Oral Roberts, and his board-member wife, Lindsay, misspent school funds, including $39,000 for a shopping spree for Lindsay, a $29,411 trip to the Bahamas aboard a university jet for one of the couple’s daughters, and a stable of horses for their three daughters, among many other accusations. (The Robertses have denied any wrongdoing.)

Initially, the Greens debated whether to help. The family typically donates to successful ministry ventures with well-established accountability measures. They had never staged a ministry intervention before. When the family gives a chunk to charity, it’s given collectively. The privately held Hobby Lobby chain of more than 380 arts and crafts stores has estimated annual sales of $2 billion and $200 million or more in profits. Forbes magazine estimates founder-father David Green’s fortune at $1.2 billion.

The gift to ORU comes with a 100-mile-long string attached, the distance between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, where the Greens live. At least once a week, Green, also chief executive of Mardel, a chain of 27 Christian education and supply stores, drives 100 miles up Interstate 44 to the sprawling ORU campus, famous for its 1960s-era futuristic architecture.

Mart Green was very familiar with ORU graduates who had taken jobs at his stores and worshiped with him at an Assemblies of God church. Their work ethic and character impressed him. It would be a shame, Green told Christianity Today, if an educational institution that had turned out thousands of spiritually alive, intellectually gifted, and professionally competent graduates ceased to exist. The school has credible academic and athletic track records. Its eclectic collection of high-profile alumni includes entertainer Kathie Lee Gifford; preachers Ted Haggard and Kenneth Copeland; and ministry leaders such as David Barton of WallBuilders.

Out with Hinn, In with Argue

When the Greens offered $8 million to relieve the immediate cash crunch and keep the university afloat (and another $62 million for improvements), the money set into motion changes from the top down.

“The Higher Learning Commission [an accrediting agency] had already articulated that changes were needed in finances, governance, and leadership,” Green says. “We weren’t going to give money for more of the same.” In reality, this was a subtle but major shift for the school toward mainstream evangelicalism and away from its distinct (and often controversial) charismatic brand of evangelicalism.

In January, the existing board of regents accepted the Greens’ deal, which included a proviso that members would vote themselves out of office. Family members and televangelists had heavily inhabited the 23-member board, including John Hagee, Marilyn Hickey, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, and Copeland. Many evangelicals have associated these leaders with prosperity-gospel teaching and lavish lifestyles.

ORU moved to implement a shared-governance board of trustees. Green chose people who are friendly to the Pentecostal heritage and known for their educational and business prowess. The lineup includes Russell Spittler, provost emeritus of Fuller Theological Seminary, and top Pentecostal author and historian Stanley M. Burgess. In addition, Robert E. Cooley, the first chancellor of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and past president of the Association of Theological Schools, is serving as a “governance mentor” to Green. Green is the only member of his family on the board. ORU has also applied for membership with the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.

Don Argue, another new trustee and former president of an Assemblies of God university, told CT, “This is the first time the [ORU] board has been organized along more traditional university lines. I’m impressed with the quality of business leadership on the new board.”

Despite the new outlook, ORU still faces lawsuits from the days of the old regime: from a husband and wife faculty team, the former chief accountant, and two students who argue that their degrees will have diminished value because of the financial scandal. All have hired Gary L. Richardson, a Tulsa attorney who filed multiple lawsuits against televangelist Robert Tilton in the 1990s.

Tim Brooker, who headed the ORU government program for six years, is seeking $2.5 million to settle a wrongful termination suit filed alongside his wife, Paulita, another dismissed professor. Brooker says he brought the leadership’s moral failings and financial improprieties to the attention of the previous administration, but received no response for more than a year. Finally, he says, in June 2007, he pointed out a pattern of lavish spending among the school’s administrative leaders. A month later, Brooker says, he was forced out.

I would love to be able to settle with the university,” says Brooker, who lives in Siloam Springs, Arkansas. “I have no desire to drag this out and do further damage to the university.” John Swails, Brooker’s boss and the tenured department chair, settled his dismissal suit in January and has been reinstated.

The Post-Roberts Future

Reducing debt, hiring a new president, stopping a student exodus, increasing alumni giving, and rebuilding trust are Mart Green’s top five priorities.

The school, which has an $82 million annual operating budget, has launched a $25 million “Renewing the Vision” matching campaign to eliminate the rest of its $20 million debt, as well as to finance deferred building projects. As of mid-summer, more than 4,800 contributors had donated $4.2 million.

All initiatives seem to be paying off. In April, projected fall enrollment looked to be down by 300, but by June, the shortfall had dipped to only 88. Fall enrollment is projected to be more than 3,000 students. Only one-third of ORU students are from the Sooner State.

“If alumni encourage their children to come as students, that’s more important than money,” says Green, who himself has been working the phones to connect with prospective recruits and long-dormant donors.

Part of the problem in the past has been an alleged intermingling of funds and contributors from ORU and the Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association (OREA), the legacy organization that has carried on the ministry of Oral and Richard Roberts. The school essentially has had to build a new donor base since gaining autonomy from OREA.

In May, the association vacated its offices in the ORU-owned CityPlex Towers. Richard Roberts, who turns 60 in November, still lives in Tulsa and continues his scaled-down broadcast ministry. This final separation of the Oral Roberts ministry from the university he founded more than four decades ago is another difficult chapter in this saga. Oral incorporated his ministry 60 years ago, after he endured abject poverty growing up and experienced a miraculous healing from tuberculosis at 17.

After becoming a “healing evangelist,” Oral Roberts conducted televised tent crusades, which provided mainstream America with its first exposure to Pentecostal practices. By the 1970s, Roberts had moved to a studio surrounded by clean-cut singers from ORU, and had the nation’s most-watched syndicated TV program. Catchphrases such as “Expect a Miracle,” “Sow a Seed of Faith,” and “Something Good Is Going to Happen to You” entered the lexicon.

Nevertheless, Roberts endured his share of tragedy. His eldest daughter, Rebecca, died in a plane crash in 1977 at 37, and his eldest son, Ronald, committed suicide at 38 in 1982. With the $250 million City of Faith Medical Center teetering on the edge of financial disaster in 1986, Roberts claimed to have witnessed a 900-foot-tall vision of Jesus, who warned, “I am going to call you home,” unless $8 million was raised within three months. The funds came in, but City of Faith closed in 1991.

While many of the university’s faithful back Mart Green’s financial plan, a trickier transition for ORU is likely to be cultural in nature. As the school moves away from its televangelist roots, can it remain true to its Pentecostal identity? Can it overcome what former provost Mark Lewandoski publicly called a “culture of fear,” a reference to faculty and staff anxieties about bringing up problems to the administration?

The presidential search process provides some tentative answers to these questions.

For the first time in the school’s history, looking for a leader is a group process. A nine-member presidential search committee that includes faculty, staff, alumni, and board members has the responsibility of selecting a finalist to be elected by the board next summer. The school has hired Bruce Dingman, a top headhunter, to assist the search committee.

“We want a visionary president,” says Green. “It will be his or her responsibility to decide where to take the school, not mine.”

Green and others believe the school can recapture the glory days. With 63 majors, 14 master’s programs, and two doctoral degrees, ORU is far more than a backwater institution. Green, sounding a lot like Oral Roberts a generation ago, believes the school can still be the flagship university for charismatic students. “We want to be world-class in everything we do,” Green says. “ORU can provide quality education to the whole person�spirit, mind, and body.”

WallBuilders’ David Barton is also upbeat about the future of the school, from which he graduated in 1976. “ORU is still biblically committed to passionate ministry, but now there is a much wiser business approach,” says Barton, 53. “The alumni I’ve talked with believe the changes in practice are healthy.”

Many students who are enrolled are encouraged, beyond the fact that microwaves and refrigerators have been added to every dorm room. “I’ve seen things happen faster in the last three months than in my first three years here,” says Kerrick Butler, a senior from Troy, Michigan. “To make wholesale changes without chaos is unheard of.”

Paul R. Corts, president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, doesn’t believe the scandal will permanently damage ORU’s legacy. “The Lord has a way to make even difficult times work for good,” Corts told CT. “The resulting positive changes the school is making will bear much good fruit in restoring the trust of students, alumni, and other constituencies, and the changes will greatly strengthen the university for future service. I firmly believe ORU is on the right path

after a nightmarish year, something good is going to happen to ORU.

John W. Kennedy is a consulting editor for CT and news editor for Today’s Pentecostal Evangel.

Copyright © 2008 Christianity Today.

December 18, 2007 2:38PM

—————————

More housecleaning at Oral Roberts U.

 

Creflo Dollar out, Benny Hinn disempowered on board of regents.

 

Ted Olsen

The wrongful termination suit between three ORU professors and college administrators is going to arbitration, but meanwhile there has been a shakeup of sorts on the school’s board of regents.

“The evangelist Creflo Dollar has resigned from the Oral Roberts University board of regents, and another evangelist, Benny Hinn, has lost his status as a voting member of the board,” the Tulsa World reported.

The newspaper notes that the move comes as Dollar and Hinn balked at requests for financial information from Sen. Charles Grassley, but the school had no comment on the reason for the changes. Are Dollar and Hinn distancing themselves from ORU, or is ORU distancing itself from them?

Posted by Ted Olsen on December 18, 2007 2:38PM

=================================================

Comments

1. Pastors & tele evangelist are nothing but HYPOCRITES! They condemn others when they talk about ‘SELF’ – self confidence, self-reliance, & self-improvement, but they could not their own ‘SELF’ when it comes to money.

Posted by: kai at December 18, 2007

2. When will God’s so-called leading people get rid of the division and strife and live the holy walk we compel other to? When will we become one in heart, purpose, and unify in the faith? Maybe Jesus said it best in John 13:35; “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” Do we get it???

Posted by: Kevin James at December 18, 2007

3. Jesus told his disciples, “I send you forth as sheep among wolves.” In the Old Testament there are recorded incidences of false prophets, false pastors that abused and used God’s people.

We should not be surprised that to be a genuine Christian is a rarity. “Narrow is the way, and few be that find it.”

This is a spiritual battle for the souls of men and the Enemy will use “wolves in sheeps clothing” to make prospective converts reject all Christianity as hypocrits.

In reality, “there are more with us, than with them”, God is in control and He has a people “that haven’t bowed their knee to Baal” or Tulsa for that matter.

Posted by: Yvonne at December 19, 2007

Brilliant and insightful comments. You obviously have a well-balanced view on life.

Posted by: bob at December 19, 2007

4. I am reminded where the Bible says that judgment begins at the house of God. I think we are only seeing the beginning of a real shaking of the tree. Jesus is looking for real fruit that will sustain and give life to His people.

Posted by: Brad Ryden at December 19, 2007

5. And we wonder why our young people in the church and Christian universities and colleges question our generation’s value system? From the ‘top down’ so many people who have been called to be true Christ following leaders, have lost what the true calling of Christ is. Leaders who are authentic Christ-followers are what our youth yearn for! And I must say that even though I am sure most of these leaders in question probably began with the right motives of ministry, they have been sidetracked by their own false sense of importance and greed! Hmmmm…. I think there are a few stories in a Book somewhere that portrays such folks!! This sense of money entitlement comes upon one so subtly. Some, not all, high profile folks in Christian leadership from my generation(the Baby Boomers) have slowly, over time, blended their lives into what sociologists claim is the number one American cultural value, materialism. Their vision of what it means to be a ‘true Christ follower’ has been blurred by their false sense of power and accomplishment. It almost seems as if they feel they are entitled to a life of the ‘rich and famous’ because they are in the “ministry” suffering for Jesus.

Hmmmm. . .I wonder if practically all of us in the church have been ‘blended’ by our culture in some form or another? Uh oh, I am meddling now!
Hey, I am with Wesley: “make much, BUT give much”, not “make much and keep making more for one’s life of luxury”. Isn’t there a story about a rich young ruler, somewhere in that Book also?

Posted by: Don Lawrence at December 19, 2007

6. It should come as no suprise that the ministers of the “prosperity gospel” should get hung by their own greed. In the midst of preachers driving Rolls and wearing Rolex watches does one see Christ who “took to himself no reputation” but counted his living with sinners and had only one garment to his name? What would Jesus think of religion today? He would no doubt weep over the ‘psychological” manipulation of his children and the fleecing of the church.

Posted by: Dr. Michael A. Smith at December 19, 2007

7. I would hope that ORU is distancing itself from Dollar and Hinn and their false theology. Perhaps we’ll see ORU come out theologically correct in all of this. Too many years of bad theology have finally caught up with it.

Posted by: Chris at December 19, 2007

8. Sirs:

Thank you for this information about the change in the make-up of the Board of regents at ORU. While it is sad to read, it does represent godly initiative on the part of the Board of Regents. For this I thank God, and applaud them.

Sincerely in Christ,

Paul Griffin

Posted by: Paul Griffin at December 19, 2007

9. Their “message” is right… but the messengers are seriously flawed. Sex and money are most often the downfall of evangelists (and the rest of us also). Let him who is without fault cast the first stone.

Posted by: Jean at December 19, 2007

10. For most pastors, especially in smaller churches, the monthly financial statement given members includes salary of the pastor. My financial condition is basically an open book to the membership of the church I pastor… and so it should be for all no matter the size of the congregation or the ‘type’ of congregation… so, please, if pastors are going to be grouped with tele-evangelists, qualify which pastors… we may be hypocrites but money may not be the problem…

Posted by: Jim Rogers at December 19, 2007

11. Crefflo’s name says it all ["Dollar" is his family name.- neneR].

Posted by: pat mccloskey at December 19, 2007

12. When you said: “Pastors and televangelists are nothing but hypocrites”, were you referring to every pastor and every evangelist who ministers on television? Have you really met all of them and know them well enough to determine that each and every one of them are hypocrites?

I hope you can come to understand that the great majority of pastors do not preach inordinately about “self”.

Posted by: DW at December 19, 2007

13. Well, instead of all of us bad mouthing these men, even if we don’t agree with them or their methods, we should pray for them, wheat and tares grow together, and Jesus commanded to let them alone until the harvest. Only God knows the secret intents of our hearts and its His buisness to judge.

Posted by: Lisa at December 19, 2007

14. Let us be careful with our words towards them that do their works for the Lord; lest a double portion of shaking will the Lord grant unto us. It is for the good of the flock that the Lord is doing a shaking of those who do their works for Him. Know that these days are a season of testing. In the days ahead, more of them will experience the shaking of the Lord; some mildly, others severely.

To those of you who are of their flock, pray that your shepherd will not fail. For if the Lord is able to shake the shepherd, what can’t He do to the flock?

I heard the heavens thunder as the laborers of the Lord’s field are being shakened. But like the season of the falling leaves, there will follow a season of fresh leaves.

Posted by: The WindChime at December 20, 2007

15. I agree that it’s wrong to lump all pastors and televangelists in with the ones who are out for money. Many pastors make significant financial sacrifices to shepherd God’s people, including my own pastor who has sometimes gone without a salary because the amount of money collected in the offering was not enough to pay his living expenses. Yet he never sought to leave our church for a more lucrative pastorate. There are pastors living under oppressive regimes who willingly endure hunger, beatings, persecution, imprisonment and other deprivations for the cause of Christ. The person who said that all pastors and televangelists are hypocrites should avoid making such broad generalizations in the future.

Posted by: Julie at December 20, 2007

16. Don Lawrence’s comments (12/19)express my thoughts better than I can.

Posted by: Dan Eriksen at December 20, 2007

17. God bless them and all of us. Our Father has left us with the Holy Spirit to interpret to us what the Father wants us to know and what He wants us to do. Go with what the Holy Spirit is leading you to do. But by all means, don’t talk ugly about someone. That will only come back on you. If you judge them you will be judged. They might have started out with a pure heart and wondered. What a sad place that is. I know that for sure, don’t you? Have we not all fallen short of His glory? Let’s start praying for these people and perhaps their hearts will change if need be. God bless you.

Posted by: Dell at December 20, 2007

18. Lisa, Jesus may have prayed for the “money changer” BUT he still through[threw] them out of the Temple.

Bill Robberson

Posted by: Bill Robberson at December 20, 2007

19. Benny Hinn is not a phony! He is a good man, who may have a lot of money, but regardless, is under screwity. In my belief, the Senator that started all this is an embrassment to my party. God Bless Benny Hinn.

Posted by: Joseph R. at December 20, 2007

20. Billy Graham, who brought Oral Roberts and his Charismatic/Pentecostal circus into evangelicalism, should not be held guiltless in all of this either.

When will he stand up and admit that he made a mistake in endorsing false teachings and practices into the Body?

Posted by: J Ng at December 20, 2007

21. REMEMBER THE APOSTLE PAUL SAID WEATHER THE GOSPEL/GOOD NEWS IS PRECHED BY SINCERE GODLY MEN OR THOSE WITH OTHER MOTIVES, THE GOSPEL CHRIST DIE FOR OUR SINS & ROSE FROM THE DEAD. CHRIST IS BEING PREACHED. LETS PRAY FOR THOSE WHO WILL BE JUDGED BY GOD CHRIST THE ONLY JUST JUDGE . MAY REPENTANCE & REVIVAL START IN MY FATHER HOUSE OF PRAYER WE HIS BODY & HOLY TEMPLE AMEN

Posted by: george at December 20, 2007

22. If Benny Hinn’s not a phony, how come he can only do his “miracles” under the highly emotionally charged atmosphere of one of his meetings? When’s the last time he went into a hospital and healed the people there? Where’s the independent medical verification of his “healings”? Why is he hiding his financial records? Why does he live in luxury with millions of dollars to his name while people starve all over the world?

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a duck. Benny Hinn is a fake and a disgrace, not to mention an embarrassment to those who earnestly try to follow Christ.

Posted by: Barry at December 21, 2007

23.  What will happen to oru without their money?

Posted by: de at December 21, 2007

24. I want to be careful not to judge men that God has put in positions of authority. I will leave it to God to judge. But, I do believe God is pruning the vine. With that said, I am uncomfortable with the “prosperity gospel” that I am hearing preached in many ministries. Sometimes it seems like a different gospel than is currently being preached in countries where materialism is not so rampant. One thing that struck me once was a report that believers in persecuted nations were praying that American believers would not be seduced by our “riches”. It comes down to how we define our “riches”, and where is our treasure. Actions done in secret, and motives of the heart by those in leadership will be exposed. My prayer is for God to purify His bride. Shake this tree, and may all the good fruit remain, and may all the bad fruit fall.

Posted by: Dave Adams at December 30, 2007

Next Page »