The Center for Faith and Business seeks to capture and strengthen the heartbeat of the College of Business, helping students to see the intimate connections between their faith and their calling in the marketplace. The kingdom of God works in every facet of society, and students get a firsthand look at business leaders across the Lubbock community and beyond who are making real, powerful differences for others through the way they conduct their businesses. Whether it’s through hosting local faith-oriented business leaders on campus to share how they navigate the intersection of faith and business, creating personal mentorships with entrepreneurs and professionals in our community, or curated classroom experiences designed to dive authentically into practical questions and discussions, the Center for Faith and Business is dedicated to guiding students to a fuller understanding of what their calling can truly look like.
The Center for Faith and Business will seek to impact the lives of current, future, and former LCU students, the classrooms across the LCU College of Business, and the broader Lubbock community. With the mission of encouraging others to be salt and light in the marketplace, this Center will help others re-imagine their vocations, their role in organizations, and their eternal impact as they engage the business world.
"I gained valuable advice on some of the biggest decisions of my life, opportunities to work on my networking skills, and explored how to live out my faith in the workplace. I learned so much, and I know my mentor is someone I'll always be able to turn to, even as I move forward."
— Darian Johnson ('21)
"The Center for Faith and Business seeks to illuminate the truth that faith is not to be incorporated into our work; instead, work is to be incorporated into our faith."
— Professor Matt Bumstead, LCU College of Business
A key component of the student experience as a part of the Center for Faith and Business is the mentorship program, which matches participants with leaders in the local business community to help form a relationship in which the student can seek advice, practice networking, and learn from a tangible example of what a faithful businessperson truly looks like.
The years ahead will see the Center for Faith and Business expanding our current array of special opportunities for focused attention on these concepts, whether in the form of community events, local or national speakers and presenters, faculty workshops and studies, identification and recognition of examples and leaders in the practice of this vision, or scholarly work that advances a deeper understanding of these all-important ideas. The work and influence of the CFB will serve students in the College of Business—but it will also serve our faculty, the campus at large, the Lubbock community, and ultimately, communities across the nation and world through its indirect contact with countless lives.
The Center for Faith and Business also will integrate more specialized courses modeled after the existing Faith and Business course taught by Dean Bumstead, a mentoring experience for student leaders who are selected through a nomination and application process. This class has graduated nearly a hundred students who have gone out into the world to work, lead, and live in a manner that serves and advances God’s Kingdom on this earth, and graduates often return to LCU to continue the cycle of mentoring new students beginning their own business journeys. While the College of Business already integrates faith conversations into classes across its various programs, the Center for Faith and Business will bring additional intentionality to those conversations and components.