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Opportunity Profile—Dynamic Opportunities

• The Opportunity
• The Person
• The Position
• Leadership Attributes
• Process of Candidacy

The Dynamic Opportunities of the Presidency

Leadership of a Christian university such as Bethel is filled with opportunity to impact the lives of thousands of students who will go on to impact the world in countless and vital ways. These opportunities usually fall into three categories, which are sometimes referred to as the three-legged stool of Christian higher education. They are institutional leadership, academic leadership, and spiritual leadership.

Institutional Leadership
One leg of the stool represents the strategic and financial side of running the institution as a business.  The president must have competence in the strategic allocation of financial resources, coupled with a demonstrated ability in developing relationships and alliances that lead to significant contributions to the university. Astute financial management is as crucial to the internal management of the university as effective fundraising and marketing is to the growth of the university.

Academic Leadership
The second leg represents academics in terms of scholastic excellence and rigor.  The president should have appropriate academic credentials and a significant track record of visionary and collegial academic leadership and integrity at a comprehensive and growing institution of higher education.  In the ever changing world of higher education, the president, in collaboration with his/her cabinet must be constantly evaluating the academic programs offered.  At the heart of this issue is how to best prepare students for the world in which they will have to live and work.

Spiritual Leadership
At the core of Bethel’s mission, and the third leg of the stool, is training and equipping students to make a kingdom difference. In order to accomplish this, the university must integrate evangelical precepts into all aspects of education and training so that students are prepared to live out a biblical worldview whatever their calling.  This requires that the president loves students and has a passion to lead an institution that will make a significant and life changing impact on the life of the mind and spirit of the student.

The ability to manage these three dimensions of leadership of a Christian university, as well as other tensions that one finds only in the Office of the President, is essential to effective leadership at Bethel.