02 Mar 2025: The Surprising Resilience of Christian Higher Education Administrators
The Surprising Resilience of Christian Higher Education Administrators
Andrew M. Yates, EdD
Coordinator & Advisor to Men
Student Life & Global Discipleship
Dallas Theological Seminary
Abstract
From Abel’s fratricide to the martyrs of John’s Apocalypse, the Bible describes and predicts opposition to all who promote God’s truth. Although seminary faculty championing ministry and other professional Christian degrees might expect increased challenges, research on resilient Christian higher education administrators is scarce. This article highlights recent findings from an exploratory study, reinforcing the value of a traditional Christian mindset and cautions against the full adoption of more modern approaches found in Positive Psychology. Lastly, this article advocates for the strategic and practical application of historic Christian perspectives to increase resilience among Christian higher education administrators.
Keywords: Resilience, Christian Higher Education, Administration, Leadership
Resilience in Christian Thought
A common theme in Scripture is an expectation that the faith community can experience significant peace, even in the face of terrible hardship. [1] In his final moments before his arrest, Jesus told his friends: “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble and suffering, but take courage—I have conquered the world” (John 16:33). For leaders in Christian Higher Education, we echo the author of Hebrews to our students: “Think of him who endured such opposition against himself by sinners, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and give up” (Hebrews 12:3). We hope that our students would persevere through hardship, as all the heroes of the faith before us, and bear much fruit.
Given the unprecedented changes facing Christian higher education, this is no easier for the recent graduate than for the practitioner! From mental health challenges, increased financial strain, changing modalities, global health crises, rapid technological innovation, and political and cultural upheaval, change is varied, and it is not likely to slow down. One scholar laments how “Over the coming decades, the global position and prosperity of the country will be challenged in new ways that are more significant than we have experienced in the recent past.” [2] Such unprecedented change presents unprecedented challenges for administrators, allowing us to model the resilience we hope our students demonstrate in their respective contexts. Concerningly, even as tenures are reducing, one study found that “Over half (55 percent) of presidents planned to step down from their current positions within the next five years.” [3] This trend is not distinct to the presidential office. Another recent report claimed that 50% of administrators, professionals, and non-exempt staff were “somewhat, likely, or very likely” to “look for other employment within the next 12 months.” [4] For higher education and for Christian communities in particular, resilience-related concepts are perhaps one of the most important virtues to instill in higher education leadership today. [5]
Resilience in Modern Research
Despite significant literature on pastoral and graduate student resilience, few contemporary studies have imitated the efforts of this journal, explicitly focusing on the perspective of resilient Christian higher education leadership. [6] One recent exploratory study, however, examining this neglected demographic revealed a potential tension between popular resilience literature and exceptionally resilient leaders in Christian higher education. Surprisingly, the most resilient higher education administrators were hesitant to affirm contemporary resilience-enhancing mindsets, understanding them as largely incongruent with historic faith practices and ultimately ineffective. [7] Following a brief definition of terms, the remainder of this article presents the findings of this exploratory study into resilient Christian higher education leadership.
The brief history of modern resilience studies is a fascinating inquiry into theology, psychology, philosophy, and global history. The term was likely first used in its modern sense in 1907 to describe an individual’s physiological capacity to achieve a “second, third, and fourth wind.” [8] A few decades later, Victor Frankl hypothesized that individuals might have distinct mental strengths just as they might have physiological strengths distinct from others. His perspectives found a degree of confirmation in the horrific sufferings in German concentration camps in World War II and were widely adopted by both popular and scientific communities. [9] Only ten years later, Werner and Smith inaugurated a 20-year study examining the resilience of every child born into poverty on the island of Kauai, HI. Chief among their findings was the notion that “spiritual faith” functions as a primary protective factor against adverse outcomes.
Additionally, their work suggested that everyone has the potential to develop mental resilience. [10] Less than twenty years after Werner and Smith’s findings were published, Martin Seligman was elected President of the American Psychological Association and renewed international interest in resilience-related themes. [11] Specifically, Seligman popularized the notion that Psychology should be concerned with mental thriving rather than focusing exclusively on curing mental illnesses. This so-called “Positive Psychology” (not to be confused with “Pop Psychology”) has become the dominant philosophical emphasis of modern Psychology and emphasizes “positive” attributes such as courage, optimism, the capacity for pleasure, and resilience, to name a few. [12]
Broadly speaking, the term “resilience” has been accepted to refer to an individual’s capacity to “bounce back” or even thrive after a significant challenge. [13] A correlated term, “Grit,” has been popularized by Angela Duckworth and refers to perseverance through hardship. Unlike a resilient mindset, it doesn’t speak to a change in mental health following a stressor. [14] Figure 1 (below) illustrates how a person can encounter mental hardship, leading to a “low” point in life. The event might adversely impact one person, another person might return to their previous state, and a third person encountering a similar experience might “bounce back,” growing in their mental resilience.
Figure 1. Resilient pathways over the life course. [15]
Based on this understanding of “resilience,” three resilience-enhancing mindsets arise from the literature, each related to how an individual perceives challenging experiences: (1) a positive Perspective, (2) a sense of Realistic Optimism, and (3) Self-Efficacy (“PROSE”). [16] At face value, each of these mindsets is broad enough to be familiar with orthodox Christian conversation. For example, when counseling a student or peer facing challenging circumstances, it would seem strange for a dean or professor to discourage any of those three mindsets. Indeed, few ministers would be shocked by empirical evidence suggesting that “purpose in life is a strong correlate of post-disaster resilience” or the anecdotal claim that “what matters is to make the best of any given situation.” [17] Likewise, suppose a student feels helpless and overwhelmed in a course. In that case, the best Christian administrators will likely help the student realize that some things are within their control and encourage them to resist the temptation to dwell in a pessimistic or cynical headspace. [18] Surprisingly, as commonplace as this advice might seem, highly resilient Christian higher education leaders expressed significant concern about the broad acceptance of these approaches.
Resilience Experienced by Christian Higher Education Leadership
Three leaders in Christian higher education were identified and questioned about their resilience to significant personal and professional challenges. [19] Gary Cook of Dallas Baptist University, David Dockery of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and John David Trentham of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary were each identified by their peers as embodying resilience over their combined 90 years in Christian higher education leadership. In comparison, campus Presidents, on average, remain in their roles for less than 6 years, and Provosts only 3. [20] It bears noting that none of these individuals elaborated on difficulties related to their current roles and addressed instead challenges faced earlier in their careers. [21] During a lengthy, 1-on-1 conversation, each participant found themes raised by the resilience literature to be partially helpful yet potentially dangerous for the leader long-term. Reflecting the sentiment of the other two, one participant claimed:
“I appreciate the leadership literature; I read it and find it helpful. Still, Christians need to be reminded that most of it is grounded in a model of self-empowerment, which is the wrong model for Christians. We must reframe it all.”
Rather than a sort of “PROSE,” by which these individuals talked themselves into an increasing degree of resilience, each participant attributed their exceptional resilience as arising from a power outside of their own manufacture. Instead, each described a commitment to shared behaviors that enabled them to “HOLD” to the God of Christianity: (1) Hope in the triune God, a commitment to (2) Like-mined perspectives, and (3) Daily, habitual devotion to this perspective of dependence.
Hope in the Triune God
The most significant resilience-enhancing behavior described by each participant was to hope in the triune God rather than to hope in self or even their perception of their circumstances. All participants emphasized the value of maintaining a realistic yet “hopeful” outlook in the face of adversity. Their concern was with the source or object of their hope (or optimism), and they viewed a non-theistic source of optimism as fanciful thinking. While acknowledging the need for significant personal effort, participants emphasized a consistent reliance on God’s strength over pure self-efficacy as the key to resilience during the most difficult challenges in their leadership roles. Each individual mentioned several Scriptures, but all cited John 15:4–5 at least once:
“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in me. “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me—and I in him—bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing.”
At the same time, each individual candidly articulated a need, even a calling, to proactively lead their respective communities out of this hopeful expectation. From their perspective, long-term goals and contexts might unexpectedly change, but a transcendent God is a much more reliable and objective. The Christian God, in particular, is unchanging in his ambitions. This transcendent perspective helped contextualize later discussions of future challenges facing their programs and graduates.
While partnering with God might sometimes seem a nebulous leadership goal, one participant recognized how this perspective is a distinct advantage to the Christian leader: “What can hold everyone together is both the what and the why. And for Christians, it ultimately must be the who. It must be the Trinitarian God.” Each participant prioritized a distinct way of relating to the relational, Trinitarian God. One emphasized the value of Psalms, especially how the psalmist models reframing realistic and relatable hardship while refocusing the reader on God’s faithfulness. Another emphasized patient prayer and waiting on God’s “voice,” primarily through Christian music. The third participant emphasized interactions with his Christian community as essential for grasping God’s direction.
Like-Minded Perspectives
Pursuing a unified community was a constant theme in personal as well as organizational crises. Candidly, it’s easy for perspectives to “drift,” and inviting others to remind us of what is most important was an essential practice for these individuals. Each participant spoke positively about the value of inviting diverse perspectives and the role of a loving family in reinforcing their resiliency. Regarding a broader leadership team, each participant had a strong personal connection to the teams they were leading and described those relationships as an additional resilience-enhancing asset. One participant, for example, repeatedly emphasized the value of a faith community in mutually reinforcing a resilient mindset by reminding each other of God’s faithfulness in the past.
Daily, Habitual Devotion to God
Each participant described the tension of balancing long-term goals with a focus on short-term challenges to those goals. Even though long-term preparation of plans was valuable or even essential in a given crisis, a daily sensitivity and submission to God’s direction rather than long-term plans were necessary:
“I can come up with my plans, but in the Bible, manna came every day, didn’t it? … Jesus doesn’t say, Give us this day our weekly bread, or our monthly bread. That’s what I would have asked for. (He teaches us) to pray: ‘Give us our daily bread.’ I don’t know [how to meet my own needs], I really don’t.”
Emphasizing the value of robust and courageous leadership, another leader described the source of his confidence as a nearly moment-by-moment pursuit of God’s direction. Admittedly, adjustments to organizational long-term plans or a perceived re-direction from God only arose relatively rarely, as infrequently as once every ten or twenty years, yet the constant pursuit of God’s direction itself was seen as an essential asset for his resilience.
As an aside, in addition to traditional “spiritual disciplines” such as daily prayer and Scripture study (long-time daily habits for each individual), each participant mentioned Psalms, hymns, or spiritual songs as a significant resilience-enhancing practice.
Conclusion
In conclusion, as an administrator in Christian higher education who faces future and realized challenges, you don’t have what it takes. The Christian life is not hard; it’s impossible. There is no person with the resilience to “bounce back” from the hardships you will face in your own strength. Each participant articulated a lack of self-sufficiency in the face of personal and professional trials, describing how each was frustrated by a lack of wisdom in how to resolve challenges on their own. Driven by a lack of confidence in self, a daily dependence on God itself became a resilience-enhancing behavior. Interestingly, John 15:4–5 does not promise the individual that they will be aware of how God will produce fruit—or even perceive the fruit in their own experience. Instead, Jesus, in his final words before his intense period of trial, only promises that God will produce “much fruit” through those who “abide” in Him. The resilient administrator exists in a world of unprecedented change while remaining undistracted from the foundation of faith in a rock higher than they. Administrators of distinctively Christian professional degrees can claim the superior, transcendent God of Christianity as a sure foundation for personal resilience.
In the exemplary cases examined in this discussion, dependence on God most frequently manifested as daily prayer, Scripture reading, and regular gatherings in Christian communities. Those who lead others in following Christ must not forget that we can (and will) only bear fruit as we abide in Christ. Processes begun in the Spirit cannot be perfected in the flesh, and the one who trusts in God will not be put to shame, even in the face of unprecedented personal and professional challenges (Galatians 3:3; Romans 10:11).
“Yes, my soul, find rest in God;
my hope comes from him.
Truly he is my rock and my salvation;
he is my fortress, I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my honor depend on God;
he is my mighty rock, my refuge.
Trust in him at all times, you people;
pour out your hearts to him,
for God is our refuge.” (Psalm 62:5-8)
Notes:
[1] See, for example, Joshua 1:9; Isaiah 26:3; John 16:33; 1 Corinthians 4:8–9; Philippians 4:7. All quotations are in the New English Translation unless noted otherwise.
[2] Hamid H. Kazeroony, The Strategic Management of Higher Education: Serving Students as Customers for Institutional Growth (New York: Business Expert, 2012), 89.
[3] Danielle Melidona et al., “The American College President: 2023 Edition” (Washington, DC: American Council on Education, 2023), xi.
[4] Jacqueline Bichsel et al., “The CUPA-HR 2022 Higher Education Employee Retention Survey: Initial Results” (College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, 2022), 6.
[5] Drumm McNaughton and Eric Hogue, “Nurturing Free Speech and Respectful Dialogue in Higher Education,” MP3, Changing Higher Ed, accessed February 10, 2025, https://changinghighered.com/dialogue-free-speech-in-higher-education/; Jennifer R. Curry and Elizabeth R. O’Brien, “Shifting to a Wellness Paradigm in Teacher Education: A Promising Practice for Fostering Teacher Stress Reduction, Burnout Resilience, and Promoting Retention,” Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry 14, no. 3 (2012): 178–91.
[6] Scott Barfoot’s recent text exemplifies an excellent resource for Christian leaders in general but provides only a general application. At the time of this publication, this author is not aware of any easily accessible resources specifically focused on fostering resilience among Christian higher education leaders. D. Scott Barfoot, Resilience Rising: Finding Your Way Through Life’s Toughest Moments (Plano: Klisia, 2024); Andrea M. Sielaff, Kate Rae Davis, and J. Derek McNeil, “Literature Review of Clergy Resilience and Recommendations for Future Research,” Journal of Psychology and Theology 49, no. 4 (December 2021): 308–23; Glenn Packiam and David Kinnaman, The Resilient Pastor: Leading Your Church in a Rapidly Changing World (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2022); Maria Christopoulou et al., “The Role of Grit in Education: A Systematic Review,” Psychology 9, no. 15 (December 21, 2018): 2951–71.
[7] Andrew Martin Yates, “Resilient Christian Higher Education Change Agents: A Multi-Case Study” (Ed.D., Fort Worth, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2024).
[8] William James, “The Energies of Men,” The Philosophical Review 16, no. 1 (1907): 4.
[9] Victor E Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning (New York: Washington Square, 1984).
[10] Emmy E. Werner and Ruth S. Smith, Vulnerable, but Invincible: A Longitudinal Study of Resilient Children and Youth (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982), 4.
[11] Seligman Martin E.P., “The President’s Address (Annual Report),” American Psychologist, no. 54 (1999): 559–62.
[12] The New Era of Positive Psychology, TED2004, 2004, https://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_the_new_era_of_positive_psychology?language=en; Shelly L. Gable and Jonathan Haidt, “What (and Why) Is Positive Psychology?,” Review of General Psychology 9, no. 2 (June 2005): 103–10.
[13] Karen J. Reivich, Martin E.P. Seligman, and Sharon McBride, “Master Resilience Training in the U.S. Army,” The American Psychologist 66, no. 1 (January 1, 2011): 25; P. Alex Linley, Susan Harrington, and Nicola Garcea, eds., Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology and Work, Oxford Library of Psychology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 43.
[14] Angela L. Duckworth et al., “Grit: Perseverance and Passion for Long-Term Goals.,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 92, no. 6 (2007): 1087.
[15] Adapted from: C. R. Snyder and Shane J. Lopez, eds., Handbook of Positive Psychology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 81.
[16] Yates, “Resilient Christian Higher Education Change Agents,” 108.
[17] Crystal L. Park, “Meaning Making in the Context of Disasters,” Journal of Clinical Psychology 72, no. 12 (December 2016): 1237; Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning, 169.
[18] Martin E. P. Seligman, Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment (New York: Free Press, 2002), 88; Cary L. Cooper and Philip J. Dewe, Organizational Stress: A Review and Critique of Theory, Research, and Applications (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2001), 113.
[19] Yates, “Resilient Christian Higher Education Change Agents.”
[20] Bichsel et al., “The CUPA-HR 2022 Higher Education Employee Retention Survey: Initial Results,” 3.
[21] For this project, anonymity was granted so each individual could share more freely. Accordingly, specific quotes in this article are left unattributed. For more information, see: Yates, “Resilient Christian Higher Education Change Agents.”