“Christian Union Has Been Such a Blessing”
By Tom Campisi, Managing Editor
When Dr. Ben Pascut prepared to teach a workshop on organizational excellence for CU Lux at Yale University, he did not have to look very far for subject matter—it is one of Christian Union’s core values.
“Teaching organizational excellence equips and empowers students to become transformative leaders in both church and society,” said Pascut, Christian Union’s ministry director at Yale.
A Christian Union paper, “The Theology of Organizational Excellence,” states, “Those who thoroughly embrace and understand a true theology of organization will excel in organizational management and, ultimately, make a greater impact in the kingdom.”
“Organizational structure exists in God Himself, in the created order, in examples of government in the Scriptures, and also within the context of ministry in both the Old and New Covenants.”
Hailey Carter, Yale '22, credited Christian Union with teaching her to lead others in a Christ-like manner.
For the workshop, Pascut taught on the four common elements of an organization’s essence proposed by Edgar Henry Schein, a renowned professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Schein’s elements include common purpose, coordinated effort, division of labor, and a hierarchy of authority.
The biblical text was Philippians 2:1-11, which focuses on the selfless pursuit of harmony among believers. In verse two, Paul states, “Complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.”
To demonstrate the four elements of organizational excellence, Pascut described the structure of Christian Union, which “recognizes the inherent godliness of an excellent organization and therefore strives to embody organizational excellence.” He also had student leaders teach on how the concept is demonstrated by an orchestra, a soccer team, and the human body.
Hailey Carter ’22 spoke about how a soccer team demonstrates organizational excellence. She has already started to utilize the principles in everyday life and leadership.
“Ben’s workshop on organizational excellence helped give me an actual, tangible image of a team dynamic,” she said. “After watching ten minutes of seamless soccer plays, you really get a sense of what flow looks like, and the actual beauty involved when everyone functions together really well. Having that in mind, the understanding that humility and sacrifice are the starting line for that kind of unity has helped me submit to others, and pay attention to when I am pushing in a direction that the team is not collectively going.”
Carter, a Humanities major from Excelsior, Minnesota, also credited Christian Union with teaching her to lead others in a Christ-like manner. She is indebted to CU Lux for helping her realize she should always be working for the good of everyone on her team, submitting to them often in humility, praying for their wellbeing, and asking for God’s presence in the work that she does.
“Christian Union has been such a blessing,” she said. “When I first took on a leadership position in CU, I didn’t understand how my role in the ministry was going to be different from the other leadership positions I had at Yale. But I began in a different place—there was this real, selfless love for everyone on the team. I was praying for them all the time, asking God to help me be the best I could be—which was all supported by our ministry fellows and previous student leaders. I had these incredible people encouraging me, saying things like, ‘be the one... to rise out of the apathy and selfishness on this campus,’ and ‘always invite the Holy Spirit to everything you are planning.’”
This is exactly the kind of transformational leadership Pascut and the ministry team at CU Lux had in mind with the organizational excellence workshop and other ongoing teaching and mentoring sessions. At Christian Union, “organizational excellence is to be pursued like other godly pursuits because it reflects the nature of God, and therefore brings honor to His name and blessing to humanity.” Pascut said organizational excellence is God’s way of bringing order to a broken world.
“When we embody a common purpose, coordinated effort, division of labor, and hierarchy of authority, we live with one another in our true humanity toward rebuilding our world,” Pascut said.
To stay up to date with important articles like this one regarding Christian Union's leadership development efforts at some of our nation's most influential universities, please subscribe to our newsletter: Click here.
