DEVELOPMENT

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BY CHRISTI MAYS

Christian Studies? Business? BOTH.

Students Find Perfect Combination of Business and Ministry in Transformational Development by Christi Mays

A yoga class was the last place Robert Patterson expected to discover a new interdisciplinary degree at UMHB that could simultaneously offer the business skills he needed and the ministry component his heart craved. Looking back now, three years later, he sees how God choreographed every step of his journey leading him to discover the Bachelor of Transformational Development.

ROBERT’S JOURNEY

School had never come easy for Robert. After a tumultuous freshman year in which he suffered a career-ending football injury and some heart-wrenching family issues, the distressed business major dropped out and eventually moved back home to Austin. Determined to get his head straight, he reached out to his former high school trainer, who owned a nearby gym. Robert offered to work for free at the gym. For almost a year, he diligently showed up for the 5 a.m. workouts six mornings each week to help train young athletes.

Robert was surprised to learn that training wasn’t the only thing the gym offered. The owner was also a preacher who not only taught his athletes about God during their workouts, but also converted the gym into a church each Sunday. It was Robert’s first look at “business as ministry,” or “BAM,” as some call it. He found himself engaged and inspired in the teachings and even got the chance to preach. Robert, who had always grown up in a Christian home, grew closer to God and was baptized. His mentor encouraged him to give school another chance, and a year and a half later, Robert found himself packing his belongings and heading back to UMHB to finish his business degree. He was determined to make it work this time, but after only a few days, he felt something was amiss and found himself reconsidering his decision to major in business. He liked his classes and professors but yearned for a ministerial component. That’s when he ended up in yoga class.

DISCOVERING HIS CALLING

As people filed in and began setting up their mats that morning, Robert was chatting with the instructor about how he wished there was a degree that mixed business and ministry. Colleen Lewis, who had worked in the Christian studies department, overheard his dilemma.

“She looked over at me like she knew me and asked, ‘Have you heard about the transformational development major?’” he recalled. She told him it was exactly what he was describing!

Robert was intrigued and decided to look into it. After days of praying, he still felt uncertain about switching UMHB FEATURES

majors since the program had just launched that semester. But a few days later, as he was eating lunch with a friend, a sudden wave of urgency overcame him to get up and go switch majors at that very moment.

“I felt God telling me to change my major. Not an audible voice, but it was like an idea that I would have never thought about myself,” Robert said. “When it came to me, it was more confirmation. I needed to go change it right now!”

Three years later, Robert graduated this past December with his BTD, is married to his high school sweetheart, Aubry (an education major at UMHB), and is expecting twin girls this spring. With plans to get a master’s degree in theology and sports studies from Baylor University, Robert hopes to one day open a gym to minister and mentor youth, just as he was ministered to during his roughest time.

“I felt like everything was so pointless in the beginning,” he said. “But now, I look back and every single season I was in was for a reason.”

Robert Patterson ‘22 was selected as the fall semester student speaker at Chapel. After finally discovering the “perfect” degree for him in a yoga class, he graduated in December with his Bachelor of Transformational Development degree.

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What is Transformational Development?

Launched in 2019, the Bachelor of Transformational Development (BTD) is a unique degree at UMHB that combines a variety of courses in Christian theology and missiology with foundational courses in business. The degree prepares students to be servant leaders as they create and sustain mission-based organizations, churches, ministries, non-profits and for-profits, both locally and globally.

“We wanted to create something unique,” said Dr. Timothy Crawford, dean of the College of Christian Studies. “I don’t know of anything exactly like this anywhere else.”

Crawford said Christian Studies partnered with McLane School of Business to design the degree to fill a niche of students who want to do “business as ministry,” which broadly means working in business with a Kingdom-focused vision.

Its name has both spiritual and business innuendos, which can be useful to students planning to work abroad, especially in countries that are reluctant to let in missionaries or those with Christian studies degrees.

“Since transformational development has a big dose of business courses, it is much more welcome,” he added.

MIND-BLOWING DISCOVERY

When Dannah Fritschle ’22 blew out her knee playing soccer her sophomore year of high school, the full-ride scholarships she was offered from several DI schools vanished. But this devastating turn of events led her to UMHB, where she eventually discovered a new degree that proved perfect for her future career — the Bachelor of Transformational Development.

Dannah, who grew up watching her mother work at a nonprofit, spent much time in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. As a young girl, the work and progress she witnessed in those countries deeply impacted her, and she dreamed of one day becoming a missionary. There was only one part of that career path that dissuaded her.

“I don’t want to be the stereotypical missionary and have to fundraise my whole life,” she explained. “I want to work and do ministry. My achiever mindset actually wants to have a day-in, day-out job and structure to my life.”

Determined to find a way to do both, Dannah decided the best route in college was to double-major in business and Christian studies.

One afternoon while discussing this plan with a friend, Madeline Hill, Madeline quizzically looked at Dannah and asked, “Have you heard about my major, transformational development? It’s literally half Christian studies and half business!”

“It was kind of like an awestruck moment of realizing the Lord’s faithfulness,” Dannah said.

FIRST GRADUATE

At that point, Dannah had already taken most of her Christian studies classes, so switching her major to transformational development helped her graduate a semester early this past May. Dannah walked across the stage to receive the first BTD diploma awarded at UMHB. With a perfect 4.0 grade-point-average

Last May, Dannah Fritschle ’22 walked across the graduation stage as the first student to receive a Bachelor of Transformational Development degree at UMHB. She is currently doing mission work for Greater Europe Mission.

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and acceptance into Pepperdine Caruso School of Law, Dannah thought her path was set toward her academic dream of getting a law degree and eventually working at a nonprofit. But then came the email from Greater Europe Mission (GEM) in Germany, saying they had an open spot for her on their team. It was an opportunity she couldn’t pass by, so she deferred law school for a year and hopped on a plane in September to Germany to begin business-as-mission work with GEM doing data analytics, logistics for short-term teams and social media and marketing. Dannah is waiting to see what the Lord has in store for her – whether to continue doing mission work with GEM or head to California for law school this fall. One thing is for certain; she said she is happy that God brought her to UMHB with His perfect timing to be the first student to graduate from the BTD program.

“Literally, I loved every single part of it,” Dannah said. “I think it’s incredible because it gave me a lot of freedom with the options within it. I got to take classes I actually cared about the whole time and really got to tailor my degree more to what I wanted to do. And the professors who taught the classes were top-tier.”

ON THE RIGHT PATH

When Madeline Hill was 13, some missionaries came to her church to speak. “I remember sitting there thinking I would never have the boldness to share the Gospel with anyone,” she recalled. “I was really adamant about not doing anything missions-related and thinking the Lord would never call me to do that because I thought I wasn’t good enough for ministry work.”

Just a few years later, during her sophomore year of high school, she felt the Lord calling her into missions.

Madeline, who just graduated in December with her BTD, already has a jump on working in business-as-missions. She spent the last two summers interning with mission organizations in Macedonia.

“When I was interviewing for the position, they asked what I am studying,” she said. “When I told them about transformational development, they said, ‘That’s perfect! That’s what we do.’ My degree was perfect for their organization and working in business-as-missions.”

Madeline described her work as creating personal relationships with business clients, gaining their trust and showing them Christian love.

“They aren’t used to people genuinely caring about them,” she said. Blatantly sharing the Gospel can be a big turnoff there, she said. Madeline, instead, learned to say things to her clients such as, ‘My foundation is Christ, and I love Christ, so I love you too and want to see you thrive, both spiritually and economically.’”

The work was so fulfilling, and the relationships she built were so meaningful that Madeline hopes to go back and work long-term at some point.

Growing up near Houston, Madeline learned about UMHB from a high school friend. Even though she applied and got into three different schools, for reasons unknown to her at the time, she knew she was supposed to be at UMHB.

“I didn’t even come for a tour. I just trusted that this is where God wanted me,” she said. “When I found out about the transformational development degree plan, it was exactly what I wanted to do, but also confirmation about coming to UMHB.”

Madeline Hill ’22, who just graduated in December, is planning to pursue work in business-as-missions with her transformational development degree