Preparing Business Students to be Salt and Light: Three Models of Faith Formation in Business Tested Head-to-Head

Abstract

This study responds to the need for empirical work on the complex nature and dynamics of faith formation. A survey of business students tested three models of faith formation by indicating which aspects of these models best reflected perceived experience. Classic secular theory dominates the student development literature, including in the Christian academy. As a result, secular theory influences heavily the thinking of Christian student-life professionals. A first model was derived from classic secular theory. A cutting-edge model from the secular literature offered a second model. A third model was derived by the author from an explicitly Christian philosophy of education. The author expected this empirical study to verify the already highly verified classic secular model. Even so, the author’s model was verified most strongly of the three models. This result offers encouragement to business faculty who teach according to their own explicitly Christian working models of how their students mature in their faith. Relevant literature, research warrant, methodology, and results are discussed below.