Leading Courageously with Multnomah University President, Dr. Craig Williford

Oh, yeah. MU Talks Back in the studio.

Back in the studio of Multoma University with Our co host, Reverend Dr. Robert J. Hildebrand and Renee Duffy here with a really special guest. And I think you're gonna figure out right after the introduction why we really think this is another special guest on him.

You picked a good day to listen. I know. Renee, listeners.

That's right. We are so pleased to have with us today Reverend Dr. Craig Williford, President of Multnomah University. President Williford has served as president of Multnomah University since 2014 and during his time he's led Multnomah with a passion for godly cross cultural leadership. President Williford has more than 20 years experience as a pastor, teacher and mentor for others serving in Christian leadership. President Willford, thank you for taking time to be part of our discussion today.

Thank you, Renee.

Oh, it's great to have our president with us today. Now you, if you have been a faithful listener of MU talks, you might recall we've had Dr. Williford. We had him to talk about leadership and then the world went south fast. And then we've had him a few times to actually walk us through the higher education and leadership in the time of a pandemic, which in my close work with Dr. Williford, I said it's an adventure I never want to experience ever again leading through a pandemic. So, so excited to have to have Dr. Williford with us. We're going to talk about a few really wonderful things. First, let's start with lessons from your experience as life lessons from, from your experience. And what I'm going for is what we've done it in the leadership is the, there, there are young presidents coming up, there are young leaders coming up. And I think there's just tremendous wisdom. Now I've seen that wisdom in action, but there's tremendous wisdom. So just generally you can, you can take this wherever you want, but then we're going to have some questions ourselves.

You know, a lot of people talk about character and competency when it comes to leadership. For me, character is the foundation because leaders will be tested in their integrity. Leaders will have numerous times when they can take shortcuts because they think in the short term it will help, but in the long term it never does. And so these tests that we go through as young leaders and as we grow as leaders are so important because they test our character. And I believe God uses those to build the depth and the connection with him that's necessary to Be a godly leader and we'll all be tested early on, usually right within our character. Are we going to be people of integrity? Are we going to pay the price for being leaders and make the right decision even though it may cost us personally or we can't share the reasons why we made a decision, but it's going to cost us, but we'll make it anyway. So these kinds of tests early on, the skills develop over time. That's the competency and it's just like a muscle. The more you use, the better it gets. The bigger it gets, the more you expand. So some things can only, only be learned over time in leadership. So you have to be patient. But at the very beginning, it's usually just the reliability, the ability to manage details, the ability to relate to people. These are the key kinds of skills. Listening, discerning, showing wisdom. As you get older though, I think what happens when you have more leadership experience is the depth of wisdom increases because you've made mistakes, you learn from your mistakes or else you're paralyzed by your mistakes. And as you learn from them and then you learn to depend upon God more, in the Holy Spirit more and wisdom starts to develop. And so life lessons for me are it's all about relationships. It's about character, it's about relationships, it's about the soft skills, collaboration, listening, respecting and being willing to back off your opinions. Around here, we say it this way. President Williford has a lot of ideas and sometimes they're good. And you know, I have a lot of ideas. And so being the kind of leader that will listen enough to go, oh no, I'm going the wrong direction, we need to go this way and that way. But it's these soft skills that are so important in leadership and being authentic and genuine and not fake.

Can I follow up? Just. And this one's, you know, been watching the trucker protests in Canada and fascinating on so many levels. One of the levels is what does the Prime Minister do? Because you've got all these, I don't know, trucks and now they're starting to block borders. And regardless of if you're sympathetic to the anti mandate stance or not, it's been fascinating for me to think now what does the Prime Minister do? Because if he, if he, you know, quote unquote caves or if, I mean obviously the mandates are going, are going to go away all around the world. So eventually it's going to happen, but now if he does it, he looks weak. When do you listen to the people and when do you stand strong. Like, how do you. How does he play that? How do you.

Well, preventing that situation from occurring is usually the best approach. And I don't know all the specific details about why he couldn't prevent that, but that's usually your best approach, if you can. But sometimes you've just got to stand in this particular situation. He's going to have to figure out a way where the truckers win and he wins and the people of Canada win, and it feels like a win for everybody. I, I think he's going to have to back off of his mandate. I don't see any other way through it or come up with a sort of a middle ground that allows the truckers to back off, but he's going to have to back off. That's all there is.

Yeah, I think so, too. We'll see what happens.

One thing that I, I appreciated in your leadership, so. So everybody knows context. I report directly to Dr. Willaford. He hired me at Multimillion University, actually almost three years ago. We're going three years. So I got a chance to see his leadership in action. We worked every week and weekly together. One thing that you've never felt short of having enough supply of is courage. And it's a, it's a really important leadership trait. I, you know, you can do many, many things, but if you don't have the courage to just plow through, to say, I've heard all the sides, thank you. This is where we're going to go, or we're going to go. And thoughts on how somebody can actually exercise that muscle. How, where, where is it important to exercise that. That courage and the role that courage took and played in your now quite a. Quite an impressive tenure in ministry and leadership.

Courage is always preceded by fear and insecurity. And usually courage occurs when we don't have all the facts and decisions we need or we see no good solution or any solution just produces more problems. For me, courage is based in what God said to Joshua. I am with you. Be strong and courageous. I am with you. He said it repeatedly in the first part of the book of Joshua. So I think courage emerges from this deep relationship with God and trust in believing that if you do make a mistake, God's bigger than that mistake and can help you through that mistake. So if, if a decision is wrong. You heard me say this a lot in the pandemic. I don't know, folks. This is what we're going to have to do. This is what I think. And if I'm wrong, We'll back up and we'll look at it in a different way. But if we can just acknowledge that we can't get every decision right, but we've got to do the best we can and then just proceed today with the best decision and then what's the best decision tomorrow? And then back off if you've made mistakes and refigure it out. And so as long as you see it as fluid, but it really comes from this deep trust that God's got you and got the organization and you're trying to do the best you can and just believing in him. That's where the courage comes from. Wow.

Yeah, I love it. You know, I look at your leadership and, and there's a couple of things that I think have been really strong. There's probably lots of things, but a couple that jump out at me. The hires you made in the VPs, I thought you hired some great VPs here. And also just recently charting your way through the pandemic, it felt like you were one step ahead all the time. And I guess, how do you do those things? How do you hire good people? How do you stay ahead of a pandemic? Terrible time to be a leader.

Well, first, one of the joys of my 48 years in leadership is this ability to identify young emerging leaders and give them a chance and then help to mentor them and grow them until they are leaders on their own. Right and going. And so I love the fact that here, let me see. Aline, Robbie, Jessica, are all first time VPs. Joe and Joe. Yeah, that's right. I forgot that one. And so I love that. That's what I've always done and enjoyed and that's what my future ministry will be when we retire. We'll talk about that later. But. But I think more than anything it's to look and listen to the qualities of an emerging young leader. Are they teachable? Are they hardworking? Are they smart? And do they have character? And then I can teach the rest, encourage the rest. So that's how I do that. In the pandemic, the key for me was to absorb as much as research from as many sources as possible and then try and sort through it and listen to the senior leadership team as they gave me feedback on that. Also, I had some contacts in certain locations that would leak information to Nice I could never identify, but these were relationships that I had built in advance. So from Washington D.C. and from Salem, I was getting heads up.

Yeah, boy, that's nice.

Yeah.

So, yeah, wow.

If you, if you Hear a senior leader pause and think, okay, what am I going to say about, like, the leadership through this pandemic? Because it was. It really was complex. It was. It was a phenomena. It was not a phenomenon. It was a series of phenomenons that were happening all at once. So, yeah, that. The pause as well.

Tough time to be a leader. Tough time to buy a chateau, too, by the way. Terrible time.

Well, one of the things about the pandemic is when it first emerged, the weight of knowing people's lives were at stake with the decisions. And so we established values at senior leadership. To establish values, safety of people's lives was number one. The mission was number two. We've got to do our mission the best we can. And. And so with those two values and learn, learn, listen, listen, listen. That's how we were able to sort through it. And then prayer, prayer and more prayer. Yeah.

Wrapping up eight years at Multoma University. Much could be said about this, but I'm curious, and I know this is a podcast. You can't say really everything, but some of the things that you enjoyed in Moloma University, some of the things that you look back and say, this. This place is this or this place is that.

For me, the people. I mean, bottom line, it's the people. It's the people. It's the people. I've served three different institutions, and I've been faculty, adjunct faculty at four others. So I've had. Then I attended my own schools as well for my degree. So I've been around Christian Higher Ed, really, for almost the entire 48 years. So it's about the people, people, people. What I love here is the skill of the people, yet the willingness to be in community together and to work together and to listen and to draw on each other's skills and trust those and respect those. The relationship between the faculty and the board and administration is good. It's the best I've ever seen at the other schools that I served. And so I'm really pleased about the progress we made there and the things there. But I think more than anything, it's the heart of the people toward the students and the mission. I've never had to convince them about that. I had to steer, and my job was to get the resources the best I could so they could do their job. But it's their true love for Christ and for our students that make this place special. Yes.

Another thing that seems to have gone well. And again, I'm on the outside, so I'm kind of looking from the corner but it seems like your relationship with the board is going well. What are some secrets or tips or how does one find a good board and work well with them?

When I came in 2014, only three of those board members are still board members.

Oh, wow.

And so one of the things I try to teach new presidents is the importance of building a board that's with you on mission. And God just brought angels disguised as humans to serve on our board. And such talented people.

Yes, yes.

That we could just work together. But one of the techniques that I use is I don't try to convince a board to do something. I give the board the information and I trust them then to make the decisions that are theirs. And I always spend time explaining why we should do something, and just as much time and vigor is why we shouldn't do it. And then that gives the board the information they need and then they choose and go forward. So trust. But you've got to develop the board. You got to build it to be on mission with you. And that's what I did.

Yeah.

We're almost at half time of this podcast. Can you believe this? I mean, we have a faculty member, we have staff, we have the CEO here, and boy, we could ask a lot of questions from 80 years of Multnomah here. But I want us to move to what's next for Dr. Willeford. Retirement. It's not a word that I don't think you have any vocabulary that just knowing the amount of energy, I think Carolyn would actually like kick you out to play golf or something going on. But I think you have something bigger going on and I'm very curious to find out what is the plan?

Carolyn and I've started a new 501c religious nonprofit organization. It's headquartered in Texas and its sole purpose is to provide a safe, confidential space for ministry leaders and their spouses to process, to find encouragement, prayer, to just be a place where they can vent their frustrations and all those types of things that they experience and know it's safe and away from their organization. And then from time to time, bits of suggestions that they might consider as to whatever challenges they're facing. And so this is a part time ministry for us. We will only do 30 hours a week and we're going to take on 14 clients. The difficulty is we're not going to launch it till July, but we already have seven clients, so it's going to fill up quickly. Good. But donors have already funded it. And so as I said, it's already all set up. And ready to go. And July 1st, we launch it and away we go. But we're going to move to Texas, live near family, and then run the 501C3. Plus Carolyn's convinced I've got another book in me and she's got another book in her, and we'll see how that goes as well.

You know, that's one of the joys, like I, that's one of the joys of ministry is that you can do a lot of good work towards, you know, your retirement time. Like when I had a grandpa who was a president, he, he, he was teaching till he's 90, you know, like not, you know, one class here and there kind of thing and wrote a bunch of books. It's wonderful. And, and I don't need to convince you guys of this, but to the listeners, the value of this is huge because, you know, you get a pastor who's in a church and they're going through some stuff and they can't talk to anybody because. Yeah, you know, if there's just for reason, and maybe you can't even understand this until you've been the pastor, but sometimes there's just things that you, you need to talk about, but it's, you need an outside perspective and to. So I, I get calls from people all the time like, hey, what's, what's your take on this? And so I can see this will be a huge help to, to a lot of people.

So in my vast experience in higher education, that's a little bit of sarcasm in there, but still, I'm getting on, on close to 10 years. I have never seen a president to take a full week to go and pray for people and, and to pray for the staff, pray for the faculty, pray for all this. Take a full week off, have. How, what was it, 30 pages? How many pages?

Well, the most we've ever had is 146 pages of individual.

That's pages. Pages. And take all that and go in the, in the Holies of Holies and, and pray for that. Can you offer some reflection on that? Where did that come from? What is, how do you come out of that? What do you do with now knowing maybe the depth of people's hearts, how, what, what's the value that that had for you?

A mentor suggested that to us a number of years ago, and Carolyn and I just took right to it. And so we've been doing it now for, I think, 15 years and did it at a previous school and have done it here. The key about that is that It's a week of spiritual warfare. When you take these kinds of deep, personal, confidential requests because people share their hearts with us because they know we're going to keep it confidential. And then we shred all that afterwards and nobody sees it. But usually when you take that kind of stuff to the throne of God, you will experience spiritual warfare. And we did multiple, multiple times. But the reason we did it is because it connected our heart to the people that we serve and to God. And it was a great privilege to do it. And I still can't believe the deep personal things they shared with us and gave us the privilege.

Yeah, it's a genius idea. If I was ever a president, I would try to do it, even though I'm not a terrible prayer. So that's going to be a problem. But, but I mean, you can see the value, like, obviously the value in the prayer, but then the shepherding value for you to understand your people and even just, you know, the zeitgeist, you're understanding what's going on, which is important as a leader, too.

Well, it really is. And it allows me to be pastoral as well as president and connect both of those. And it builds a relationship depth, too, that helps me as a leader as well.

And it gives people permission to talk. Like sometimes, you know, you might have something on your heart, but you just. It's just impertinent to me to say, you know, but then you. Yeah, that's good.

Where would somebody find information if they want to. If they wanted to join or be a client of your. Of the nonprofit, of the ministry?

We'll launch in July, and the web page will be the williford Connection. And at that point, there's an application process. The board helps me to choose what people are a part of it or not. But just look for the williford Connection online beginning in July.

Okay, that's really good. That's. That's great stuff. And I strongly encourage. I mean, if there are people in ministry, I resonate strongly with, with what Rob was saying. If you're in ministry, there are very few people that you can talk to. If you are a wise pastor, there are very few people that you can talk to. To not actually to just offload your soul and see exactly what, what's going on there. So a brilliant ministry. Brilliant ministry now. Yes, go ahead.

Oh, yeah, no, and as you age, too, you maybe don't have parents anymore, right? Like, like, you know, when, when you're younger and you have parents and you're like, well, I've Got some buil them right there, but then they're gone, so.

Yeah, I know we're. We're getting close to our time and I think we're gonna spend a little bit more time on a rapid fire. Now. We do rapid fire session here, and rapid fire is the. The place where people can actually really get to know the personal Craig, not. Not the. The president and. And the leader. And these are just random questions. And feel free to dodge any of the questions that you're not. You're not really comfortable with. Renee, do you have one going on? Let's go.

Sure. If you had a boat, what would you name it?

Oh, I would name it Carolyn's Getaway.

If you were named President United States tomorrow, first thing you'd do. Here's the easy one.

Fire the Senate and the House and rebuild.

There we go.

We built from scratch.

I like it. I like it.

What's the.

The strangest thing you have ever eaten?

It was a live grub in a banana leaf, and the national told me, don't chew it, just swallow it. And when I. And drink your coke really quickly. I did, and it was alive in my stomach for a few minutes.

Oh, that's a bad feel.

Okay, well, this wraps up our episode.

Oh, this may or may not be connected then. What's the best vacation you've ever been on? Was it the grub eating trip or.

No, definitely not. The best vacation we ever did was on a private, private island off the coast of Belize where Carol and I were just with a very small group. And we were there for eight nights and nine days and we scuba and snorkeled and sailed and just enjoyed ourselves.

Best thing about choosing a life of ministry?

Knowing that what you're doing is eternal, blessed by God and strengthened by the Holy Spirit.

Worst thing about choosing a life of ministry?

Everybody looks over your shoulder and evaluates everything.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

And.

And they might know better than you. What's the last movie that made you cry?

Oh, that's a tough one. The last one that made me cry.

If you're a cry one, one wiped tear qualifies.

Let me move away from movie to series.

Okay?

Okay. I love All Creatures Great and Small. It's on Masterpiece Theater. Okay. I have shed a tear or two watching that. Or Call the Midwife on Masterpiece Theater. Either one of those.

Cool. Wow. I know those. Yeah.

What's your favorite room in your house?

Favorite room in my house? Well, I guess I would have to say the kitchen where Carolyn and I jabber away while we're making meals and just enjoy each other's company and just have an informal time.

One thing you're looking forward to about Texas.

It'S not a blue state.

I can resonate with that. Oh, wow. Oh, I'm wearing a mask.

We're doing this.

Yeah.

And we are wearing masks. Okay. If you are the ruler of the world.

There we go.

Who would be your top advisor and why? Me.

Living or dead?

You? Actually, let's let. Yeah, anybody.

I would pick Solomon. Okay.

And he's going for the win.

David. Yeah.

David.

I mean, I was gonna say Jesus, but you know.

Yeah.

Oh, wow.

Anybody else?

Do you have a favorite childhood memory?

You know, my childhood was very uneven and so it was uneven. Let's just put it that. But probably my favorite memory was fishing with my dad on Table Rock Lake before Branson was a thing. And we ran into a run of crappie and we caught 60 fish less than two hours.

Wow.

Wow. Just pulling them in.

So you guys have talked about. You guys have written on marriage too. I think you and K. Yeah. We have one good tip for young marriages or even like, you know, 10 year, 20 year marriages.

Be intentional in investing time in the marriage and don't allow life to take that time away. It has to be. It has to be different, but be intentional. Design times to be romantic for each other.

What was the best purchase you've made? Under a hundred dollars this year.

I like that one.

Oh, that's a really interesting one. Best purchase under a hundred dollars this year. I. I would say probably it was a new pair of shoes I liked.

Oh, there we go.

Do you have any secret talents?

Most people don't know that. I did a wed. I did a wedding for professional roller skaters on roller skates in a roller skating rink. And it was taken by BBC and.

Run internationally motion on the floor to have pictures from the wedding posted on MU Talks Facebook page.

And I fell during the rehearsal, but I didn't fall during the wedding.

Were you moving like it's hard to stand too.

We skated in.

Yeah.

And. But they were professional skaters. So afterwards instead of the dance, they did a professional skating routine. The two of them.

Like. Like figure skating. Is that that kind of skating?

Yeah, they were doing twist and turns and spins and. Yeah, that was beautiful. Wow.

Wow.

If you had a parrot, what would you teach it to say? You walk in the house.

Love Jesus. Love Jesus.

Love Jesus. Okay, last questions.

Renee. Rob.

Oh, man, I'm out.

If you could have a lifetime supply of anything, what would.

Oh, that's a Good question.

Kettle potato chips. Oh, my goodness.

It seems doable. I think you could. Yeah.

I've Learned more about Dr. Will Afford and 5 minutes of rapid fire. Man, if I would have demanded those pictures from that skating thing way earlier if I knew. I can't thank you enough for. For coming with us today. Also thank you for your tenure at Multoma. Multnomah is for everybody listening. I am. I don't say things that I don't believe in. I usually stay away from them. Multnomah is here today because The Lord brought Dr. Willaford to Multnomah 80 years ago, and he has carried the mission and the vision of the school. And today we are here because of the leadership and I am personally thankful for that. We are now transitioning. We are almost transitioned to an ex president. It was. It was. It was such an intentional transition process. And that spoke more to me than the three years that we've worked. Work together. How intentional you were in transitioning us to transitioning us and the humility that came with that to transition us. So last concluding thoughts, either for. Either for. For leaders listening, for people that. That want to get into becoming a president. Last concluding thoughts are yours today.

Be called into it. Don't seek it on your own. Be called into it. Because there is a huge price that you pay to be a leader and to be a president. Also. Dr. Eric Anthony Joseph is our new president and I'm delighted he's coming. He'll be here officially March 1st.

So that's. Well, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Rob. I think if you don't mind, he gave me a hard time last time I asked him to do that, but I'm saying it right here in front of everybody. This is an important disclaimer for people to know. MU Talks is just some really wonderful friends talking. Thank you again for being with us. Thank you, Renee, and.

Thanks for watching us. Thanks for listening to us today. We hope it's been helpful.

The views.

Oh, I get to say that the views of MU talks represent only the opinions of those of us talking. Not the institution, not the country, not a political party.

Sam.