A Class of Their Own

By Ken Walker

When nationally known pastor Chris Hodges was looking for someone to lead his dream of starting a groundbreaking Bible college, he turned to an unlikely candidate: a 30-year-old youth pastor who had been on staff at Church of the Highlands (COH) for only five years.

Fast forward to the fall of 2024, and Mark Pettus is presiding over a school in growth mode at a time when many Christian colleges and universities are in retreat. Highlands College recently entered its second academic year as a bachelor’s degree-granting institution with seven majors, including pastoral leadership.

Though the final step is yet to occur, the Birmingham, Alabama, school has obtained initial accreditation from the Association for Biblical Higher Education.

A record 400-plus students were expected for the fall semester that began in mid-August, with its founder envisioning on-campus enrollment of 1,000 by 2029. Driving this expansion is a fervent response to Hodges’ vision-casting: Over the past seven years, 10,000 individuals and families have donated nearly $150 million to the college’s Eternal Impact Campaign.

The largesse includes a $20-million gift from Hobby Lobby owner David Green and his family, which enabled the school’s first dormitory to open in early 2023. Green made a second challenge grant of $17.5 million, with all this giving designed to help Highlands reach its long-term goal of funding endowed scholarships for as many students as possible to attend tuition-free. In the meantime, some donations are funding short-term stipends

Chris Hodges founded Church of the Highlands in 2001. Simultaneously, he, along with five others, founded the Association of Related Churches (ARC). Chris and his close friend Rick Bezet, who planted New Life Church in Little Rock, Arkansas, were the first two ARC plants.  Highlands became a prototype for the 1,113 ARC churches planted to date. From the church’s beginnings, Hodges has placed a strong emphasis on raising up a younger generation to step into leadership.

For the megachurch pastor, calling on Pettus to bring this vision to fruition revolved around a basic reason: His protégé was always one of the brightest people in the room. Despite his relative youth, Pettus came to staff meetings well-read, prepared for discussion and ready to ask insightful questions. Pettus possessed what the senior pastor calls an “architect spirit.”

When the 61-year-old Hodges approaches people, he often asks them to tell him what they see. Those who march to a different drummer can discern what others don’t.

“When people have what I call an architect spirit, they can see things that aren’t here yet (a la Hebrews 11:1),” says Hodges, who serves as the college’s chancellor. “When they start describing them to me, that’s when I know I’ve found a special leader. God drops dreams and visions into only certain people. He couldn’t drop them into everybody, or everybody would have their own vision and there wouldn’t be any teams. Everybody would want to do their own thing.

“God gives the blueprint to just a few people, and Mark always had the blueprint. If I asked him, ‘Mark, I want to build a college; how do we do this?’ he’d have an answer. Or if he didn’t, he’d go and find an answer. Leadership expert John Maxwell says it this way: ‘(Visionaries) see more and they see before.’ That’s who Mark is. He can just see things beyond what they currently are.”

RAPID EXPANSION

Ironically, at first Hodges didn’t conceive of a Bible college. Once COH had its feet on the ground, the founding pastor thought he would train several dozen leaders a year. Then the momentum built to the point Hodges wanted to create a way for students to obtain a two-year degree.

“The dream of the college is to supply leaders of competence and character,” Hodges says. “We’re trying to address the massive need for full-time Christian vocational leaders. The original vision of Highlands College is something that has been around for 2,000 years, where the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.”

Thirteen years after choosing Pettus to put feet to this calling, the wisdom of the selection is illustrated by the expansion proceeding on Highlands’ 70-acre campus. Signs of growth are everywhere at the former corporate headquarters of HealthSouth (now called Encompass Health).

The first phase of the college’s second on-campus residence hall was completed in August. When finished in the fall of 2025, it will house 280 students, more than double the number living in its first, five-story dormitory.

The additional space will be needed; the school welcomed its largest-ever freshman class of 208 in mid-August. Also on the drawing boards are an additional dining facility and a student recreation and wellness center. The recreational facilities will provide additional intramural sports and training outlets for students, who are required to complete a half-marathon as part of their physical and spiritual fitness.

Intricately woven into the fabric of Church of the Highlands—a 26-campus operation that sees average weekly attendance of 60,000—this fall the college will host its Impact Speaker Series for area business leaders. It will culminate in a December 4 virtually broadcast Impact Leadership Conference, which last year drew 14,000 participants.

It will also sponsor a Veterans Day celebration and a Leadership Encounter Day on October 24, when students will be excused from classes. That’s so they can listen to talks by the likes of music industry executive Mark Quattrochi, former gang member turned pastor Quovadis Marshall and LIIV Atlanta founders Mayo and Kai Sowell.

Bringing famous names to campus is part of Highlands’ mode of operation. Its instructional roster includes visits from such experts as author Andy Andrews, singers CeCe Winans and Chris Tomlin, “Passion” founder Louie Giglio, best-selling author and pastor Craig Groeschel and YouVersion app inventor Bobby Gruenewald.

“We bring in ministry leaders to be with our kids, so they’re rubbing shoulders with people like Chris Tomlin, so that’s a huge distinction,” says Hodges.

“ARC has planted so many churches, and our GrowLeader network is coaching 17,000 leaders, so we have unparalleled placement opportunities. Our students are often receiving 10, 15 or 20 job offers on graduation day because we can connect them to the church world.”

This healthy picture revolves around four pillars Hodges envisioned after a 1990s-era visit to the Air Force Academy. There he learned the Air Force and other military academies revolve around (1) academic instruction, (2) military training, (3) character formation and (4) physical training.

Highlands College kept the academic instruction and character formation pillars while substituting ministry training and spiritual development for the other two. The ministry training aspect means students will graduate with 800 hours of experience in their degree field, much of it gained at the church that gave life to the school. The spiritual development emphasis includes teaching such qualities as Bible reading, developing one’s prayer life and how to make good choices.

“Students are able to practice their craft in this living laboratory,” Hodges says. “So music students are leading worship on Sundays in one of our 26 locations. Another distinction that I don’t know of any school doing is our professors-in-residence.

“We’re also one of the few colleges or universities that isn’t tied to the federal government [meaning it doesn’t accept Pell Grants] in any way. We made that choice so we could keep our values. We didn’t want the government having any leverage over us.”

LIVING THE DREAM

While Highlands College is a credit to Hodges’ leadership, the school has relied on Pettus to carry out day-to-day operations. The president developed an early appreciation for the value of education as the son of two special education teachers; his mother taught elementary students and his father at the high school level.

“I also developed a deep respect and honor for educators,” says Pettus, the father of four sons ages nine to 16. “I have the highest respect for those who give their lives to the next generation. For my parents, that was part of the ministry they were called to—education and, specifically, for those students. They’re retired now but are part of our church.”

Six months after accepting Christ at 17, Pettus sensed a call to ministry. With his background, he envisioned that including some form of higher education, such as a college professorship. But he never dreamed of becoming the president.

That changed after his fortuitous 2001 meeting with Hodges, whom he first heard speak at a Christian athletes meeting at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. A long snapper for the UAB football team, the following Sunday Pettus and Jill (a soccer player who became his wife) decided to attend COH, then just a month into its infancy.

“It was an incredible example for me of what a pastor looks like,” Pettus recalls of Hodges leading worship, mixing with the congregation halfway through the service and then delivering the sermon.

“As we got closer with him, he’s always been great about mentoring leaders,” Pettus adds. “I was just blown away about the clarity he had for Church of the Highlands. He could articulate it so well. Even though we were new and hadn’t been there long, he invited us into the vision. It’s not just his vision; it’s our vision. From a mentor perspective, he never stops training.”

No matter what the environment, Pettus says the senior pastor doesn’t just tell staff members what to do, but explains in detail why things should be done a certain way. Even a word of correction comes couched in values and the importance of qualities like the college’s four pillars, Pettus says.

Pettus organized the college using the four pillars. Academically, the school relies heavily on church staff, which supplies 20 of the 55 faculty members. Others are graduates from an earlier time, when the college’s two-year Associate of Arts in Ministry degrees were issued through a partnership with Southeastern University, an Assemblies of God school in Lakeland, Florida.

Although it promotes a West Point-style approach, Pettus says that refers more to the college’s philosophy of disciplined learning than a grueling physical regimen. And while he considers ministry training the leading pillar in its foundation, the president says spiritual development is also a key. Nothing works if a student’s heart doesn’t beat with love for Jesus, Pettus says, which is why students are in chapel twice a week, small groups during the week and church on Sunday.

Character formation comes through care groups that help students finish their degrees, as well as train for and run the half-marathon during their time as students. While there is a physical benefit to running 13.1 miles, the president says the run also offers character benefits. Highlands doesn’t dictate exactly when and how students complete the half-marathon, but once they select a date, the school holds them accountable to finish.

“Our culture is not what you see in the military academies, although discipline is an important part of what we do,” Pettus says. “We believe in the importance of the mission of our graduates—that they are called to a life of eternal impact. We believe that takes more than a classroom.

“We need more than four, five or six hours a week to train our students. It’s not 24/7, but when they’re in school they need to be disciplined and called toward the ministry they’re pursuing. Luke 10:2 is our guiding light. Our accomplishment is we want to be part of fulfilling the Great Commission in our generation.”

SETTING DIRECTION

Directing such an ambitious program and an increasing faculty roster could tempt some leaders to micromanage staff to insure everything gets done. Pettus admits he felt overwhelmed as a young leader, especially since he couldn’t consult a 1-2-3 guide on how to build a college. He calls a trio of qualities his insurance against driving his executive team up the wall:

Alignment. Every day when Pettus comes to work he asks whether he and those under him are aligned in their vision and tactical and operational objectives. The question: “Are we in alignment?” essentially means: “Are we speaking with one voice?” Pettus says.

“Until we have that alignment, we keep meeting until we have it,” the president says. “I think that’s helped us to then leave environments, like a staff meeting, and go out and all be doing the same thing and going in the same direction.”

Entrustment. Pettus likes the word “empowerment,” but thinks “entrustment” is better because it emphasizes trusting others to do the right thing after they receive instruction. He says the greatest thing he can do for other leaders is what Hodges did for him: Give them clarity and the resources and tools they need, and then trust them to lead.

Accountability. Pettus says the college is big on output, such as how many students they are training and graduating, but also on how they are fulfilling Highlands’ mission and vision. Admittedly, that is an ongoing process, but holding others accountable for reaching goals and implementing vision is a key to his presidency.

The numbers are favorable: Thus far the school has produced some 1,300 graduates who are serving in more than 350 churches in 34 states and 16 countries. Both the president and chancellor hope to see those numbers swell in coming years as they seek to stem the tide of vanishing ministry leaders.

Some suggest that over the next two decades the current ministry workforce will drop by 50%, a number that alarms Hodges and fuels his drive to talk about the dream that brought Highlands to this place.

“Imagine a world without half the Christian leaders we need,” Hodges says. “It is a major financial undertaking, but I just share the vision, and it seems to resonate with people. I’ve done it well within the circles I’m connected to, but I have to get better at it. We’re just now going outside those circles because it seems to matter to people who give strategically.”

For Pettus, having twice as long to train students is exciting. Going from two years to four gives them a chance to build in more practical training academically and help build students’ character and spiritual growth, he says.

“We also learned a lot that first year,” he says of achieving bachelor’s-level status. “We used to think in two years we could fit everything in, but there’s still more we want to do. We’re learning how to prioritize and getting our students into the right environments so after four years they’re ready to go.”

And while they have a way to go before students will be able to attend for only the costs of room and board, Pettus says one of their overarching goals is to enable students to graduate without so much debt they can’t then pursue a call to ministry.

The president says empowering more ministers by graduating them without the albatross of student loans will go a long way toward reversing the national decline in church attendance and spiritual life.

“The churches and ministries that are hiring our graduates are coming back for more,” Pettus says. “Their feedback is: ‘These students love God, love the local church and are hungry to learn and grow.’ That’s how we can make the biggest difference—to be a supply chain for the future and supply these local leaders.”

And what is most fascinating about this achievement is how it all started with a mentoring relationship between a senior pastor and a college student.