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Ten months ago, Hobby Lobby heir Mart Green aroused both suspicion and relief among Oral Roberts University's faithful. The retail whiz announced that his affluent family was planning to pump $70 million into the heavily indebted, scandal-scarred liberal arts school in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

In May, Green generated even more excitement on campus when he announced that student dorm rooms would be rewired. The increased amperage will allow a curling iron and a computer to be plugged in simultaneously without blowing a fuse. But Green isn't just redoing the campus electrical grid; he's rewiring ORU's body, mind, and checkbook. Currently serving as ORU board chair, Green recently said, "ORU must restore its broken trust, its battered reputation, and its beaten spirit."

In October 2007, the tragic unwinding of ORU's trust, reputation, and spirit began as three whistle-blowing professors filed a wrongful termination suit. They charged that Richard Roberts, president and son of founder Oral Roberts, and his board-member wife, Lindsay, misspent school funds, including $39,000 for a shopping spree for Lindsay, a $29,411 trip to the Bahamas aboard a university jet for one of the couple's daughters, and a stable of horses for their three daughters, among many other accusations. (The Robertses have denied any wrongdoing.)

Initially, the Greens debated whether to help. The family typically donates to successful ministry ventures with well-established accountability measures. They had never staged a ministry intervention before. When the family gives a chunk to charity, it's given collectively. The privately held Hobby Lobby chain of more than 380 arts and crafts stores has estimated annual sales of $2 billion and $200 million or more in profits. Forbes magazine estimates founder-father David Green's fortune at $1.2 billion.

The gift to ORU comes with a 100-mile-long string attached, the distance between Tulsa and Oklahoma City, where the Greens live. At least once a week, Green, also chief executive of Mardel, a chain of 27 Christian education and supply stores, drives 100 miles up Interstate 44 to the sprawling ORU campus, famous for its 1960s-era futuristic architecture.

Mart Green was very familiar with ORU graduates who had taken jobs at his stores and worshiped with him at an Assemblies of God church. Their work ethic and character impressed him. It would be a shame, Green told Christianity Today, if an educational institution that had turned out thousands of spiritually alive, intellectually gifted, and professionally competent graduates ceased to exist. The school has credible academic and athletic track records. Its eclectic collection of high-profile alumni includes entertainer Kathie Lee Gifford; preachers Ted Haggard and Kenneth Copeland; and ministry leaders such as David Barton of WallBuilders.

When the Greens offered $8 million to relieve the immediate cash crunch and keep the university afloat (and another $62 million for improvements), the money set into motion changes from the top down.

"The Higher Learning Commission [an accrediting agency] had already articulated that changes were needed in finances, governance, and leadership," Green says. "We weren't going to give money for more of the same." In reality, this was a subtle but major shift for the school toward mainstream evangelicalism and away from its distinct (and often controversial) charismatic brand of evangelicalism.

In January, the existing board of regents accepted the Greens' deal, which included a proviso that members would vote themselves out of office. Family members and televangelists had heavily inhabited the 23-member board, including John Hagee, Marilyn Hickey, Benny Hinn, Creflo Dollar, and Copeland. Many evangelicals have associated these leaders with prosperity-gospel teaching and lavish lifestyles.

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September 2008, Vol. 52, No. 9