It’s official. Joe Stowell is CU’s 11th president.

After 7 months on the job, Stowell was inaugurated in a traditional ceremony surrounded by students, faculty, staff, family and friends. His two older sisters came, as well as his 90-year-old mother from Chicago, to witness another collegiate induction.

Anne Graham Lotz, founder of AnGel ministries and a friend of Stowell’s for more than 15 years, brought a greeting and a letter from her father Billy Graham, a well-known evangelist. In the letter, Graham bestowed blessings on the university and Stowell.

Crawford Loritts, senior pastor of Fellowship Bible Church in Roswell, Ga., brought the charge to the president and Duane Liftin, president of Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill., gave the charge to the university.

Lorritts called Stowell “a remarkable servant of the Lord and man of God,” and gave him three fundamental pillars that he said every man and woman of God should have: brokenness, uncommon communion in leadership, marked by servanthood— not by strategy but by identity— and radical, immediate obedience.

“God doesn’t use us because we are qualified,” he said, “He continues to use us because we don’t forget the foundation of fundamental things.”

Lorritts reminded Stowell that God is using him for his purpose and he should not confuse accomplishment with godliness.

“The more God gives us the lower we have to become,” he said.

The senior pastor also expressed confidence in knowing that Stowell has been a model of all pillars. He said after the ceremony that his charge was to “encourage him to continue what he has exemplified,” and “to remind him what he is a model of.”

Liftin said during the ceremony that he and the CU president have been friends for 40 years and attended seminary together. He also joked that “I knew Joe Stowell before he was Joe Stowell,” referring to his well-known name within the Christian community.

The Wheaton College president spoke of CU’s aspiration of having a Christ-centered institution, but asked, “do you really mean it?”

“Do you understand what you are aspiring to?” he added.

Liftin continued speaking of the “truncated cut-down understanding of who Christ is,” that is among some Christians and Christian universities.

He charged the university to “be sure your Jesus is not too small because if your Jesus is too small, it will not bear the weight of the world and all its complexity,” and to have a biblical understanding of the Lordship of Christ.

“There is nothing to which Jesus Christ is irrelevant and nothing is irrelevant to Him,” he said. “He is the goal of all things”

As CU continues its embrace of Jesus, Liftin said that it will become “evermore, everyday, a truly Christ-centered institution.”

Stowell took the platform after Edward Dobson, vice president of Spiritual Formation, prayed a 1500-year-old-ancient-Celtic prayer over the new president and his family. CU faculty, staff and students came forward to lay hands on them, also.

He spoke of seeing the great potential in Cornerstone when he first arrived and having that belief confirmed and enlarged since taking the helm.

The CU president spoke of identifying and knowing “what must not change,” about the university and pledged to “guard it with all my strength and authority in office.”

He also expressed knowing “what must change,” and stressed that “this university will be student-focused.”

He pledged to “promote academic and intellectual rigor,” and to create an environment “where together we can thrive in our pursuit.”

Then, he added, “Why do I want to say ‘My name is Joe Stowell and I approve this message?” That remark was followed by laughter and applause from the audience.

Lauren Root, a sophomore at CU, came to the ceremony to show support.

“From what I have seen, heard and known about Dr. Stowell, I feel it is very important as a student here to surround him with love and support as he begins this new chapter of his life with us,” she said.