According to Richard Roberts, he received the prophecy six months ago.

Six months ago, an out-of-state minister known for prophecy told Oral Roberts University President Richard Roberts he would go through a "major storm" but would come through it.

The minister also said, "When you enter your 60th year, you'll step to a new level of ministry you've never known," Roberts recalled in an interview with the Tulsa World.

Roberts celebrated his 59th birthday on Monday and then began his 60th year, six weeks after three former ORU professors filed a lawsuit claiming wrongful termination and alleging the Roberts family has misused ORU and Oral Roberts Ministries money and resources for themselves.

Roberts is on a leave of absence as president while ORU's board and independent auditors investigate the allegations. After the investigations, the board will decide if Roberts returns to the presidency. He continues to work as chairman and CEO of the ministries.

He doesn't expect to be president forever, although he thinks now is his season in that role, he said. He sees himself taking on a spiritual leadership role at ORU, "be it chancellor or

Richard Roberts said he has a hard time imagining the university without a Roberts.

"I'm the face; I'm the voice," he said.

Roberts thinks the ORU president ought to be someone "deeply immersed" in the evangelistic, healing ministry that created the university and someone who has "the call of God upon their life to be the president."

Roberts and his father don't want to see the university split from the ministries or taken over by "the money people," in fear that such steps would point ORU toward becoming a secular college, Roberts said.

ORU Provost Mark Lewandowski said he thinks professors are "intensely committed to defending the mission of the university" and ORU would not lose its Christian focus without a Roberts at the helm.

In the late 1980s, then-President Oral Roberts asked four people -- including one pastor and two seminary deans -- if they would consider being presented to the board of regents as possibilities for the presidency, Richard Roberts said. All four turned him down.

At that point, Richard Roberts had already started his career, first working as his father's longtime assistant. He went on to found World Action Singers and then accompanied Oral Roberts to ORU faculty and deans' meetings and City of Faith construction meetings "so I could learn (about ORU) in case the call of God was on my life."

He wants to provide his daughters from his marriage with Lindsay Roberts with the same exposure to ministry, and he said they are already integral parts of it. Jordan, 22, graduated from ORU, and Olivia, 20, and Chloe, 18, withdrew from ORU this semester after the lawsuit was filed. Roberts said the younger two daughters hope to return as students.

"I don't want to push any family member into any role," he said. "I have no idea if the call of God is on anyone in my family after me."

He doesn't think Provost Lewandowski has been called to be president, he said.

Lewandowski, also the executive vice president of academic affairs, offered the board of regents his resignation on Thursday, saying that if Roberts remains as president, he could not "in good conscience serve under his leadership."

Lewandowski's letter to the board chairman described a "culture of fear" promoted by Roberts' management style and said Roberts has not addressed ORU's increasing debt.

"If ever there was a power play, that was what that was," Roberts said in response to Lewandowski's letter. "I am saddened to see that he wants to be president of the university himself."

Lewandowski declined to respond to Roberts' assertion.

Roberts said he loves the Lewandowskis but was shocked and saddened.

Lewandowski said earlier: "The faculty, the administration and the students love and appreciate Richard as a person, but we feel that it's time for a new leader and a new era at Oral Roberts University."

Lewandowski called for professors to take on governance at ORU and run the college, which he thinks they're more willing and prepared to do than a year ago. Accreditation representatives who visited ORU this month also called for stronger faculty governance, he said.

He has sensed excitement on campus, especially among employees, and "optimism that our greatest days are in front of us," he said.

On Monday, a quorum of tenured faculty voted "no confidence" in Roberts as president -- without regard to the outcome of the lawsuit and without judging ORU's or Roberts' guilt or innocence. They also voted "confidence" in Lewandowski's "call for greater faculty governance and transparency of university finances."

Lewandowski said: "The reason for my offer to resign is I didn't see the board of regents looking out for the best interest of the faculty and the students. It became apparent to me that someone had to speak on behalf of the faculty who very courageously made a statement of no confidence."

Roberts said that if the board chooses to keep him as president, he would have an open dialogue with faculty every two weeks and would bring about change at ORU.

"I believe if I'm given a second chance, I'll have an opportunity to do a lot better job and have not only a better relationship with the tenured faculty but with all faculty," he said. He has been president since 1993.

His "heart," he said, is not to perpetuate a "culture of fear," as Lewandowski wrote.

"If that's the perception, then I am wrong for allowing that perception to be there," Roberts said.

It's natural for some employees to fear their bosses, he said, and "when you're a strong leader, sometimes you give off an aura that you don't intend."

April Marciszewski 581-8475
april.marciszewski@tulsaworld.com