If personal style is any indicator, Lindsay is apt to hold Gordon and Christian higher education to high standards. Lindsay expected all his research assistants to wear sharp business casual attire when working on his projects. If a student’s cell phone ever rang during class, Lindsay would assess a $5 fine to help pay for an end-of-semester party at his home.

For the past decade, sociologist D. Michael Lindsay has been living the very phenomenon he’s studied in depth: evangelicals climbing the ranks of secular institutions and becoming American elites.

Yet in a surprise move, this 39-year-old rising star has traded a tenure-track position at Rice University to become president of Gordon College, a respected outpost of evangelicalism 25 miles north of Boston.

Some of Lindsay’s former students have wondered why he would leave a highly ranked university with a growing, well-funded sociology department. For Lindsay, it’s a matter of calling.

“I know that I’m the right person for Gordon,” Lindsay said, “because what I bring to the table today is what Gordon happens to need right now.”

A Southern Baptist with Mississippi roots, Lindsay burnished his national reputation with his 2007 book, “Faith in the Halls of Power: How Evangelicals Joined the American Elite.” His broader research interest deals with leadership, and on Sept. 16, he’ll be inaugurated as the youngest leader in Gordon’s 122-year history.

Though he’s never been a college president before, Lindsay has spent countless hours talking with CEOs, big city mayors and even former U.S. presidents about their lives and work. His Platinum Study, featuring interviews with 550 leaders in various fields, is said to represent the largest body of interview data ever collected from a cross section of American leaders.

He’s also no stranger to helping institutions grow. He’s built a reputation as a capable fundraiser for numerous projects, including Rice’s Program for the Study of Leadership, which he founded.

Now Lindsay plans to leverage both his experience and his power-packed Rolodex to help Gordon raise its profile. Starting Oct. 14 in downtown Boston, he’ll conduct a series of onstage interviews with corporate executives whom he’s interviewed for the Platinum Study.

While snagging Lindsay is a coup for Gordon, Paul Corts, president of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities, hopes Lindsay can help galvanize interest in data collection and analysis across Christian higher education.

“We want to take advantage of his background and skills,” Corts said. “Research is increasingly important for us and our institutions. … So having people like this in our leadership will be very helpful to our whole movement.”

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