Soaring Above the Downturn

While businesses across the nation are struggling to survive the economic nose dive, charismatic entrepreneur Mark Sterns says his successful aviation business, Higher Power Aviation, is soaring because of Christ.

“The first thing we did as a company was to dedicate it to the Lord,” says Sterns, an Oral Roberts University graduate who co-founded his company with a partner 15 years ago. “Not only did we want it to be a business, but also for it to be a ministry.”

Sterns is president of the Fort Worth, Texas, training school, which has funneled more than 2,000 pilots to Southwest Airlines and trained astronauts and actors to take flight. He says that his Christian values have helped his school gain the reputation within the aviation industry as the premier flight school.

“For many of those pilots who want to go to Southwest Airlines, they’ll talk amongst themselves and say: ‘Oh, you want to go to Southwest? Call on Higher Power. ‘ And they don’t realize what they just said.” 

Sterns says that although his business operates in the private sector, demonstrating Christ has still been possible.

“What we have been able to do by just living and ministering through our business … [is give others] permission to live lives of faith in their professions,” Sterns says.