Tonight was 5000 students in God centered worship, some dancing, many on their faces, and all there voluntarily. All good-- just not what I expected. More soon, including updates on my meetings tomorrow to help Liberty plant 500 new churches in the next 5 years.more here
5 comments:
I'm not at all familiar with Liberty...Just curious what you expected or what was so strikingly different?
Liberty is a university that has created one of the best environments in the country for Christian young people to grow in God together and be challenged to change their world. When you're an 18-22 year old there are not many other places will you see 6-10,000 peers worshiping multiple times a week, studying and discussing scripture, actively serving in the community, cheering on Division 1 sports, etc. It's an environment that is next to impossible to duplicate anywhere else. I've been gone now for 8 years and I've yet to see another thing like it. It's camp, conferences and bible study over coffee for 4 years straight. I can't say enough about my experience at Liberty.
The other thing is that the people who I know that have come out of LU are some of the most spiritual and authentic people in ministry I've ever met. I love the school and most who spend more than a day around there get to see something similar. Spend a semester and you'd be hooked.
Feel free to search my blog for other LU comments. I've spoken about LU many times before.
Thanks for stopping by the blog!
Sounds like a great place; I happened to be talking to someone in our church tonight whose brother went to LU. It sounds from your description like what one would hope for from a Christian university, I just was curious though why you specifically said that it was not what you remembered...I couldn't tell if it was meant positively or negatively (being prefaced by "It's late and I am tired...") and then saying it was not what you remembered. I wasn't sure if it was better or worse than you remembered.
Jessi,
I apologize... the block of text you read is directly from Ed Stetzer's article.
I suspect there are two major reasons he says its not what he remembered.
1. Enrollment size- LU now has approximately 10,000 on campus. When he went there it was closer to 2,500.
2. Environment- LU has relaxed some of its code of conduct to be closer to biblical mandates as opposed to preferences of older leaders. For instance when I walked on to campus in 1996 a student couldn't have facial hair until they were 21yrs old, had to wear dress clothes to class and couldn't watch TV. The focus seemed to be much on the external. Today they're focused more on behavior and less on dress code.
3. Campus- The campus has exploded with growth. To accommodate the student population LU has built many facilities including the largest educational building in the state of Virginia (Demoss) and dorms accommodating thousands of students, Football Operations Center, new highway access a tunnel under a major highway to connect the campus, etc. Stetzer would have had to squint to recognize his old stomping grounds if he hadn't been in a while.
He also makes mention of the worship environment. I think he expected it to be 5- 10 years behind the rest of Christianity... he found out that LU is now taking a lead role in Worship music and the students are extremely sincere about worship through song and the word.
I hope that helps clarify. I should have quoted Ed's text in the first place. Take care!
Ahhh...it all makes sense now. Thanks for the explanation.
God bless.
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