A New Beginning

Tuesday, September 1, marked a new chapter in the life of the school where I live and work: Lincoln Christian College & Seminary officially became Lincoln Christian University. This was something I'd been told would happen even back in January when I was talking with the college about coming to work here and I was kind of pumped about the change from Day One. With the change also comes a modern new logo and a new theme, "Live Your Mission."

On the one hand, nothing has changed about the institution. We already had three "schools," our mission is unchanged, enrollment and the type of students are the same, and our resources (or lack thereof, sometimes) are not any different. And yet everything is changed.

At Tuesday night's concert, Steve Fee joked with the students in the audience, "You're smarter today than you were yesterday because now you attend a university." Later, he said he knew this wasn't true . . . but I know that there's a sense in which the casual listener often does assume that a university is better than a college. One of our students enthused on her blog Tuesday, "That's right! We are officially Lincoln Christian University! It's rather exciting to become a University. I feel it gives us more credibility . . . ."

I'm also excited about our new mascot. We been using dual mascots for a number of years now, the Preachers and the Angels. Now our teams will be known as the Red Lions. Even cooler, my friends at Church Art Works out in Oregon are the ones doing the artwork for this new mascot.