by Allison Woods | Jun 23, 2010 | News Slider
As Advance 1 is over, I’m sure excitement among incoming freshmen is through the roof. For the first group that came through, I know you are ready for Quest Week now that you have a feel for the great campus and awesome people. For everyone else, here is a glimpse into your first college experience at Lipscomb University. Be sure to check out the great pictures of students and the Quest Team! Click to view the video. [nggallery...
by Chris Shappley | Jun 22, 2010 | News Slider
High expectations were a big part of the baggage I toted to my first Bonnaroo. My plans were that the four-day festival would change the way I experience music. Of course, I didn’t fully express that before the festival, simply because I wanted to cushion the fall if Bonnaroo failed to live up the hype. Now, a week or so after Dave Matthews Band closed it out, I look back and can say Bonnaroo not only lived up to the hype, it was one of the best experiences of my life. From the moment I first walked beneath the Bonnaroo arch and into Centeroo (where all of the stages are located) until DMB’s final notes, I was enchanted. The What Stage was larger than life, providing the best concert experience I’ve ever had. The three tents (This, That and The Other) housed so many great acts in a single day that I found myself having so many choices, I quickly realized I was going to have to miss several must-see shows just so I could be at another must-see. What a great problem to have. The weekend started off Thursday evening with Miike Snow at This Tent. Snow is an incredible up-and-coming artist and was the first act I knew I had to see. As I stood there listening to Snow kill his song, “Animal,” I looked around and tried to soak up the epic size of the festival around me. There were things going on everywhere. That was the moment when I knew four days wouldn’t be enough to absorb everything. From Miike Snow, my friends and I went over to That Tent where we spent the rest...
by Allison Woods | Jun 21, 2010 | News Slider
Five keynote sessions with spiritual leaders from across the nation, a concert series, a full slate of activities for teenagerss and children and the opportunity to celebrate Independence Day with worship, fellowship and fireworks are just a few of the offerings at this year’s Summer Celebration, a free, three-day lecture series that will take place Wednesday-through-Friday on the Lipscomb University campus. Lipscomb’s annual festival of faith, fun and fireworks features more than 100 inspiring and practical sessions on living as a Christian in today’s world. See summercelebration.lipscomb.edu/ for a complete schedule of the activities held throughout the Lipscomb campus. Highlights include five keynote sessions in Allen Arena with nationally known ministers speaking on the theme “Learning Praise from the Psalms.” The keynote speakers are: Rick Marrs, dean of Sever College at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif.; Lonnie Johnson, youth and family minister at Orange Avenue Church of Christ in Eustis, Fla.; Kevin Owen, preaching minister at College Hills Church of Christ in Lebanon, Tenn.; Randy Harris, instructor of Bible, missions and ministry at Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas; and Ken Durham, Batsell Barrett Baxter Chair of Preaching at Lipscomb University. Summer Celebration will also include Acafest, a worship ministry conference and concert series held by Acappella Ministries featuring Acappella, Durant, Tiffany Malone and Vocal Union among others. See www.acafest.com for a complete schedule of seminars and concerts. Summer Celebration will conclude with an Independence Day celebration Friday, with free games and activities for children at 4:30 p.m., the final keynote session and worship session at 6:30 p.m., live entertainment by the award-winning group Acappella about 8:00 p.m., and a large-scale, professional fireworks...
by Tim Ghianni | Jun 15, 2010 | News Slider
With red-hot Lady Antebellum as the closers, the Grand Ole Opry’s second visit to Allen Arena tonight promises to be memorable. Allen Arena became one of the flood-relief homes of the Grand Ole Opry on June 5, when the world’s longest continuously running radio show arrived at Lipscomb University. And tonight the music fills the arena again. The Opry House was damaged severely in the May 1-May 2 floods that devastated parts of Nashville and Middle Tennessee. The Opry House will be repaired and is scheduled to reopen in the autumn, and the show can return to its home. But for now the Opry wanders around Nashville and demonstrates that the music – not the structure — is the heart of the iconic broadcast. While waiting for the repairs to be completed at the Grand Ole Opry House, the broadcast is setting up shop in such sites as Two Rivers Baptist Church, War Memorial Auditorium, the Ryman Auditorium (which regularly houses the show during the winter months), TPAC’s Jackson Hall, Municipal Auditorium and the Allen Arena. Prior to the first visit by the Opry to Lipscomb, Pete Fisher, Grand Ole Opry vice president and general manager, expressed excitement at adding Allen Arena to the list of places that can call the venerable show “home.” “The Grand Ole Opry is looking forward to presenting ‘The Show That Made Country Music Famous’ at Allen Arena,” he said before the June 5 show. ”We are grateful for the hospitality that Lipscomb University has extended to us. In its 85-year history, the Opry has only a handful of homes and we are excited...
by Jackson Sprayberry | Jun 15, 2010 | News Slider
From how the powers and principalities of the world influence the Christians’ role in the play of the world, to finding a story in the world, to how Christians should act in this play put on by the world, attendees of the conference were enlightened on the importance of a relationship between Christianity and the arts. Perhaps one of the most thought-provoking and penetrating insights was delivered by Dana Gioia, a former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. He set out to show the decrease of the Christian’s influence in writing today as compared to the mid-century. “If speaking of [mid-century] literature, you couldn’t do it without mentioning devout Christians,” he said. The names he referenced were those of Flannery O’Conner, Tennessee Williams, Thomas Merton, J.R. Tolken, C.S. Lewis, and Robert Fitzgerald. “All of these individuals identified with Christianity, even though Christianity wasn’t the most prominent idea of their time,” he said. He asserted that while Christians once actively participated, and more importantly influenced, literary review. In the eyes of Gioia, this is no longer true. He sees a group of writers who are Christians but won’t claim their identity in a positive light because they stand to gain nothing. “Society has little to no use for Christianity,” he said. He declared that we as Christians have “ceded the arts to secular culture,” which was a “radical departure from the Christian tradition,” and has left society, “without a transcendent vision.” And because of this departure, Gioia sees a spiritually impoverished society. Gioia adamantly asserted that he wasn’t suggesting all art should have a Christian influence, but rather,...
