Uncommon is the norm for Terry Briley.
For example, it’s uncommon to find a Bible scholar who regularly attends one of the nation’s largest outdoor music festivals.
It’s also uncommon to find a male faculty sponsor for a women’s social club.
But Briley, professor of Biblical Studies and former dean of the College of Bible and Ministry, regularly attends the four-day Bonnaroo music and arts festival down in Manchester, Tenn.
Briley, dean for 10 years until this fall, also is faculty sponsor for Kappa Chi.
The former is because of his love for music, which is also why he’s a ticket holder for the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. In fact, he’s even taking violin lessons.
The latter, well, it sort of began out of necessity. “When I first started here, we didn’t have as many female faculty members, so social clubs always struggled finding sponsors,” Briley said.
During his first semester as a Lipscomb adjunct, he said a student asked him to sponsor the women’s club.
“I’m pretty sure it was a notion of ‘Here’s the new guy; he doesn’t know anything.’” Of course, he did it, and “over time, it sort of stuck.”
Briley, a professor at Lipscomb since 1986, said building relationships is one of the best things about his job.
“To me, the relational side of it is as important, as rewarding, if not more so, than the academic side,” he said. “One of the things I really like about it is not just the relational side while students are here, but the fact that you’re able to stay connected after they’re gone. I know students and even faculty members here now who I knew.”
Briley, a preacher (along with Dr. Phillip Camp) at Natchez Trace Church of Christ, said he sometimes thinks he enjoys teaching more than preaching.
“It’s this sense that you really have an opportunity for greater impact,” he said of working with college students. “You’re helping prepare a generation of people who are going out, and you have an influence in some way through that.”
After completing his undergraduate studies at Lipscomb in 1978, Briley moved to Cincinnati with his wife, Teri, to obtain his master’s and doctorate from Hebrew Union College. After six years there, he moved back to Nashville and began at Lipscomb as an adjunct professor.
This month, Briley will graduate, alongside some of the students he has taught, with another master’s degree–this time from Lipscomb’s Institute for Conflict Management.
“It interested me,” Briley said about why he decided to pursue the new degree. “One of their focuses is dealing with conflict management in religious settings. You don’t like to think that that’s a need, but it is.”
Next semester, Briley will be on sabbatical and said he hopes to use that time “to renew and do some research” for a book based on his conflict management program.
“My goal is to take the project I worked on, which sort of deals with blending theology and conflict management, how churches can look at dealing with change,” he said. “Conflict is not always two people who are fighting with each other. It’s just dealing with change and transition, so I’m going to try to write a book out of that experience and research about churches dealing with transition and change.”
Looking back on his career to this point, he said one of the biggest regrets is that back during his years as an undergrad, he didn’t “get engaged” and get involved with the campus experience.
“Being a club sponsor all these years and seeing the students who are engaged in campus life” is encouraging, but he says many students make a big mistake by avoiding those activities. “College is not just a commodity. It’s something that’s a very formative, significant part of your life—the connections, the relationships that you build.”
Even so, he advises students to be careful not to get overwhelmed by outside activities.
“I think one of the challenges that students face today is that there are so many things available, so many opportunities, that it’s easy to get too fragmented and maybe to sort of lose focus,” he said.
“College students have always been busy. I felt like we were busy when I was a college student. And since I’ve been here, I’ve seen college students are busy. But I think it’s escalating,” he continued.
“That concerns me… maybe the most important things might get lost,” he said, adding that students should find a balance between school and outside activities. “How can we balance … that education without becoming so fragmented and scattered that nothing seems to make any sense?”
Briley encourages Lipscomb students to fully embrace the special opportunities for spiritual growth that exist on campus.
“Obviously coming from my perspective, you will probably never have, the rest of your life, the opportunities you have here at Lipscomb as a Christian school,” he said. “I know it’s really easy with Bible classes or chapel to be add-ons, and you just say ‘Well, if I went to X, Y or Z school, I wouldn’t have to do this.’ But the students I’ve seen who have availed themselves to that and taken it in, I think have gained something that they’ve really valued.
“Anybody that’s interested in their spiritual development, they’ll never have the opportunities that they have here probably ever again. That’s something I would encourage people to think about.”