Changes in Christian culture, and how Liberty is adapting to the changes.
Kenny Warren, faculty support coordinator for the school of psychology, remembers his time at Liberty University well.
Whether he was headed to the dining hall for lunch or giving a presentation for class, the dress code was always the same: wear a dress shirt and tie.
“When I compared my experience at Liberty, to my previous college, Word of Life Bible Institute I realized how easy it was here,” said Warren. “I can remember a time at Word of Life when I left a hanger on a bed and I got a demerit just for that.”
But those days are long gone. Now Christian culture is changing, and Liberty is adjusting with it.
The changes aren’t being fought by many in Lynchburg. A local pastor, a religion professor and a psychologist all shared their acceptance of the changes in Christian culture.
“What Jerry Falwell Sr. tried to do is bridge the gap between the hyper-fundamentalists and the evangelicals,” said Rodney Dempsey, director of Master Arts and Christian Ministry program. “He wanted to bring the two together to create a force for good, as far as the country was concerned, and he was moderately successful in doing that.”
From the glory days of televangelism to the modern Sunday church service, the way the message of the bible is communicated has changed drastically.
Jonge Tate, one of the head pastors at Bedrock Church, said that pastors today should be spending less time worrying about the topic of their sermon and more time worrying about how the word of God is being portrayed within their message.
“When you listen to preaching from decades past you find more theology and more about who God is,” said Tate. “Today’s preaching is more topical. It is, across the board, more to peoples’ felt needs, and more seeker sensitive. So, finding pastors who really preach the full counsel of the word of God exegetically is rare.”
The church is not the only place where Christianity has seen major changes. There has been a cultural shift among Christians in the past few decades. Dempsey said that there is a middle ground between two extremes where the church is settling.
“The culture always gravitates toward license,” said Dempsey. “There’s no right or wrong, it’s whatever you want to do, however you want to do it, with whoever you want to do it. On the other hand, with legalism the answer is always no, and instead you separate yourself from it.”
While the culture around it has always leaned towards license Liberty has rooted itself in Christian ideals and not allowed the society around it to change the pillars upon which the university stands.
“We teach that you should discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness, and that you should come out from the world and be separate, but we don’t come out just to be separate from the world,” said Dempsey. “We come out to follow Christ so that we can show the world that there is a new way of living and that way is following King Jesus.”
Liberty is not the same university it once was. The rules here have changed and grown just as the student body has, but that isn’t something the students or faculty appear to fear.
“External changes like tattoos and hair don’t bother me,” said School of Divinity Professor David Wheeler. “Jesus said it’s not about your sacrifice it’s about the mercy, and to me it’s the heart of the person that really matters.”
