“Anchored” spreads truth with Ellie Holcomb, Raechel Myers, Hannah Brencher

The women of Lipscomb learned what it meant to anchor themselves Monday night in Collins Alumni Auditorium.  Campus Ministry hosted the event “Anchored,” featuring singer/songwriter Ellie Holcomb; creator of She Reads Truth, Raechel Myers; and blogger and author of “If You Find This Letter,” Hannah Brencher. “Tonight is about anchoring ourselves to the truth of who God is and who God says we are,” said Caroline Morris, campus minister for women’s ministry. “When we do that, we begin to feel the freedom that we are destined for when we anchor ourselves to truth.” As each of the three guests told their stories, they revealed the truths they anchored themselves to in order to gain the freedom Morris described. After graduating college and moving to New York City, Brencher began leaving love letters around the city for people to find as a means of dealing with her depression. As Brencher struggled through her fear of being alone, she said she began to find God’s purpose for her life by anchoring herself in love. “I am learning that whatever you feed will grow, whether it is lies or truth,” Brencher said. “I’m either going to choose to be rooted in love or I’m going to choose to be rooted in fear, and I don’t want to be rooted in fear anymore.” Myers discussed the hardship of losing a child and clinging to God during rough times. She said that in this season of her life is when she realized that there is no truth but God’s truth. “The reality is I found God in the valley and I found God on the mountaintop, but...
Humans of Lipscomb inspired by faces from Big Apple

Humans of Lipscomb inspired by faces from Big Apple

Faces from the Big Apple inspired Lipscomb to get the shutter snapping on campus. Humans of New York, a growing blog showcasing New York City’s inhabitants, began when photographer Brandon Stanton started walking the streets, capturing people in their everyday lives. The same idea took off this semester when Campus Minister Caroline Morris decided that Lipscomb needed something that would allow people to get to know each other more deeply on campus. This is when the Humans of Lipscomb Instagram account was created. “I’ve been following them [Humans of New York] on Instagram for a year now and I love it, because it just shows that everyone has a story and everyone has something to share and something that’s really meaningful to them in life,” Morris said. Morris knew a photographer who could put the idea in to action, and soon after, many people were introduced to their campus peers by a simple square photo and caption. The goal of the account is to make each person feel valuable. The photographer does this by simply starting a conversation with random people on campus, eventually leading to specific questions, and the picture is saved for last. Each photograph is accompanied by a caption that includes a quote from the person in the picture. “It’s not all serious, sometimes it’s silly, sometimes it’s more meaningful,” Morris said. “First, when you’re scrolling through [Instagram], you see a picture of the person, but then you read the story and it just creates a whole new layer to them.” Morris hopes that creating a greater awareness of people on campus will create a more intentional...

Campus Ministry debuts 2014-15 chapel theme at first Gathering

At Tuesday morning’s Gathering, campus ministers Jake Burton and Caroline Morris introduced the 2014-2015 chapel theme, Journey, which uses the metaphor of a college road trip to provide insights for students’ faith journeys. The Gathering will use this metaphor to explore such questions as where does the journey of faith lead, how to reach the destination, and how to handle “roadblocks” along the way. Burton feels students will relate to this message because “we are all on this faith journey. We are all trying to get somewhere.” He believes that the metaphor of a typical college journey will provide practical answers to important questions in a way that students in particular will understand. Morris relates the metaphor to John 14, in which Jesus answers the disciple Thomas’ questions about faith journeys with the proclamation, “I am the way.” This theme will continue to be featured in chapel sessions throughout the 2014-15 school year, and will be featured most prominently in The...