Written by Samantha Holschbach
For the first time in 103 years, Abilene Christian University in Texas is prepping to support a student body with a Church of Christ minority. The university, identified with the Church of Christ, has seen its freshmen affiliation with the Church of Christ drop to 43 percent in the past two years.
The trend, however, does not overtly concern ACU’s president, Royce Money, who said in an ACU news story, “I see it as a great opportunity to broaden our influence and our scope if it means more people are being attracted to ACU because of its high academic standards and the blend of Christian orientation.”
Money also said that despite the numbers, ACU will remain committed to its Church of Christ roots.
Does ACU’s shifting religious climate signal a change on the horizon for Harding’s student body? Harding President Dr. David Burks said no, citing that the university primarily recruits students from Churches of Christ.
“It’s our intent to continue our strong recruitment efforts from Churches of Christ,” Burks said. “We do recognize that the number of 18-year-olds in Churches of Christ is declining slightly. This just points to our need to aggressively pursue these students.”
About 78 percent of Harding’s current undergraduates identify with Churches of Christ according to Marty Spears, assistant vice president for academic affairs. Roughly 75 percent of this year’s freshmen class pledged this same allegiance.
Burks said research suggests that if students connect with a local church, they’re more likely to remain affiliated with that church upon graduation. Dr. Flavil Yeakley, professor of Bible and religion, said he believed that is a reason why Harding has retained its Church of Christ identity—by stressing that students become actively involved in local churches.
Yeakley has conducted ample research concerning Church of Christ trends. He recently completed a study in which he analyzed the freshmen enrollment composition at 18 Christian colleges and universities. At these 18 institutions, 70 percent of students were members of Churches of Christ in 1999. That figure never fell below 60 percent until the last three years: to about 58 percent in 2007, 55 percent in 2008 and 53 percent in 2009. His estimates were based on a cluster sample of 100 congregations that provided data on approximately 5,000 members who graduated within the time of the study.
“I’m concerned about this trend,” Yeakley said.
Yeakley’s concern is augmented with the historical movement of formerly religious schools towards secularism, as evident in Ivy League universities originally instituted to train preachers.
“There’s been a trend throughout history for religious-affiliated schools to lose their religion,” Yeakley said. “They pretty quickly lose their soul.”
A number of reasons have been postulated for why this generation of Christian students, in general, is not vigorously declaring their loyalty to the Church of Christ. Some believe the church’s strict adherence to a capella music is partly at fault. Others believe the spirit of this generation tends toward not expressing a specific sect of Christianity—being ‘just a Christian’ is enough.
“Denominational loyalty is not what it was years ago,” Yeakley said. “Loyalty to the tradition of parents [their religion] is not as strong.”
Junior Aerial Whiting has seen this phenomenon most clearly on students’ Facebook profiles.
“On their Facebook information a lot of students put ‘Christian,'” Whiting said. “I’m one of those myself.”
While Whiting tells people in conversation that she’s simply a Christian, her core beliefs stem from Church of Christ doctrine.
“I don’t list myself as a hyphenated Christian,” Whiting said. “But I still hold myself to certain values. I have very conservative Church of Christ values.”
It’s important to note that Churches of Christ developed from Christians like Alexander Campbell, who founded the Church of Christ heritage with a desire to be simply a generic Christian—not branded as part of a particular sect of Christianity. J.N. Armstrong, one of Harding’s founders, did not want Harding to be concerned with the trappings of denominational preferences, but rather primarily with the teachings of the Bible, as emulated in Churches of Christ that model first-century New Testament churches.
Despite the student trend away from listing loyalties, Yeakley remains confident that Harding will boast high numbers of Church of Christ members in the present and long term. His freshmen study revealed that about 80 percent of young adults attending a Church of Christ go to college, compared with the national average of 67 percent. At the same time, Harding will continue to nurture and respect students who profess faiths other than a Church of Christ Christianity.
“We certainly don’t want to disparage students who are not from Churches of Christ,” Burks said. “We want to respect all students regardless of their beliefs.”
