Is it something in the water in Malibu, Calif.? Once again, a Pepperdine University administrator has been hired as a university president, this time at Lubbock Christian in Texas. Tim Perrin, vice dean and professor of law at Pepperdine University School of Law, was introduced last week as president-elect of his Texas alma matter.

The Tennessean in Nashville reports:
Lipscomb University is helping families defray the cost of adoption while filling seats at men’s basketball games.
The university recently launched Adoption Rally, a program that gives 100 percent of single-game ticket revenues to families in the process of adopting, either locally or internationally. Nine families have been helped by the program, and $17,000 has been distributed.
The theory is simple. Families get their relatives, friends, church members and neighbors to attend the game. As attendance rises, so does the size of the check the adopting couple receives.
There …

Sunday’s Super Bowl attendance: 68,658. Decline in the number of men, women and children in the pews of Churches of Christ in the U.S. since 2003: 102,138. That’s the big number revealed by the latest national survey by 21st Century Christian, the Nashville, Tenn.-based publisher of the directory Churches of Christ in the United States.

I’ve enjoyed the responses — some humorous, others heartwarming — to my Inside Story column on my fear of flying.

John deSteiguer, senior vice president for advancement at Oklahoma Christian University, will move into the president’s office this summer. Trustees for the 2,200-student Christian university chose deSteiguer today to succeed retiring President Mike O’Neal, who announced plans in 2010 to step down at the end of this academic year.

L. Timothy Perrin, a 1984 graduate of Lubbock Christian University in Texas, has been tapped to serve as his alma mater’s sixth president. Perrin, vice dean and professor of law at Pepperdine University School of Law in Malibu, Calif., will succeed Ken Jones, who served as Lubbock Christian president for 18 years before transitioning to the role of chancellor last year.

Lubbock Christian University and Oklahoma Christian University plan to name new presidents over the next few days. Meanwhile, Harding University has launched a website to accept applications and recommendations for its presidency.

Financially beleaguered Western Christian College and High School — a pillar of Churches of Christ in Canada — will close at the end of this academic year. Academic dean Bill Schwarz confirmed the news today in an e-mail to The Christian Chronicle. The Society that oversees the high school and college in Regina, Saskatchewan, voted Saturday to cease operations indefinitely in June, Schwarz said.

When Ben Murphy lost a schoolyard fight at age 14 — after three punches — it marked a turning point in his life. Today, Murphy, 19, from Toronto, Canada, is a student at Ohio Valley University in Vienna, W.Va., and is one of seven students there forming a boxing team, despite the challenges.

Major fast-food chains such as Sonic, Arby’s and Wendy’s receive air time in this video by the Cheyenne Church of Christ youth group in Wyoming. But the emphasis is on feeding the soul.