Enrollment again hit record and near-record levels this fall at some colleges and universities associated with Churches of Christ. Harding University in Searcy, Ark., posted an all-time high enrollment for the 25th consecutive year, eclipsing 7,000 students. Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., topped 4,000 students, marking a fifth straight year of record enrollment.

The Bisons are in the Dominican Republic for an exhibition tour through August 16. But they’ll be doing more than playing basketball. The trip is also a mission to help the underprivileged in this Caribbean nation, which shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti.

It’s a different type of youth camp with stick houses and huts, simulating Third World villages and their culture. Lipscomb University will build a missions camp this fall in Dickson County, Tenn., to simulate a Guatemalan village, where university students and faculty are doing mission work.

Flags are at half-staff today on the campus of Lipscomb University and David Lipscomb Campus School in Nashville, Tenn., in honor of U.S. Marine Corp Sgt. Kevin Balduf. Balduf, a 2002 graduate of David Lipscomb High School, was killed in action on May 12 in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. His funeral begins at 3 p.m. today at the Woodmont Hills Church of Christ in Nashville.

The Association of Theological Schools has accredited the Hazelip School of Theology at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn., university officials announced.

Every morning before school, Tewar Zeki and her mother pray together, as all observant Muslims are required to do at dawn, The Tennessean reports. Then she packs up her books and heads to Lipscomb University for a call to prayer of another sort. Zeki is part of a small but thriving group of Muslim students who have found a home on this Church of Christ-associated campus, where chapel attendance is mandatory and Bible study classes are a prerequisite for graduation.

To L. Randolph Lowry, the concept of peace on earth is not all that daunting. Find common ground through listening, communication and understanding, and the fears go away. And fear is the root of most conflicts. “Peace is not the absence of conflict,” the Lipscomb University president said. “Peace is that ability to deal with conflict.”

A YouTube video by a Lipscomb University graduate who met her husband at the McKnight Road Church of Christ in St. Louis has topped 1 million views — and counting. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports: “A Christmas song prompted by a 4-year-old’s question, ‘Where’s the Line to See Jesus?’ and recorded locally by our town’s Becky Kelley has gone viral.”

Kyle Vath was having lunch with Marcus Ewing in Nashville several years ago when Ewing told Vath he wanted him to meet some of his friends. Before leaving the restaurant, Ewing bought a bunch of hamburgers to take with them.” His friends were homeless people by the river,” said Vath, who attended Central Church of Christ in Cincinnati with Ewing since they were kids. “He knew every one of their names and stories. His selflessness was amazing.”

Two political science professors, a theology dean and a president of universities associated with Churches of Christ were invited to the White House recently to discuss U.S. policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. Participants included Randy Lowry, president of Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn.; Mark Elrod, political science professor at Harding University in Searcy, Ark.; Mark Hamilton, associate dean of the graduate school of theology at Abilene Christian University in Texas; and Caron Gentry, associate professor of political science at ACU.