Lubbock Christian University in Texas mourns the death of Elaine Perrin, mother of President Tim Perrin and a longtime faculty member.

Since moving to Illinois from Arizona last year, Jennifer Mault hasn’t been able to find a church. For now, she finds spiritual guidance from a woman a thousand miles away in south Louisiana. Mault, a student earning her master’s degree in human services online from Lubbock Christian University, has received direction and prayer from the school’s online chaplain, Donna Ellis.

We probably used up all the available basketball analogies when reporting earlier this year on the naming of new presidents at Lubbock Christian University and Oklahoma Christian University. So we won’t say something cheesy like “Nothing but net!” in sharing the news that the NCAA has approved bids by both those Christian universities to start the three-year membership process for entry into Division II.

In three hours Saturday afternoon, Lubbock’s Link Ministries nonprofit had more than 1,200 man hours of heavy lifting, sweeping, paint removal and cleaning assistance, thanks to college students. As part of Lubbock Christian University’s annual Collide student-led community service event, more than 400 students came together to help transform several acres of cotton gins, warehouses and storage units into facilities for at-risk children and the homeless.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Christian Chronicle, Perrin tackled questions related to his faith, Christian higher education and Churches of Christ.

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.

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.

Lubbock Christian University has invited two candidates to visit with the search committee seeking the university’s next president: L. Tim Perrin and Brian Starr. Perrin is vice dean and professor of law at Pepperdine University’s School of Law in Malibu, Calif. Starr is executive vice president and professor of economics and investments at Lubbock Christian.

Harding University President David B. Burks announced today that he will retire at the end of the 2012-13 academic year, after 26 years at the helm of the Searcy, Ark., university. Burks’ decision means three major universities associated with Churches of Christ — Harding, Oklahoma Christian and Lubbock Christian — are in the hunt for new presidents.