Why I Love the Millennials

The so-called Millenial Generation takes a lot of criticism. Can’t write. Can’t read (anything longer than a computer screen). Can’t focus (on one thing for more than 15 minutes).

As someone born right at the end of the Baby Boom Generation and the beginning of Generation X, I write today to stand up for the Millenials. Sure, growing up in a technology saturated culture creates real challenges for writing, reading, and focus. But I know many Millenials who are great writers, readers, and thinkers.

What I love most about the Millenials, though—at least the ones I see at this law school—is their heart for serving others. They value community. And they take very seriously their responsibility to serve others in that community. When they see a need, they look for ways to jump in and meet that need.

I see this heart to serve in the law school applications and student resumes I read. Who knows where they found the time, but most of our students come with multiple experiences in leadership and service roles—in their churches, schools, and communities. I would be embarrassed to show our students my resume from the same point in life!

I hear this heart to serve when I talk with our students. They are in law school because they want to make a difference in their world.

I have been sharing our vision for a Center for Global Justice and Human Rights in many settings—chapel, International Law Students meeting, at undergraduate schools while recruiting, the Rotary Club, a luncheon for donors. As I share the vision with our students and prospective students, I find it resonates with what God has already put on their own hearts. I am convinced that God has raised up a generation of men and women who will combat human trafficking, child abuse, and genocide in a large-scale and meaningful way. I believe God has raised them up, as he did Esther in Persia, “for such a time as this.”

What an honor to have some role in training this generation. I can’t wait to see what they will do.

Serving Our Community--and Beyond

I just got back tonight from speaking to the Virginia Beach Rotary Club. Alum Suzanne Luna is the President-Elect of the group and invited me to share a little bit about the law school. It was an enjoyable evening.

I felt very much at home. Club members obviously share a genuine camaraderie and a commitment to serve the local community. While busy running businesses and other organizations, the people I met also devote themselves to serving others.

The evening presented a great opportunity to share stories of our students and alumni serving in Hampton Roads and around the world. While some club members were familiar with the law school, many were not. I think they were encouraged by what they heard. They know now that we are not just in the business of training more lawyers. We are dedicated to a certain type of lawyer--one committed to excellence, integrity, and service to others. They also now know of our goal to serve the poor and oppressed around the world through a Center for Global Justice and Human Rights.

Club leaders and I ended the night talking about ways we might work together--to serve our community and far beyond.

Constitution Day in America's Heartland

Happy Constitution Day from Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri! Today I had the distinct pleasure of speaking to the entire Evangel student body at a special Constitution Day chapel. Another great day!

For one thing, I love the Evangel students. They have a sense of purpose and calling about them. And those who go on to law school have been trained well by America's hardest working pre-law adviser, Professor Bryan Sanders. Many great Evangel students have attended Regent Law School over the years (including some great students right now).

In addition, it was an honor to celebrate the Constitution today. Admittedly, the US has never perfectly lived out the Constitution's ideals. We have had some tremendous failings, especially in the treatment of minority groups. But we have been tremendously blessed by the Constitution's commitment to due process, equal protection of the law--and ultimately the rule of law. We have enjoyed a degree of freedom and principled government that is remarkable in human history.

In chapel I contrasted America's experience with some of the recent and deadly failures to follow the rule of law in places like Pakistan, Iran, and Zimbabwe. I then shared how a commitment to the rule of law is not just a nice concept, it is thoroughly supported by Christian theology about God's character. 2 quick examples:

• As God reigns, he treats all who are made in his image with dignity, equality, and justice--not just those who are rich, powerful, or influential (See Job 34:17-19). Indeed, he has a special concern for the poor and oppressed. (See Isaiah 1:17).
  
• Even in the atonement, God displayed his commitment to justice and the rule of law. He sent Jesus to live a perfect life under the law. And Jesus took on himself the punishment the law required--our punishment (See Romans 3:21-26). As my colleague Craig Stern has written: "The doctrine that Jesus himself keeps the law--his own law--even at so great a cost to himself, demonstrates his own most profound commitment to the rule of law."

We serve a God who loves justice--and a God who rules in justice. Praise the Lord! And happy Constitution Day!

Classrooms Across the Country

Since I became dean in 2000 (and interim dean the year before), I have had only one semester in which I did not teach. It was the worst semester of my life! Administrative work is necessary and important, but the fun is in the classroom. And it is the classroom that gives purpose to the administrative tasks.

This week served as one more reminder that the classroom is where the action is. On Tuesday I was in Virginia Beach with my 1L Christian Foundations of Law students. After slogging through difficult readings by Aquinas, Bracton, Coke, and Blackstone on the existence of a higher law, we stepped back to ask why a higher law matters. Through the eyes of Martin Luther King in his Birmingham, Alabama jail cell, we hashed out how a Christian citizen (or judge) should handle conflicts between the requirements of human law and the higher law. Great fun! My bright 1Ls approached different scenarios presented with thoughtfulness and passion.

Today I am in Tulsa, Oklahoma where I taught a class on Faith and Law to Oral Roberts University undergraduates. I saw the same earnestness in these students to live out their faith despite difficult situations and temptations. I was able to share how Regent University School of Law could help prepare them to integrate faith and law with excellence and integrity. Once again, it was a joy!

Tomorrow, off to more classrooms at Evangel University.