There was an incident last week at Azusa Pacific. Late Tuesday night, Nov. 5, a car full of Biolans pulled on to APU’s campus. They reached Smith Hall, rolled down a window and proceeded to yell obscenities at passing Azusa students. A student in passing was particularly mad at the situation and decided to throw a rock at the driver’s side window. The glass broke, and the students dispersed. Campus Safety and Azusa local police were called, and the Biolans filed a report. Legal action has yet to be taken.

Who knows who is really at fault? Both schools probably did equal harm. It doesn’t really matter. What it makes me wonder is what drives us to this? When did a rivalry between two like-minded schools turn to this?

Confusion turns to sadness as I think about all the missed opportunities, the lost friendships and influences, we have suffered due to this unnecessary disconnection.

I spent this past weekend at Azusa. I spend a lot of weekends at Azusa. I have a few friends there, and every time I visit, I make more. Sometimes these friends come to Biola and make friends with my friends. It’s been the greatest joy of the year for me, watching these two worlds come together.

When I was there, I went to their Monday morning chapel. We sang “I could sing of your love forever,” and worshipped with one voice. Jon Wallace, Azusa’s president spoke. I can remember him saying, “We are a community, under the lordship of Jesus Christ, who believe in the authority of scripture.” It sounded pretty familiar.

I could have experienced the same thing at Biola. God was in that place, just as he is here. The fact of the matter is that our schools are very similar. But this should come as no surprise.

Nearly all my friends at Azusa looked at Biola as an option out of high school. The same can be said of most of my Biola friends in regards to Azusa.

So why is that none of us spend time together once we decide on our university?

Isn’t it strange then that our schools don’t associate? Why is that? I find it a little shocking that our administrations don’t unite.

Biola and Azusa are 30 minutes apart. In the vast concrete jungle of LA, we are basically right next to each other. But we only interact or speak with each other over athletics or embarrassing incidents like what happened last week. This has got to change.

A solution seems so blatantly simple.

Let’s do things together.

We have concerts; they have concerts. Why not sponsor them as one? Our administrations can team up, and we can unite our campuses.

We have many of the same ministries — what if we teamed up? Think of how much more of an impact we could have together rather than apart.

We have so many things in common. It’s just a shame to see it all lost amidst a prideful, self-serving religious rivalry.

Both sides are responsible for the scarred relationship. I know we don’t go out of our way to abuse APU in insults, but when the school is mentioned, one can be sure a snide remark is sure to follow. And when I walk around APU and people hear I’m from Biola, I hear my share of scoffs. But it doesn’t have to be like this.

Again, I’d be fine with the joking, with the athletic rivalry, if it went along with other good relations between our schools. But it’s all that’s there.

I don’t know. Maybe the church has to be divided. Denominational differences must keep us separated. Maybe that’s just the way things are. Maybe our administrations cannot partner up because of doctrinal differences. But I’d rather try and find out for myself, rather than just accept the state of the church as it is.

So if our administrations won’t team up, I’m calling our students to. I’m doing my part. If you want to join, you’ll be welcomed with loving arms.

This is my open invitation to you. Come join me in meeting new people. Join me in teaming up with like-minded Christ followers, finding strength in more numbers, as we unite to impact the troubled Los Angeles we find ourselves stuck in.

I’ll call it the APU/Biola Lovefest. It could be the greatest thing to ever happen to this university, maybe even to this city. I’d hate for you to miss out.

And no more of this calling each other dirty names and throwing rocks at each other business. We can at least be better than that.