Liberty Christian School honors two alumni each year with a Distinguished Alumni Award and we are proud to announce the 2024-2025 recipients! One female and one male graduate are recognized for outstanding career achievement, service to others, admirable character, a sincere walk with the Lord, continued support of Liberty, and completion of a college degree. These alumni exemplify the values and mission of Liberty.

We are excited to announce Dr. Chris Searcy (Class of 1999) as a 2024-2025 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient. 

Read about our other winner, Lissie Kevlin, here.

Q&A

What does this award mean to you?

Searcy: This recognition means more than I can put into words. Liberty is a special place and God has brought us so many amazing families over the years. Graduates who believe what the Bible says about them and what the Liberty teachers and coaches spoke into them so much that they went on to impact the world around them. So many alumni that came before me and after me that are impacting lives every day, so being considered as one of them is a big deal to me, and getting honored with them is humbling.

What was the biggest impact that Liberty had on you as a student?

Searcy: Liberty has had a massive impact on my entire family. My parents both worked here, my sisters both graduated from here, I worked here for 13 years, and now I have a senior, one of three kids who have spent their life here. We have had someone in my family work or attend Liberty every year but one since 1995. That’s 30 years of forming us and giving us a community to serve and belong to.

Liberty was a safe place for me to grow, learn, and get shaped into who I am today. Coaches like Coach Bowles, Coach Blackmon, Coach Young, Coach Chrane, Coach Younkman, and many more challenged me, pushed me, far beyond where I thought I could ever go. Teachers and leaders like Dr. Haire, Dr. Lippe, Dr. Combs, Dr. Noto, Becky Shirley, Rhonda Smith, Bryan Bunselmeyer, and many more showed me what passion, grace, excellence looked like. Lance White was the youth pastor on campus and he spent hours investing in me in Bible studies outside of school and helping me and my friends navigate following Jesus as a teenager. I wouldn’t be where I am without each of them and so many more that spoke life into me.

What would you say is your biggest accomplishment thus far?

Searcy: This is both an easy and challenging question. The easy part is seeing the grace of God evident in my life when God gave me my wife J.J. and my three kids Mary Jane, Caden, and Charis. Each of them is truly a gift to me and what I value most.

When it comes to professionally, that’s where it gets hard. John 15 tells us that apart from Jesus we can do nothing, but if we abide with Him, He will make us fruitful. So anything “I’ve” done has been His goodness and fruit in my life. I’ve also been on some great teams over the years. I would say that my greatest gift God has given me is the gift to create, dream, and build things with Him.

For example, while at Liberty, I’d say some of the things God did over the years was use the gifts He gave me to start some traditions that still exist today. I was on the team that wrote the Warrior Way, wrote the Warrior Code in primary school, created the Wilderness Trip tribes, Jeans Days, Christmas Jubilee, Senior Splurge and Senior Walk, and started the Spiritual Life Department.

I’m so grateful that Dr. Haire entrusted so much in me as a young leader where many would have brushed me to the side. He didn’t just put up with me – he empowered me. In high school at Liberty, as a senior student, a few of my friends and I started the Senior Valentine’s Day deliveries. I love starting and creating things.

When my time at Liberty ended, I had the privilege of spending the last seven years leading a great team that started a college at Valley Creek Church while continuing to have the opportunity to lead retreats, mission trips, and spend time investing in the next generation. I love partnering with God to create new things and the lives that have been impacted are a direct result of that because of God’s goodness and grace in and on my life.

How do you continue to grow in Christ and serve your community?

Searcy: God raised me in a great family with great parents who taught me what it looks like to follow Jesus, and I’ve got great in-laws who have modeled that for me as well. I’ve also had a lot of mentors over the years and learned the importance of being in God’s Word every morning, praying and walking with the Holy Spirit each day, and being aware of needs around me everywhere I go. I was taught from a young age that my life isn’t about me, although I still have so much to learn and grow about what it means to live and love like Jesus. I love serving locally through my church, coaching my kids’ teams, and I love going on international mission trips. God has given me the chance to go on several trips around the world to over 30-plus countries. I love seeing God at work in the lives of people. There’s nothing better than sitting across from someone and hearing what God is teaching them.

What did the biblical component at Liberty mean to you as a student?

Searcy: I loved being able to learn more about the Bible in Bible class but honestly, it was seeing it lived out in the coaches, teachers, and leaders of our school. I saw marriages that I wanted to emulate in my own life, Godly men and women that quoted scripture and put it on display in their own lives. When they missed the mark and messed up, they owned it and showed me grace. I loved seeing their faith lived out loud.

Anything else you would like to add?

Searcy: Thank you for this award. I wish I could give it back to Jesus and to every leader that invested in me along the way. However, the person I want to thank most importantly is my wife. She is my rock. She has stood by my side, believed in me, challenged me, served our family, and the only reason I was able to be part of God’s work to build His Kingdom was her willingness to give up her own dreams so I could pursue mine. I even proposed to her at a Liberty pep rally! I will forever be grateful and cherish the life that we get to enjoy together, much of which started at Liberty and continues at Liberty to this day.

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