Well, it’s fun to see the comments being made and interaction on this blog series. This post will discuss some of my thoughts and questions regarding chapel on Christian College Campuses.
I guess the first step is seeking to gain insight into the purpose of these times. Some schools don’t have them, while others have them up to 3 times a week. In addition to the ongoing chapels most also have spiritual emphasis weeks. Most schools make chapels mandatory. So my first question is why make them mandatory? I think if we’re really honest, we’ll recognize it’s because otherwise far fewer students would attend.
What might this tell us? Does that really make sense?
We’d probably all agree that our goal is not to force proper behavior, but instead cultivate a heart for Jesus and to live an authentic mature life of faith. So, is forcing attendance really accomplishing what we think it is?
I’m not saying there isn’t a place for chapel gatherings, but I do think every campus minister (chapel coordinator) ought to be able to:
- Define the purpose of these times
- Support their reasoning for making it mandatory – if they do – beyond proper behavior by attending. If the reasoning is because otherwise only a few people would come, then we must support how we think forcing proper behavior is going to benefit the spiritual health of the students.
- Explain how/why these times are needed in addition to being involved in a local church body – which most Christian colleges (at least on paper) require students to be involved in.
We need to be able to justify how we think so many different messages is beneficial. And we have to be able to have some type of strategy for helping every student embrace these messages in their life. We’d all agree that it doesn’t do any good to just hear a message and do nothing with it, right? We’d also likely agree that we not only have to teach believers, but also our role as shepherds is helping them live it out. In addition, I’m assuming we’d agree that this requires more than every-now-and-then events or retreats of service. It’s about life, every day life and in every day circumstances.
Hypothetical Illustration – with a question
Let’s assume we’re working together on a Christian college campus and we’re running mandatory chapels twice a week. We allow a certain amount of absences, but it’s clearly forced (there’s no better word). In fact students are disciplined in some fashion if too many chapels are missed. Most students look at a schedule to see who’s speaking to determine which chapels they’ll be skipping, making sure they attend a few specific chapels. The remainder of chapels are filled with professors or administrators speaking, of which some are clearly better than others. In addition to these mandatory chapels twice a week, we also expect (whether formally or not) students to go to church and expect them to serve in some capacity (whether they do or not is another story).
I guess my question is: what is this teaching/saying about Christianity?
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Chuck Bomar is pastor of Colossae Church in Portland, Oregon and founder of CollegeLeader (
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Honestly, if there’s any group of college ministers that DOES regularly think through the kinds of things you’re mentioning (and many more things regarding spiritual development), it’s the chaplains of Christian colleges. I haven’t run into any other group that studies such issues so carefully. And Chapel is one thing that these guys and gals clearly wrestle with on a regular basis (through groups like CCCU). There are lots of issues surrounding Chapel that we on the outside know little about.
While there are certainly concerns about the Christian college setting connected to ecclesiology, I’m kinda struggling to see how your concerns connect with your conclusions in these posts. I’ve actually come out more encouraged about Christian colleges, not less, as I’ve gotten to know their chaplains / spiritual life people / etc. Hopefully you’ll get to sit down with many of them – like the cool people over at George Fox – to talk about their methodology and the basis of their institution. College ministers may not always agree on these things, but I do know that Christian college chaplains offer much to the field of college ministry as a whole.
If you haven’t, I encourage you to listen to the Aaron Messner interview with 9Marks at http://media.9marks.org/2009/04/01/college-students – 9Marks and Mark Dever are one of the best-known proponents of local church priority, and they seem to still see room for Christian colleges.
Instead of trying to respond tit-for-tat through your three posts, I’ll try to work up a general response on my blog starting Monday.
I attended a state university (Oregon State), and Christ rescued me there. My heart was directed to students and campus ministry almost from the start of this journey.
I can’t speak as to my own experience as a student on a private Christian college campus. (Although as a continuing seminary student, I have glimpses of it, looking at the undergrads on campus.)
But I have been a speaker at a few retreats, for both Christian schools and campus ministries and churches reaching out at state schools. In general, I’ve noticed a greater thirst for the Gospel and living for Christ among those who attend a “secular” college. Perhaps this is merely anecdotal, but other colleagues confirm the same. It’s both encouraging and sad.
Thank you, Chuck, for being willing to speak as to the elephant in the room. Why do church leaders and families often blindly tell our Christian high schoolers to go to a Christian college?
Am I simply arguing on the basis of my own good experience? And are others doing the same, on the opposite front?
(I first and highly encourage them to consider state schools first, from the opportunity to be a missionary for Christ, to the cost, to the hire-ability in many fields of attending a good state school.)
Furthermore, it seems that the first priority of parents and pastors would be to connect the student with church leaders in their new locale, whatever the school (private or public). At least of equal importance in our day than what school they go to.
Benson, thanks so much for your insight!! I do agree that there are many who are thinking through these things. I also know people, probably like sarah at George Fox, who not only intellectually think through this but theologically as well. I even speak in chapels all over the country and have personally seen God use these times (not just because I was speaking, although that’s a great thought). And, to reiterate, I’m not saying they don’t have a role. All I’m saying is that i think every campus ought to have clear answers for these questions – not saying that many don’t.
I’m also seeking to look deeper into the situation. I know myself well enough to know that I can often think through things deeply, even say some things correctly, but then continue with a methodology that contradicts what I’m saying – and without even realizing it’s undermining the very thing I’m saying. But, again, I’m not saying having chapels do in fact undermine our words, I’m simply saying that we ought to think through these things and be able to have solid reasoning for why we continue doing what we’re doing. I know some do, but I also know there are many that don’t – we just continue doing it because “we’ve always done it.” This is what I’m trying to challenge.
It seems to me that we need to back up and answer a much bigger question of why we have Christian colleges before we can even answer the role of chapel in them. Historically, most of them started as bible colleges to train students for vocational ministry. In order to survive most of them have become liberal arts institutions. They try to find their niche now as a worldview alternative to the secular university. So, my question: is this working, or not?
As a side note, to understand the secular university and why Christian colleges emerged as an alternative, George Marsden’s The Soul of the American University is must reading from the historical perspective of where we have come from. I would encourage all who work with campus communities to check this out.
Timotheos, good question; but maybe the question could be “is the current situation redeemable?” I think yes; but at great cost. Coming from both a secular state college and christian liberal-arts university education, I know that there were “sacred cows” abundant in both venues. They need to be ground down and swallowed hard. Chapel seemed to be the answer to ‘look the part’ of the “christian university”. How would that look if a christian university didn’t have ‘church’? Really, how would that be taken? Christians have to go to church. That’s the rule. Jesus said that we had to go to church if we love him. right? I’m sure it’s in the bible somewhere…
I work at and attended a Christian college where daily chapel attendance is required and I can tell you that mandatory attendance is less about creating a desired behavior and more about creating opportunities for community to flourish. Requiring students to come together for a 20-30 minutes during the middle of their day creates so many opportunities for connecting with each other that otherwise wouldn’t be there. Wouldn’t all of our lives be better if we all took a few minutes out of each day to come together, reflect on and worship our creator together?
This hypothetical situation isn’t so hypothetical at all. It describes very accurately the situation at the college I attend – mentioning no names, of course – *coughOralRobertsUniversitycough*
With the exception of a few incredible speakers throughout the year, chapel is a thorn in the side of the majority of students at my school – but the deep relationships we have with our fellow students and the mentoring we receive from faculty is more than worth the two hours of mandatory indoctrination we receive a week. Yes, it would be wonderful if chapel were no longer required and we were treated by administration like college students and not youth at church camp, but when it’s all said and done, is two hours going to suck our spiritual lives dry? Probably not.
With that being said, every student reacts to it differently. I know some people at school who act like you’ve just accused the holy mother of being a Vegas prostitute if you dare to complain about chapel, and others who gripe about chapel as much as most people gripe about the price of gas. I’ve heard genuinely life-changing messages that fell on bitter soil because “They’re MAKING me go. . .I have a RIGHT to stay home if I want to. . .THEY’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!”
So I believe the problem isn’t necessarily the chapels themselves, but the fact that they’re mandatory. The message that some perceive from the requirement is that Jesus isn’t powerful enough to draw people to Him without the help of the Deans enforcing chapel reqs (although I vaguely remember something about ‘If I be lifted up I will draw all men to Me’), but others perceive it as the administration genuinely caring about the students they’re leading, and wanting to make sure they’re getting the word, whether or not we get up early enough on Sunday to make it to a church service.
This is not only a situation that affects our Christian campuses, but also the churches trying to minister to college-age people! Our church sits right across the street from a Christian campus and we often struggle to get students interested in coming to church or college-ministry. It is almost like the university is its “own church” and the numbers of students attending churches on Sunday mornings is anemic proportions.
This is why I am concerned about creating a “bubble community” where students believe that they have no reason for church connections in the community. They miss opportunities to connect with older adults and children, and miss out on the mentorship that needs to happen inside a church context. And the worst part is that students that do come definitely usually come out of obligation. Mandatory chapels are lame- there has to be a better way than “forcing” mandatory chapels on students and a way to encourage them to get involved in local churches throughout the communities they attend school in.