Christian College Environments [3]

Chuck on May 27th, 2009

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:

  1. Define the purpose of these times
  2. 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.
  3. 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?

Related posts:

  1. Christian College Environments [2]
  2. Christian College Environments [4]
  3. Christian School Environments
  4. Behavior Management
  5. Decline of Christian Nation

Share Discuss (8)

Benson Hines at 9:22pm May 27

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.

Kassie at 9:47am June 6

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.