What’s the Point of Chapel?
September 3, 2007
What’s the Point of Chapel?
Rev. Aaron Messner, Covenant College Chaplain
At almost every Christian college in the country, there is this thing, this tradition, this ritual activity called chapel. And in my experience with folks on various Christian college campuses, I have discovered there is this almost universal debate, this ongoing argument, this lack of clarity surrounding the question, “What’s chapel actually for?”
I would hazard to guess that if we went around the country and asked folks at Christian colleges “What is the point of chapel, what exactly is chapel for?” We would get a wide variety of answers. Some would say that chapel is largely an academic exercise, an extension of the classroom where academic lectures on a whole host of topics are given. Some would say it is a refuge from the classroom, where students can focus on “spiritual things” that refresh the soul after the “spiritually draining” activity of academic learning. Some would say it is a time for vocational exploration, where people from various career tracks can come and talk about their experience and spur students on to more focused vocational pursuits. Some would treat chapel like an extended advertisement of sorts. “You know since you’ve got everyone together in one place, you can use that time to promote various ministries, or campus projects, or mission trips or whatever.”
Some would say that chapel should be just like church, “You know, for all intense and purposes, chapel is the campus church.” And for these folks a chapel service should have all the components of a Lord’s Day Worship Service. Others are adamant, “Chapel is not the church!” And so the assertion goes, it should have little or no resemblance to a Lord’s Day Worship service.
And then some would say, “Well, you can’t really privilege any one of these opinions over the others without alienating people. Why not try to make everyone happy and just make chapel a random assortment of all of the above, you know chapel can be a little of this and little of that, maybe if everyone gets a little of what they want, then everyone will be happy, at least a little bit.”
And of course these debates & assertions don’t even begin to address the other “exciting” chapel arguments that rage in Christian colleges all across the country, like “Should we even have chapel?”, or, “How often should we have chapel?” and “Should chapel actually be required?” When I was a student in a Christian College over a decade ago these debates were always percolating somewhere on campus, and since coming to Covenant I have learned some of the ways that these debates are made manifest in the life of our own community. One of the things I did when I was interviewing for the position here was to go online and read through some back issues of the Bagpipe, just to see what kind of things people were saying about chapel. I was particularly struck by one article that came right out and said, (paraphrase) “I think it is time that we admit that none of us have the faintest idea what Chapel is about.”
Of course in the midst of all of this ambiguity, in the midst of all of these possibilities, some of you might be wondering, what does the new chaplain actually think that chapel is all about? Does he have a chapel vision? What can we, what should we, come to expect from him and from this traditional campus ritual that we call chapel?
Well, in one brief talk I don’t think I can answer all of your questions about chapel, but what I do want to try and do is lay before you my understanding of what the main point of chapel is, or at least ought to be. I want to share my vision for the role that chapel can and should play in our life as an academic community.
Now, if we are going to ask the question, what’s the point/purpose of chapel at Covenant College, I think we first need to step back and ask, what’s the point/purpose of Covenant College in general? This is important because chapel as a specific activity exists to serve and further the larger interests/the bigger picture of the college’s overall mission. So we should ask, “What is the college’s overall mission?”
Quite simply Covenant College, as an educational institution is in the business of formation. We exist as an institution in order that we might play an active role in the personal formation of young men and women. Now, this should come as no great shock, after all this is what education is all about. Education is not simply the random transfer of data, from one mind to another (although it may seem that way at times), but rather, true education is the passing on of specific knowledge with a specific purpose in mind. The educator is seeking to pass on specific information in a specific way, in order to accomplish a specific purpose. The educator is seeking to form people who will think in a certain way, act in a certain way, develop certain values or acquire certain skills. I would suggest to you that one of the great problems with education in this country that our sense/ideal of what we are trying to form people into is eroding or vanishing altogether. Schools all across the country are still practicing the traditional rituals of educational formation, but in many cases they have lost any clear sense of why they are doing it, they have lost any clear sense of what they are trying to form people into.
Well one of the things that I’m thankful for is that Covenant College hasn’t lost its ideal, its goal, and its grand purpose in student formation. If you don’t already know this, then you should hear me now, at Covenant College we have a very specific goal, a very specific purpose in mind when we set our hands to the task of educating/forming young men and women. That task, that purpose, is writ large in our college motto taken from Colossians 1:17, “In All Things Christ Preeminent.” The educational goal of Covenant College is to help form men and women who by the power of the Holy Spirit, understand, submit to, and delight in the preeminence of Jesus Christ in all things to the glory of God the Father. (Repeat) As a college board, administration, faculty and staff, all of our hopes, prayers and labors are to this formative end. We want to form men and women who understand, submit to, and delight in the reality that there is not one inch of the entire creation over which Jesus Christ does not declare, “This is mine!” We want to be used by God to form men and women, to form you in such a way that you understand, submit to and delight in the preeminence of Jesus Christ in all of your private thoughts, actions and affections; all of your relationships with family, friends, strangers and foes; all of your vocational endeavors, all of your service as members of the church of Christ, all of your interactions in the public square, all of your forms of public service; all of your formal academic work and all of your informal activity of intellectual reflection. We want to play a hand in being used by the Spirit of God to form you into men and women who understand, submit to and delight in the truth that every aspect of existence, everything, everything, falls under the sovereign Lordship of Jesus Christ to the Glory of God the Father.
I hope you will quickly recognize this formative task is not merely intellectual. It is not simply the formation of the mind, but it is spiritual and emotional and volitional. We are talking about formation of the mind, the heart, and the soul. At Covenant we are concerned about how you think, how you act, how you love. That is why we are here. The pursuit of this kind of holistic, Christ centered formation is why this college exists.
And this then raises the question, “If this is the goal, if this the great end that we are working for and striving toward, just how exactly do we get there? Where should we begin?” I will contend that there is but one place where we should begin. There is one activity that should serve at the very foundation/core of our academic & communal life. If we want to bring about his kind of holistic, Christ-centered formation, there is one great starting point, and that starting point must be the reading and preaching of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament.
Let me try and briefly explain why I believe this is so. If the true end of a Covenant education is to form men and women who thoughtfully, willfully, passionately and joyfully bring the Lordship of Jesus Christ to bear on all aspects of life and existence, and do this in an excellent way, well then the first thing that men and women need is to learn about…is the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And the truth about the Lordship of Jesus Christ is revealed in no other place than in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Here in the pages of Scripture, God himself speaks. The Bible is his inspired, inerrant, living, sufficient, powerful and foundational word to humanity. Here God reveals the foundational truths about his own Trinitarian nature. Here he reveals his perfect moral character through the specific precepts of his law. Here he reveals and discloses his awesome works of creation, providence and redemption. Here He reveals the foundational truths about humanity; our origin, nature, duty, need and destiny. Here we learn the great story that frames all of history. We learn the story of God’s creation and ordering of the World; we learn of Man’s rebellion and fall into sin and the subsequent subjection of all of creation to the curse and judgment of God. We learn how God promises to redeem and reconcile all things to himself, and how he promises to save a people for his own pleasure. We learn about the preparations God makes for the fulfillment of that promise. Then in the fullness of time we see God becoming a man in the person of Jesus Christ, we see Jesus Christ perfectly fulfilling the divine law on our behalf, we see him willingly suffering and dying, paying the full penalty of the curse of sin on our behalf, in our place. We see God the Father raising Jesus Christ from the grave by the power of the Holy Spirit, giving Jesus eternal victory over sin and death. We see God the Father defeating the curse of sin, and reconciling all things to himself through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We see Christ ascending into heaven and taking his position of rule and authority over all things. We hear the divine call to believe in and follow Jesus Christ as Savior, Lord and God. We see Christ’s own specific commands and precepts for how his followers are to live in obedience to him, and we hear the promise of his eventual return wherein he will finally defeat all of his enemies, consummate his kingdom & rule over all things, and make all things new.
Here in lies the only true foundation for all Christian formation. God’s own Word declaring God’s own character, God’s own law, and God’s own work of creation, providence, redemption and consummation. And this Word from beginning to end exalts the person and work of Jesus Christ to the glory of God the Father. If we at Covenant College hope to form students who understand the preeminence of Jesus Christ in all things we must have the reading and preaching of the Word of God, which reveals this preeminent Christ, at the very center of our curriculum and our communal life.
Another reason why the reading and preaching of Scripture must lie at the very heart of the formative efforts of the college, is that the Scriptures not only reveal foundational truth to the mind, truth that cannot be learned any other way, but in addition to that, when this living and active Word is read and preached, God actually promises to use that Word as it goes forth, to form, transform, and conform the minds, hearts and wills of his children so that they not only understand the truth about Jesus Christ intellectually, but that they believe in the Lord Jesus in the depth of their being, and they love the Lord Jesus Christ, and in turn obey and serve Jesus Christ as Lord. Passages like Isaiah 55:10-11, Romans 10:14-17 and 2 Timothy 3:10-16 make this truth abundantly clear.
And the end of the day the Bible’s own testimony, even more specifically the testimony of Jesus Christ himself, is that the foundational component of true Christian formation is the hearing, believing and obeying the Word of God. (Jesus parable of the builder, Matthew 7:24-27) Apart from this foundational activity, any and all efforts in Christian formation are doomed to fail. Any and all attempts to master specific academic disciples are vain and empty. By Jesus own declaration, the reading and preaching of Scripture, with the specific call to faith and obedience in all aspects of life, must stand at the core of the educational enterprise.
This is where the chapel program enters into the college’s efforts to form Christian men and women. As chaplain, it is my intention to make the reading and preaching of Scripture the primary activity, the main emphasis of chapel. This will begin with my own personal ministry. I will be engaging in the regular (weekly), systematic exposition of Scripture. In this task I will not simply be trying to relate the content of Scripture, but I will seek to expose the content of Scripture in a way that confronts us all-faculty, staff, administration and students-confronts us all with the claims that the Scripture makes on our lives. And I will be calling on us, all of us, as hearers of the Word to respond to the claims of the Word with specific acts of confession, repentance, faith in and obedience to the Lord Jesus Christ.
My regular, systematic Biblical exposition with then be complimented and expanded upon in other chapel services by Biblical exposition of guest preachers; the likes of which you have already heard from men like Randy Nabors and Render Caines. Now hopefully, you will also be sitting under this kind of preaching each week in church, and inevitably you will receive some of this kind of Biblical exposition and application in your Bible classes, but here at Covenant we have the opportunity to make this foundational, formative activity more frequent and more regular than you will probably ever experience again. We have an opportunity to engage in this glorious task together every week, regardless of your various class schedules, regardless of your various majors. And what a blessing that is. Who among us has matured to the point, where we don’t need more of God’s Word in our life? It’s like saying, “I had a good meal yesterday, so I don’t really need to eat again until next Sunday.” Or, “I met my eating requirement for graduation by my sophomore year, so I don’t need to eat anymore until I graduate.” No brothers and sisters, the regular frequent opportunity (many times a week in some cases) to sit under the reading and preaching of Scripture is an amazing spiritual gift. Quite frankly it is one that you may never get again. So I encourage you to embrace it as a formative investment for the good of your heart, soul and mind.
It is my hope and prayer that God will use this regular ministry of Biblical exposition and application to serve as the foundational component of the chapel program and the foundation component of Christian formation here at Covenant College.
Now some of you will ask right away, is Biblical exposition, is sitting under the reading and preaching of Scripture, is that the only thing we will be doing in chapel? Obviously if you have been here for the past week or so or if you have looked at the up coming schedule, you know that is not the case. The reading and preaching of Scripture will serve as the primary activity, the foundational activity of chapel, but it will not be the exclusive activity. We plan to build on the foundation of Biblical exposition and application with distinct and complementary activities that will further aid the cause of holistic, Christ-centered formation.
The first of these activities, which you have already experienced in some measure, is singing. We will devote part of our time together to sing praises to the Lord and to worship him in song. However, I want you to understand that this musical activity is not disconnected from the task of Christian formation, but it plays an integral role in this great task. If hearing, believing and obeying of the word of God is the foundational activity in Christian formation, then we need to recognize that the Scripture’s own testimony is that one of the most important ways that we are to hear the Word of God and have that word dwell in us richly, is to sing the word of God. Good worship songs are either the direct words of Scripture or the faithful exposition of Scripture put to music. This is precisely what Paul is getting at in Colossians 3 when he says, “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” For Paul, one of the great ways that we let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly, one of the great ways that we teach and admonition one another in all wisdom, is to gather together and sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Singing is not a time of intellectual disengagement so that we can “be spiritual”, but it is a time of Biblical instruction and admonition put to music. And so you will notice that this activity of praising God in song is one of the great complementary activities of chapel. Spiritual song has long been the great hand maiden of preaching and by God’s grace so shall it be in our chapels.
In addition to the reading and preaching of Scripture, in addition to a regular time of corporate singing, another complementary activity of chapel will be to feature topical addresses & academic lectures which will demonstrate, or at least suggest ways in which the Lordship of Christ ought to be brought to bear on specific academic issues or concerns in contemporary life.
And once again, let me emphasize, just as with singing, these topical addresses and academic faculty lectures are not unrelated to the reading and preaching of Scripture, nor are they disconnected with the overall mission of Christian formation. Rather they are a kind of extended and targeted application of the Word of God to every nook and cranny of our existence. Biblical exposition stands as the foundation of Christian formation, but the content of God’s Word and the implications of Christ’s Lordship must be rigorously and thoughtfully applied to all aspects of life. Here at Covenant we must ask the questions, “What does it mean to bring the Lordship of Christ to bear on the history of racism in this country and the life of Martin Luther King, or the scourge of sexual abuse in and out of the church, or the evangelistic needs in the 10/40 window, or the economic practices of multi-national corporations? What does it look like to bring the preeminent Lordship of Jesus Christ to bear on the reading of an Ernest Hemingway novel, or the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, or the influence of Billy Graham on the American cultural fabric?” These and other issues will be addressed in various topical lectures in chapel. In this way, chapel is not simply an extension of the classroom, but rather it forms a foundation that the classroom can build on. In chapel, the truth of Scripture and the majestic Lordship of Jesus Christ is regularly and openly declared, expounded upon and sung about. That truth is then applied to the specific aspects of our common life together as a college community. That foundation is then built upon with regular topical addresses and lectures that seek to take that truth and apply it on another level, with a heightened degree of focus, with a targeted academic, vocational or social concern in mind. This heightened level of application that you get a taste of in chapel, is then extended even further, goes even deeper, and takes on even greater focus and rigor in the classroom. There, under the mentorship of Godly, wise and excellent faculty you have the opportunity to rigorously and thoughtfully reflect upon and apply the Lordship of Christ to all the contours of the various academic disciplines; all the issues of intellectual, emotional and spiritual concern. And this extended application of the Word to all walks of intellectual life, it takes place in the classroom with a depth, breadth and precision that is impossible to achieve in chapel alone.
So chapel, with its primary focus on the exposition and general application of Scripture and its secondary focus on of giving targeted application to specific issues of academic and social concern, plays an integral and unique role in the mission of the college. It stands neither in opposition to the academic activity of the classroom, nor as mere duplication of the academic activity of the classroom, but instead it stands as a foundational activity through which the heart, mind and soul of a Covenant man or women may be formed. A man or women who increasingly understands, from the Scriptures, the preeminent Lordship of Jesus Christ over everything, and who under the tutelage of the faculty is increasingly able to recognize and thoughtfully apply the preeminent Lordship of Christ to everything they encounter. And who, by the work of God, actually submits to the preeminent reign of Christ in every area of their life, and who truly delights in the preeminent Lordship of Jesus Christ and has a personal love and devotion for their Lord.
By God’s grace may it be so, brothers and sisters, may it be so.