At Covenant College, Chapel is a time we all set aside, faculty, staff, students, to sing, to pray and to read from and to meditate on Scripture. Chapel is a time when we can come together as a body of believers to worship. But Covenant needs to seriously rethink how it operates the chapel program. Chapel is not clearly defined: we do not know what it is, and as a result, Chapel has lost its priority of worship.
If I asked you to define Chapel, could you? Rather famously, the chapel department defines our required, thrice-weekly Chapels in two ways: “… encountering Jesus together …” and “… not church.” This is our current, go-to definition, but it is hardly robust and leads to some gaping holes in Covenant’s understanding of what Chapel should be, opening the door to potential issues.
Whatever way you look at it, God calls us to worship him together, usually through Sunday morning worship services, but also in other ways, when we have the opportunity. Throughout history, the Church has wrestled with defining and distinguishing different forms of faithful worship, forms including personal, private devotions or public, congregational worship. And while there is no shortage of controversy over how we define public and private worship, those controversies are over existing definitions. Part of the struggle of providing a constructive critique of the chapel program is that we lack a good, working definition. Is Chapel a Bible study? A Sunday morning-style worship service? An assembly of inspirational speakers and campus announcements? Who knows?
When students debate the need for Chapel, or lack thereof, the question usually on the table is, “should we remove mandatory Chapel attendance for students?” To that, I would answer, “Maybe. Maybe not.” If you flip the question, however, the answer might be more revealing: “If Chapel were optional, would you still attend?”
A church congregation does not go to worship every Sunday because attendance is mandatory, the congregants attend because they want to be spiritually nourished. Chapel has the potential to be a nourishing time for our students to come together to sing, pray and learn together from the Word. It helps reinforce our small community and gives us a pleasant, shared experience. But in the last four years, Chapel services have consistently been hit-or-miss. Some speakers come to preach the Gospel, reminding the Covenant community of our need for a Savior, pointing us to Christ. Many speakers, though, take the stage to praise the “hallowed halls” of Covenant College, to watch VeggieTales clips, or to simply make students feel better about themselves. Despite the definition of “encountering Jesus together,” many Chapel talks fail to mention Jesus or to even reference Scripture.
Currently, the broadness of the chapel program’s definition has led to vague Chapel talks and a lack of clarity. Should we advocate for uniformity in the speakers we invite? Absolutely not. A useful diversity of speakers should consistently show the simplicity of the Gospel message and our need for Christ in every background or academic discipline. Unfortunately, the vagueness surrounding the chapel program has led to a lack of clarity brought in speakers who do not help us encounter Jesus but actually move us away from Him.
If Chapel is to remain mandatory, then the chapel department has a mandate to ensure that the Gospel is consistently and clearly preached every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Chaplain Lowe, Stephanie Formenti and the other Chapel leaders need to prioritize worship, giving plenty of time for singing, prayer and preaching the Gospel. If there are general student body announcements to make, they should happen before Chapel starts, rather than cutting into worship time.
Concrete definitions are important. They help us understand what an institution like Chapel is and what it is not, how something should work and how it should not. Without definitions, we run the risk of using an institution in unhelpful or inefficient ways. As the chapel department struggles to consistently proclaim Christ, a concrete Chapel definition would only help the chapel program decide what kind of talks to hold, what kind of speakers to invite, and what types of music to play.
We, students, need to have a more active voice in Chapel. Pay attention to the message of the speaker, whether they be Chaplain Lowe or an outside guest. Be critical of the message and music selected, testing it against what Scripture says faithful worship looks like. If a Chapel speaker fails to preach Scripture or if the music leader selects a song unfit for worship, we need to stand up in loving rebuke.