Four weeks into the semester, chapel is going strong. This Spring, students, faculty, and staff are challenged to surrender to God.
Early in the semester, the theme video was shown in chapel, where Campus Pastor Greg Dyson developed some of the ideas to be covered this semester.
“I just want to talk to you about this idea of surrender,” Dyson said in the video. “We’re going to give in to God one way or another. Why don’t you just make the decision now to give your heart, soul and mind to the God who made you?”
Starting the semester strong, during the week of spiritual renewal (Feb. 8th to 11th), speakers Pastor Andrew Znachko from Community Church in Indianapolis and Beth Guckenberger, co-executive director of Back2Back Ministries, dove into the theme of surrender.
One of the Lead Chapel Coordinators, Lauren Huitsing, said the team worked to integrate the speaker's expectations in preparation for spiritual renewal. As they do with all speakers, the team discussed the theme with Znachko and Guckenberger so they could tie their messages into it, and students can make connections over the talks.
Chapel themes are planned far in advance, Huitsing said. Speakers are busy and need to be booked ahead of time for the coming semesters. This way, Reverend Dyson and the chapel team can give speakers information on what they should touch on.
Huitsing coordinated the Monday morning and evening services of spiritual renewal, and from her viewpoint in the room, she enjoyed looking out and seeing people worship.
“A lot of people say the best part of spiritual renewal is the post-message energy, when people are in such a state of, in this case, surrender, but also just feeling so connected to the Lord.”
Huitsing said. “The Spirit feels so tangible in the room when that flow of worship and the more spontaneous and not choreographed worship takes place.”
The team was aware of the theme ahead of time and was able to begin praying and thinking about it in the weeks leading up to the semester, Jaiden Zook, a chapel coordinator for Zurcher Commons, said.
“I think after just coming off of spiritual renewal, obviously, a lot of people are just like, really empowered for the Lord,” Zook said. “And so I'm excited for these upcoming chapel speakers.”
A lot more intentionality goes into the chapel spaces than students might know, Zook said.
“I would really just challenge students to show up and just, in general, be ready to hear the Word,” she said. “I think it's easy to be like, ‘I have homework,’ which is, of course, totally fine, but I think I would really just challenge students to be intentional in going, even if that's down here (in Zurcher Commons) and they’re working down here.”
Huitsing advises that those going into their last semester of chapel take the messages to heart.
“Obviously, surrender is important for everyone, no matter where you're at in life,” she said. “But being a senior myself, I've had to learn, and I'm continuing to learn, how to surrender my future, my job and where I am going to live.”
