The First Hour

Today was the first chapel in the 2007-2008 Crichton school year. I have to say that today was great start to the chapel year. The challenge now will be to build on top of this foundation.

To start, I have to give first props to Michael Crosse for successfully engaging the students before entering chapel. To have the "goody bags" was a great tool and an excellent way to entice the students to come to chapel. I also have to say the New Testament in the bag was a nice touch.

In coming into chapel, the introductory music on the speakers was tasteful, modern, and not cranked up, thus encouraging conversation between students. This sort of conversation helps to lift the atmosphere and to lead the students into engaging both the speaker and the worship music leader.

In not having worship music today, A.T. led straight into the message. In being honest, I have to personally say that I was apprehensive about what A.T. would say in the message. Now, in being objective, I have to say that overall, A.T. did a great job for the first chapel. The opening illustration was great because I could see where he was going to with it. The second illustration immediately following, though humorous, was not quite as easy to follow and to piece together in the larger picture of the message. But, this is just a small, minute detail. A.T.'s main focus in chapel today was in demonstrating the "irrational" love of Christ. To an extent, I see exactly where he was going and I understand 100% of what he was saying. To term God's love as irrational was fine because he said that, "in the world's eyes, the love that Christ (and Christians) demonstrated/ are called to demonstrate is irrational." (paraphrased.) I understand what he was saying, but I would like to take it a step further. The paradox of the love that the Triune God calls Christians to is that it is perfectly rational. It is literally "not a problem" for Christians to give and to love like Christ loved His church. All that being said, I know, or at least hope, A.T. knows this but I understand that A.T. was speaking directly to the school as a whole and therefore I have no problem either understanding or accepting that terminology in the message today.

As I said, today's chapel was fantastic because I believe that it laid a great foundation on which A.T., and in bringing in more mature guest speakers/theologians, that the school could actually begin to grow spiritually as a school albeit it may be at a slower pace than is desirable. I am optimistic of the future chapels and look forward to next week.

My challenge to the chapel staff: keep building on what you started this week. Keep digging deeper into Christian truths like love and discipleship. From there, dig into other denominations and even other world views. If the same foundation that was laid today is used as the foundation for a "chapel house," then this actually opens very large doors into other possibilities for instruction within chapel such as Christian bio-ethics and hermeneutics. Keep going, keep building, and do not treat the assembly as "dumb." Challenge them to grow and learn by continuing to raise the bar of what is taught inside of chapel. Move beyond emotion and into thinking critically so we can all grow spiritually to change the world around us. Great job, chapel staff. Godspeed.