A Vision for a New Way of Doing Chapel
(Intro Chapel 2011-2012)
Good morning. As you may have noticed, things are looking a bit different around here since last June. As a staff we’ve been thinking long and hard about why we do things and whether or not the way we do them actually has the outcomes we want. There are some direct tangible results of those discussions: the new high school student center; the slightly larger chapel group; the resurrection of a high school library. And then there are some intangible results; the ideas still churning in our hearts and minds. Why are we doing it this way?
As we asked these questions of ourselves it ended up being helpful to also ask the question ‘What do we want?’ What do we want NMCS to be? What type of people do we want you, our students, to be when you graduate? What kind of teachers do we want to be? There are the obvious answers of: loving Jesus and getting a good Christ-centered education. Those are good goals, but how do you get there? What does that even mean? That’s a much longer discussion.
As several of us thought long and hard about this we tried to dig a little deeper than the standard tagline. We want to be a place where we encourage each other to love Jesus. We want to be a group of people who help each other mature in the Faith. We want to have a culture of respect in our school, where students and parents and staff all feel valued by each other. We want to be a school that helps nurture the reality of Christ’s lordship over creation in absolutely every subject area. We want students and staff to be constantly growing in their understanding of who God is, what he’s like, and what he’s calling us to do both as individuals and as a community. We want this place to be community that cultivates our minds, bodies, and our heart.
After we listed off our dreams for this community, we asked ourselves whether chapel fit into that dream. Why do we do chapel? Is the way we’ve done chapel in the past helping or hindering our realization of the goal of helping each other mature in the Faith?
If you are a senior, hopefully you’ve seen some progression in our chapels. When I first came here four years ago, many of our chapels involved having a local pastor or teacher come in and give us a mini-sermon. You know, there are times for that. There are times for teaching the Bible. But knowing the right thing isn’t the only way we grow in our faith. More than that, having an adult up front telling you how to be better Christians isn’t always helpful. It assumes things about you as students that aren’t always true.
I want you to dream with me for a moment about what chapel can become. What if this was a place where we could share with each other what God is doing in our lives? What if this could be a place where we learned from each other as a community? What if teachers and students could learn from and be encouraged by the students? What if this was a place where the NMCS community could come together and collectively turn our hearts towards God as brothers and sisters in Christ: young and old, middle and high school? What chapel was a place where you, whether you’re a student or a teacher, could connect with God and have your heart refreshed? Toward these ends, we’re reshaping and reforming our chapels.
I believe for this shift to take place, it is essential that we as a community share what God is doing in our lives. In Revelation 12:11 it says the way we as Christians triumph over evil is by the blood of the Jesus and our testimony; by sharing who God is for us and what he’s doing in our lives. If any of these dreams are going to happen this year, we’ve got to begin learning how to do this. We’re going to encourage one another by sharing our stories. Sometimes, we’ll be sharing stories of victory and God’s goodness. Other times, we’ll share our pain and maybe even learn to lament together. I envision this school (not just chapel) becoming a place where people talk freely about the nitty-gritty of living out the Christian life—the good and the bad, the shiny parts and the not-so-shiny parts.
How exactly do we begin doing all these things? I’m not completely sure. That’s something the chapel committee is going to try and flesh out this year. What I do know is you, as students, have to be involved in the process. I want to invite you to start dreaming with us. Lend your hearts and your voices to ours. Chapel is not about the teachers trying to make you the students into better Christians. You are not pieces of clay we shape into our likeness. You’re God’s children just like us. We’re all be transformed into his likeness. We’re on this journey together. I long for this time mid-week to be about the school community coming together and intentionally stirring our affections for Jesus.
It’s going to be an exciting year. It’s a year where we are deliberate about change and at the same time must realize that change won’t all come this year. Hopefully, we’ll start some boulders rolling that will take years to get down the hill. Some of you in high school will be investing yourselves so that when these 6th graders are in the place you are now, they will reap the fruits of your labor. That goes for you middle schoolers as well. Just because you are younger doesn’t mean you don’t have a part to play. You don’t have a junior Holy Spirit inside of you. You’re here because we can’t do this without you.
As we try out new things, sometimes it’s going to be great; we’ll walk away with tears in our eyes and a full heart. Other times, it’s… going to have some rough edges. Things won’t work correctly. Our ideas won’t work out as well in reality as it did in our heads. And in those instances we need you to give a little grace. Speak kindly. Give gentle criticism. Don’t lie, but don’t dismiss someone’s hours of work just because it wasn’t polished or to your liking.
Are you ready? Are you willing to try some new ways of doing things? Will you join us? Will you lend your hearts, your time, and your prayers into what God is doing in this school? Let’s pray.
As we asked these questions of ourselves it ended up being helpful to also ask the question ‘What do we want?’ What do we want NMCS to be? What type of people do we want you, our students, to be when you graduate? What kind of teachers do we want to be? There are the obvious answers of: loving Jesus and getting a good Christ-centered education. Those are good goals, but how do you get there? What does that even mean? That’s a much longer discussion.
As several of us thought long and hard about this we tried to dig a little deeper than the standard tagline. We want to be a place where we encourage each other to love Jesus. We want to be a group of people who help each other mature in the Faith. We want to have a culture of respect in our school, where students and parents and staff all feel valued by each other. We want to be a school that helps nurture the reality of Christ’s lordship over creation in absolutely every subject area. We want students and staff to be constantly growing in their understanding of who God is, what he’s like, and what he’s calling us to do both as individuals and as a community. We want this place to be community that cultivates our minds, bodies, and our heart.
After we listed off our dreams for this community, we asked ourselves whether chapel fit into that dream. Why do we do chapel? Is the way we’ve done chapel in the past helping or hindering our realization of the goal of helping each other mature in the Faith?
If you are a senior, hopefully you’ve seen some progression in our chapels. When I first came here four years ago, many of our chapels involved having a local pastor or teacher come in and give us a mini-sermon. You know, there are times for that. There are times for teaching the Bible. But knowing the right thing isn’t the only way we grow in our faith. More than that, having an adult up front telling you how to be better Christians isn’t always helpful. It assumes things about you as students that aren’t always true.
I want you to dream with me for a moment about what chapel can become. What if this was a place where we could share with each other what God is doing in our lives? What if this could be a place where we learned from each other as a community? What if teachers and students could learn from and be encouraged by the students? What if this was a place where the NMCS community could come together and collectively turn our hearts towards God as brothers and sisters in Christ: young and old, middle and high school? What chapel was a place where you, whether you’re a student or a teacher, could connect with God and have your heart refreshed? Toward these ends, we’re reshaping and reforming our chapels.
I believe for this shift to take place, it is essential that we as a community share what God is doing in our lives. In Revelation 12:11 it says the way we as Christians triumph over evil is by the blood of the Jesus and our testimony; by sharing who God is for us and what he’s doing in our lives. If any of these dreams are going to happen this year, we’ve got to begin learning how to do this. We’re going to encourage one another by sharing our stories. Sometimes, we’ll be sharing stories of victory and God’s goodness. Other times, we’ll share our pain and maybe even learn to lament together. I envision this school (not just chapel) becoming a place where people talk freely about the nitty-gritty of living out the Christian life—the good and the bad, the shiny parts and the not-so-shiny parts.
How exactly do we begin doing all these things? I’m not completely sure. That’s something the chapel committee is going to try and flesh out this year. What I do know is you, as students, have to be involved in the process. I want to invite you to start dreaming with us. Lend your hearts and your voices to ours. Chapel is not about the teachers trying to make you the students into better Christians. You are not pieces of clay we shape into our likeness. You’re God’s children just like us. We’re all be transformed into his likeness. We’re on this journey together. I long for this time mid-week to be about the school community coming together and intentionally stirring our affections for Jesus.
It’s going to be an exciting year. It’s a year where we are deliberate about change and at the same time must realize that change won’t all come this year. Hopefully, we’ll start some boulders rolling that will take years to get down the hill. Some of you in high school will be investing yourselves so that when these 6th graders are in the place you are now, they will reap the fruits of your labor. That goes for you middle schoolers as well. Just because you are younger doesn’t mean you don’t have a part to play. You don’t have a junior Holy Spirit inside of you. You’re here because we can’t do this without you.
As we try out new things, sometimes it’s going to be great; we’ll walk away with tears in our eyes and a full heart. Other times, it’s… going to have some rough edges. Things won’t work correctly. Our ideas won’t work out as well in reality as it did in our heads. And in those instances we need you to give a little grace. Speak kindly. Give gentle criticism. Don’t lie, but don’t dismiss someone’s hours of work just because it wasn’t polished or to your liking.
Are you ready? Are you willing to try some new ways of doing things? Will you join us? Will you lend your hearts, your time, and your prayers into what God is doing in this school? Let’s pray.