I have not found in my studying of God's Word a maximum nor a minimum on how many times I should be a part of the church. Nor have I found that "forsaking the fellowship of believers" is the same as missing 13 or more chapel sermons. Chapel is at 10AM and the rules state you have to be there by 10:05AM for your attendance to be counted. Now excuse me, if i have to drop a 'bomb' (AKA number 2) in the toilet across campus where my class is, I probably will not make the 10:05AM cut-off. I have to admit that this is a stupid policy and a move to make our seminary look really good to our guest chapel speaker because all our students have come to hear them preach. SEBTS beware, God may not think you look so good. I think i'll go to chapel when my heart is in the right place, when God leads me, and maybe for the heck of it I'll go one day as i watch the squirrels run me over on the sidewalk on there way there (so they wont get kicked off our grass or our campus for that matter for missing more than 12 chapels themselves).
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
Why so mandatory?
Recently news on our campus has many of our Southeastern students turned upside down - news that each student must attend 30 out of 42 chapels. Now let me rant on this for just a few moments.I have not found in my studying of God's Word a maximum nor a minimum on how many times I should be a part of the church. Nor have I found that "forsaking the fellowship of believers" is the same as missing 13 or more chapel sermons. Chapel is at 10AM and the rules state you have to be there by 10:05AM for your attendance to be counted. Now excuse me, if i have to drop a 'bomb' (AKA number 2) in the toilet across campus where my class is, I probably will not make the 10:05AM cut-off. I have to admit that this is a stupid policy and a move to make our seminary look really good to our guest chapel speaker because all our students have come to hear them preach. SEBTS beware, God may not think you look so good. I think i'll go to chapel when my heart is in the right place, when God leads me, and maybe for the heck of it I'll go one day as i watch the squirrels run me over on the sidewalk on there way there (so they wont get kicked off our grass or our campus for that matter for missing more than 12 chapels themselves).
I have not found in my studying of God's Word a maximum nor a minimum on how many times I should be a part of the church. Nor have I found that "forsaking the fellowship of believers" is the same as missing 13 or more chapel sermons. Chapel is at 10AM and the rules state you have to be there by 10:05AM for your attendance to be counted. Now excuse me, if i have to drop a 'bomb' (AKA number 2) in the toilet across campus where my class is, I probably will not make the 10:05AM cut-off. I have to admit that this is a stupid policy and a move to make our seminary look really good to our guest chapel speaker because all our students have come to hear them preach. SEBTS beware, God may not think you look so good. I think i'll go to chapel when my heart is in the right place, when God leads me, and maybe for the heck of it I'll go one day as i watch the squirrels run me over on the sidewalk on there way there (so they wont get kicked off our grass or our campus for that matter for missing more than 12 chapels themselves).
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13 comments:
AMEN! I remember when they did that when Richard and I were in Seminary at Erskine ... but they added that we could BUY our way out of getting in trouble for not attending enough chapels. I had to pay up every semester!
Laura~
Southeastern may not be a constituted church legally, but you and I and all other students at Southeastern who are Christians make up the church! So in reality we are a church that meets, really, at Southeastern mandatorily 3 times a week.
Pay a homeless person 5 bucks to sit in your seat!! Problem solved.
He, or she will encounter Christ, and you will be able to have a worshipful moment, be it on the toilet, or with the squirrels.
I agree! There is a chapel waiver in which commuters like us can skip a few more chapels than the average person depending on how many days you are actually on campus for class. However, when they schedule classes so that you have to be on campus TWR, it automatically requires you to go to chapel! Being in my first year at SEBTS, I will be in Binkley just about every TWR for the next 4 semesters...
Peter, Peter, Peter,
You missed the mark on this one my friend. You are at Seminary learning how to do church, to be refreshed,and to learn to be still before God. Slow down and hear His voice. Also, be careful with the crudeness!
Keith@fbcgeorgetown.org
I knew this post would have probably been controversial. And it has become that at this time, which is OK with me. Chapel I believe is a great opportunity to fellowship, pray, but most importantly worship God corporately as His body. The problem I have is requiring chapel for those who are currently attending, even new students were unaware of this before their coming. Word of "required chapel" came less than two weeks I believe of the orginal school start date of August 17th. Feel free to comment as you would like....
Keith@fbcgeorgetown.org,
I disagree with your statement that individuals in Seminary are "learning how to do church," rather I think that people in Seminary are there to learn the Word, learn how better to study and teach the Word, and finally to learn how to do MINISTRY! Ministry is not contained within any church (Jesus taught us that). So if we are learning about ministry then why do we need to attend a chapel service! To say that we are here to learn church, and therefore, should go to chapel, is to say that all of our ministry will be contained within a worship service. I don't think that's exactly following Jesus' example of ministry. If Southeastern is going to force people to attend chapel, then why not force them to evangelize so many people a semester, and make 75 hospital visits, and counsel 36 hurting people. My point is that Seminary students are NOT there to learn how to do church, but are there to learn how to do ministry, and last time I checked attending chapel was not necessary to proclaim the gospel and minister to the people of the world.
Having said that......I do think that chapel is important and a vital asset to all individuals, most especially those in Seminary. I do agree with you that we all need, "to be refreshed, and to learn to be still before God," however, chapel doesn't necessarily teach that or do that for everyone. Plus, to me it's not as meaningful to be still before God and to allow him to refresh me, when someone else is forcing me to do it. Nevertheless, chapel is very important and can benefit anyone who CHOSES to attend.
Ryan,
I think Keith and I would agree together that ministry is termed as "doing church". Having said this, you and I would align on the same line in requiring chapel.
Your points are made very well and I think the crudeness found in my post may also be found in yours. Take heart - even Paul was persecuted for his words.
On a side note, Thursday chapel with Dr. Charles "Chuck" Kelley was PHENOMENAL. He continues to passionately preach God's Word!
I think the "real" problem is, that our president found it "necessary" to make chapel mandatory! Called men and women of God, and you have to "make" them go to chapel??? That is sad. Dr Patterson almost did this years ago, when one chapel service with low attendance, he left chapel and walked through the dorms and campus... he found people everywhere, doing everything except studying, including a few he found watching the Simpsons on TV. How many he found doing #2 he didn't say... thankfully! The point is, everyone has an excuse, few of them are valid. We should tell the truth, we don't want to go. That's all, we just don’t want to endure the inconvenience. When we surrendered our life to the call, we did just that, we surrendered our life, along with our rights to what we want. Sorry, that is Biblical. Why do we have chapel? Why would you be required to go? Perhaps two reasons: 1) Chapel is an extension of the classroom where we can learn (how to do Church, AND how to do ministry, and strangely enough, worship and grow), therefore, we need to be there. 2) Chapel is simply there so the alumni office, our president and board of trustees can invite the high profile pastors of Churches that they hope to get big donations from, therefore, we need to be in chapel to make it look good (tell me no one out there hasn't thought this?). If #1 is true, suck it up and go to chapel every chance you can, regardless of a mandatory rule, honor the Lord and don't worry about it when you can't (honestly) make it. If #2 is true, quit school and go somewhere that honors the Lord. If #2 were true, I would have NO use attending a school like that. But, you know what, The Lord would have little use for such a deceptive institution who is only there for the $. Get the point? I dont think chapel is designed to raise money or make the school look good. I do believe that it is designed to encourage, build up, and train men and women of God. One day, some of you will be in a Church as pastor, or whatever, and you will wish you could make Church mandatory for those who call themselves believers. Fact is, the same mentality is out in the real world. Time is so short, and the first thing to be cut from our busy schedules is Church services and activities. Peter, you will one day, perhaps soon, wonder why it is so hard to get people to do missions at Myrtle Beach, when you are on fire for the cause that God has burned in your heart, but there are so few who want to help you... Jesus addresses this when He said, the harvest is so plentiful, but the workers are few... Priorities! Mostly, our priorities are based on "self" above all else. Is asking us to attend as many chapels as possible such an evil, horrible, unfair, intrusion into our important lives? I say the shame is, that it had to be done in the first place! Good job Dr Akin.
Eddie,
Thank you for your post and your cry to be heard on the issues that has somewhat blown over from the first of semester.
However, I do not think we should make religion mandatory. Do we mandatorily say that if you dont have a quiet time everyday then you cant be a deacon? If we did, I wonder how many churches would be deacon hunting instead of staff hunting in the coming weeks.
Some parts of this blog are serious, some are fun, and others are poking fun at serious things... like mandatory chapel. I do not feel, and still do not feel after a semester of mandatory chapel, that it helps one be religious (for sake of the argument) to require that one to be in a cold chapel for an hour.
I am glad you have joined the discussion and look forward to many more in the coming days ahead.
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