TRY TO IMAGINE

By Dr. Peter Moore
Special to Virtueonline
November 19, 2009

It's 10:30 AM. Early morning classes are over. There's a break in the day. Students at this relatively small Midwestern college can bask in the unusual mid November sunshine, hit one of the coffee shops in the adjacent village, or - they can go to voluntary chapel and hear a woman speaker from a seminary somewhere in Minnesota.

Hope is located in Holland, Michigan - a small city settled very largely by Dutch immigrants of a few generations back. It has a noted tulip festival in the spring, and sports architecture reminiscent of Amsterdam. Nearby Grand Rapids is known as the hometown of Gerald Ford, Amway, and a lot of office furniture makers. It's also the location of Zondervan, Baker, and Eerdmans - large and influential Christian publishing houses that produce many excellent books
Hope College is not a fiercely Christian college, although it was founded by worthy members of the Dutch Reformed Church, now known as the RCA - Reformed Church in America. Like many other colleges with a denominational background, it now draws students from all branches of the Christian church, and none. It's faculty, while largely Christian in name, includes atheists as well as believers.

OK, so the profile above could well describe dozens and dozens of similar small liberal-arts colleges across the country, and notably in the South. What's the difference?

Chapel, that's the difference. It's Friday, and Sandra and I are visiting our son, David, who is a senior. The chapel is packed with 1100 students who are there simply because they want to be. That's roughly 1 out of every 3 students at this college. Plus chapel is Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and then again Sunday night. It's packed on each of those occasions - standing room only.

A praise band belts away some vigorous contemporary Christian music. A student from Africa then leads the congregation through the pronunciation of a praise song in Swahili. Music fills the air. Some guys sit together, as do gals - but many sit co-ed (especially those who are dating). People respectfully listen as Scripture is read and expounded upon. Today's passage is on Joseph, and the speaker draws out some remarkable lessons about Joseph's dysfunctional family and God's redemptive way of guiding him through to wholeness. No Christian jargon, no pat answers, just thoughtful exposition and application. There is a quick prayer, and we're out. It's 25 minutes of reverence, God-centered worship, and reflection on the really important things in life.

What we are seeing is middle class, middle income, middle America - and the fruit of those values that underlie our nation's strength. It is light years from the scene on most similar colleges and universities that dot the countryside and grace our coastal cities.

But Hope hasn't always been a hotbed of spirituality - and it's likely that not all of the students are there for distinctly religious reasons. It is, after all, a social occasion and a chance to meet. But, hey, making allowances for that, it is still a remarkable display.

A generation or two ago Hope's chapel languished as do most college chapels today, attended by only a handful of faithful students willing to brave the chilling breezes of secularity. Hope decided to put its money where it's mouth was. It would beef up the chapel, bring in a Dean of the Chapel who could really inspire students, and underwrite a dynamic religious activities program. Aimed at engagement and relevance, the program is distinct from Hope's religion department that is decidedly academic and spans the liberal/conservative spectrum. Chapel involves contemporary music, relevant talks, brief to the point prayers, and promotes lots of opportunities for mission trips during spring break as well as local service opportunities. We saw the fruit of that decision.

No one was there to check if daughter X or son Y was "going to chapel." No parent (other than Sandra and me) was anywhere in sight. But these students who text and twitter and update their facebook page regularly were being drawn to a knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ in a gothic chapel replete with pews and stained glass. Their spiritual search may be somewhat different than ours; but who said this generation was irreligious?


---- The Rev. Dr. Peter Moore is the Associate for Transformational Discipleship at St. Michael's Church, Charleston, SC. He is the former Dean/President of Trinity School for Ministry, Rector of "Little" Trinity, Toronto, and founder and director of FOCUS -- a ministry to students and faculty in independent secondary schools up and down the Eastern Seaboard. He is the author of several books including Disarming the Secular Gods, A Church To Believe in, and One Lord, One Faith. He and his wife Sandra have three grown children. He holds degrees from Yale, Oxford, E.T.S., Fuller, and an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Nashotah House.