T-SHIRTS!!!!!

As our very own Mark Anthony just reminded me via Facebook: This week we will be selling our new and improved Chapel T's. If you're interested and wanting to support your community Chapel, come by and bring $5. These will be well worth it...
Hope to see you there!

In Peace,

BB

Final Chapel of 2009!!!

Well everybody, this Chapel will be the final one of this semester and of 2009. This week we invite you to join us as we worship one more time before finals and winter break. As a special portion of this weeks Chapel, we will be saying goodbye to some dear friends, namely all of those seniors who are graduating early and moving on to the world outside of Albion. If you are a senior who will be graduating this December, we invite you to come for one last Chapel and tell us what Chapel has meant to you.
I hope to see everyone there!

In Peace,

BB

ps We would like to thank anyone who came to, or helped make the Christmas Worship service happen. It was really great to see such a powerful display of the entire life of Jesus.

Deck The Halls...

Hey everybody!

This week we are going to switch things up a little bit. This Sunday, 11/15, @ 7pm, Chapel, along with many other Christian groups on campus, will come together in the KC to celebrate and worship the birth and life of our Lord. I invite all of you to come, bring friends, and reach across the isle to people you don't usually talk to, to help make this service a true celebration of the life of Christ by the entire body of Christ on Albion's campus. I hope to see you all there.

Merry (early) Christmas,

BB

Meet the Chapel Team..

Say hello the people who not only call Chapel their community, but who make Wednesday nights possible, whether from behind the scenes, or from the stage. They're also pretty nice people, so if you haven't met them yet, I suggest you do. I like new friends.

Also, if you have an inkling to join in the Chapel ministry, talk to any of us. We love using people and the gifts God gave them.

Meet Senior Christy Anderson..

I’m Christy Anderson, and I’m a senior, majoring in English and Music. Chapel’s been an important part of my life at Albion since my freshman year. Not only have I found a community of wonderful people who love God, but also a place to minister and use the gifts God’s given me. There’s nothing like leading worship on a Wednesday night, and feeling His presence inhabit our praise. Chapel’s been such a special place for me, and I love seeing it touch other’s lives as well.

Meet Senior Mark Anthony Arceno..

My name is Mark Anthony Arceno, but I highly encourage you to call me by some derivation thereof (some popular ones are M.A., Ma, Manthony, Marcus Antonius, and MAn... two points if you can create a new one). I'm a senior this year and just came back from studying abroad in the wonderful countries of South Africa and France. Theoretically, I'll be graduating this upcoming May, with a double major in French & International Studies (Africa), and a double concentration in Ethnic Studies & Public Policy and Service. My current research interests focus on identity in terms of the intertwining relationship among religion, ethnicity and language. With this said, I love Chapel because the community it creates is rather diverse along many lines. Though we share a common element, i.e. God and all associated with Him, our backgrounds and experiences make us entirely unique. I also happen to be a particular fan of Chapel this year not only because of the great leadership team that continues to grow, but also because of the djembes!

Meet Senior Ben Bower..

I'm a senior this year at Albion. I'm a religious studies & philosophy double major and a communications minor. I'm looking forward to a future career in ministry, and I have been a drummer for Chapel since my freshman year. Chapel has been a special place for me since I started playing with band. I've gotten to know so many wonderful people through worship, and Chapel has been a great excuse for me to keep drumming! I hope that everyone who attends Chapel will walk away in a mood of worship, feeling a closer connection to their God. I'm looking forward to continue participating in this ministry this year and I hope you will join me!

Meet Junior Jeremy Covell..

My name is Jeremy Covell, and I'm currently a junior at Albion, majoring in Biology with a concentration in Pre-med. Over the past few years of attending chapel my feelings have slowly evolved. From the first evening I walked in as a lonely, shy, and unsure first-year to just about a week ago when I was cheering the band on as an excited, daring, and blessed junior. I was blessed in large part because of chapel, which has introduced me to a family away from home. Chapel slowly became a place where I could go to drop all of my worries at the door, whether they were social, academic, or physical I knew I would be able to walk out feeling completely energized and joyful. But, I certainly didn't feel that way after my first chapel or even my tenth chapel-- only after slowly developing deep and lasting friendships with those at chapel did I finally feel my worries lighten and after a while disappear completely. So, it's no surprise that I joined the chapel leadership during the second semester of my first year, and I haven't regretted a single moment of it.

Meet Senior Mallory Fellows..

Personally, Chapel has always been a place for me to go to get away from the campus mentality and I guess the mentality that I get sucked into in my daily life. Whatever my problems, coming into Wesley Chapel for worship every Wednesday night made all of them extra noise disappear. Suddenly, it became easy to Be still and know that my God is there with me. Not only has it been a place for me to grow spiritually, the people who I get to see every week complete the fellowship experience and I am truly blessed by the relationships that have grown in that space!

Meet Senior Tony Gorga..

For me, Chapel's a community of open minds and open arms. It's a welcoming place we can come to be with Jesus and with each other. The Epistles of John constantly remind us that, above all things, we are called to love. That is the basis of our faith; and a love for God and each other draws us to Chapel each week.

Meet Junior David Keyworth..

I am a psych, history double major I am a junior, and I love chapel because it is an opportunity in the middle of the week to come together with my brothers and sister in Christ and praise the lord. It is a chance to forget everything that is going on and worship. It is also a chance to serve the lord with talents while worshiping him and helping other worship him.

Meet Sophomore Mark Miller..

I'm a transfer Sophomore and music education major. I love chapel so much because I get to work with a great group of people who are not only fun to be around, but also strong in their faith. Yes, we get to praise God every week, but what's better than doing that with a group of fun Jesus Freaks? I was so distant in my faith last year at Western and everyone in chapel has helped me recapture my faith and recapture the guy I used to be.

Meet Sophomore Jon Rennhack..

Chapel is my release from the chaos that is Albion College. Chapel is a place that I can forget about the rest of the world. I can forget about my homework and my upcoming exams, and I can simply worship God. Not only do I have time to worship God, but I get to do it in a great atmosphere. Chapel is a place where everyone is accepted and I do not need to keep up any walls. Every week since the first week of freshman year I have went to chapel. Every week I am greeted with a hug and I leave refreshed. Chapel is my escape.

Meet Senior Kristi Weage..

To me, Chapel is a community of believers that come together Wednesday nights to worship God. The fellowship I experience at Chapel each week is a perfect midweek pick-me-up. I know that no matter what I am feeling, when I go to Chapel, I will feel uplifted and loved, and I will be able to open my heart to worship God.

Meet Senior Cori Weddell..

I’m Cori, a senior at Albion. Chapel has been one of the constants during my time at Albion. It has been a place of growth, challenge, comfort and growing fellowship and community. It is the service that gets me though the rest of the week and reminds me God I depend who gives me strength on a daily basis. To me, the highlight of chapel is the pure worship that I get to help lead. Chapel is a joyous place of heartfelt worship and true communion with God- I wouldn't give up my Wednesday night for anything!

Meet Freshman Brandon Whitford..

I’m Brandon, a freshman at Albion. I believe that god works in many ways and in many of people. I feel that chapel is a place of sanctuary where people can come and escape from their stress; to focus on only god and worshiping him. I believe that this is a place where you can come and openly express your love for god in an environment that is comfortable and excepting. This is a place where one can lose themselves in the worship and love that god pours down in abundance. And finally, this is a place where one can learn from the messages of peers and grow in their spiritual relationship with God.

Meet Chaplain Dan..

Chaplain Dan has been a huge supporter of Chapel since he arrived in the fall of 2003. He started the Chapel on Tour outreach ministry, takes the leadership team on retreat, finds resources where needed, and ministers to the leadership team when they need someone. He's been a leader in making sure Chapel has stayed ecumenical, building up the whole body of Christ at Albion College. And he keeps Chapel connected to the faculty and staff on campus, and keeps reminding the newbies that they stand on the shoulders of great Chapel leaders of the past. CD stays out of the spotlight on Wednesday nights (sits in the back), because he believes God has given Chapel to the students in order for them to explore their gifts of ministry.

Welcome Back.

It's certainly good to be back. For those of you who don't know me, or didn't notice my absence, I spent last semester in London, England. I had a brilliant time, and loved every minute of it, but I admit that I've missed this Chapel community. There's something so unbelievable about a group of Christians getting together, worshipping and sharing life. Hopefully you've felt it, and feel a part of that community. Over this next year, we have the opportunity to make 9-10 on Wednesday nights anything that we want it to be. And I hope that we take full advantage of that time, and use it not only to strengthen our walk with the Lord, but further His kingdom on Albion's campus.

I so look forward to meeting those of who are strangers, and getting closer to you who I call my friends. We in Chapel would also like to extend a warm welcome to the class of 2013. Great job in choosing Albion. I've met a few of you, and I'm confident in saying you seem like an amazing class. That said, anyone, regardless of class, who is interested in taking an active part in making Chapel what it is, and learning more about our leadership team, please let us know. We are always open to new additions, and feel that God's placed tons of talents in our Chapelites. Feel free to contact us via this blog, email, or just approach one of us on a Wednesday night. We're pretty nice, most of the time. :)

Be blessed,

CA.

A couple of thoughts about ministry

Wow... God has seen a lot of growth at Albion over the last few years while I have been here. He has raised people up with hearts and passions for ministry, and He has seen them graduated. A new wave of people now grow up behind them. After three and a half years of serving God in Chapel I have learned a few things about ministry, and I'd love to share them with you.

The first is that in order to have a successful worship session, people need to be absolutely in love with God. They need to be passionately seeking after Him. People who worship love God, and people who love God worship Him. It just seems to be me that that is how it works. People who don't love God are less apt to worship Him. Loving God can come from a bunch of different places. But perhaps you can do things to help people learn to love God. For example, you can help people learn to love God by having sound teaching. Teaching that encourages God's followers to learn more and more about Him. By having sound teaching, some of your more conservative Christians might be more persuaded to join you in worship. To encourage some of the more liberal parishoners to take part in worship and in loving God, try service, especially serving the underserved. For "seekers" try encouraging more fellowship. If you encorperate all three aspects into your Christian community, I believe God will add to your number daily. Those that He will add to your number will be of diverse backgrounds too...

Give it a shot. At Chapel in the next few weeks we are really hoping to release some plans to get our group of Jesus lovers out into the world to do some neat things. We hope to have fellowship events, service events, and hopefully we should get some teaching coming down the pipe from some of our senior students who have had a ton of expierience in the ministry.

God will raise up His generation of lovers, by diversifying our worship expieriences perhaps we can diversify and grow our congregations.

God bless,

JR

A Vision for the Future:

I think one of the hardest things for me to hear from people who are going into the ministry, or have just joined the ministry is that when you get into church ministry, you go from working in teams (like you did in College) to working alone. In addition, one of my friends tells me that rather then being able to go out and cast his net into the waters to bring new people into the faith, he spends a lot of time jumping through hoops... 

I guess one thing that I see happening in the American Church is that pastors get caught up in fitting the profile of the ideal pastor. Namely, having to do 10 hours of Community Service like stuff... Being prominent and serving on some city school board or something like that, making sure the facilities are kept up, and all that. At the end of the day, it is just kinda wild that pastors spend their whole lives preparing to "do ministry" and perhaps they never really get the opportunity to do so when they have to "fit the profile". Don't get me wrong, everything they are doing is good stuff, but for some of us, who have the burning heart of an evangelist, we need to be out there. My suggestion is that at a church like the one I hope to kindle, pastors would only work part time at the church, and the rest of the time they would spend out in the community, either working or building the kingdom... Economically, I don't know how this will work out, either for the pastors or for the church, but it just seems like a healthy model for a team of evangelists, namely a team I would like to work with/for. 

Jon's Dream for a Church Plant!

This is the blueprint for the church that I hope to be a part of some day... in a lot of ways, I hesitate to call it a church. Instead, I'd prefer to think of it more as a place where people can come to get their ministry tools sharpened. I would hope that there would be all kinds of things going on in this space that would make it a community center for some, a church for some others, and a place for people to come to get filled for yet some more. The room would be versital enough that it could either have a stage in the middle, which would be like church in the round, or it could have the stage towards the front, so that it could be more of an auditorium...

I have tons of prayers for the place, I feel like there has been this huge epiphany in my life and I am getting this neat vision for the future of the church I am going to help start, but I guess this revelation is really just a work in progress.