Spiritual Life Without In-Person Chapel

Reported by: Natascha Lambing

Photographed by: Danny Walker

NEWBERG, Ore. – One of the many changes to George Fox University (GFU) in 2020 is in the way students engage with chapel and spiritual life. In replacement of in-person services, online chapel credit is offered to students for a wider variety of activities than ever before.

Jamie Johnson, university pastor for chapel programs, noted that despite the flexibility appreciated by students, it has shifted the way students engage with Spiritual and Intercultural Life (SpiL) activities.

Online opportunities like Monday Morning Devotions, affectionately abbreviated as MoMo Devos, have been some of the most popular, averaging around 600 views over the course of time they are available. Additionally, the number of students in life groups has nearly doubled this year. Johnson notes that the focus on small groups this year “can create opportunities to watch and then talk,” providing space for conversation that otherwise might not be intentionally sought.

Alongside other SpiL staff, Johnson said that they have had to “be creative, press into the strangeness and listen for what the needs in our community are and respond to those.” With everything limited by room capacity, in-person gatherings are now rare. Shalom, last year boasting near a hundred or more attendees each week is now limited to the COVID capacity in Canyon Commons. Johnson said there are “never big numbers but we’re getting close to capacity for each.”

With no worship, which Johnson said is what many students love most about chapel, the way students experience chapel on campus and engage in church life has shifted. The way SpIL encourages church engagement changed when students could not be encouraged to attend a local church as except for essential travels, students were asked to remain on campus until Oct. 9.

With different spaces to engage in SpiL, Johnson noted that himself and other SpiL staff have noticed that “people are more willing to reach out” resulting in “more one on one convesations with students.” Given that people have been forced to view church gatherings differently, he also notes that perhaps this “gets us out of the tradition” of church being something you attend and depart from. “Even though it’s really healthy, it’s been hard.”

Emily Erikson, a SpiL intern who originally was to lead Wednesday Night Chapel, now plays a very different role than the one she imagined. “There’s not a lot we can do for students,” she said in reference to the missing spaces of worship, but noted they were “filling it to the best of our ability.”

Small gatherings have arisen like Reflective Evening Worship (REW) or the ease of access to all online chapel opportunities through the iAttended app.

Marching past the halfway marker of the year, students have begun to accept the changes as the new normal, and SpiL reported that the number of people who listen or attend chapel opportunities is similar to in-person attendance numbers in the past.

“What will be the ramifications?” Johnson asked, in terms of how GFU engages in spiritual community. “For the students who are new, this is what their spiritual life experience is… when we’re able to meet back in person will that give them a greater sense of love for the communal worship?”