SAU chapel has moved from online to in-person and live-streamed, starting March 8th. It brings new safety regulations, a sense of community, and positive feelings from those who make chapel the great experience that it is.

“Man, we’re so excited to spend time with you guys. I feel like we have been dreaming about this day.”

Jasmine Harper – Chapel Band Assistant/Singer

SAU Chaplin, Brian Kono, said the Committee of Corona Virus Planning Team and SAU cabinet (group of vice presidents and president) discussed having in-person chapel. They could have interpreted Michigan’s guidelines regarding gathering worship to allow in person chapel to some degree last fall. They chose to wait till the vaccine was out, numbers declined, and Michigan Health Services set new and broader guidelines for gathering.

They chose March 8th because it was after Spring Break. Kono’s original plan was to not have an in-person chapel throughout the whole semester. They had an alternative plan in case and as things got better, they decided to make the transition half way through J term.

“In regards to the support network we have with the audio, visual, and tech teams, and our chapel band, there were some things that we still needed to get in place in order to make the transition, so while we could have started at the beginning of the semester, it just happened to be the perfect storm in a good way of things coming together for us to make it happen after Spring Break, ” said Kono.

Most of the chapel speakers are willing to deliver their service in person.

“I felt like it went very well,” Kono said, regarding the chapel held on March 8th. “We didn’t fill our compacity of 250, but we certainty had a large gathering of folks who attended and worshipped together and we are encouraged by that.”

One of the chapel band assistants and singer, Jasmine Harper, prefers in-person chapel over online chapel. She said there was something special about connecting with the congregation during live service.

Kono said he prefers in-person chapel and hopes the number in attendance will rise.

An in-person chapel allows Kono to:

• Connect with people because he can see their faces.
• Respond better to community or world happening.
• Provide a sense of pastoral care.
• Be more flexible with live worship.

In-person chapel also allowed Kono to respond better to worship. He said worshipping while being recorded doesn’t “provide the best context for singing a worship song.”

For recording chapel, he did enjoy creating the program and recording before hand on Friday or Saturday. He didn’t have to worry about speakers being on time or not doing something well.

Recording chapel was not easier than In-Person chapel. There were moving pieces to coordinate and speakers had trouble speaking to a camera instead of a live audience. Putting all the pieces together took a long time.

Harper said she was excited to work with  SAU’s video/communication department for the online chapel, but the live-streams made chapel feel like a performance, instead of communal worship. In-person chapel allowed her to receive feedback when worshiping.

“We have a great Almost Chapel production team,” Kono said. “Clayton Saren who’s an adjunct professor but also the head producer of Almost Chapel led a group of students who create the announcement segment of the video. And then, two of the production crew bring all of the pieces together. It is mostly a student team that makes that happen. They work incredible hard and I am grateful for them.”

To attend, students, staff, and faculty have to reserve a spot at signup.com. Kono sends out a link every week. Harper encourages students to sign up for chapel.

From Kono’s advice and his email, students are asked to:

• Not come to in-person chapel if they are feeling unwell.
• Not come if they answer ‘yes’ to any of the health screening questions on the SAU app.
• Wear a mask.
• Enter through the main door to the building underneath the portico.
• Avoid congregating at doors and spread out to use doors throughout the foyer area.
• Sit in the available rows on the main floor of the auditorium and move toward the middle of the pew.
• Sit at least an arms length from your neighbor.
• Exit through the closest exit door and avoid cueing.

SAU is following the Arbiter’s guidelines. SAU follows their attendance restrictions and has limited the attendance to 250 people. The Arbiter has agreed to leave their ribbons up, which provide distancing between people.

“I think there is a pretty large segment of population on campus who really enjoy chapel,” said Kono. “Having no place where we can get together, see each other, and worship together all semester through the fall has kept the university from feeling a greater sense of community. On Monday, a number of students mentioned to me how grateful they were to be able to gather in that way because it just felt like they were apart of something bigger than themselves while they were here on campus”

SAU has a chapel because they view it as a key part in creating a community of learners. It is required for students who aren’t commuters because it is a space for everyone to come together to hear a common message. Kono said that we should consider church as our lifelong place of learning.

He said it is a place where we focus on Jesus Christ as our perspective for liberal living and learning. Also, speakers from different disciplines are brought in to challenge us to think about how we can be “critical participants in the contemporary world”.

While Kono couldn’t find the exact date chapel was created, the way chapel is presently has existed since the 1980’s when Kono’s predecessor, Ron Kopeck, was in charge.

Kono hopes chapel is a place to encourage and challenge people. He said that before Covid, chapel was also the one place where you see most of the student body come together. People develop a sense of coming together to do something special at SAU.

Chapel will mostly be on Mondays. There will be some occasions of a Wednesday chapel due classes being canceled on the Easter travel day. There is also an extra all worship chapel on March 31st. SAU intends to have Monday and Wednesday chapel next fall.

By: Sarah Williams

March is Women’s History Month. It is a time dedicated to honoring women and their contributions to American history.

Women’s History Month originated as a week-long celebration of women in history in 1978. In 1987, Congress designated the month of March to celebrate women of history. Jenna Spek, the Resident Director of Lowell Hall, shares what Women’s History Month means to her.

“I think it’s important to celebrate everyone all the time,” said Spek. “Celebrating and advocating for all humans is important, but it’s also important to set aside time to celebrate certain groups specifically.”

“All humanity gets to celebrate each other all the time, but this month we’re focusing on women,” said Spek. “We’re getting a chance to reflect on the boldness of women in history and their ability to wholeheartedly pursue their gifts and abilities.”

Women’s History Month ties into Spek’s overarching theme for Lowell Hall. “My theme for Lowell this year is that no one is you, and that is your power,” said Spek. “During Women’s History Month, we will focus on real women in history who embraced that no one was them and understood that it was their power.”

Spek believes this month is an opportunity to simultaneously empower and be empowered by women. “I believe that everyone has a unique purpose, power, and value,” said Spek. “It’s empowering to look at women in history and see how they were able to apply their unique passions and purposes.”

“This month, I hope the girls of SAU celebrate women in history and how it reflects them and their unique passions and purposes,” said Spek. “I also hope that everyone can feel empowered by looking at what humans have done, especially as we celebrate women’s accomplishments this month.”

Spek highlighted that Women’s History Month is right after Black History Month in the calendar. “It’s awesome that Women’s History Month piggybacks Black History Month,” said Spek. “It allows us to especially focus on, celebrate, and honor women of color.”

Spek also acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic has given her a new perspective on Women’s History Month. “We’ve gone through trying seasons and had to overcome difficult things,” said Spek. “Celebrating Women’s History Month is encouraging because we get to see how women of history have persevered, overcome hardships, and drew strength from their resiliency.”

To Spek, Women’s History Month is an opportunity to learn from the past. “It is a beautiful opportunity to reflect on the past, said Spek. “And the future is something we get to dream about.” This month is an opportunity for our campus to honor and celebrate the accomplishments of women in history, so keep an eye out for upcoming events on the SAU App.

By: Merry Castle

Ryan Northup’s Bible study group is coming back to Andrews Hall after Spring Break. The first meeting will be in person on Thursday, March 18^th in the Andrews Hall Lobby.

The group is called The Human Condition and God’s Nature. Unlike many other Bible groups, Northup’s club focuses on the Old Testament.

Northup said he wanted to find a book of the Old Testament because many other groups focus on the New Testament. He wanted to find a book that other people would enjoy talking about and wouldn’t be too hard to understand.

“Psalm is a really good book that has a lot of emotions and perspective in it so I thought it would be really good to make a Bible study out of it.” said Northup.

Northup said he created the group last September of 2020. He wanted to show people that even though they fall short of God’s standard, He is always going to be faithful to them. He wanted his Bible study to be a comfortable place for people who struggle with their faith and have doubts.

Northup starts his Bible group meetings with an icebreaker. He comes up with a different question that is usually tied to the passage they are reading. Then, each member will read a few verses from that chapter of the Psalm. If there is time, Northup will take prayer requests at the end.

He said leading the Bible group made him think about how he wanted to teach the Bible to others. Also, it made him think about how he could look at a passage and see how it could teach other people and not just himself.

“I think it [the Bible study] has made me and the other members of my group think about how we can worship God through everything that we do, and it has helped us appreciate who God is a lot more,” Northup said.

To create his Bible group, Northup talked to Sierra Traub who designs the posters for every Bible study. She also promotes the Bible studies on the SAU Spiritual Life Instagram page.

Usually he had 3 to 4 members at each meeting before he went on Zoom. Then, attendance decreased. He thought that the reason for the decrease in attendance was because of the change in Covid protocol. They started out in person but ended on Zoom. He felt it was difficult for people to want to go because they were tired from all the Zoom meetings or, if it was in person, they were tired of wearing their masks everywhere.

Northup thought that going to a Bible study would help people’s feelings about Covid. He said he covered Psalm 91 last semester and the chapter was about God’s protection. It mentioned God protecting people in the midst of sickness or pandemic.

“Because you’ve made the Lord my refuge, the Most High, your place of residence—no evil will happen to you; no disease will come close to your tent.” –Psalm 91:9

Common English Bible

Currently Northup and other Spiritual Life team members are greeting at Call of worship. Be sure to reach out if you are interested.

By: Sarah Williams

What does it mean when we go through worldly dilemmas and struggles and nothing seems to change? Does God just not care? Should we just give up and never pray again? Why do we even bother pouring our heart out when that thing that we prayed so desperately for doesn’t seem to change? 

The answer to this is complex and can be hard to take in during the moments of our pain. “But God’s way is best!” “Just pray and trust Him!” “Everything will all work out!” Have you heard these before? Maybe you’re going through a hard time and someone so kindly says one of these things.

While they are certainly true, they can be hard to grasp while we’re in the midst of our terrible heartache. Yes, we know God’s way is best, but I’m really hurting right now. You know what, God’s plan can HURT. His way of doing things can certainly be painful and full of consequences that we don’t always understand.

Do you know what holds true? Do you know what really helps me when I’m going through struggles where I feel like things can’t possible work out for the best? Knowing that God’s power is not limited to our human understanding. 

“God’s power is not limited to our human understanding.”

We might not understand why things happen the way they do. But God sees us, hears us, and sympathizes with our pain. Our struggles do not go unnoticed.

It can be so difficult to understand why certain things happen in our life, but it is truly important to recognize that God knows what He is doing. It may be hard to practice that perspective while we are going through a trial, but it is definitely one worth analyzing. 

So, what do we do when God tells us no? Trust. Even when it’s hard and we don’t want to. Trust His plan. Know that He has ways of working things out better then we could ever imagine. His timing is better than ours and His ways are better than our ways.

Take comfort in the fact that He made this world and He knows everything that is going to happen within it. Nothing will shock Him. Nothing will confuse Him. Nothing will ever throw Him off guard. Give your anxieties to Him and rest in the fact that we don’t need to stress and worry because God promises to never leave us. 

We’re not going to always understand. We’re going to have doubts and think it’s the end of the world. But that’s just it, those are just our thoughts. Our human capacity for understanding doesn’t even come close to the power of God. Trust in Him and remember that He knows what He is doing. 

By: Emily Selby