Chapel struggling with attendance
Campus ministry discusses what to do about empty seats in chapel.
By Conrad Engstrom | Royal Report
Students file into the Robertson Center gym on a Friday morning. The worship band prepares to play before the speaker gives a message about being in the Christmas spirit. The problem sitting in chapel on this day is scanning the left side of the gym and seeing empty bleachers.
Assistant pastor and leader of disciple ministries Jason Steffenhagen sits down in his office. As a Bethel University graduate himself, he is well aware of what student life is like and understands why the once full Benson Great Hall has turned into a half empty gymnasium.
“We started off really strong with attendance like we normally do — students always have a lot of energy at the beginning of the year towards chapel,” Steffenhagen said. “We also noticed in October things started to dip a little which, is not totally abnormal because students get busy with work, school work, club meetings, and athletic team meetings. But we did notice that it was a little higher degree than normal so we started doing more assessment of chapel.”
“The question I am trying to answer for chapel is how do we create space for chapel in the lives of students and do we even have the power to do that? And how do we create an eternal desire to create that space for themselves?” — Jason Steffenhagen, assistant campus pastor, leader of discipleship ministries
Steffenhagen speaks in chapel often and weeks ago for chapel he split up all the students at chapel that day into two focus groups. One focus group was students who went to chapel on a regular basis and the other group was students that did not attend chapel regularly. Students talked and shared what they thought about chapel and what Steffenhagen heard was not surprising.
“The big one is that students are busier and doing more now,” Steffenhagen said. “The question I am trying to answer for chapel is how do we create space for chapel in the lives of students and do we even have the power to do that? And how do we create an eternal desire to create that space for themselves?”
Freshman Walter Crum has not been to chapel since arriving on Bethel’s campus in the fall. He finishes math problems like offensive lineman eat double stuffed Oreos. Instead of going to chapel during its allotted time slot, Crum sits and finishes his homework.
“At the beginning of the year I thought about going to chapel but it just did not excite me,” Crum said. “As the semester went on with my course load anytime I get to study I take advantage of.”
Steffenhagen does not want to blame students for the lack of attendance in chapel; however, he stresses that it is the faculty’s job to make chapel something that students want to go to. A few football fields down from Bethel is the University of Northwestern which requires their students to attend chapel, something that Bethel does not plan to do.
Ty Frazier is a freshman at Bethel and can be found at the scorer’s table at basketball games for both men and women’s games taking stats. He tries to get to chapel at least once or twice a week because it is important to him. However when comparing Northwestern to Bethel it was like choosing chocolate cake over spinach.
“The freedom that Bethel gave me to go chapel instead of making it mandatory is one of the reasons I chose Bethel,” Frazier said.
“I think that is the difficult part and the beauty of our task for chapel,” Steffenhagen said. “We are not going to resort to making people come. Instead we are going to have to be creative and doing things that are going to get their attention and keep their attention which is why we did the focus groups and could be doing a student wide survey.”
A survey was sent out to all faculty wondering their thoughts on chapel and what they thought of it. Of the 135 responses to the survey done only seven faculty members disagreed that chapel should be a part of the educational mission at Bethel.
One thing that campus ministries does not want chapel to turn into is Vespers — a worship gathering that happens every Sunday night — which has no problem with attendance. Steffenhagen mentioned that worship will still be a part of chapel but unlike Vespers is not the focal point. Meanwhile, speakers are a focal point to chapel. Bringing ones that excites Bethel students is a goal that campus ministry has to get more students in the Benson Great Hall seats.
The worship band plays the last song of the day and dismisses everyone. The students who were there file out of the Robertson Center gym. The hope is that most of them will be back.
Faculty survey results about chapel:
How much do you agree with this statement: “I consider chapel to be a partner in the educational mission of Bethel.”
- Strongly Disagree: 4 (3%)
2. Disagree: 6 (4%)
3. Neither Agree nor Disagree: 19 (14%)
4. Agree: 69 (51%)
5. Strongly Agree: 37 (27%)
Total: 135
7. What do you think is going well with chapel?
Themes that developed (74 total responses):
- Worship/ worship teams were mentioned 23 times. They talked about how great music is and that this is a good leadership experience for students (lines: 1,3,5, 18, 52,60)
- Speakers were mentioned 18 times. Comments talked about good diversity of speakers (inside and outside of university) and good quality of speakers (lines: 12,14,21,24,26,32)
9. What kinds of topics/issues should be addressed in chapel?
Themes (42 total responses):
1. Cultural/ social issues mentioned 6 times (Lines: 9, 20, 33, 39)
2. Spiritual development issues talked about 4 times (lines: 3, 20, 27, 32)
3. Basic Christianity mentioned 3 times
Relevant to students mentioned 3 times
