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Reflections on planning high school chapel by Ben Dykhouse of Ontario Christian School
This article identifies some insights about worship that influence our work with Christian schools and shares what we are learning from students and teachers through their experiences of chapel planning and leading. All the comments come directly from feedback we have collected. This collective wisdom is presented in the form of proverbs—wise sayings, or words of advice—in the hope that this will encourage learning over time and across contexts, and spark conversation and further thinking on these topics.
Ben Dykhouse teaches computer applications and church history at Ontario Christian High School in Ontario, California. He also co-teaches a daily chapel class for the school’s weekly chapel worship. In this edited conversation he talks about a chapel planning model that focuses on glorifying God together.
How well do your Christian high school chapels, liturgies, or all-school worship times help students grow in faith? Are your staff and faculty planning chapels for or with students?
Christian high school students, staff, and teachers at Calvin Symposium on Worship 2012 began a chapel planning seminar seated around tables. They introduced themselves and described common questions in their school’s chapel planning process. One person at each table summarized responses to share with the entire seminar.
Hannah Huisman is a senior at Unity Christian High School in Hudsonville, Michigan. As a member of the school’s spiritual life committee, she helps plan and lead chapels. In the edited conversation below, she explains how teens at her church, Immanuel Christian Reformed Church, have begun planning and leading one worship service per month.
After the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship published Dwelling with Philippians with Eerdmans in 2010, many church Bible study groups studied Philippians using this book as a resource, and have asked for more suggestions similar to Dwelling. Though there are few available on specific books of the Bible, this bibliography is an invitation to biblical study through image and word, each with a different approach.
How can worshipers understand the congregational offering as a response to God’s grace and a way to join God’s reconciling work in the world?
We are currently observing a new phenomenon within the development of young adults: emerging adulthood, which spans the ages of 18 to 29, marked by unprecedented options for education, work and career choices, delayed marriage and family life, and remarkable geographic mobility.
Worship and justice are often seen as separate and unrelated. Nothing could be further from the truth based on the character of God and the revelation we have been given in Jesus Christ.
Recipients of Worship Renewal Grants describe practical resources that helped people of all ages better understand why we do what we do in worship.
They are the emerging leaders in our congregations. They are only a few years away from serving as deacons, elders, or preachers themselves. What are they listening for in sermons? What are they hungry for? What bores them?
