To the Student Body, Faculty, and Administration of ACU:

I remember a time when Chapel was about worship and fellowship.

Everyday freshman year I would climb the stairs to Section D and sit with my four closest friends. Chapel was about spending time with these amazing people as we worshipped an amazing God.

I also remember listening to announcements through the dull roar of people talking, and then, as Mark Lewis or Wayne Barnard stepped to the microphone and said, “We have some prayer requests today,” nothing but silence.

I remember respect and compassion. I remember watching as names were mentioned and hugs were doled out to those who had requested prayer. I remember feeling like we were truly one body lifting up the prayers of those around us who we were connected to through those silent moments.

And now there is no silence.

ACU students have stopped caring about and respecting those around them because we have no connection. True, we meet five days a week at the same time in the same place, but we are not unified. Consistency does not make a body of worshippers complete, fellowship does.

Our daily Chapel service has come to lack one of the most important parts of a church: a connection with one another.

Now, Chapel is about gathering as a community then contemplating and worshipping as individuals.

Don’t misunderstand, I’m not saying that there isn’t a time and a place for individual worship of our still amazing God.

I am saying, however, that that individual worship should not be the point of Chapel.

Individual worship should occur in our closet, away from the distractions of people, lights, and time constrictions.

Chapel has always been a mandatory part of the ACU experience, but now, under the new rules and regulations, it has become a forced act, one that most students feel the need to rebel against.

Perhaps when students again feel that they can attend Chapel with excitement at worshipping our God as one body, they will feel better about Chapel as a whole.

Perhaps when singing empty songs and reading empty Scriptures that fall on deaf ears comes to an end, we, as a united, respectful, passionate body will come to understand the meaning of true worship.

Clara Goodson
junior English major from Glen Rose