Takes Thought Chapel is a new Chapel designed to be a women-only gathering that focuses on Christ-centered discussion of mental health.
The focus of this Chapel is address the issues that historically accompany the Church’s response to mental health issues.
The chapel starts with a prayer and a lesson from the book of Ecclesiastes. After the lesson, women split into small groups to check in about each person’s week and share how the Lord is working in their lives.
Catherine Lorenz, president of Takes Thought, said she was inspired to create this Chapel from her own personal experiences with mental illness and that it has been on her heart for a while to advocate for mental health.
“A lot of people say ‘read your Bible, pray. It’s easy, it’s simple,’ but in Scripture, we see that spiritual warfare is real,” said Lorenz, freshman child and family services major from Frisco. “We see that Satan is coming after us in every way possible, and he wants to destroy the battlefield of our minds. So I think this Chapel is so important because it allows a space for people to fight their battles, but also to name them and confess sin and confess struggle.”
In February, Takes Thought Chapel will be hosting an event and in the future, they plan to partner with mental health organizations to advocate for mental health for students.
“I just want to say, like, seriously thank you to Jesus because he is the reason why I’m here doing this,” Lorenz said. “It’s literally him and by his strength and by his power and I am just so in awe of him each day. Not because of the work he’s doing for Takes Thought, but because of what he did on the cross.”
Jenna Kell, freshman kinesiology major from Denton, has been attending the weekly chapels.
“Honestly it’s just been really nice, it’s been just kind of a really healthy community of girls,” Kell said.
Tyson Alexander, director of the Counseling Center, is happy about the space the students are creating to continue mental health conversations.
“To be able to have just this specific gathering space for women of faith and talk about their mental health issues, or just how their faith can impact it or better I think is it just absolutely remarkable,” Alexander said, “It’s a great thing.”
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