Students will no longer be required to meet the 500 Chapel credits requirement for the upcoming year, according to recent updates from the Office of Spiritual Life, but will have attendance requirements based on their year on campus.

Campus minister Avory Rosenhuff said the spiritual formation requirement had not been changed since 2003. Since the world and expectations for students have changed since then, she said she and campus minister Nathan Kranz saw a need to reflect on the requirement.

“We want to give the autonomy as students get older, to be spiritually formed in ways outside of our system,” Rosenhuff said. “We believed that a 500-point credit was hindering that, and also there was an oversaturation of what credit was and it being used as an incentive all the time.”

Rosenhuff said the Spiritual Life wanted to be in step with the university’s integrated spiritual formation plan, which allows spiritual formation to be embedded into campus.

Chapel requirements now fit into a tiered system based on how many years a student has been at ACU, not their classification. The tiers are:

• Year One: 400 points per semester, averaging three events per week
• Year Two: 350 points per semester, averaging three events per week
• Year Three: 300 points per semester, averaging two events per week
• Year Four: 250 points per semester, averaging two events per week

“Everyone was trying to get to this 500, and that totally defeats the purpose of why our office exists,” Rosenhuff said. “We exist because, as ACU, we value spiritual formation. So we are going to provide spaces for that, and we want it to be a natural rhythm.”

The weekly Chapel schedule will also change with Moody Chapel on Monday, small group Chapels from Tuesday-Thursday and Friday on Praise Day. Rosenhuff said this schedule encourages people to have more balance and get involved in small groups.

“You don’t have to go to Moody every day,” Rosenhuff said, “so your 11 o’clock hour, we hope, can be used for multiple things, not just Chapel credit, but professional development, study in the library like and you get to kind of pick what day is what.”

Katelyn Faske, sophomore kinesiology major from Grapevine, said the new Chapel requirement will be helpful for her.

“I can make sure that I’m getting stuff done still and not have to worry about Chapel a lot,” Faske said. “Sometimes I don’t scan in, and it affects my numbers because it’s not that I don’t go, I just don’t always scan.”

Bre Richardson, junior multimedia major from Canyon Lake, said she is excited for the change, but she wishes the 500-credit requirement stayed the same for freshmen.

“Your life does get busier every year, so it’s good that there is less of a requirement every year,” Richardson said. “I wish it had stayed at 500 for the semester, selfishly, because I do think that it is good for you to be going a lot. It really helped me freshman year to have to go that often. But at the same time, that is a lot, so I see why they lowered it.”

Students will still be allowed to apply for Chapel exemptions for reasons such as working or extracurriculars. However, the updated system is designed to accommodate the typical reasons for exemption, such as living off campus.

Rosenhuff said she hopes students will feel an overall sense of relief, and that it will create quality engagement versus quantity engagement.

“No matter what year you are,” Rosenhuff said, “if you go to two or three events for the first two years and two events for the next two years, you will finish early. It is a natural part of your week. Come to Moody once or twice a week, find one small group, not five, that you need to be a part of, and you will finish. So we just think that that reflects spiritual formation more appropriately.”

In other changes, Rosenhuff said Mace Ratliff, the previous coordinator of Chapel production, is no longer with the university. She said Peyton Deffenbaugh will serve as the worship production coordinator.

The updated Spiritual Formation requirements for the upcoming year. (Photo Courtesy of The Office of Spiritual Life)

The updated Spiritual Formation requirements for the upcoming year. (Photo Courtesy of The Office of Spiritual Life)