As students enter Chapel, the room fills with activity. Some students are talking and laughing with their friends, while others are rushing to find a seat. Lights glow against the stage, and music begins to play. Some are fully engaged, while others sit back, simply present. All sharing the same space but not the same experience.

Chapel is a defining part of campus life, providing students with a midday pause for spiritual growth and community. But as the university adjusts its chapel credit requirements, students across different class years are experiencing chapel in different ways.

“Success from spiritual formation comes when we assess observed variables, like church attendance, the ability to articulate God’s action in life, and the ability to articulate the grounding of what faith in Jesus means,” said Ryan Richardson, vice president of student life. “Our goal is that a student becomes more animated by the presence of Christ in their life and in all of their decision-making.”

From underclassmen seeking connections to seniors balancing internships and heavier workloads, Chapel serves a different purpose at each stage of college, and student perspectives shift over time.

Beginning last fall, ACU implemented a tiered chapel credit system that lowered the number of required credits each year. The change reflects an acknowledgment that students’ schedules and responsibilities change throughout college.

Richardson said the tiered system is designed not to reduce spiritual formation but to shift responsibility over time.

“What we’re trying to convey is that you need to take ownership of your spiritual formation over the four or five years you are here and work with the local church,” Richardson said. “Our hope is that we’re kind of passing the baton to the church to continue that good work because that will continue long after they’ve graduated from our university.”

Richardson said the change in Chapel requirements was rooted in years of research and observation.

“When students have a lot of Chapel credits to accomplish, that sometimes can dissuade church attendance and further spiritual growth,” Richardson said. “We wanted to see if we could hit that tipping point, where our students would say, ‘I can achieve this, and it helps me, and it affirms my walk with Christ, and I don’t feel burdened under the heavy weight of having to get so many credits every semester with very few choices.’”

Many upperclassmen approve of the change, saying they like how the requirements drop each year.

“I was happy about the requirements changing, but I don’t think I would have wanted it to be different when I was a freshman,” said Lucy Wilkinson, senior social work major from Groxon, Connecticut. “But it’s nice that it changes every year, so you don’t have to work up to the same standard every year.”

While she does not attend Moody Chapel as much anymore, she continues to go to department and club chapels because it is more of an experience for her compared to Moody, where she mainly went for credit.

Her experience reflects a trend in student life: While underclassmen often rely on Chapel for community, upperclassmen tend to seek it out more selectively.

Hannah Anthony, sophomore biology major from Arlington, said that Chapel was a chance for students to take a few minutes out of their day to rest and give glory to God.

But as her workload increased, it became more difficult to be consistent.

“Being in harder classes makes it difficult because I need more time to study. I also have class at [noon], so sometimes I skip so that way I am able to make it to lunch and not be rushed since it is always busy after Chapel,” Anthony said.

Like Wilkinson, Anthony prefers small-group Chapels.

“In Moody Chapel, I don’t always feel engaged and tend to like small-group Chapels more.”

Anthony also said community was an important factor when it came to Chapel.

While some students find value in Chapel, some motivations are driven by completed requirements.

“My motivation tends to go away as the semester goes on. I go every day the first few weeks, but then tend to only go to certain ones,” Ebone Durham, junior communication disorders major from Garland, said.

Durham typically attends Chapel once a week and is more selective about which chapels she decides to go to, preferring small Chapels that are more engaging.

Students’ differing perspectives highlight that Chapel serves different purposes depending on where students are within their college journey.

“As a freshman, you want to plug into small group chapels, especially if you are looking for community,” Wilkinson said. “But as a senior, you have already established that.”

Chapel can hold value even during your last semester of college.

While students’ experiences vary, the university measures Chapel’s effectiveness through long-term growth.

“Surveys have proven that from freshmen up to seniors, levels of trust and reliance upon God as foundational to life increase throughout the four years of ACU,” Richardson said.

Even with the changes in requirements, the overall goal of Chapel still stands:

“Our hope with Chapel is that students know that Christ created them, that Christ died for them, that Christ rose from the dead for them, and that Christ wants to be a part of every decision that they make in their lives,” Richardson said.