As we are welcoming our new and returning students this week, I again want to say how glad I am that all of you, the faculty and staff, are here, able and ready to participate with our students in a new year at SPU. In all of our opening events, I sense an enormous amount of fresh and exciting energy. We are off to a great new year ahead.

At this opening moment for the year, I want to say again that we are in for something special this year in a new approach to Chapel, Christian Community Formation, and Global and Urban Outreach. It has been exciting this week to unfold for our students this new look for the way we gather in Christian community.

It’s a new day! Under the leadership of Stephen Newby, we have formed the new Office of University Ministries and the Center for Worship. Stephen and the whole team have been hard at work throughout the summer to refocus our ways of gathering together in Christian community. I am absolutely convinced we will be surprised with wonder and joy as our community gathers to encounter God in new ways throughout the year ahead.

We will start the Chapel season tomorrow, Tuesday, September 25, at 9:30 a.m. for our Opening Convocation in First Free Methodist Church. I hope to have a record number of students join all the faculty and staff for this grand opening. I will be the kickoff speaker talking about what it means to be global Christians. This will be followed by Professor Rob Wall teaching out of the Scriptures; Professor Eric Hansen talking about Wesley’s hymns; Rev. Earl Palmer talking about teaching from the text; and, of course, Jurgen Moltmann for the Day of Common Learning. What a line up.

Here’s the deal with the new day for Chapel and University Ministries: University Ministries (OUM) at Seattle Pacific seeks to provide a rich environment for students, faculty, and staff to explore Christian community formation, to experience corporate worship in all its forms, to become even more biblically and theologically educated, to practice reconciliation through worship, and to experience the vitality of Christian faith. These are lofty goals but so very vital to who we are as a university.

Here’s what’s expected of students: We fully expect our undergraduate students to participate in Chapel, precisely because this is the right thing to do. Therefore, all undergraduate students are expected to attend at least 10 Chapel gatherings/worship events each quarter. We regard this as a vital part of our community life and the learning experience at SPU, in the same way that the University expects class attendance and academic participation, as well as commitment to abide by our lifestyle expectations. As you know, in our special community, we rely heavily on the honor system, and that’s exactly what we will be doing with Chapel.

Students are also encouraged to build relationships by participating in SPU small groups, SPU cadres, and off campus events (such as a local church) each quarter. Details about these opportunities are available on the OUM website.

And then there is the new and exciting 37five Project. Students in small groups will have a chance to participate in a grant project that may help to support their favorite non-profit organization that is making a difference in the Seattle community or around the world.

I encourage you to consider being involved in a small group with students and participating in the 37five Project with them. They will be enriched and encouraged by your participation. Please visit the new website for the Office of University Ministries and Center for Worship for more information on all of this. In addition, you will be seeing posters and banners and T-shirts all around campus. You might want to approach one of the staff in OUM and catch a sense of their excitement and vision for this whole effort. Indeed it is a new day.

This fall we also kickoff the first full year for global and urban ministry programs under the leadership of Tali Hairston in The Perkins Center. These programs — SPRINT, Urban Involvement, Latreia, and the Urban Youth Leadership Academy — are, of course, not new programs for our students. See the Perkins Center for specific information about these programs and how students can fulfill the community service expectation.

All undergraduate students are fully expected to participate in five hours of community service each quarter. Students will be able to share their service learning experiences as they accomplish their five hours by directly logging onto the Perkins Center website.

Well, that’s it. That’s the news. That’s the new look, the new day. We are eager for you to experience, along with our students, the new leadership, our new programs, and this wonderful new way of gathering in Christian community at Seattle Pacific.

What an exciting year ahead.