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Chapel
As part of the educational mission of Geneva College, a weekly devotional time for the college community is conducted on Wednesdays from 10:15-11:00 a.m. This devotional time provides opportunity for the campus to gather together to praise God, hear His word, and seek His favor and direction. Attendance is mandatory for students and the entire campus community is encouraged to participate.
Educational - Chapel provides the Geneva community with an opportunity to be instructed on different aspects of the Christian life; to be encouraged as we deal with issues and temptations that confront us; to be challenged to address the needs of the community and the world in which we live.
Devotional - Chapel provides an opportunity for the campus community to focus on Jesus Christ and His work for us and in us; to praise Him, and to pray that we might follow and serve Him.
Universal - Chapel provides an opportunity to recognize and experience the breadth of the worldwide Christian community and incorporates contributions from various cultures and Christian traditions.
Psalm singing is one of the distinctive features of Chapel. While uncommon in many churches today, psalm singing has been the historic practice for Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, Anglican Churches, and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, as well as most Presbyterian, Reformed, Baptist and Congregational churches for many generations. Chapel psalm selections attempt to show the wide range of emotions and praise to God found in the psalms.
The Psalms reflect the spirit of God's people and they are an appropriate pattern for our corporate expressions in Chapel. We praise God for His glorious works of creation and redemption, for His faithfulness to His word, for His goodness and justice, for the beauty of His handiwork.
We come to confess our sins and to plead for grace in times of human distress. Since all of these are profoundly evident in the Psalms, we take this opportunity to explore the Psalms together.
For 2010-2011 the Chapel Leadership Team has chosen the theme: “You Gotta Serve Somebody.” The book Counterfeit Gods by Tim Keller will help us identify the false idols we serve instead of Jesus.
In talking about the importance of discerning idols, Keller says:
“It is impossible to understand your heart or your culture if you do not discern the counterfeit gods that influence them. In Romans 1:21-25 Saint Paul shows that idolatry is not only one sin among many, but what is fundamentally wrong with the human heart:
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him…They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the Creator.
Paul goes on to make a long list of sins that create misery and evil in the world, but they all find their roots in this soil, the inexorable human drive for “god-making.”…
I am not asking whether or not you have rival gods. I assume that we all do; they are hidden in every one of us. The question is: What do we do about them?”
The heart of Keller’s message is that idols cannot merely be removed, they must be replaced. Turning from idols involves “Setting the mind and heart on things above” where “your life is hid with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:1-3).
Keller notes:
“Jesus must become more beautiful to your imagination, more attractive to your heart, than your idol. That is what will replace your counterfeit gods. If you uproot the idol and fail to “plant” the love of Christ in its place, the idol will grow back.”
Finding and replacing idols requires the convicting work of the Holy Spirit to recognize our idols and the empowering work of the Holy Spirit within us to replace counterfeit gods with the true God, Jesus.
A variety of internal and external speakers, along with Chapel Coordinator Dean Smith, will address topics related to this theme.