Worship times at KNU

Holy week seems a good time to blog about the worship community at KNU. Due to the many students, about 5,000, there are chapels here everyday. Chapel is mandatory and students are assigned a chapel time and day according to their majors. Let me use our friend Phuong for an example of chapel attendance. She is required to attend a chapel on Tuesday and Wednesday morning at 7 a.m. Yes, 7:00 a.m. I watch hundreds of students taking the long walk from the dorm to the chapel as the sun begins to rise in the east. In the winter it is a cold, dark walk. At 6:30 a.m. the loud speakers in the dorm literally blast awake sleepy students with contemporary Christian music. It plays for 30 minutes! It is so loud it is difficult to speak and be heard in the dorm rooms. We are spared the bulk of the noise since our floor is exempt, but we do hear it some as its filters into our room.

I am sure some students prefer not to attend chapel, but like most of our universities, attendance is required. There is the philosophy that if the gospel is heard, some will hear it and give their lives to Christ. This also teaches the students that they are attending a holiness Christian university founded and sustained on Biblical principles. In other words, our mission as a university is broader than academics alone! Other universities can do that, and they do.

Phuong also has to attend a Monday chapel at 11 am, and a fourth chapel during the week. She was assigned a Friday chapel from 1:00-2:00 pm; however, now she opted to attend the new English chapel we are co-leading with another minister on Wednesday from 4:00-4:50 pm. This chapel is for those who know enough English to understand the service. It is required for our new OIC students (Owens International College, a new program for business and economy majors taught only in English). Phuong, a theology major, gets in because there is room for her, and she knows enough English. The chapel is small but intimate in fellowship.

Today (Monday) I attended chapel at 11 am between the 2 classes I teach. I am only required to attend the faculty chapel on Tuesday morning at 8:00. As I sat in chapel today the music was good, as always. They have praise teams with several singers and musicians, all students. Sometimes they have dance teams. They sang, "There is power in the blood." I sang in English, by memory, and the student who sat by me sang in Korean. Students began raising their hands in praise. Some stood and waved their hands in the air as we sang together. Some students broke out in spontaneous prayer as we continued to sing. It was a beautiful rendition as the song slowed, and then we sang a cappella.

I am always moved by the good spirit in the services. I must confess that several years back in one of our Nazarene universities in America, students talked so loudly that the chaplain had to ask for quiet 3 times while a special speaker was trying to communicate! Here, the students are respectful and most seem to want to be in the service. There will be special services all week on campus for Holy Week. I will lead the English chapel on Wednesday and we will have communion together with students from many countries. Not all who attend are Christians. It is quite a challenge to reach them with all the cultural and language differences. But the Holy Spirit somehow makes it all happen and it is exciting to see Him at work in all of this.