Maybe I’m completely alone on this one but daily chapel was – and continues to be – the highlight of my weekdays. When the office of Spiritual Life proposed its new spiritual development system, Ethos, I was very skeptical and, dare I say it, scared.
My original fear when I first heard about Ethos was the thought that somehow daily chapel would no longer be an option on Oklahoma Christian University’s campus. I was worried that our 60-65 credits would have to be earned completely through service projects and small groups – which on paper sound like a great idea, but in reality it’s frightening for closeted introverts like myself.
I then started to think how the new development in spiritual life was going to affect my job. I’m a tour guide at welcome center for the university. I had no idea how I was going to explain this new system to hundreds of prospective students, who put a lot of emphasis of how they grow spiritually on campus.
During the summer when the program was announced, I was a student recruiter. Through personal connections to Oklahoma Christian and the rumor mill, high schoolers were learning about the chapel program before I was, and I didn’t have the answers to their questions.
Serving as a staff member for Earn Your Wings two weeks ago, Director of Ethos Summer Lashley and Dean of Spiritual Life Jeff McMillon, were very effective in their explanations of Ethos to the handful of upperclassmen and the new freshman class at Earn Your Wings. Moreover, their open meetings last week where they answered questions and explained the program more thoroughly took a weight off of the shoulders from those of us who were so accustomed to having chapel as the only option for spiritual life development.
I’m not going to sugarcoat this – I hated the idea of Ethos during the early stages of the program. I was scared that the way to earn credits would be abused and taken advantage of, and frankly I’m still somewhat worried about that. However, as I have learned more about Ethos, studied it and realized how it fits into my every day life on and off campus, I’m quite the fan of it. I’m excited to see how Ethos challenges us as students to be like Jesus to people every day of our lives.
My charge to you, the student body, is to not walk over this new program. Sure, we all joke about how we can get kudos – through saying prayers before meals, going to church, holding the door open, saying “God bless you” after someone sneezes – but the overall thought and design behind Ethos is to mold us as Christians to be Christ-like 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year – instead of just from 11:00-11:20 a.m. like the former chapel system sometimes felt.
Ethos is more than just the new chapel system here at Oklahoma Christian. Ethos is more than just 65 kudos in 15 weeks of the academic semester. Ethos is more than just gathering together on Monday nights for praise and worship at View 63. Ethos is more than having small group Bible studies throughout the week with friends. Ethos is the new way of life on our campus. Ethos is challenging us every day as students and more importantly, as followers of Christ, to grow in our leadership in the community, transform ourselves into true disciples of Christ, discover where our place is in this world, serve others while serving God, and all-in-all worship the sovereign Creator of the universe.
My hat is off to you Summer Lashley and Jeff McMillon. I’m excited to see where this program takes the student body and how it expands what it means to be an Eagle of Oklahoma Christian University.
Jake Whiteley is a junior at Oklahoma Christian University and the Opinions Editor for the Talon
0
0
Be First to Comment