Why Chapel - Finding Community, Focus, and Faith

Dr. David Fraze: I don't know.
So it's one of the most asked questions.
Why do I got to go to chapel?
What do we do?
What's the deal?
Why am I going to get in trouble if I don't go?
Well, the fact of the matter, we're here for two reasons.
One is we love our community, and this is the time in our schedule we can see each other.
And there's something about our community when we walk together that we're encouraged.
And we really do not only love each other, because we kind of are supposed to do that at a Christian university,
we actually like each other.
And so we applaud one another, and we yell at people, and we yell at each other across the way.
We set our drinks down outside, and nobody drinks them, which is an act of God right there.
And we go about our day.
But then there's also a moment where we get a breath.
We remember the C and love it Christian.
We're reminded that we're alive because he lives.
I think that's worth it.
For 30 minutes out of your day,
in a 24-hour day, we stop
and we remember what's important.
But it's impossible to not be distracted in our world.
So sometimes we can be present,
but not really totally present.
I mean, we're here,
but we have other things on our mind,
or we hide in different ways,
and we just...
Nobody talk to me.
Stop yelling.
Not have, you know,
don't make me sing.
Don't just...
Two things I want you to be aware of.
Can you punch that for me, please?
Things.
You have so much time in your day,
and in this place, you only have 20 minutes at most.
and this time and this point in your life you'll never get back
and it's kind of a morbid thought to think but sometimes when you're having a bad day i'll
probably say to you hey be happy today's the first day the rest of your life you're like
kind of morbid it sort of is but every encounter is an opportunity to not only
make yourself better but also to make someone's day better and for them to make your day better
So time is very short.
And really, that's not very much to ask for this window of time in your life.
But it can be a box.
You can be part of a crowd, but not really part of a crowd.
Your mind could be going 101 different directions, which mine does as well at times.
That's life.
But something happens in this place where the community draws it out of you, encourages you.
But it's so, so very easy to just take your phone out.
And now that we turn the lights down, you put it on dim screen and you hide.
And I'll tell you why you hide.
I mean, it's Dr. Fraze here for a second.
One, if I have my face in a phone, then I don't have to talk to you.
That's bad etiquette, right?
I'm looking at something.
Or if I have my face in a phone, I can play something.
I play this game.
and if something makes you feel uncomfortable,
I cannot listen to it.
Even though I'm here, I'm hearing words.
I can concentrate on this.
And when that happens, you miss that opportunity
to encounter something truly eternal.
And every once in a while, something will happen in here
and you'll hear some kind of words that make you think.
That's the magic of Lubbock Christian University.
We do walk with you, but we also speak truth.
And we sing to a God of truth.
And let's be honest, sometimes you ain't going to understand a bit of the words.
You're not going to understand.
You never heard that song on the radio.
You're like, why didn't we sing a Dolly Parton song today?
Because in Memorial, I get all that.
But sometimes it's best just to sit here and listen.
Take the box off and be totally present and just see.
Now, here's the facts.
Next slide.
you're gonna have to do all that folks thank you chapel credit opportunities because i'm about
we're about to get to the question that some of you are really asking 46 chapel opportunities in
person with double credit days it sounds like coupons at our newly coming heb and the lord said
amen all right so small groups which is a component you'll hear more about in the coming
days. That's 11. You have 57, counting the videos, 61. And you only need, I think, 45.
So if you show up to chapel, you're getting all the credit you want. Now, the big question is this.
Go to the next slide. We want to be authentic with our faith. But I'm just going to be honest.
We're violating the rule of authenticity because we will get you in trouble if you decide not to show up.
Could be 250.
Now, if you go to Pepperdine, they dock your grade.5.
If you go to Liberty University and they see a phone on, they set in dorm rows.
And your dorm people come by.
And if your phone's on, you don't receive credit for that day.
So in some ways, we're a little bit more, you know, big school and trust in your maturity.
Say we want to be authentic with you about the uniqueness of Lubbock Christian University,
because this is not just a transactional degree.
It is also something where you'll experience a metamorphosis for all the science people.
You will change fundamentally and be a different person when you leave.
And it's fun to watch.
It's happened to all of us.
Now, higher education does that to everyone, but we believe there's uniqueness.
so we put teeth into this, but I'm going to say this. If you look around, there's faculty and
staff that don't get docked for being here. It's not in their contract, but they know if we don't
lead the way, if we don't walk with you and understand that this is important to us,
you're not going to really care about what we do. So yeah, you may feel like your rule of authenticity
is being violated.
And I get it.
But there's a deeper meaning behind it
and I want to communicate that to you.
We really do want to have authentic faith
because we actually believe in this stuff.
Not just academically,
but in the way that we live our lives.
And we invite you to watch the faculty and staff
and see if this is true.
I invite cynicism.
I invite questions.
Watch and see.
Taste, as Jesus would say, taste and see that the Lord is good.
Give it a shot.
Now, I have a special video from Dr. Lisa Tatum.
And I think it's a powerful video I use in a different context.
But you've probably seen somewhere on the internet the bugle and drum course and how they tune.
And I'm a band nerd too.
I was a trombone player.
And here's what we know.
A concert C is what you warm up on.
And everybody plays a concert C.
But what you see in this next video is it's not just the concert C.
They distort it, and then they bring it back to concert C.
They distort it and bring it back to concert C.
But the amazing part about this video that's next level is there's a four count,
and then they go straight to a concert F.
Now, if you don't understand what that means, that's just basically they're tuning,
But then without any metronome, without any pitch, they just go, bum, and they go to concert C.
Why?
Because they've tuned.
And they've tuned their ears.
Even when things are bad, they go back to concert C.
And when I think about chapel, you're going to show up in here and you're going to say, life sucks.
I get it.
And it will.
But something will happen in here.
Something will happen in your small group.
Some days you're going to have a great day and you're like, man, this is a wonderful, wonderful day.
And concert C will be echoing in your head.
No problem.
But what we would hope that would happen by the time that you walk with us and you understand the passion we have for authentic faith,
whatever happens in your life, and it will, you will have death, you will have crisis, you will have failure.
At this end, you can sound a strong concert F.
And the world will know that you know somebody and they want to know that somebody.
You with me?
Watch this video.
Go, Doc.
That's pretty impressive.
Why chapel?
Because it sets a tone for our days.
It sets a tone for your life.
Did you notice the concert C was distorted when the break came and then the concert F?
That's how well they knew the concert C.
we want you to know Jesus so well
in every aspect of it
we want you to know this community
in every aspect of it
is we will do what it takes
even setting in a box
for you to get a point
because we really do care about you
Brandon McDaniel was a student
who sat just about right here
he's an Alpha Chi
and he was a Marine
he'd already been through basic training
and he was officer candidate school
He'd already been through candidate school and 9-11 happened.
We had TV carts that were wheeled out.
And some of the professors remember this.
And we watched the second plane go in and we're like, this is not an accident.
And so we gathered here.
I was in the back corner over there and we were all on our knees and just crying.
We're like, what, what's happening?
We cried out to God.
We assembled here because this is our community and this is our peace.
and this is where all we need to do is give it to God.
Well, here's Brandon.
Brandon knew that with that attack,
he was going to receive a call in a matter of days
and he was going into combat.
Not very much older than you, not even through a school yet.
So we sit out in front of the CDC and with tears,
we had a discussion.
He was engaged at the time and he said,
Frase, this is my son, was young.
He goes, I just want to be a dad and I want to do this stuff.
We sat there and wept, and we talked about what he had to do and said,
you're not going to be alone.
And I don't know how we did it, but the post office,
we decided to send the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marines, which there was four groups.
He was in charge of one of them.
We sent batteries for Walkmans and socks and all those batteries,
which should be like a WMD of itself, made their way to the Marine Corps.
And it's a weird time to be friends with a soldier because you received messages at night late.
And here's what he would remember.
And it's happened for every alumni, by the way, not just soldiers.
Excuse me, Marines.
Don't call a Marine a soldier.
It's cussing.
But a Marine.
But our alumni, what they miss most, they miss professors, but they miss this moment of community and rest.
And a breath.
And Brandon said, Dave, he's early in the war.
We didn't have a lot of equipment.
And his specific group was in charge of being sure the bridges were open for the army for the great Norman Schwarzkopf move.
They were very much alone.
Not very much supplies.
And he said every single day there was this dog that would show up in the morning.
We'd feed the dog.
The dog was our dog, except we knew it belonged to the enemy forces.
And at night when the sun started going down, that dog would run across the bridge and the prayers over the intercoms would start.
And we knew as soon as the prayers ended, we were about to take incoming fire and the war would be on until the sun comes up.
And as the dog ran across the bridge and I sat there and I was trying to gather myself to lead my men, I remembered singing in chapel at LCU.
And it would focus and calm me for what I had to do.
That story can be repeated in a lot of different people's lives.
Surgeons that are working today, people who are in crisis in the mission field,
people who are just trying to make it for another day and realize they're going to pay their bills.
They go to this moment and they remember the tone that was set.
Alumni, am I making this up?
Alumni, am I making this up?
Definitely Keith Rogers.
we love our community we love our focus
let me pray for us that i have one more uh announcement to make father thank you for this day
thank you for chapel father it's it's tough sometimes sometimes we don't appreciate it
sometimes it feels so inauthentic father i pray that everyone who heard this or will hear it
online will understand our passion behind it that we use whatever we have at our disposal
to be sure to enforce so people could be present.
Father, be with those who, you know, right now may just be kind of in a box and being part of it.
Father, bless them.
Would you have some word or song or something that draws them out of that wall of being present but not present?
Father, be with all of us.
Be with the faculty and staff that they would push those papers aside.
They will push the assignments aside.
They will silence the phone and walk in here and sit with people.
Because this is our community.
And this is our place to breathe fresh air.
And all who say amen.
All who believe this say amen.
Amen.
I would like for a very special group to stand.
Where's our Spain students?
Stand.
These guys are going to be away from us as a community.
And we're about to do something really special.
They're going to walk out.
And Jesse's going to pray over them.
I want to encourage all of you who don't have a class to run to.
Okay.
Gather around the shop.
Y'all can go ahead and be dismissed.
Let's give him a hand.
Good big deal.
Byron.
And we're just going to pray over them if you have the time to do that.
I know some of you all have to run to class.
Isn't it good to be here?
Look at the person to your right and left and say, have a great day.
Look at the person behind you and in front and say, have a great day.
You are dismissed.