70 Years of Chapel: Remembering the Dream and Looking Ahead

Dr. David Fraze: of students the dean of students right there josh happy birthday it's it's not my birthday
it's your birthday it's a 70th birthday today
Josh Stephens: seven guys i it's i may look at dave but i'm not 70 years old that's insulting there's actually
Dr. David Fraze: another birthday here we go am i having control now we moved over boom first chapel oh wow
September 24th, 70 years ago.
Josh Stephens: That's crazy.
Dr. David Fraze: Happy birthday,
Chapel.
I don't know who those people were.
We know who the president was.
I know Jack Bates, some of those guys.
F.W. Maddox spoke on the need for religion and government.
I bet it was enthralling.
Josh Stephens: I bet.
Dr. David Fraze: We have pictures.
Look at these people.
Josh Stephens: No way.
Oh,
black and white.
Dr. David Fraze: Dean Bates.
Dean Stevens.
Josh Stephens: Well,
I don't like to be called that, but respect to that guy.
Dr. David Fraze: We probably still have a podium like that.
I'm sure we do.
Look at how they're sitting in chairs.
Now,
this is the good part.
You may ask.
Go ahead and ask.
Dave, why did it take weeks to have a first chapel?
Josh Stephens: Yeah, Dave, do you know why it took so long to have the first chapel?
Dr. David Fraze: Thank you for asking.
You bet.
That is in what is our present-day library.
Josh Stephens: Okay.
Dr. David Fraze: Probably the bottom floor.
The stacks would have been behind,
but that's where they first met.
And there were many visitors present.
That's what it says.
Josh Stephens: That is what it says.
Dr. David Fraze: In the first chapel.
Josh Stephens: It's got to be true.
Dr. David Fraze: 70 years.
They dressed a little nicer for chapel than some of these people.
Look at that.
Josh Stephens: Okay.
Dr. David Fraze: That's a shiny suit.
I know it's black and white.
Josh Stephens: Yeah.
Dr. David Fraze: That is a shiny suit,
and everybody had to wear ties.
Josh Stephens: And the board of trustees was there.
That's pretty awesome.
Dr. David Fraze: And they stood to be recognized.
Josh Stephens: Yeah, that's cool.
Dr. David Fraze: How fun is that?
70 years, chapel's been going on.
And if you see in the documents,
I've been spending time up in the stacks looking at some of our first documents.
And it's kind of humbling to realize that our founding president,
whose statue's out there, wanted chapel to be at the center of everything that we do.
Now, you and I have been doing chapel for a long time as students,
as participants,
as directors.
So let me just ask you, okay,
this is circa 1960s.
Josh Stephens: That's before either of us.
Dr. David Fraze: Yes.
That's some incredible hair.
Now, I want you to notice this.
Styles do come back around.
I've seen that style on Young Men lately.
Have you noticed?
Josh Stephens: Which style?
Dr. David Fraze: This one.
Josh Stephens: Oh.
Dr. David Fraze: Shaved and up and fluffy.
Josh Stephens: I don't know if you noticed.
I don't really pay attention to hairstyles anymore.
Dr. David Fraze: It was the obvious thing.
Josh Stephens: Yeah, yeah.
It's not really my thing.
I didn't want to notice.
Dr. David Fraze: Here's one from 78.
Now,
I had a conversation.
Froes are coming back.
Josh Stephens: Okay.
Dr. David Fraze: Yeah, they are.
Anyway,
look at this.
Josh Stephens: That's in this room right now.
Dr. David Fraze: This is in this room.
This is the way.
This is this exit.
Look at this.
Look what I'm doing.
That's probably the same.
Josh Stephens: They look like the same chairs, but those are not the same chairs.
Dr. David Fraze: No, they're not.
They're the same color.
Look at this wood floor.
And that podium,
when we were here, they still had that podium.
Josh Stephens: They did, yes.
Dr. David Fraze: And then it became an instrument of death.
It started falling apart.
That's good.
And do you see how he's leading singing?
Can you demonstrate for the way?
Josh Stephens: I took a clap.
I don't remember how they do.
I don't know.
Sorry.
Yeah, that looked weird.
My bad.
We'll get someone up here who knows how to do that.
That's good.
What's the next picture?
Dr. David Fraze: Here we go.
This is your era.
I graduated in 91.
Josh Stephens: Yeah, I wasn't here then.
Dr. David Fraze: You were close.
I need you to notice something.
Do you see this belt and the shoes?
That's a style that's back now.
Colored belts with this.
And we always stuffed in without belts.
This is kind of making a comeback a little bit.
There's no large chap ready to pounce upon its prey.
We used to have grass, but then we killed it, so now it's brick.
That's kind of nice.
Josh Stephens: Yeah, that looks like a good picture.
They look like they had a good chapel.
Dr. David Fraze: That's a good chapel.
And this is kind of where we are today.
This is interesting.
This is,
there was a death in Abilene.
One of the churches had a wreck,
and our group met to actually connect with their chapel,
and we had a memorial.
And that's a beautiful experience.
So this is where we are today.
So tell me, what was your favorite chapel to be a part of as a student?
Josh Stephens: My favorite,
you'll be disappointed,
okay?
Okay.
Back then,
we didn't scan because technology hadn't gotten us there yet.
So up in the sound booth up there, the RAs would stand up there,
and they would count.
Like you had an assigned seat.
If you were in that seat, you got credit.
You didn't necessarily have to be in that seat.
As long as someone was in your seat, you got credit.
Dr. David Fraze: Josh, you're about to tell a bad story,
aren't you?
Josh Stephens: A little bit, but it's okay.
That's how you learn,
okay?
And so we would do a thing called Donut Chapel where you would pay someone.
Like, hey, I'll bring you donuts or I'll give you money.
You go sit in my seat.
And then we would go over to what is Yates Carpet now.
It wasn't that then.
It was a grocery store back then.
And we'd sit there and we'd have Donut Chapel and we would enjoy fellowship.
And then we'd come back here and we wouldn't be penalized at all.
And that was nice.
Dr. David Fraze: I'm glad we sang Amazing Grace today.
Josh Stephens: Yeah, some of us need it more than others.
That's for sure.
Dr. David Fraze: That's true.
Josh Stephens: There were numerous times where I think one of my favorite things,
There was always a good message that came from the stage, and you've talked about it before up here,
the community that we got in here.
And the fact that this was a hub and it was a place that in the middle of the day you could come here,
you could see people that you hadn't seen in a little while,
and you could connect.
And then you were spending time singing songs of praise to our God,
hearing a message that would edify and encourage.
It was really kind of a good boost going into the culture.
Dr. David Fraze: I think I forgave you because you used the word edify,
which is very,
very Bible
It is.
It sounds smart.
We say at the very beginning that, and when we talk to y'all and our whole committee,
the two reasons we have chapel is to remember the sea and to have that breadth of our faith,
but also to build community.
I think you see a lot of that in our practices.
We've come a long way.
We're very diverse now.
We love our denominational diversity.
We love that ladies can do things on stage.
That used to be one of those things, just in our culture.
there's a lot of great things we're pushing forward we have ducky day we put ducks in a pond
we do not real ducks but they're ducks that would be an awesome thing note to self um it would be
very hard to do but everybody could have a duck and name it take it to the dorm is that all right
no we're not going to do that i think i would remember my prayer how many y'all are for that
the students want it josh okay um there have been incredible moments now here's what we're about to
do because we really,
I found some footage.
The oldest footage I could find before the chapel,
it was when they broke ground right over here for our administration building.
Dr.
Limley,
and for all you faculty and staff,
there's,
he has been working. You may not know this. I want
to give honor to him.
He's been pulling down for a long time and building an archive and he's
put stuff by dates.
It was pretty emotional. I love that man. And he was,
he's still a mentor.
and to see his care.
And we found the video that it appears like it's 13,
channel 13,
but they're flying over our property before there was anything on it.
You can see houses down 19th Street.
You see young children literally jumping through the fields.
And one of the unique things,
especially for 1956 at the time,
is that there were ladies on the stage and ladies being recognized.
I appreciate they called them modern pioneers but I was world was different in 56 out here
yeah and you see that and I also found its interest in 1957 our first lectureship Marshall
Keeble an African-American gentleman spoke in Lubbock Texas at this lectureship which
that's a pretty big deal for 57 I love that pioneering spirit and I and I do believe
because when you were even directing chapel,
maybe when you were a student,
F.W.
Mattis would come and sit right over there,
and I kind of imagine what he would think because he saw all these students.
Josh Stephens: Yeah, Dave,
you say that, and that's when I look at those pictures,
and I watched the video that you sent in today and watched that ceremony.
I was in a meeting.
Randall DeMitt and I were talking.
We're actually praying, and he used these two words that really resonated with me.
He said in the prayer, he asked for contagious gratitude.
And that's what I see when I watch that video, when I see a thankfulness in what is taking place.
When we look at those pictures of chapel,
and we get it, we understand.
There are some chapel programs that are for you, and there are some that you're like, I'm betting that's for someone else.
But we get to do this, and we get to be a part of something bigger than us,
and it instills this spirit of contagious gratitude.
And so I really felt that after meeting with Randall and then watching that video this morning, it just resonated with me.
Like,
this isn't – I know it feels like something sometimes that we have to do,
but this is something we get to do.
And we get to do it with people that are like-minded and people that we care about.
And it honors God, and I think you see that in the video.
Dr. David Fraze: And it's pretty amazing.
And I'm going to invite – okay,
there is a rock on this campus.
And when I call him to come out, I need you to give him a thunderous applause.
He's kind of,
he is,
as we said, our cottonwood.
Josh Stephens: Yeah, he is a Mount Rushmore figure on this campus for sure.
Dr. David Fraze: That's a big compliment.
One of our mentors to many in the audience.
Dr. Don Williams,
can you come out,
please?
So,
Doc,
we came up with this idea for the 17th anniversary.
We found this video.
He's going to tell you more about it.
But we also found the very first speech,
lectureship speech,
of F.W.
Maddox typed out with his written corrections.
It was pretty special.
And we had that moment together.
So I will turn it over to you.
And you're going to be watching groundbreaking things, listening,
and then Doc will dismiss us.
Thank you.
Give it up for Doc one more time.
Don Williams: Thank you.
I must tell you, when they're talking about chapel,
when I was a freshman,
we had Pat Boone come and perform for us.
And you guys can look that up on your phones because you don't know who Pat Boone is other than he's 90 years old now.
But that's one thing you should remember.
We did have some very fun, special times.
When you watch this film,
I want you to be alert because this film will show you why
Dr. Maddox talks about the dream in early speeches and in early
presentations in chapel because when you look you're going to see there's absolutely nothing out here
When they have this groundbreaking it's a middle of a field it has cotton on one side when I came to college
We had cotton
basically from Chicago all the way over to where CDC is right now.
And so in Maddox's view,
he's dreaming.
And so I want you to hear then from this speech,
which was given in 1957,
some of his ideas as he is beginning this institution.
He begins,
it's a thrill to be here and to have a part in what I believe is one of the very great Christian colleges of the future.
This is going to be a great Christian college because it's building on a firm foundation.
It's building upon the successes of Christian colleges that have preceded it.
Some of those colleges are not in existence any longer.
But in a way,
Love of Christian College is carrying on their tradition.
It's following the same ideals and purposes that have been behind the establishment and are behind the operation of other Christian colleges.
This endeavor is a unity movement.
It is the result of prayer,
of sacrifice,
and of hard work of thousands of people.
The subject of this address is our hope for Lubbock Christian College.
We are all aware that hope is made up of both desire and expectation.
So I want to discuss this morning what we desire Lubbock Christian College to be,
but more than that, what we expect it to be.
We believe that with the grace of the Lord,
these desires will actually become realities.
This is indicated by the wonderful start that's already been made.
Our purposes might be classified as one,
spiritual,
two,
intellectual,
three,
physical,
and four,
financial.
When we think of the spiritual aims of the institution,
we are talking about the very heart of Lubbock Christian College.
It's our purpose to render service to our Lord in the expansion of the kingdom.
The spiritual purpose of Lubbock Christian College is as follows.
First,
we want to develop in the heart and lives of each student
faith in the Bible as the inspired word of God and the only rules of faith and practice.
We hope that our students will learn the Bible thoroughly and that this knowledge of the Bible
will be respected as the final court of appeal on all vital subjects and that they not only will
know what the Bible says,
that they will have the desire of heart to conform to all the Lord
has required of them in life.
We want them to develop lives of service as preachers, missionaries.
We want these young people to be trained that in whatever field they enter as a professional,
Christ will direct their lives in all that they do.
I want these young people to learn the Bible in Bible classes.
Lubbock Christian College is also organized so that Bible is the very heart and life of the institution.
Every subject will be taught in harmony with God's revealed will.
We have great aims and purposes for these young people.
By the grace of God, through the dedication of this faculty,
and by the godliness of their lives,
they will show in sacrifice and service to God,
these young people will be moved to bring out the very best that is in their nature
so that God can use them here and they can live with God eternally.
We also have intellectual aims.
Our understanding of education is such that
there is no variance between high academic standards and the noblest
spiritual character.
Spirituality and intellectualism complement each other.
We have a wonderful faculty who have dedicated their lives to
bringing out the very best in our students.
In our first faculty meeting we
talked about our responsibility.
I charged the faculty to stretch the minds of
these students.
Their minds must be challenged.
They must have the
information that's available in the various academic subjects and they must
be inspired to achieve greatness in whatever field they enter.
We have a well-trained faculty,
and it is through their lives and their dedication to these high ideals that we believe we will
transfer these aims and these purposes into the lives of these young people.
We want to train young
people in their academic fields so that they can become leaders in their profession.
We want to
train young men as successful businessmen in whatever field of endeavor they desire.
There
will be certain traits of character which will regulate their lives in whatever profession they
enter.
We're also interested in physical matters.
Our purpose and desire is to have a physical plant
which will be satisfactory for the achievement of goals.
Our first permanent building is under construction.
It's going to be a wonderful building.
You know it as the administration building.
It will house our library,
18 classrooms.
The library reading room, which was really the auditorium, will seat 700 people.
Financially, our goals and purposes are to have enough money to operate efficiently,
to be able to pay our teachers'
salary,
and to be able to meet out obligations as they come due.
Our classrooms and our dormitories are quite satisfactory.
The rooms are much nicer than where I stayed when I went to college.
Not so nice as some air-conditioned dormitories you might see,
but our rent isn't as high either.
You might like to know that this physical plant with two dormitories,
administration building,
classroom building,
library,
bookstore, and cafeteria,
dining hall,
science building,
a very fine well.
Everything we have on this campus costs less than $75,000.
We have a freshman class of over 175,
and at this time, only freshmen were enrolled in 1957.
They will be our sophomores next year,
and we believe our student body will be at least double next year.
We believe that there has not been a Christian college among our brethren that has started with such encouragement.
We have students from Alabama,
California,
Arizona,
Iowa,
Missouri,
New York,
Oregon, New Mexico,
Texas,
and South Africa.
That's quite a nice spread.
There will be many other states added next year.
We believe that Love of Christian College will live and serve for generations to come.
We believe that when dedicated hearts,
consecrated Christian lives,
see what we are trying to do,
that they will want to share in it.
And before 25 years,
we will have over 5,000 students.
We have room on campus for over 5,000 students.
We will have fine buildings,
want a wonderful dream.
But doesn't the Bible say,
despise not the beginning of small things?
It has been a privilege to speak to you this morning.
we pray that you will continue to live and serve with us to help us complete these high purposes.
And he always closed with this phrase, and now let us be about our business.
Have a good day.
Thank you.