april 26.

Tomorrow is an unusual but exciting Chapel service featuring special guest John Perkins!

Dr. Perkins has been an active participant in the civil rights movement and is the founder of multiple organizations working for Christian community development, most recently through his founding of the John M. Perkins Foundation for Reconciliation & Development, Inc.  This organization exists for the sole purpose of supporting their mission of advancing the principles of Christian community development and racial reconciliation throughout the world.


There are several speaking events on the SPU campus this week featuring both Dr. Perkins and author Shane Claiborne.  

Event 1:  Premiere of new documentary about the life of Dr. Perkins, Let Justice Roll Down

Monday, April 25 at 7 pm in Upper Gwinn Hall

Event 2:  The Perkins Annual Lecture

Tuesday, April 26 at 9:30 am in FFMC

Event 3:  Community Forum (with author Shane Claiborne; Dr. Darrell Guder of Princeton Theological Seminary; and Dr. Kim Segall of Seattle Pacific University)

Tuesday, April 26 at 1 pm in Demaray 150.


Event 4: group service (only Shane Claiborne)
Wednesday, April 27 at 8:30 pm

For more details, check out the SPU event web page on Perkins here!

reflection: tyler.

As we study Romans in Chapel together this quarter, we have been exploring this tension in the Christian experience: the strangeness of being declared righteous by God--simply by faith, defying reason--yet simultaneously, being broken people in desperate need of restoring.  In other words, even as God declares us to be righteous in his sight because of Jesus, he also asks us to be open to the transforming and healing work in our lives of sanctification.

Drummer and core member Tyler Scott shared a reflection on his personal blog this week that we'd like to share with the Chapel community, because we feel it captures this essence of this tension:

"My decision to pick up a minor in reconciliation here at SPU has allowed me to take some really great classes, I otherwise would not have needed to take. Last quarter I took Eschatology (the study of the end times). This class, and the subsequent conversations and discussions, have completely changed the way I read, think, pray and live. Having a direction and a hope to live towards, and live into will dramatically change the way live your life. What is it you hope for?

This quarter, I have been taking a cultural anthropology class with Dr. Neuhouser—one of the best professors at SPU. Dr. Neuhouser has spent extensive time in Brazil, studying culture and helping many villages develop. The other day, during a lecture about ‘language,’ he shared a story about Brazilian culture.

Often times, there is not a word-for-word translation that can be used in translating some languages. In fact, the Portugese language (which they speak in Brazil) has a word that does not exist in English, unless there is much explanation.

Saudade (pronounced saw-daj-ay) is a word that means both pain and joy. It is a memory which is both sad and joyful, of things distant and gone, and is accompanied by the desire to once again see or have them.

When Dr. Neuhouser shared this word with us, all I could think about was themes of hope and the Kingdom of God. What would it mean if we held this pain and joy in tension in our day-to-day lives. What if we lived right in the middle of pain and joy? When we feel weighed down by the weight of the world, what if we looked forward to the possibilitys of the future renewal. And when we feel ecstatic and joyful, what if we also remembered the past, where we came from to get to this current joy."

Thanks for sharing, Tyler!

april 19.

Text:  Romans 5-6

Speaker:  Celeste Cranston, M.A., Director of the Center for Biblical and Theological Education 

Big picture:  This text from Romans lays out a glorious and easily understood reason to celebrate in the first two verses: we’ve been justified, we have peace with God, we have gained access into this grace in which we now stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  However, the second half of the passage lays out another kind of celebration and another work of grace in our lives.  It’s not so easy to rejoice in our sufferings, but as we do so we are formed into the very people God wants us to be.  This inward work is not something done to us, but rather something that happens in us as we allow God’s love to be poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.  

april 12.

Text:  Romans 4


Speaker:  Bob Zurinsky, advisor to SPU's Chapel and Group teams


Big picture:  As we continue in our study of Romans, we arrive at the complex and nuanced argument of chapter four. Paul declares that Abraham was the model of a kind of right-ness that comes through faith. And faith, in this case, means a simple trust in God’s promise to bring life out of death. In the example of Abraham and Sarah, the promise was for a child to be born from bodies that were too old to make children. But Paul expands and explains this hope for us: we place our lives in the hands of the God who raised Jesus from the dead. For those who would believe it, this is the "good news" that changes everything.

april 5.

Text:  Romans 1-3


Speaker:  Daniel Castelo, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Theology at SPU.


Dr. Castelo is a member of the Steering Committee of the Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements Consultation of the American Academy of Religion as well as the Intercultural Studies Chair of the Wesleyan Theological Society. 


Big Picture: Prepare for an exciting introduction to the book of Romans!  Perhaps no book of the Bible has had a greater influence on the course of Christianity than Paul’s Epistle to the Romans.  A fascinating feature of this epistle is that it is a letter and then some.  As seen in the break from normal letter writing in 1:2–6, the Epistle to the Romans is mostly a discourse, a “big ideas” document, and so an expansive statement of Paul’s account of Christian belief. This quality has led many to label Romans “the core” or singular summary of Christian theology, thereby prompting its use as a “road to salvation."  


We're excited to study with you this spring.

heaven and hell.

Check out this great video made by Chapel's Luke Clum 

and Group's Aaron McConkey for their Eschatology final!  

It is beautiful and thought-provoking.

chapel applications 2011-2012.

If you are interested in studying Scripture, 
wrestling with theology, 
designing worship services, 
playing music,
and/or creating art--
all as a part of a close-knit community of friends--
you might want to consider applying for a position on the 2011-2012 Chapel team.


In fact, you definitely should.

Download the Coordinator application 

(due April 18, 2011)

or

Download the Staff application for all other student positions 

(due April 27, 2011).