“Hey, folks! We’re not done yet,” George Williamson, Point Loma Nazarene University director of worship arts said, running from the stage to the east lobby in Brown Chapel at 10:28 a.m. during a chapel service on Nov. 4. “I’m gonna keep talking, ’cause we have some friends who are wanting to leave early.”
Williamson began reciting The Lord’s Prayer after some students tried to leave chapel early. While some joined in with a smile, others in the lobby cringed with discomfort, waiting for the doors to open.
PLNU students have often tried leaving chapel early to avoid the notoriously long lines. But this was the first time Williamson tried to engage those attempting to leave early by entering the lobby. This prompted conversations among students about why he did this, some feeling he was trying to prevent them from leaving.
The Point sat down with Williamson on Nov. 6 to get these questions answered and to address the ongoing issue of students leaving before chapel is finished.
The Point: A lot of students have been leaving chapel early lately. Why do you think that is?
George Williamson: One of the challenges of a morning chapel on a Monday, Wednesday and Friday, [is that] you come from a pop quiz in Spanish before, you’ve got a class right after or you need to get on the Liberty station shuttle.
I think [students] want to be the first out, and I get that. But it’s a distraction, and I think it’s disheartening for our speakers who genuinely love college students and want to bless them in this time of worship.
TP: Let’s talk about the Monday morning chapel when you went into the lobby to read the Lord’s prayer as students were trying to leave. Some thought it was funny, while others were uncomfortable by it. What were your intentions with it?
GW: It was not meant to be a joke. It was also in no way meant to be a rebuke. It [came from] a place of [wanting] to close the day before an election with this prayer. For me, it was significant on Monday to say, “We’re not just praying for us, we’re actually praying for our world. We’re praying for our country.” I wanted to include those folks [in the lobby].
TP: How do students leaving early affect the chapel team and others in the room?
GW: It’s really hard, especially for a guest, to be doing a benediction and [wondering], “What’s happening?”
There are students who would stay for a benediction, but when your whole row gets up and they’re climbing over you, you’re just like, “I’ll leave too.” When people make a choice to leave earlier, they’re kind of making that choice for other people too, which I think is unfair to your peers.
TP: Some students feel like the chapel team is imparting guilt on them when they leave early, and some have even gotten the impression that you think leaving early is some kind of sin. How would you respond to that?
GW: Chapel officially ends at 10:30 a.m., so the ask is that we’re present in chapel until the end of it because it’s an entire service of worship. Every part is an important part. But it’s definitely not a sin to leave early.
When people are choosing to leave early, they can’t scan out, so [people] talk in the lobby. No one stands quietly in the lobby, they talk. And all of those conversations filter right in [to the auditorium]. And anybody who’s in the back half of the room is kind of like “What’s going on?” So in a person making a choice to congregate early, they’re also making a choice to be a distraction, and that feels dishonoring to their peers, not just those leading.
We’re here, gathered for this appointed time, and we’re asking people to remain the whole time; unless there’s an emergency or people need to use the restroom or take a phone call. We just don’t want people to cause distractions.
It is not a sin to leave chapel early. But part of the way we love God is by loving one another, and that’s in the way we graciously and honestly speak. Part of that is that we truth tell. I can receive someone saying, “I felt dishonored by that, George.” Come talk to me.
TP: Some students have felt disrespected at times from the comments you or Esteban have made regarding students leaving early. What would you say to them?
GW: My pastor told me once, “Kindness is a fruit of the Spirit, niceness is not.” [He] would say, “George, you can be kind and you can be frank.”
Sometimes when someone is spoken to in a way that they don’t like what they heard, even if the tone and the heart behind it is good, sometimes people can feel awkward about that. And I would say it’s okay for us, as long as we’re operating in the fruit of kindness and gentleness.
You will never see Esteban or me be mean-spirited or angry or violent in our words. There’s always gentleness and kindness, but sometimes [we have to speak] a word that is calling people to something higher.
TP: What can we as students do to respect the chapel team more?
GW: We all work here because we love college students. At the beginning of the semester, Dr. Ross Oakes Mueller spoke about the fact that getting to be together in one place, at one time, and think about one thing, is actually a gift for us. But we have to make a choice – a hard choice to enter in.
My hope for the students is the same as my hope for myself – that every day of my life, regardless of what my circumstances are, I will make a choice to open up just a little bit more to God’s loving presence.
That’s my hope more than [anything]. But I’d love for students to stay seated and trust that we will get you out on time, and to hear those good words of blessing from our speakers at the end.
Show Some Respect: Students Weigh in on Chapel
It was Election Day when I began having discussions with students about what happened in chapel. The irony was uncanny when I realized we were all picking sides in some ways.
“It was really cool to see – I almost thought it was like a visual representation of how God chases us even as we’re running from Him,” Lincoln Zdunich, a first-year philosophy and Christian studies double major, said.
However, a second-year female student at PLNU who requested to remain anonymous, viewed the situation as negative.
“It felt like a massive guilt trip when [George] ran out there and started doing The Lord’s Prayer,” the anonymous student said.
According to PLNU’s undergraduate student handbook, a core part of the chapel behavior guidelines is to “[demonstrate] respect for those who are leading chapel” and to stay for the full duration of the service. For Maddie Manley, a second-year education major and chapel usher, she doesn’t think this is a big ask.
“[Imagine] if you were sitting in the Caf and were talking about something you really cared about and a few of your friends just upped and left,” Manley said. “I feel like that, to an extent, is how the people leading chapel feel. They put a lot of time and effort [into chapel].”
Manley said it doesn’t take long to walk to class, and if you happen to be late due to chapel, professors will likely understand.
Chapel rarely goes over time. Williamson said there’s a team of students and staff that reflect and constructively critique every chapel, focusing on how to be timely and honor students’ time.
Williamson shared statistics showing that out of the 25 chapel services this semester, the longest they’ve gone over is five minutes. Occasionally they’ll go 30 seconds to one minute over, but these have been rare exceptions. The chapel team says they understand that students have places to be, and that they do everything possible to get everyone out on time.
Some students need to leave early for various reasons, however, and have had concerns that the chapel team is trying to make them feel bad for doing so – especially when Williamson came into the lobby. The anonymous student said the chapel team makes her feel like a “piece of garbage” when she has to leave early.
“I have masses of grace for people in my life because I need masses of grace in my life,” Williamson said. He also said that although he has been frank in encouraging students to stay for the duration of chapel, he has never done so out of meanness or anger. He just asks that if students have to slip out, they do so quietly, respecting the chapel speakers.
With concerns from students mixed with the honest intentions of the chapel team, maybe it’s time to find some common ground.
But one word kept getting repeated in every conversation I had: respect. I believe this all boils down to that one seven-letter word. It’s about how we as students respect our leaders, and how our leaders respect us.
Regardless of how you feel about chapel, each of us has a job as students to show respect to our leaders. No, not everyone is happy with how the chapel team has addressed the issue of leaving early, and many students expressed that Williamson going into the lobby during Monday’s chapel might not have been the best solution. However, we can get better at being kind and courteous to our fellow students and those putting on chapel services.
Williamson expressed that chapel speakers often get distracted when students begin leaving early, and those still in the audience may also get agitated by hearing their peers talk in the lobby. Because students can’t even scan out until 10:30 a.m., the most respectful option is to stay until dismissal.
Of course, we’re college students. We zone out and itch to get to our classrooms. Not every service will be spectacular, but we can do what we can to honor the environment we’re in and the people who are leading us.
Respect is a two-way street, and students hope the chapel team respects them if they do have to slip out early.
“I feel like it’ll be easier for the students to respect the chapel [team] more if they’re kinder and more open, and honestly, less judgmental.” The anonymous student said.
At the end of the day, no one is truly to blame.
The solution is found in respect, and also in showing up – leaning into what God is doing even when it’s uncomfortable and even when we don’t want to be in chapel.
“I think it’s [about] a mindset shift,” Zdunich said. “Shifting into this idea that we’re so blessed to be part of and participate in [chapel], and we have a team willing to lead us–whether we’re fully invested in it or not–is such a beautiful thing. Even though a lot of people aren’t used to that space, if you open your heart to what God has to say to you through worship, He can speak.”
Tessa Balc