Nearly every day at Point Loma Nazarene University, there’s a chapel service that students can attend, but between classes and friends, it can be hard for students to focus on connecting with God. That’s why PLNU created Spiritual Renewal Week, a chance for students to refocus their faith through both regular chapel services and special events.
Nov. 3 marked the beginning of the fall semester’s Spiritual Renewal Week, featuring speakers Albert and Christine Hung. The husband-and-wife pastor duo are from Northern California, where they serve as district leaders for the Church of the Nazarene. For the week’s messages, they chose to speak on loneliness and how to connect with God amid a chaotic world.
“We were told the [year’s] theme was abide, so we tried to really connect with the felt needs of the students,” Christine Hung said. “[We] talked to some students about some of the circumstances that they lived through, that they experienced, and to connect abiding in those situations of fear, loneliness, shame and disillusionment … students go through those feelings, but we do, too.”
Albert spoke during PLNU’s Monday and Friday chapel services, while Christine spoke on Wednesday. Liam Reitsma, a first-year media communication major, said he appreciated that their messages were connected.
“They both kind of played on each other well,” Reitsma said. “[They] had an overall theme of the week, which is abiding — [our] yearly theme — in different struggles and aspects of your life.”
Joncee Lenker, a first-year multimedia journalism major, thought their conversations on loneliness were impactful.
“[Albert] talked about when we are lonely, we don’t feel alone because we have the chance to be with God and listen to him,” Lenker said. “I never thought about that before. Just like the fact that in loneliness, there’s a chance to just feel lonely, but not truly lonely, just because we have reliance on the Lord to guide us in our life and our struggles.”
This semester, PLNU updated its “created space” chapel. What used to be one night turned into a three-night opportunity for students to engage in various aspects of prayer, ranging from silence to painting. Esteban Trujillo, PLNU’s chaplain, said that this switch was because of the strong engagement that these chapels have received in the past.
“Our largest created space [in the past] was probably close to like 350 students,” Trujillo said. “[This semester] we had created space on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday available. That was able to bring in 769 students … this was a further reach in this particular event, which we’re really excited about, and we could see the results.”
Lenker said that his favorite events were created space and the 6:30 a.m. prayer services.
“I feel like it’s kind of a different rhythm than the regular chapels,” Lenker said. “I think having those extra spaces was a really good opportunity to branch out and do something a little differently from a chapel [service]. I think I really enjoyed that.”
Lenker said that the lament writing prayer station was a highlight of the created space chapel.
“Basically, you would write out a paper, just like to cry out to God with what you’re struggling with, like your griefs and that kind of thing,” Lenker said. “Sitting there and just having one-on-one time, like solitude, and writing out what you’re feeling was a really, really great feeling for me.”
Christine Hung said that her favorite part was the conversations she had with students.
“There [are] so many opportunities to be with students that are doing the stuff and loving God and just being obedient to the Lord,” Hung said. “It’s been such a privilege getting to know each of these students.”
Trujillo said that caring for students and faculty is exactly why Spiritual Renewal Week was created in the first place.
“We have these rhythms of class, work and play,” Trujillo said. “There’s something about just pausing, recentering and bringing us back and calling the whole community to be like, ‘Let’s do this together; let’s do this intentionally’ that makes sense.”
