“If people are uncomfortable, they’re just not going to go.”

Hold a Conversation

Can you imagine leading a conversation about this story? Where? With whom? What kinds of questions would you pose? (See How to use the questions for reflection for one approach.) Please email your questions to us or post them in the comment box for our consideration. If you use them in an actual discussion, let us know how the conversation went.

Transcript for Something That I Was Looking For

Being a religious school, you have to have the Chapel there, so people can go and they can pray and they can go to services you know, because you know, some people come from across the country to here, so they can’t go home on the weekends and go to church, so I applaud the Chapel, I think it’s doing a great thing being here on campus and having that place where people can get that stress off of them.

It attracts—I feel like it attracts a lot of Lutherans and maybe a lot of Catholics as well because maybe they’re somewhat similar in ways.  And I was not raised Lutheran, I was raised nondenominational, so coming into Valpo was very different for me.

During the summer when we had to attend, I believe it was Convocation, and we had to attend a prayer vigil at night, and it was really different for me because at my church, you know, we’re singing, we’re dancing, we’re clapping.  And it’s different because there, I just feel like, if you get out and dance, it’s like, ‘Oh no.’  Like, ‘What is he doing?’  I have not been back to it since FOCUS [New Student Orientation].  If I can speak on a racially, there’s not many African American students that attend, there’s not a lot of minority students that attend, period, because it’s…  I know for me and for a lot of other African Americans, you know, it’s something that we’re not used to.  It’s different from, you know, the church that we were raised in, and that our grandparents were raised in, and that our parents were raised in, so it’s not—it doesn’t attract us.

I think the Chapel does try to reach out.  I know oftentimes I get emails about prayer vigils and just certain things going on at the Chapel, but if people are uncomfortable, they’re just not going to go.

I came into CRU [Campus Crusade for Christ] this semester, actually.  I’m going to say about nine guys, maybe about twelve women.  As far as racially, it’s pretty diverse, it is pretty diverse.  We have some African Americans, we have Caucasians, we have a good mix of people.  And so, a guy from the ballroom team actually introduced me to it.  And I was like, ‘Aw, this is nice.’  We start off with like a thirty minute little praise and worship thing where we sing songs, and then we branch off into guys’ Bible study and girls’ Bible study.  That’s good.  And so it’s—I love it.  It’s very enjoyable.  It’s something that I was looking for.