ENGL 40233

Writing for Publication
Fall 2008


Christ Chapel: A Different Type of College Ministry

The building where the Sunday college service is held is called “The Bubble.” Not an abstract reference to a Biblical passage that a lot of churches seem to be doing these days, (like “The Well” or “The Refuge”), it simply describes what the building looks like. From the outside it is merely a large sheet of plastic stretched across a metal frame. I heard muted voices coming from inside the doors, and with my friend Corey dragging me inside, I hesitantly entered.

Inside the Bubble I was greeted by no fewer than four people. I knew two of them from class, and they flashed me smiles that a presidential candidate would be proud of while handing me a sheet of paper and a nametag. I had hardly begun glancing down at the small yellow piece of paper before more people came up to introduce themselves. Matt, Aaron, Thomas, Adrian, and two more in less than a minute. Once I had gotten free of the simple chit chat that is typical of people introducing themselves at church (What grade are you in? What are you majoring in? Oh wow that’s great-Thomas is also majoring in that!), I started to observe the rest of my surroundings.

In the time before the service actually started I heard the song “Inside Out” by the band Eve 6 playing overhead. That’s weird, I thought to myself, it’s not a Christian song and it’s a throwback to the 90’s. The church I grew up in is very traditional (but attempting to move out of that stereotype), and I would have never heard secular music like this on a Sunday. It’s little things like this that make Christ Chapel different from other worship experiences.

The worship leader called everyone to come and sit at precisely 11 o’ clock. The people running the college ministry meant business. In the Bubble the welcome area is near the entrance and seemingly countless rows of chairs (enough to fit at least 200) to sit in face the stage. That Sunday nearly every chair was filled. Obviously Christ Chapel is doing something right in order for this many college students to want to come.

The website for Christ Chapel Bible Church is very user friendly i.e. drop down menus and icons that are clear and easy to find where you want to go. What I found was a brief history:

In the summer of 1980, 60 individuals gathered together to discuss the formation of a new independent Bible church in Fort Worth, Texas. Less than one month after that initial meeting, the church had been formally organized, a Board of Elders appointed, and a name selected: Christ Chapel Bible Church.”

These sixty people represented a diverse cross section of the Ft. Worth area, professions ranging from homemakers to company executives. They all shared a common goal: To create a church based firmly on the Bible. Toss out traditions, toss out guesses on what the Bible might be teaching, and simply follow what it says. Fundamentalist? Yes, in the way that they teach the Bible at its most fundamental levels. These people left their respective churches because they were growing opposed to the way Presbyterians, Methodists, Episcopals, and all of the other denominations were becoming stuck in tradition. Christ Chapel is a nondenominational church, and the word itself strives to break away from the old ways of thinking.

It has been 28 years since that day, and the church has grown exponentially since then. In the beginning the congregation met in the Texas Girls Choir building and over the next three years the population exploded from the original sixty to a staggering 350. Needing a new space that would give them room for their membership to grow, the church began searching for a new home. They moved from the choir building to where the church rests now: the former home of Birchman Avenue Baptist Church. Because the Baptist Church had just built a new facility they were looking to sell, and Christ Chapel was there to buy on January 1st 1984.

One of the more interesting facts about the expansion of Christ Chapel is that they build all of their new buildings debt-free. That is, instead of taking out a loan the church patiently collects the total amount of funds before they begin construction. Since 1984 it has expanded into what some are calling a mega-church. Taken literally, the term mega-church means that about 2,000 people attend the church’s weekly worship service, and Christ Chapel has anywhere from 3,500 – 4,000 attendees on a given Sunday.

It is unexpectedly difficult to find information about national church membership; many churches choose to keep this number a secret, some don’t keep up-to-date records, and some don’t even consider the people coming to their to be church members i.e. they can come and go as they please. Christ Chapel is a perfect example of this, as they have only 1,000 members on their official member roster.

The Barna Group does primary research about the growth of churches in North America, and they found that in 2005 47% of American adults attend church in a typical weekend, not including a special event such as a wedding or a funeral. In 2004 it was 43%, and the year with the highest percentage is 1991 with 49%. Since 2004, however, church rates have been growing steadily.

The worship band begins to play and that is the cue for everyone to move from the welcome area to the seats. The contemporary Christian music is played by a full and energetic band, which is a refreshing contrast from thumbing through dusty hymnals. Early in the service students were already getting into it; the guitarist had barely strummed his first few chords before people were raising their hands and moving to the beat. This is something completely different from my church back home, and something I was a little uncomfortable with. After two songs a few of the college interns came on stage and gave the weekly announcements. Turn in your deposit for the mission trip, sign up for Bible studies, football at 5, etc. More singing ensued and two or three more songs later, it was time for the message to begin.

Ryan McCarthy has been the college minister at Christ Chapel for 11 years. An alumnus of TCU, he graduated in 1995 with a major in Psychology and later received his masters from Dallas Theological Seminary. He grew up an atheist and it wasn’t until a spiritual incident his sophomore year that he became a Christian, and senior year he felt the calling to go into College Ministry. He describes his job in short as “creating a ministry to disciple college students in any point in their walk with the Lord.”

When asked what he does on a day-to-day basis, he replied “Every day is different.” He has myriad meetings to attend, lessons to write, students to visit with, and budgets to balance. The sermons he gives every Sunday take him a total of 25 hours to write. He says that his message has to apply to himself, as well as the students he is giving it to. When asked about how Christ Chapel could improve, his answer was that he feels like the church is doing a great job in reaching more than one generation of people. But, Ryan feels that the church is compartmentalizing its outreach. A diagram he drew consisting of arrows pointing to different boxes titled “singles” and “over 50” and “youth” helped explain the problem.

The college ministry does a lot of things to reach out to students. One of the most publicized events is the Need to Know Tour or the “n2k tour,” which takes place at the beginning of every school year. Students who currently attend college impact on Sunday mornings pass out fliers and advertise the tour to the incoming college freshman. The tour consists of restaurants, shopping malls, and the downtown area taken by bus and catered by Chipotle. The bus doesn’t even stop by the church; the students merely point it out to the students.

The college ministry is starting to become actively involved in the student comedy troupe “Senseless Acts of Comedy,” and Ryan invites students over to his house every week for fellowship. This is how Christ Chapel’s student ministry reaches out: by building relationships. They strive to connect with students around events they’re interested in rather than focusing on spiritual appeals. From my experience working in youth ministry the past two summers, this is the new way that Christians are attempting to reach students. Churches are advertising on Facebook and putting together events such as scavenger hunts and dances that on the outside may have no spiritual intent. Outreaches like these are the beginnings of the evangelistic process in student ministry. In an overly simplified way to look at it, the evangelist first earns the student’s trust before he or she can talk to them about their spiritual life.

This Sunday morning Ryan gave his message about the Justification of Jesus and how in the end we will be judged. The sermons he gives are something any college student could relate to and he drew from current and real world examples. For instance, he said “How do you feel about getting up for church this morning as your roommate was still lying passed out in his bed from a long night of drinking? Are you judging him? Judging is not for humans, it’s for the Lord.” This wasn’t fire and brimstone stuff; Ryan’s message was welcoming and encouraged everyone in the audience to not only listen to what he was saying but practice it in our everyday lives. This is another growing part of the mega-church movement: Preachers are attempting to tell the church body how to improve their life rather than condemn sin.

 Ryan ended his message with a prayer, and offered the opportunity to meet at Chipotle for lunch. And that was it. No benediction, no ending hymn, no choir singing. They get straight to the point of what they are trying to do and end it.

Christ Chapel is many things; it is a leader among non-denominational churches, a growing community of Christians, a service opportunity, and a break in the traditional church service. Any student who yearns to learn more about living the spiritual life in college should experience this tour de force of College Ministry.

 

CHRIS AYERS is a junior Advertising/Public Relations major and writing minor from Houston, Texas. After living in Jakarta, Indonesia from 2001-2004 Chris (hopefully thinks) he changed from being a spoiled brat to someone who is grateful for what he has. The thing he likes doing most in the world is being with his friends and working as an intern at his church back home.  In ten years he’d like to be working at Grace Presbyterian Church as the High School Youth Director and married to a beautiful wife who appreciates his love for playing video games and acting like a five year old.

The Sanctuary of Christ Chapel