By Elizabeth Rockwell
No singing, no outside speakers and a new campus pastor. With COVID-19 creating challenges for the Bluffton University worship team, they have had to conquer the unknown with these new difficulties while remaining positive and finding hidden blessings over their journey.
The ministry team has been working with Jackie Wyse-Rhodes, the new campus pastor, to make chapel as normal as possible. Wyse-Rhodes, who is also continuing in her role as assistant professor of religion, has been looking forward to this new experience as campus pastor and has been adjusting to the new challenges the team is facing.
“I would say it’s a tie between location and music,” said Wyse-Rhodes.
Library Lawn is the new home of chapel this year because Yoder Recital Hall only fits 47 people safely.
Singing has been prohibited for the time being as it is proven to increase the spread of COVID-19 as declared by the CDC.
With the lack of music and change of location, in-person attendance has been down this year with 40 to 50 students attending compared to the 55 to 60 last year.
Although the in-person numbers have dropped, the ministry team has made chapel accessible online. Using Instagram Live, more people on and off campus have been able to enjoy the service without going to Library Lawn.
Wyse-Rhodes spoke about Love Does at the semester’s first chapel on Aug. 20. Photo courtesy Louise Matthews.
Junior Amy Marshall has stepped into the role of pastoral assistant this year, and she has been working to create a similar experience for Bluffton students in relation to Chapel as it has been in the past.
To do this, Marshall has been working on maintaining the use of speakers in Chapel and working on readmitting music back to the experience.
Many students use Chapel as their form of connecting to God each week, and a large part of that has always been music.
As Marshall was talking to more and more students, she realized that the lack of music has severely impacted the students who regularly attended chapel.
“We are trying to incorporate music, which we haven’t been able to do in the past couple of weeks,” Marshall said. “We know that is very important to students. We have definitely heard people’s voices about that.”
The ministry team has been working to find a solution to reincorporate music into their service safely. The solution: pre-recording worship music. The worship band has now recorded four songs and will be played by a speaker at Chapel.
From left, Spencer Garrison on guitar, Julian LaVallee on computer, Justin Dorsey on guitar and Amy Marshall singing while recording music for chapel. Photo by Elizabeth Rockwell
After trying to use Zoom, they realized the quality and experience was not the same. Spencer Garrison, singer and guitar player for the worship band, has been helping lead this project.
“Last year, my main job was to plan the music for Chapel, but my job was pretty much nonexistent this year,” said Garrison. “I was willing to do pretty much anything to get it back.”
The group records their music using the music lab located in Mosiman with the help of senior music major Julian LaVallee.
Students can look forward to live music being reimplemented into the chapel service as soon as it is safe to do so, but that timeline has not been determined due to current limitations related to COVID-19, Wyse-Rhodes said.
For the time being, students can enjoy the pre-recorded music the worship band is creating and join the worship team every Thursday at 11 a.m. on Library Lawn. If there is inclement weather, the service is moved inside to Founders Hall.
Students can follow the campus ministry team on Instagram at @blufftonunicampusministries for updates on location changes.
If there are any questions or suggestions regarding the chapel service you can contact Wyse-Rhodes at her email at wyse-rhodesj[at]bluffton.edu.
