Chapel the past couple of years has been set up to where primarily only administrators, teachers, and speakers from the community have come in and given an encouraging message to the students.

This year chapel was structured so that speakers taught on the foundation of the gospel in first semseter. Second semester was then meant to show students how they can live spiritually disciplined and live out what they have learned.

Each week the student spiritual life team meets to discuss what each chapel will look like. These students, chapel band, along with other teachers work alongside Tim Holley, spiritual life director, to make chapel meaningful.

The goal of chapel was to teach and encourage students so that they have something to build off of when they hear personal stories towards the end of the year.

An effective way to reach the student body is to have students give their take on struggles and problems that they face. It is easier for students to relate to struggles of their peers.

“I wanted to speak in chapel because I felt like I had a message people should hear. Service, which is what I spoke on, is something I am passionate about. I wanted people to hear my heart behind it. I talked about service and loving other people, and that being a pivotal part about being a Christian. Love God, and then love people, that was the heart of it. Also, I felt like I had a life story that many Westminster kids could relate to, and I wanted them to see where I made mistakes and learn from them,” said Nathan Arnold, senior.

This year many seniors have given their testimonies about what they have been through and what God has done in their life. Sadie Stipanovich, Elise Hearne, Nathan Arnold, Mitch Penning, Mandy Scott, Ben Lovell, seniors, have all gone out of their comfort zones and revealed some of the darkest and hardest times of their life.

“I wanted to convey the healing power of God and what he can do in people’s lives. He has done so much in my life so I feel like I can relate to what I see other students going through. I was nervous when Mr. Holley asked me to speak, but as it got closer to that time I got more excited than anything. I did not want to offend anyone with my message because sometimes the truth is hard to hear, but I knew that they would be offended by the message and not by me,” said Mitch Penning, senior.

It is not easy for a student to speak in front of the whole school. High school is the time when most people are trying to figure out who they are and who they want to be, so putting themselves in the spotlight is not an easy place to be.

“It was probably one of the most nerve-racking experiences of my life because I was making myself vulnerable in front of the whole school. After I spoke, I received a lot of positive feedback, but I knew walking down the hall people were thinking that I was the girl that had done this and that since I shared my story with them. Though that was scary, if my story helped one other student then it was definitely worth it,” said Sadie Stipanovich, senior.

Many people do not realize how much preparation goes into speaking at chapel. People from student spiritual life have spoken at chapel, and they recommend students that they think would have a story worth hearing.

Once a student agrees or asks to speak at  chapel, they meet with Holley to talk about their story. They write a detailed outline, review it with Holley, make changes, and then write out their whole talk. Then they meet with Holley again to discuss it and make it better. After all of this, they give their talk multiple times so that they are ready to speak to the student body.

“It excites me to hear students speak in a clear way what God has put on their heart while speaking truth on the gospel,” said Holley.

These students have talked on hard topics rather than just avoiding them and brushing the surface. Some weeks, chapel has been separated boys and girls and even middle school and upper school so that the messages can relate specifically to that gender or age group.

“I think that separating the guys and girls is good because it is something different and it breaks the flow of chapel. It also gives students the opportunity to become vulnerable to their friends (of the same gender) instead of the whole school. I think that student testimonies are good because I am listening to people who are in the same place as me and wrestling with similar things. It is different to hear from adults because you sometimes get the feeling that they are beyond your struggles and are telling you what to do,” said Ben Lovell, senior.

Teachers and administrators are going through different situations than high school students. The chapel audience is primarily students so it makes sense to target the student body.

However, the teachers that have spoken have spread insight on important topics and students look up to them. Because of this, the bulk of teacher speakers spoke at the beginning of the year to teach and share what they know to be another building block for students to work off of.

The speakers that share what is on their heart take a risk to encourage others in the Westminster community.

“The challenge of chapel in my two years of doing this job is that everyone has an opinion on how it should be done. Everyone’s coming from a different perspective and opinion. Some days after chapel a student could walk out feeling that it was not applicable, but they do not realize that it could have impacted someone else in another way. A chapel that means something to them may not affect someone else. The hope is through a variety of music and speakers is to create a meaningful experience for our comunity,” said Holley.