Spir­i­tual Em­pha­sis Week Con­tin­ues De­spite COVID-19

MISHAWAKA--COVID-19 has let noth­ing un­touched, in­clud­ing Spir­i­tual Em­pha­sis Week.  In the past, Spir­i­tual Em­pha­sis Week has in­volved three morn­ings and three evenings of pow­er­ful mes­sages in ad­di­tion to nightly ac­tiv­i­ties.  How­ever, over the sum­mer, the Spir­i­tual Life Team was forced to be cre­ative, ask­ing them­selves how they could still make a so­cially dis­tanced Spir­i­tual Em­pha­sis Week feel like Spir­i­tual Em­pha­sis Week. 

This year, our guest speaker is Pas­tor Johnathon Miller, nick­named “YPJ,” who has been the se­nior pas­tor of Faith Apos­tolic Min­istries in South Bend since 2011.  Pre­vi­ously, he served as a youth pas­tor un­der his par­ents for ten years.  He is also a song­writer and mu­si­cian and was nom­i­nated for the 2013 Gram­my’s Gospel Song of the Year cat­e­gory for his song­writ­ing con­tri­bu­tions on Fred Ham­mond’s song, “I Feel Good.” 

Miller will be speak­ing the same mes­sage three times for the sake of so­cial dis­tanc­ing. 

“We’re ex­cited about the week,” John Kaehr, as­so­ci­ate di­rec­tor for com­mu­nity life, said.  “I think that every­body that goes to chapel will re­ally en­joy YPJ. Some days we’ll see if we can get him to stick around for lunch so he can meet stu­dents and be avail­able to them.” 

There will be a spe­cial dorm Bible study on Tues­day night start­ing at 8 p.m.    

“We will be writ­ing a small group guide based on his ser­mon so that every­body that week will be study­ing the same thing,” Kaehr said. 

Wednes­day, there will be Ves­pers by the pond, also start­ing at 8 p.m. 

“Ves­pers should be a lot of fun too; we’re pray­ing for good weather be­cause out­doors when the sun is set­ting is just so cool,” Kaehr said.  “If it rains, we’ll plan to move it into chapel.” 

On Fri­day at 9 p.m., Isaac Pit­man, from Nashville, Ten­nessee, will be host­ing a con­cert by the pond.  Af­ter­glow will be at the Shiloh bon­fire on Sat­ur­day night at 9 p.m.  If there is a big crowd, they will be spread out to the other firepit that’s there.  Ad­di­tion­ally, there will be COVID-friendly smores. 

“We’ve never done a dorm Bible study co­or­di­nated with [Spir­i­tual Em­pha­sis Week] and we’ve never done a Ves­pers be­cause we’ve al­ways just had the reg­u­lar evening ser­vices— it just gives us an op­por­tu­nity to be cre­ative,” Kaehr said. 

Michala Zap­pia, a com­muter at Bethel, is look­ing for­ward to this year’s Spir­i­tual Em­pha­sis week since it seems to be more com­mu­nity based.   

“In chapel, some­times it feels more in­di­vid­ual be­cause of the dark room and the seat­ing but out­side, sur­rounded by na­ture and be­ing able to wor­ship in that, will feel more cor­po­rate,” Zap­pia said.  “I think there’s even more op­por­tu­nity for com­mu­nity-build­ing be­cause of the Bible stud­ies.” 

Chapel re­quire­ment for this week will be the same as every other week. 

To fol­low up Spir­i­tual Em­pha­sis Week, next week Laura Bul­grien will be en­cour­ag­ing stu­dents to sign up for men­tor­ing.