Attending PLNU provides students with a variety of opportunities for spiritual, personal, and professional growth. One of the special aspects of being a part of this community is the opportunity students have to actively participate in their spiritual formation.
If you walk through campus on any given day, it won’t be unusual for you to see people praying, gathering around a guitar to sing worship music, sharing a devotional together, or preparing for ministry opportunities like feeding the homeless.
All of these elements and more contribute to the spiritual health of the student body, which when paired with academic formation, leads to a more holistic and impactful college experience.
One of the main ways students can grow spiritually at a Christian university in San Diego like PLNU is through chapel. Chapel is a gathering that allows students, faculty, and staff to pause from their work and gather together to worship as a community.
Chapel is put on by Student Life and Formation and spearheaded by Esteban Trujillo, university chaplain and director of chapel programming. Trujillo has served in the role for the more than three years and has been a part of the campus pastoral staff for a total of eight years.
According to Trujillo, chapel has similar components to a church service.
“There is music and teaching,” he said. “We also offer communion once a month.”
However, there are unique aspects to the chapel experience that differ from what one might get from a local church.
“For example, when you go to a church it will be perhaps not as multi-denominational as chapel is as we have students from all different backgrounds coming together and worshipping together,” Trujillo said. “Chapel allows us to be able to envision what it means to be the body of Christ.”
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Trujillo said that the multicultural nature of chapel can help students see the church in a “greater sense.” To that end, certain elements of chapel are sometimes done in different languages.
“I preach in Spanish sometimes,” he said.
There is also diversity in the individuals that are invited to speak, as well as a variety of topics addressed through the chapel preaching team. Ultimately, however, Trujillo considers chapel to be about connection, gathering, spiritual formation, and an opportunity to further unite the PLNU community.
Chapel is about connection, gathering, spiritual formation, and an opportunity to further unite the PLNU community.
“We’re often scattered in different places either physically or in our minds,” he said. “What chapel does is help us center back and to understand who God is and who we are as the body of Christ.”
The hope is that what happens in chapel can then spill out to the larger PLNU community contributing to its unity and health.
“Worship doesn’t start in chapel but worship happens in chapel,” Trujillo said. “It also continues in our lives in the classroom and outside and hopefully will overflow into what we do. Chapel is the place in which we’re poured into and that overflow just continues as we leave from that place.”
A Variety of Ways to Engage With Chapel
Compared to other Christian universities in San Diego, students at PLNU have the opportunity to attend chapel up to four times a week. Three of the chapel services are offered on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9:45 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. in Brown Chapel and a special evening service led by students is offered every Thursday night. This service, titled Time Out, is a great chance for students to hear from their peers as they share faith stories and experiences.
Trujillo says that chapel offers unique opportunities and a variety of experiences for students, which include communion and praise and worship services.
Two “out-of-the box” chapel formats offered are Branch Out and Living Spaces. The Branch Out chapel experience offers services in multiple venues around campus, with each venue offering chapel in a different way.
“In one place, we will offer prayer and reflection; in another place, we offer an opportunity of service like putting together hygiene packets for the homeless community in San Diego,” Trujillo said.
Trujillo considers these to be different ways for students to “broaden their understanding of worship and service.”
The Living Space chapel opportunity offers services at each dorm on campus and a special service for commuters. These services are organized by resident directors, resident assistants, and students, giving them a chance to further connect with people in their dorms or with fellow commuter students.
As an extension of chapel, students are also able to join small groups and mentoring programs which can help them find support as they grow in their faith. They can also serve in Worship Arts and offer their creative talents and gifts in service to God and the PLNU community.
“We’re continuing our efforts to find different ways for people to engage in chapel,” Trujillo said. “We want to make it unique and give a variety of ways to engage.”
Renewal Week: A Chance to Go Deeper
Each semester, students get to experience Renewal Week, a special week dedicated to that year’s chapel theme.
“Every year, we have a chapel theme that helps us center on what we want for students to carry away from chapel,” Trujillo said.
Previous years’ themes have centered around the Lord’s Prayer, the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-9), the Apostles Creed, and Holiness, among others.
For each Renewal Week, a special speaker or set of speakers is invited to preach at the chapel services.
“Renewal Week is a place to open up our hearts just a little bit more to what God is wanting to do in our lives,” Trujillo said. “That usually consists of having a special speaker come in throughout the week and offer a word of encouragement to our campus.”
Past speakers have included Eugene Cho, Rick Warren, Meghan Fate Marshman, Shauna Niequist, Laurel Bunker from Bethel University, and Jeanette and Gabriel Salguero from The Gathering Place in Orlando, Florida.
Renewal Week also provides students with various spiritual formation practice opportunities, which are specially designed to help them dive deeper into their lives of faith.
Approaching Difficult Subjects From a Biblical Perspective
One of the most asked questions that Trujillo gets from students regarding chapel is why issues such as race and diversity are often approached in the services.
Trujillo considers this particular issue important because it speaks to how the Bible defines who we are as Christians.
“The Bible says we are image-bearers of God,” Trujillo said. “So it’s important to address the question of how do we treat one another with hospitality, grace, and love and how do we do that so that it spills out into all these different places.”
Trujillo says that the Christian life extends beyond the “four walls of Brown Chapel” and spills out into all aspects of life.
“I think that it’s important for students, particularly those that are learning about all different areas such as history and biology, to understand how our Christian faith can inform all those things and speak not only to ministry but also to our vocation,” he said. “That’s why it’s important that chapel also addresses some of those things through a biblical perspective.”
More Than a Requirement: An Invitation
PLNU has a special invitation for students compared to other Christian universities in San Diego. All students are required to attend a certain number of chapels depending on their year. Freshmen and sophomore students are required to attend a higher number than juniors and seniors to accommodate for busier academic schedules.
Students may wonder why attending chapel is required given that they are often dealing with busy academic schedules. Trujillo understands that and takes that into account.
“We try not to make chapel overwhelming,” he said. “We want to make chapel a good resource and tool that will be helpful in a student’s complete experience here at PLNU.”
For that reason, the Student Life and Formation provides more chapel opportunities than are required for students to attend.
“We understand that students have schedules and that they may need a break,” he said.
However, he challenges students to see chapel in a different way.
“Chapel is a way for students to be exposed to a variety of different ways to engage,” Trujillo said. “So yes, it is a requirement, but it is also an invitation to come and experience.”
“Chapel is a way for students to be exposed to a variety of different ways to engage. So yes, it is a requirement, but it is also an invitation to come and experience. We hope that students are opting into the fullness of what being a PLNU student is, and hope to shape you in a unique way and to send you uniquely out into the world.”
Trujillo hopes that when students decide to come to PLNU that they are choosing to participate in a more holistic college experience.
“We hope that students are opting into the fullness of what being a PLNU student is,” he said. “We’re hoping to shape you in a unique way and to send you uniquely out into the world.”
A Way to Connect to the Larger Community
As students navigate everyday life on the PLNU campus, it can often be difficult to find ways to connect with the larger community on a regular basis. Trujillo says that chapel is one of the main ways through which that can happen.
“You cannot be formed alone,” he said. “You cannot be shaped alone. You’re shaped by a gathering of different people. We hope that chapel isn’t just our students who come but also our staff and faculty who come and that we collectively are shaped together and moved into those places.”
In chapel services, students have a chance to connect with God, other students and receive support from the campus pastoral staff. Trujillo considers it to be the place where new students, in particular, can connect themselves to the campus.
“When you see yourself among the rest of your peers, you start to envision what it means to be a part of this community,” he said. “I would hope that’s the case. That you don’t see yourself as a solitary person or as being alone.”
Trujillo affirms that chapel is a “springboard into the community” and encourages new students to attend and experience that for themselves.
“I would encourage all incoming students to come to chapel,” he said. “Chapel is the place where you are connected to God vertically but also connected to one another horizontally and that’s what hopefully it’s all about.”
Stay Up-to-Date With PLNU Chapel
For more information regarding chapel, visit the chapel webpage. You can also watch previous chapel services on the PLNU Chapel Youtube Channel.