Chapel focuses on “Identity”

Our chapel theme over the last two weeks has been “Identity”, based on the story of Gideon. Gideon had a sense of identity that was transformed by his encounter with God in Judges 6.

On Monday, September 30th, a number of students participated in a skit depicting the initial encounter of God and Gideon based on Judges 6. Gideon’s sense of identity went from feeling worthless to being a “mighty warrior” because of what God said about him.

Wednesday, October 2 was an activity in which students in groups were encouraged to write notes of affirmation to each person in the group. Our words can have a positive effect on each other’s sense of identity.

On Thursday, we were privileged to have Josh Lundberg, pastor at Kalona Mennonite with us. Josh shared about having a biblically based sense of identity.

Friday’s chapel was an activity in which we placed on our foreheads paper on which were printed certain characteristics. Then by engaging with others, we were to discover what characteristic label we had. By engaging with others, it can help us discover our identity. We then watched an I Am Second video about a Christian rapper Jason “Propaganda” Petty and his struggle with discovering his identity.

Our chapel on Monday, October 7, senior Sarena Gerber shared about finding our identity in the Scriptures. We then individually listed all the ways that we identify ourselves and compared it to the scripture of Ephesians 1 and 2 and the variety of descriptions of identity in Christ described there.

On Tuesday, our chapel time was in small groups. Groups were encouraged to continue exploring what the Bible says about being in Christ.

Wednesday’s chapel featured 2006 IMS graduate Lara Hochstetler. Lara is working with the organization Cedars Network which works with Syrian refugees in the Middle East. Lara encouraged students to say “small yeses” to God to be all that God calls us to be.

Thursday was an activity of choosing a word of identity from the Scriptures and writing it on a paper and decorating it. We will later form a chain with them for display.

Friday wrapped up the week with a music preview of the fall concert coming up on Sunday, October 13. The choirs and the band each performed a song or two that will be featured at the concert.