In Closing: Chapel Changed My Life

Making the decision to attend college 10 hours away from my home in Aiken, South Carolina, was not an easy one. I would be away from everything and everyone I ever knew. Despite my concerns, it took only 48 hours on the campus of Cedarville University for my life to change dramatically.

During my second night on campus, I attended Fall Bible Conference with Clayton King speaking. He talked about weakness and what that looked like for the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians. It was that night when chapel at Cedarville became so much more than a building to me.

It is hard to summarize what 10 years of doubting and wrestling with your salvation feels like. I had convinced myself countless times that I had faith, but I still lived with overwhelming anxiety. From the first few minutes of the sermon that night, I knew the Lord was calling. I wanted to talk with someone, so I walked toward the stage. I was blinded by tears, which led me to bump into Dr. White. I gave my life to the Lord that night on the chapel steps with Dr. White beside me, and I experienced a peace unlike anything this world has to offer.

 

— Logan Stringfield

Chapel became real. It was no longer a building filled with 4,000 strangers. It was a daily resting place, with 4,000 brothers and sisters in Christ sharing the college experience together. It was sophomore class chapel where, as Sophomore Class President, I stood and gave announcements on the very stage where I’d given my life to Christ freshman year. It was Proverbs and the “Way of Wisdom” sermon series by Dr. White my junior year. Now, it is Ephesians and learning the true source of my identity, truths that are so meaningful to me as a graduating senior.

It will soon be senior class chapel, where we will stand on stage as the class of 2019, one final time together. I think of every sermon series by Dr. White, every class council chapel, every prayer, every worship song, and I’m overwhelmed by the work God has been doing in my heart, to grow and prepare me for where I am now.

Chapel. Where do I even begin? It is hard to put into words exactly how chapel has affected me during my four years at Cedarville. The heartbeat of campus has become my heartbeat. It is where my life truly changed, where conviction took hold, where worship became real, and where God revealed His faithfulness and mercy to me daily, no matter my brokenness. When I walked through the doors for the first time, I had no idea what awaited me in chapel, but God did. He knew that Cedarville would become a home, day by day, sermon by sermon, and prayer by prayer, all under the chapel lights, and for that, I’m overwhelmingly thankful.

I often look at those chapel steps. I am reminded of the broken and lost freshman who kneeled on those steps, who is now, by the grace and mercy of our God, a graduating senior. I’m now prepared, because of my four years in chapel, to proclaim Gospel truths to a lost world. And I am humbled and grateful.

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Logan Stringfield ’19 is Senior Class President at Cedarville University.