First Chapel of the Fall Semester

Today was the first day of classes for the Fall semester and the first chapel too. So far the students seem to be enjoying their classes and I did not see very much evidence of syllabus shock. As in previous semesters we have a one-hour chapel at 11 AM on Tuesdays and Fridays and today was the day. We had a good time of singing led by our chapel praise team, introduced the faculty, staff and administration to the students (almost half of our students are new this semester) and I had some time to preach. I always start off by speaking about the core values of our school “Excellence, Accessibility and Transformation.” This time I focused on the “excellence” part of the mission statement and preached from Genesis 1.26-31 on presenting the image of God to creation excellently. We focused on the three commands to fill the earth, master or subdue the earth and rule; and how we can do each one of these as God did in creation and Jesus did while He walked on the earth. We fill the empty, bring order to the chaos and rule through service. It is fun to be back into it with the students and I am looking forward to my Old Testament class tonight.