Cedarville Magazine, Spring 2019

i s t o r y ha s r e co r ded t he impor t ance o f chape l i n ma i n t a i n i n g C e d a r v i l l e University’s commitment to the Word of God and the Testimony of Jesus Christ. Without question, the major factor in preserving the sanctity of the 10 a.m. hour for corporate campus worship has been the godly leadership of Presidents Jeremiah, Dixon, Brown, and White. The daily chapel services have been a dynamic part of Cedarville University’s schedule since the beginning of the Baptist era in 1953. Every University president has valued the importance of this aspect of campus life. PRESIDENTIAL PRIORITY In a personal interview with his biographer, James T. Jeremiah said, “We must never lose the preaching in chapel that has something to say about Christian living, salvation. Never, and if we do we have lost the whole thing.” Jeremiah was deeply concerned for Christian colleges that were minimizing or de-emphasizing their chapel program, along with succumbing to the mounting pressures of secularism. “Those schools that have gone down that road have stopped having chapel, and that has done them in,” he offered. During the early years of his tenure, Jeremiah took an active role in preaching in chapel, while also bringing multiple pastors, missionaries, evangelists, and Christian leaders and faculty members to preach in the midmorning chapel services. Among those President Jeremiah invited to preach was Pastor Warren Wiersbe. Jeremiah would return the favor in kind, filling Wiersbe’s pulpit at Calvary Baptist Church of Covington, Kentucky, which Wiersbe pastored from 1961 to 1971. Older Cedarville alumni doubtless remember those days when they reflect on the fact that Dr. and Mrs. Wiersbe have determined that the renowned Bible teacher’s library will be housed at Cedarville University in the future. When Paul Dixon was inaugurated as President of Cedarville College at homecoming in 1978, he was eager to establish his priorities quickly. He conducted a study of colleges that had once been faith-based schools, but had lost their mission. He discovered that many of these institutions began to select trustees for financial reasons rather than a strong biblical emphasis. This led these same trustees to call presidents who were not strong Christian leaders and faculty members who did not have a strong faith base. For these and other reasons, these schools put less emphasis on chapel. On other occasions, as schools enlarged their student body, they outgrew their chapel, and did not want to use hard-to-find resources to build a bigger chapel building. So, instead, they minimized the number of chapel services held each week and often stopped requiring attendance altogether. Cedarville’s presidents determined early on that meeting space would not be the determining factor for chapel, but rather a commitment to faithfully pour into the University family from God’s truth. The greatest building project of all is the construction of a biblical worldview in students’ hearts driven by a love and devotion to the Lord Jesus. This led Dixon to conclude that the “primary responsibility of a Christian college president was the chapel service.” Historically, the direction you give the chapel ministry H