Cedarville Magazine, Spring 2019

among a student community that has grown steadily since 1953, and is currently in its 12th year of expansion. But as the University has been blessed with phenomenal growth, it has become more difficult. It was this commitment that caused the University to move chapel from a tiny building that now houses the history and government department to the historic Alford Auditorium in 1963. When Alford became too crowded, two chapel services were conducted daily, which detracted from the desired sense of community, so a new 2,000- seat Jeremiah Chapel was introduced in 1976. By September that year, the student body exceeded 1,200 for the first time. As the student body continued to grow, the chapel located in what is today the Apple Technology Resource Center also became too small, leading to satellite chapels and eventually the addition of the Dixon Ministry Center, which included a new 3,400- seat Jeremiah Chapel. This facility was remodeled in 2016 and will be expanded again this summer. Instead of drifting away from the emphasis on chapel, as the pattern of so many once-Christian colleges has been, at Cedarville the 10 a.m. hour is increasing in importance. White, drawing on the experiences of his predecessors and his own background, has vigorously added to the emphasis of the chapel hour. His Monday messages this year are in-depth studies from the book of Ephesians. Because White views chapel as the “prime teaching time of the day,” he dedicates significant time and resources to the chapel hour. When he assembles the chapel schedule, he considers carefully the “cycle of the semester.” Therefore, he schedules the heavy topics early. As the semester moves Milner Chapel in the 1950s (top). James T. Jeremiah preaching in Alford Auditorium chapel (bottom).