Photo by Chase Snyder.

Convocation and chapel at Goshen College are part of what makes this place unique. Many schools have required chapel or forum or assembly. Many colleges don’t have a system quite like ours.

Why do we have convocation and chapel? What is working well? What could we do to make them better?

These are questions that I ponder frequently. I know some students don’t make a distinction between convocation and chapel, which meet at the same time of day, in the same place, with the same PowerPoint announcements running as one enters the Church-Chapel.

Why convocation? My husband Ken teaches physics at Goshen High School. He slipped away during his preparation period on Feb. 16 to attend the China S.S.T. convocation because our son David was part of the China group.

If you were there, perhaps you remember the video clips of each individual student or the funny and touching stories about shoes, foreigner celebrity and flowery language that gave us all a window into Chinese culture.

“There was great karma in that room,” Ken said afterward. “We don’t have anything even remotely like this at the high school.”

At its best, convocation gathers a critical mass of the college community together for an engaging learning experience surrounding one or more of the Goshen College core values.

Convocation and chapel by the numbers:

114 – Typical number of convocations and chapels required for a student to attend in four years at Goshen College (assuming a fall or spring semester S.S.T.; the number is a bit higher for summer S.S.T. or on-campus alternative S.S.T. courses)

398 – Number of convocations and chapels I have attended in almost six years as convocation coordinator

135 – Number of students who have met with me in those same six years in order to resolve their attendance deficit before they can graduate

539 – Number of students who attended the opening convocation with President Brenneman last fall (the highest attended event each year)

15-20 – Number of students who have been caught committing attendance fraud this year (we don’t keep any records of these folks; this is my best guess)

1 – Number of students who were defiant after being caught committing fraud.

Becky Horst is associate professor of communication at Goshen College.

Photo by Julia Baker.

When I was young, I was not materialistic – at least not by my own society’s standards. Every time I moved, I divested myself of possessions so that I could mail what I owned to myself.

Several factors protected me from accumulating belongings. I liked working at summer camps for minimum wage more than I enjoyed laying sod for twice the pay.

I did not own a car, so I could buy only what I could carry on the bus or on my bike. I was a dedicated student. I did not have time to go shopping. I disliked shopping.

To this day, when I walk into a clothing store, I feel the clerks staring at me the way they did at Julia Roberts’ character in “Pretty Woman” when she tried shopping on Rodeo Drive. You have to wear fashionable clothes to shop for fashionable clothes. I love the way that Diane Keaton dressed out of her father’s closet in “Annie Hall,” and my wardrobe still reflects her fashion statement.

In the wake of our inspiring guest speakers, Bill McKibben and Shane Claiborne, I have listened to many discussions about simplicity as a way of life. I thought that it would be appropriate to share the rock that caused me to stumble and leave a larger carbon footprint.

Before my son was born, we scoured yard sales to buy the equipment we needed. We received garbage bags full of secondhand baby clothes. All was well until I started noticing the superior strollers and baby seats and cozy Baby Gap clothes protecting other babies.

I became self-conscious. Looking at my son now, you would never guess that the desire to drive him around in a presentable vehicle, to house him in a home that I owned rather than rented and to provide him with “nifty stuff” could be the factor that tipped the balance from my being one who divests to one who consumes.

I fell into the trap of being a “good Mom.”

Beware! The pressure to conform and compromise is most powerful when it plays into one’s desire to take care of one’s own. If one reads the gospel of Matthew thoroughly, one will find that Jesus’ call to discipleship comes with a caveat not to let concern for one’s family become a stumbling block.

Jo-Ann Brant is professor of Bible, religion and philosophy at Goshen College.

Photo by Jordan Kauffman.

Last week, Bob Yoder talked about global climate change in convocation. He did an excellent job, but the situation is scarier than he said.

Ice core records going back 800,000 years show that atmospheric carbon dioxide levels stayed below 300 parts per million until the 1960’s. Today, they are at nearly 400 P.P.M. According to the United Nations-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Earth’s temperature has risen by one degree Fahrenheit in the last century.

If greenhouse gas emissions were capped at year 2000 levels (numbers we have already exceeded), Earth’s temperature would increase an additional one degree Fahrenheit by 2100. More realistic projections predict a 4-7 F increase.

As Bob pointed out, the increase in natural disasters correlate with a 1 F increase. What will 7 F do?

Meanwhile, as emissions go up, forest area is projected to go down by almost 10%-20%.

Fortunately, there do appear to be scenarios where we can achieve climate stabilization with only a 4 -11 F global temperature increase. Unfortunately, this stabilization will take until 2300, if emissions are limited soon. This kind of temperature increase will have major global effects.

Climate change is an enormous issue. It is often easier to simply write the problem off as too big to deal with, and our personal impact as too small to matter.

As Bob pointed out, the United States releases more carbon dioxide than China, despite the fact that our population is only a quarter the size of China’s. Clearly, we – as Americans and as Goshen College students –can have a substantial impact.

This is an important issue on both individual and corporate levels. What we can do to reduce our energy use and environmental impact?

The question is not simply how we can generate power (or products) more cleanly, but how can we use less overall. We need to think about how to consume less and waste less personally, corporately, regionally, nationally and globally.

My understanding is that this is taking place on a campus with significant work to reduce campus energy consumption and a commitment to making future campus buildings L.E.E.D. certified.

It is important to remember, however, that this work at a campus level does not remove our responsibilities as individuals. If anything, it should remind us that we too must be intentional about our personal decisions and how they affect the world that we rely on.

Jesse Shaver is a senior computer science major from Seattle.

Brenda Salter McNeil spoke in a special extended convocation Wednesday. Photo by Julia Baker.

The Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter McNeil presented 10 ways people can become more interculturally competent in her extended chapel on Wednesday. McNeil, a leader in the field of racial and ethnic reconciliation, used the story of Jesus at the well as a model in her speech “A More Excellent Way.”

According to McNeil, students at private Christian institutions have the potential to become the desirable graduates that employers are looking for. McNeil said that employers want moral and ethical people these days “who will show up for work and not steal things.”

The second aspect of a desirable graduate is a person who is interculturally competent.

“Some Christians are not able to interact with other cultures,” McNeil said. While Christians are morally and ethically educated, they often lack training and education regarding international relationships and cultural etiquette.

McNeil suggested that people who are interculturally competent mirror Jesus and should:

1.  Have a divine mandate from God

2.  Have  real need for people who are different from us

3.  Challenge their comfort zones

4.  Engage in intercultural interaction

5.  Be risk takers

6.  Experience counter-cultural social action

7.  Relinquish power

8.  Have authentic spirituality

9.  Have reciprocity

10.  Be bridge-people

“I want to suggest that few people who go into intercultural experiences bring what they learned back home,” said McNeil.

During her presentation, McNeil also spoke highly of Shane Claiborne, who will speak at Goshen College on March 18.

In 1995, McNeil founded Overflow Ministries, Inc., a non-profit, faith-based organization devoted to the ministry of racial and ethnic reconciliation. Today, McNeil continues this work through Salter McNeil & Associates, LLC, a racial and ethnic reconciliation consulting firm based in Chicago.

McNeil received a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary, and a Doctorate of Ministry from Palmer Theological Seminary. She is also co-author of the book “The Heart of Racial Justice: How Soul Change Leads to Social Change” (InterVarsity Press, 2005), and authored a chapter in “Women’s Liberation, Jesus Style” (InterVarsity Press, 1998, 2002).

“My main goal is to promote conversation around the campus,” McNeil said. McNeil will speak at campus worship night on Wednesday at the Recreation-Fitness Center and will also present chapel on Friday.