“Faith at Work” is this year’s theme for chapel (grades 6-12) and weekly elementary gathering. Claire Parsley ’22, and Elisabeth Fink ’22, shared the following in an introductory chapel. To see chapel videos, search YouTube
for “Eastern Mennonite School Chapel.”
Claire: “Faith at Work” has been selected for this year’s chapel theme. This school has students coming from a wide range of backgrounds and students who have had vastly different life experiences, so “faith at work” in these chapels will likely have different meanings and impacts on each of you.
… I believe [faith] is crucial so that we can motivate ourselves to grow, improve, and put all the gifts we have into our world. It helps us wake up with a purpose and hopefully makes everything seem more possible… everyone needs a little faith that there’s some reason, some purpose to their life. I hope chapel this year… will get you thinking about what you personally choose to put your faith in.
Elisabeth: … the word “faith” may almost be misleading. It’s definition is only that of a strong belief in God or religion. It’s purely abstract and the word itself does not even imply physical action. This year, we want to look at how having faith leads people to do work.
Whether that is physically serving others because you believe it’s the right thing to do, or whether it’s believing in yourself and making changes in your own life, faith is the core idea guiding these decisions. True faith, though it is technically invisible, is evidenced by visible actions.
“If a brother or sister has nothing to wear and has no food for the day, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, keep warm, and eat well,’ but you do not give them the necessities of the body, what good is it? So also faith in itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” (JAMES 2:15-17)
What this is saying is not that if you don’t meet some sort of requirements then your faith “doesn’t count,” it’s just saying that truly, if you believe something, it should change your actions. True faith is always at work.
Chapel speaker suggestions are welcome at chapel@easternmennonite.org
