Tuesday marked the last “first day” of undergrad studies for some, for others the first “first day” of undergrad studies, and for those in between, just another first day of school. As the students, faculty, and staff  entered Grace Chapel, Michael Laffey, student intern with the Office of Spiritual Formation, did a Chapel “warm-up” with students before the praise and worship time. Due to God’s recent calling in his life, this was the first chapel service in 17 years where Pastor Jeff Gangel was not the one leading us in worship. Pastor Jeff, as he was known to TFC students, left TFC last semester to accept a call to pastor a church in Virginia.

The service which was led by Amy Roedding, acting director of Spiritual Formation, began with student leaders praying over each member of the President’s Cabinet, including the chairman of the Board of Trustees, Ray Kincaid.

TFC Provost Dr. Barbara Bellefeuille was the main speaker. She challenged students to make sure the testimony of their lives matched up to the words they so often sang in worship to God. She did this by telling a story about a relationship between a husband and wife in which the wife praised her husband with her words, yet failed to do so with her actions. She took this analogy further to relate to us, the body of believers, to reflect on our own actions – Do we only praise Him with our mouths, but our actions speak otherwise?

Dr. Bellefeuille referenced 1 Samuel 13-15 where King Saul is carrying out God’s commands, but fails to obey. Samuel says in 1 Samuel 15:22, “Does the Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice.” (NASB emphasis added)