Who Was That Bald Man?
Today: Best. Chapel. Evar.
From the moment the service began, I could tell it wasn’t going to be your average chapel service. As it turned out, we had a singspiration this morning, led by an evangelist rather than someone in the music faculty.
The man was dynamic, funny, and extremely energetic. He was walking back and forth in the massive pulpit, directing us with exaggerated motions. Half way through, he took off his jacket and walked around to in front of the pulpit, waving his arms furiously, and encouraging us to sing out louder.
I hope WBJU had a camera pointed at the stage today. If they did, I want a copy of the video.
It was one of those things that I wouldn’t like all the time, and that I wouldn’t like if I were in a smaller group, but today it was just perfect.
Question for BJU students/faculty: What was that guy’s name?
February 15th, 2006 at 8:42 pm
Mike Shrock, the BJU staff evangelist.
He’s home for a bit from travelling.
February 15th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
From your description it sounds like the truly best chapel ever would involve a trapeze artist and clowns.
February 16th, 2006 at 8:33 am
I can almost promise you WBJU didn’t have a camera up yesterday. FMA has their own camera, and that doesn’t record (to my knowledge). Even if it did, I doubt they’d make the recording available..
I have to agree that it was probably the best sinspiration I remember as a student..
February 16th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
Question… What made yesterday a good singspiration? Merely the fact that it was funny, energetic, and distinct from the norm? If so, those aren’t good qualifications.
February 16th, 2006 at 8:43 pm
No, no clowns. They’re evil.
I’m really not doing the service justice by my description; you really just had to be there.
The thing that made it interesting was that there was a lot more energy than in your typical chapel service. Again, I wouldn’t want a steady diet of it, but it was a welcome break from your typical chapel fare.
Normally, people just get up and say whatever they’re going to say–stuff which students have heard before 9 times out of 10. They don’t get excited about their topic. It can be kind of dreary, actually.
Shrock’s style was a breath of fresh air for the place. I want to hear him preach now.
February 17th, 2006 at 3:34 pm
I thought chapel on Wednesday was incredibly refreshing. I agree, I wouldn’t want it like that all the time, but something between that and the normal would be great. Mike Shrock is an incredible guy and is always energetic; however, he went further than normal on Wednesday because the student body sounded pretty dead. It takes a lot of energy to reanimate a group of people like us, and he did it.
Are you sure those aren’t good qualifications? I’ll agree with you on humor; Mike Shrock was funny, but that’s not a worthy criterion. Likewise, the mere fact that it was different from the norm is not sufficient either. That is, change for the sake of change is not a worthy criterion any more than humor. However, I strongly disagree with you on energy — that is precisely why it was so much better than many services at BJU. Every example we have in the Bible of singing and praising God overflows with energy. Why is it, then, that most of the time we sing like we’re half dead? (For goodness sake, less than a week ago, the song leader had to stop the song to implore the guys to sing at all!) Mr. Shrock’s encouragement for us to sing with energy is fully biblical.
February 20th, 2006 at 3:44 pm
Anyone know anything about the flack Shrock supposedly got for his “enthusiasm”? There was an email going around about it….
February 20th, 2006 at 3:48 pm
I didn’t hear anything bad about it, but somehow it wouldn’t surprise me.
We did get an email from Dr. Berg saying that Mr. Shrock was getting a lot of feedback about the chapel service, but it sounded like he was receiving positive feedback.
February 24th, 2006 at 10:34 am
There was an email going around that some admin ppl were giving him flak about the service and that he was feeling discouraged because of it. I’m not so sure it was true, but I did send Mr. Shrock an email saying I appreciated his work on that day.