By Mackenzie Grizzard | Staff Writer
Chapel has been a part of Baylor’s core curriculum since its founding in 1845 and is the oldest tradition in American higher education, according to Baylor’s official website.
Sharing a birthday with the university itself, Baylor chapel was created for students to find their faith community — a mission that has continued to this day.
Dr. Burt Burleson, university chaplain, explained that chapel was a common practice in 1845, but with much less variety than now.
“There was usually a morning experience, and it was typically run by the president,” Burleson said. “It was kind of like everybody’s dad, and everyone had to go to prayers.”
As the young university grew, chapel grew with it, Burleson said. When Baylor President Pat Morris Neff took office in 1932, chapel began to mirror the service students are familiar with today.
“He changed the format from a prayer service to a sort of ‘What do college students need to know about?'” Burleson said.
Burleson said that as the world changed, chapel leaders often modeled their services around major world events.
“When we get to the ’60s, you have all this stuff going on in Vietnam, racial difficulty and people protesting on college campuses … you see the shift there,” Burleson said. “We want this to be a place where students are looking at the world.”
This shift marked the creation of the chapel Baylor students are accustomed to today, which is still growing. Today, Baylor has eight sections of chapel worship, with opportunities specific to residence hall, major, sport and more.
“We don’t want it to be just sitting there and listening to someone talk,” Burleson said. “We want [students] to have an experience that is artistic. We want them to connect with one another and potential mentors, and that’s happening.”
According to Burleson, chapel is a critical component of finding community at Baylor and, as a result, makes students more successful.
“What we know by our faith and character study is that if you [are] in a faith community at Baylor, you do better in every way,” Burleson said. “It’s not just that your faith is impacted, but your grades are better.”
This is exemplified in the university’s new strategic plan, Baylor In Deeds, which will lead Baylor all the way through 2030.
“It’s guided by the same four pillars you saw in Illuminate, ensuring that we had a distinctively Christian environment,” President Linda Livingstone said.
The Christian environment detailed in the strategic plan is achieved partly through the community within chapel, according to Burleson.
“It’s also the case that if you have good friends that are caring about you, helping you deal with life and things that matter most, you feel a sense of belonging and you’re going to thrive,” Burleson said.
