Soaring attendance numbers packed people tight in Rediger Chapel.
Every other weekday, students and faculty emerged from all over campus and congregated in Rediger Chapel Auditorium to find seats. Often, a detached group would follow behind, looking for seats and raising questions about chapel capacity.
“It's hard every year,” Greg Dyson, campus pastor and VP for Spiritual Life and Intercultural Leadership, said. “There are roughly 1,500 seats and more people than that.”
Dyson said he has been working on a plan that will maximize the capacity they already have available. Visitors will always be seated early to avoid confusion, while faculty remain behind to fill in the spaces left.
Another option was presented last week before 24 at Taylor. During this event, Taylor hosted 250 visitors in dorms and gave them a classroom and chapel experience. Dyson asked 75 students to sit on the stage to provide space for these prospective students.
He said that it was an experiment, but the auditorium ended up having a little over 100 additional seats once adjustments were made.
Dyson said they plan to install monitors just outside the chapel doors and are getting quotes to get that work completed. They are additionally working to turn on the 3 monitors in Boren that are already being used for advertising, and would like to get those working in the next few weeks.
He has been surveying a lecture hall by the Rediger Chapel as an overflow area where students can go if there are no more seats.
“We will also make Cornwall available during heavy guest visitor times for monitor viewing,” said Dyson.
While Taylor is not in a position to set Cornwall up as a separate event, Dyson said that he believes there are more than enough options to solve the current problem with seating.
Freshman Tha Zi gets out of class ten minutes before chapel starts and has struggled to find an open seat. She said there are more seats available near the front of Rediger but getting one would require her to squeeze in a tight place and disturb others worshiping.
“I actually think that's a good idea to have something live in case you want to study and still be able to attend chapel,” Zi said about the idea of Cornwall being an overflow area.
Chapel attendance is high, and while it may seem like a problem for seating, Dyson can see it as physical evidence of spiritual growth.
The 24 at Taylor events happen throughout the year. The next one will be October 8-9 with the Homecoming and Family Weekend event also taking place on October 20-22. These events will increase numbers for the services.
“The expectation is often that a lot of people are busy,” Dyson said, “So they're not going to be available and able to go to chapel. What has happened is they have come in and said, ‘Chapel is on my radar, and I'm making the time to be able to do this.’”
For students who have concerns or suggestions, Dyson would love for them to contact him by his email campuspastor@taylor.edu.
