Spiritual formation credit has been a requirement for at least 10 years. The program was created to allow students more of a choice when it came to chapel attendance. However, President Bill Greer has hopes to discuss the possibility of getting rid of the requirement over the next two to three years in the strategic planning of the school.
At the last Student Government Association meeting on March 1, Greer expressed his hopes of taking away chapel credits. His dream is that students will enjoy and love chapel so much that they will want to attend on their own without needing credit.
“My dream and my vision is that we wouldn’t have to scan cards to get spiritual formation credit,” Greer said. “I hope that our students would be so personally motivated and inspired to be there and our programming would be so good that students would just want to be there and SFP credit would be unnecessary.”
The Spiritual Formation Program was created while Don Jeanes was president of Milligan College from 1997 to 2011. The new program provided other ways to achieve the 150 chapel credit requirement for graduation, such as mission trips and service projects.
“I like the current SFP program because it helps me continue to grow as a person and in my faith, but I don’t think it is necessary,” sophomore Kelly Koger said. “I think that since it is a weekly thing that it has become more of an event. Now it seems like it has become part of a check-list for graduation.”
Greer wants chapel to be a part of the regular student life on campus instead of a necessity. He hopes that this would drive students to attend and gather around each other in a time of worship.
“I think getting rid of SFP credits would be a great transition for the school,” junior Tori Kanizer said. “It would give students more freedom on choosing when to attend chapel.”
However, some students have different opinions. Some are afraid that the participation in SFP events would drop because there would be no requirement to graduate.
“Honestly, my fear is that if the school doesn’t make people come to chapel then students won’t show up,” junior Savannah Raizor said. “I know that if it wasn’t a requirement then I probably wouldn’t go as much. I also think that having SFP requirements is what sets us apart as a Christian college.”