Chapel & SDC Events
Spiritual Development Credit (SDC) provides a foundation for students to cultivate their lifelong faith development journey. Furthermore, SDC offers robust opportunities for students to steward their faith formation through different avenues at UNW. We desire to provide a variety of opportunities to deepen wisdom, character, and service development.
Our daily chapel remains at the heart of a student’s SDC journey. Chapel provides a time and place to gather as a community around a theme, examined through the lens of Scripture, in order to deepen our knowledge and experience of God, along with being challenged and encouraged to impact the world.
In addition to daily chapel, numerous other SDC events provide students with a variety of opportunities to engage in their spiritual development. Whether it be a dorm or commuter Bible study, an academic department event, or any other pre-approved Northwestern event, every SDC opportunity is designed to connect students with Jesus and others toward a deepening faith formation.
Mission of Chapel: Encountering God Together in Community
Chapel is an opportunity for all of Northwestern to gather daily to share in an experience of worship that engages with creative and diverse content that will encourage, challenge, and invite us to a life of faith, hope, love, and service. Common elements of Chapel services include outside guest speakers and talks from members of the Northwestern community, interactive prayer elements, and various expressions of worship.
Every chapel is planned with the following values in mind:
- Christ-centered. We seek to glorify and experience God through content that is rooted in Christ.
- Transformation-focused. We seek development that encourages a genuine, transformative journey.
- Community-oriented. We seek to understand, love, and journey together as part of the body of Christ.
Chapel Schedule
SDC Attendance
In order to help students develop rhythms towards lifelong Christ-centered formation, regular attendance is required of full-time traditional undergraduate students and dual enrollment students who live on campus. Students are expected to earn 20 credits per quad.
Students are allowed numerous discretionary absences (approx. 2-3 per week) from chapel each quad. Students are free to use these discretionary absences for personal reasons (study time, employment, volunteer work, doctor/dentist appointments, non-extended illness, car trouble, trips home, etc.). Students who qualify may request additional absences by submitting an online exemption form.
