A flyer with the spiritual practice of humility.
Courtesy of Azusa Pacific University
Students, faculty and staff celebrated the virtue of humility this week with guest speakers and various events during the annual Spiritual Formation Week, which started Monday, Nov. 4.
The Campus Pastors Office sponsors the event every year. According to Pastor Khristi Adams, she and her colleagues went through careful planning sessions to decide this year’s focus.
“We have at least three or four meetings where all the campus pastors sit and talk about what is going on in the campus community from our perspective and we throw out a few things,” Adams said. “And from those we say, ‘OK, what can be the practice or practices that encourage growth in that area?'”
Khristi kicked the week off during Monday morning chapel, speaking to students about the spiritual practice of secrecy and how it is important to keep secrets in order to stay humble.
“Secrecy as a spiritual discipline automatically humbles you,” Adams said.
The week continued with a movie screening of the 2009 film “Invictus” on Trinity Lawn Tuesday night. The movie depicts the true story about former South African President Nelson Mandela and how he tried to break down the barriers of racial tension in the wake of apartheid through the sport of rugby. Students at the event sat in lawn chairs and wrapped themselves in blankets as they watched Mandela remain humble in the face of tremendous opposition during his journey to lead the country’s underdog rugby team to the World Cup Championship.
During Wednesday morning chapel, guest speaker Francis Benedict pointed to the teachings of Saint Benedict. Students listened as the ordained priest and Benedictine monk read Scripture passages related to humility.
That evening, theology professor Michael Bruner gave a lecture in the Cougar Dome about the relationship between social media and the virtue of humility. In the lecture entitled “#selfie,” Bruner talked about how disconnected students are from the community as they are too connected to their online profiles. Although students may try to stay humble while still being connected to their Facebook, Bruner believes it isn’t as easy of a task as people think it might be.
“I think it’s very hard because the very basis of social media is that you are promoting yourself online. I don’t want to say it’s impossible, but I think the very structure of social media makes it very difficult,” Bruner said.
Bruner encouraged students at the lecture to disconnect and get involved with the community. If social media may be too hard to give up, he says, then students should have control over their profiles.
“Let you start controlling it and not it control you,” Bruner said.
On Thursday night, APU alum and former chapel worship leader James Brooks held a concert titled “In the Secret” at the Cougar Dome. Attendees listened and sang along while Brooks talked and sang songs about humility, as well as performing songs off his CD project titled “Talmadge.”
Mindy Caliguire ended the week during Friday morning chapel with her talk about spiritual formation. Caliguire is the founder of Soul Care, a spiritual formation ministry with the purpose to help people strengthen their relationship with God.
For freshman film production major Alexa Hobelman, the idea of humility relating to her relationship with God wasn’t something she thought about until this week.
“I never really realize how much I’m on my phone posting or looking at Facebook statuses or Instagram pictures, and the idea that posting things about myself wasn’t very humble didn’t occur to me at all,” Hobelman said. “I always viewed it as something harmless, but it really isn’t.”
Whether or not this week’s message affects students in the long run, Adams hopes that students will use this week as a time to reflect upon themselves.
“I want there to be kind of like a communal introspection that takes place where we all stop for a minute and take a step back and say, ‘OK, at what point do I become selfless?’ or ‘Have I been too self-focused?’” Adams said.
Adams said she hopes that the virtue of humility will have a long lasting effect on students for the rest of the school year — not just during Spiritual Formation Week.