Black History Month Chapels Promote Diversity
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By Eric Torrence
Campus Pastor Ryan Lee makes an immense effort to provide many diverse speakers for Tabor’s Chapel. He has been focusing on bringing in minority voices, including women, African American, and Latino. He reached out to cabinet members on the board of
message, but it is a good thing,” Lee said about the diversity of speakers. Connections and recommendations are what keeps the momentum going for future chapels. One phenomenal thing Lee is doing is the Chapel podcast.
pastors in the area and received great feedback. His
It allows you to see any particular Chapel service you
efforts through the pastor’s alliance in Wichita has
might have missed and makes Chapel more universal.
brought about a more inclusive chapel service. Lee said he tries to focus on the different influential
Lee has developed great relationships with people that are eager to speak, and for Black History Month, he
months we celebrate cultures and their history.
filled nearly every slot with a Black speaker. He wants
Different messages give students a widened scope or
to make Chapel better, but he needs people to email
perspective.
him with requests or to give feedback.
“We get a fuller picture of who God is. And someone might say something that makes you wrestle with their
Overall, Lee is all about diversification, and is attempting to help everyone at Tabor join together as one community.
*Soul Food Opinion* By Eric Torrence
February was a time for celebration in the African
everyone’s palettes because there are many ethnic
American community. We, as a country, have
cultures at Tabor. The event ended up doing pretty
made great strides, with many influential figures
well. Several people I asked really enjoyed the thought
and inventors in the African American community
more than anything.
revolutionizing society.
The best moment of the luncheon was hearing
It was unusual to not have a theme or hear any talks about an event in the works on campus. It took some brainstorming, but an interesting idea came into
someone say, “I feel back at home.” I’m hoping other cultures can do something similar in the future. There should be more appreciation for Rob Scott, food
fruition: how about creating a meal to bring everyone
service director with Pioneer College Caterers at Tabor.
together?
He was willing to do something out of the ordinary. I
It took some help with some really amazing students
also want to give a special thanks to the Pioneer kitchen
and faculty of Tabor College. The Southern idea of a
staff and all they’ve done and continue to do for the
soul food luncheon popped onto the drawing board.
preparation of all our meals at Tabor.
We faced many challenges attempting to satisfy Opinion pieces are marked with ** for readers’ convenience
