Life at NPTS is changing- this is especially true for our Chicago based campus students! But all change is not bad. In fact, change can be an opportunity to be creative and innovative! In that spirit, we are trying some new ways of doing community life, worship, and student leadership that we hope you will embrace to help us to build a strong and vibrant NPTS community!
We are also concerned about the health and wellness of our community in this very stressful world in which we live and minister. To that end, we are offering a variety of events to help us stay well, active and engaged with one another.
Community Life
This fall we will be creating virtual opportunities to come together to cook, do yoga or even learn about worm farming. This is open to all of our students and faculty/staff members wherever you live! Our options are as extensive as our talented and interesting community members! These monthly events will be fun and engaging opportunities to see one another in a different context and know one another beyond the classroom. If you have a talent or skill you would like to share with the community, please let me know and we will add you to the schedule! This is open to all community members, near or far!
For our Chicago based community we will meet on Fridays at 10:30 for Fridays Ride-days. There are some great bike trails very near campus for us to enjoy as long as weather permits. We will meet in front of Nyvall at 10:30. Helmets and masks required.
Another stress reducing and fellowship opportunity is Walking for Wellness. We will facilitate matching partners so you can sign up to walk with a partner. We hope this can be a weekly (or more frequent!) activity.
Worship
Please see the chapel post for more detail, but we would love for as many as can join us for regular weekly virtual chapel worship on Thursdays at 11. We are looking for artists of all sorts to share monthly artistic reflections to help us go deeper into our theme of “One bread, one body.”
For those on/near campus, we will gather Tuesday mornings at 9 for Morning Prayer. We will come together, 6 feet apart, outside Nyvall around the statue of Lina Sandell to pray together and with all the saints (see Heb.12). These will be led by different community members each week so please connect with me to choose a week to lead!
Student Leadership
This fall, we are forming a student leadership team to help facilitate all of the above and whatever creative ideas you come up, as well as research how best to move forward with student government in the ensuing years. We will benchmark other schools and options to facilitate a strong campus community as well as explore its connection to our various degree programs across the country. If you would like to help with this effort let me know!
We are excited to welcome all of our new students as well as current students to this new school year! Our prayer is that together we can create community in ways that remind us of the love of God and the unending hope we have as followers of Jesus Christ. Join us!