Spencer Carter Chapel

Those who have lived or worked in Meier Hall, the men's residence on campus, will remember its layout. A basement and three floors. Suite-style rooms on east and west wings. A receiving lobby with a large fireplace that sits just steps away from administrative offices. And above those offices, in the middle of the building, is the chapel.

Those who have lived or worked in Meier Hall, the men’s residence on campus, will remember its layout. A basement and three floors. Suite-style rooms on east and west wings. A receiving lobby with a large fireplace that sits just steps away from administrative offices. And above those offices, in the middle of the building, is the chapel.

The chapel in Meier Hall is not just physically located in the center of the building. It has also served, for decades, as location central for programming in Meier.

Looking for any spiritually-based community gathering in Meier? Check the chapel—for worships, documentaries and the resulting discussions, and weekly RA and student dean team meetings. It is, in a sense, a multi-purpose room, though each of those purposes feeds the spiritual development aspect of the Meier Hall community. And each program is built on relationship.

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Spencer Carter, who began work at Andrews University as assistant dean of Meier Hall in 1993, spent many important moments in the chapel. In his role as dean he was tasked with upholding policies and communicating spiritual values. He always stressed, though, that policies and spiritual engagement mean more through relationship.

Dean Carter was known for keeping it real. Every year at orientation, with the entire Meier community present, he would stand at the front of the chapel and share the goal for the year: to end the year with everyone they began with. He made sobering statements—sharing the reality that someone in the room, through the year, might go to jail or might even die.

But this brought him to his most important point. He would direct the residents’ attention to the cross on the platform and invite them to embrace their identity in the cross—“I hope you’ll be God’s man.”

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In the fall 2019 semester, Carter decided to retire as dean of Meier Hall after 26.5 years at Andrews University. He talked with Andrew Dormus and Donnie Keele, associate deans, and plans began to take shape for how to positively transition to the next phase of Meier life.

As Keele sat in an RA meeting in the chapel and, as he had many times before, watched Dean Carter encourage the team from the front of the room, an idea began to form.

“Dean Carter has a strong ministry of presence,” says Keele. “He exudes relationship. It would just come up in meetings, whether he’s giving the guys ‘nuts and bolts’ for their jobs or giving a leadership thought. Watching him do his thing I realized I could think of a lot of moments in the room where he references the cross behind him.”

Keele also recalled one of “Carter’s rules”—whenever the chapel was shut down, the lights on the cross would always be left on. As Dean Carter often said: “If a resident walks by, the chapel will be dark but the cross is lit up and stands out.”

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On Monday, Dec. 2, 2019, a retirement celebration was held for Carter in the Meier Hall Chapel.

The program was filled with tributes from individuals that Spencer knew on a professional level but also as friends in the Andrews community: Donnie Keele; Elynda Bedney, director of Student Financial Services; Frances Faehner, vice president for Campus & Student Life; José Bourget, pastor at Pioneer Memorial Church who had served as a student dean in years past; Jennifer Burrill, director of Residence Life; and Judith Fisher, director of the Counseling & Testing Center.

Those in attendance were also invited to share comments, and former student residents, church family and friends added their thoughts to those expressed from the front. Spencer’s wife, Nan, and son, Elliott, were present, as were his brother and sister—a surprise from earlier in the day.

At the end of the program, President Andrea Luxton shared some words of gratitude and made a very special announcement: the chapel in Meier Hall would now be named the “Spencer Carter Chapel.” Luxton presented Carter with a framed certificate with the following inscription:

Spencer Carter served the undergraduate men of Andrews University in Meier Hall from 1993–2019. Throughout that time, he spent countless hours mentoring hundreds of student leaders and serving the needs of thousands of Andrews students. Some residents met him for the first time on their way to the hospital for treatment, others came to know him as the dean who kept them from spending the night in jail because he covered their bail, and many will remember him as the dean who regularly challenged them to “handle your business.” Year after year, Dean Carter faithfully fulfilled a wide range of responsibilities, providing steady leadership first as Assistant Dean, then as Associate Dean, and finally as Meier Hall’s Dean of Men. 

The chapel is a special place in Meier Hall. It is a space where building residents experience moments of worship and resident advisors grow as leaders and men at weekly team meetings. In both settings, it was a regular occurrence for Dean Carter to point toward the cross standing at the front of the room and encourage those present to recommit to “be God’s man.” For over 26 years, building residents and student leaders listened and responded. Of the many places in Meier Hall that show Dean Carter’s legacy, the Meier Hall chapel is a space that regularly saw his most impactful and influential work.

Therefore, on December 2, 2019, in honor of Spencer Carter’s service and in commitment to continue his legacy, Andrews University henceforth recognizes the chapel space in Meier Hall as the Spencer Carter Chapel.

Then Carter, with the cross as a familiar backdrop, stood at the front of the room and expressed his appreciation to his community, those who had supported him with their presence, their work and always their prayers.

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Reflecting on the evening, Keele says, “A lot of this community has been here the whole time—they saw Carter go from being a student at Andrews to doing work in the community as a social worker to giving back to Andrews. It’s very cool to see Andrews give back to him.”

Alumni who saw the “Spencer Carter Chapel” on Instagram wrote in and said, “That’s fitting.” “I support it.” “Great to see.”

Dormus, too, felt the honor fitting. “I had the opportunity to work with Dean Carter for close to six years,” he says. “I use the word with intentionally because Carter never made it a point to say I was working for him but with him instead. My partnership with Dean Carter over the years of working together taught me what it meant to be a man of integrity. ‘God has brought me too far for me to embarrass him’ is one of the things he would say. Carter knew what this work was really about; he placed high value in his walk with Christ, and that translated to how he worked and treated those around him. I will forever be grateful for his ability to recognize talent in me and encourage me to use my gifts in service to others. For this, Dean Carter will always be my mentor and friend.”

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As part of the renaming, the chapel and chapel hallway will go through a refresh this summer, something last done in 2006. Four hundred seats will be reduced to 360, opening up the back of the chapel and creating a place for students to leave their backpacks and coats.

“It was my great privilege to work and minister alongside of Dean Carter for all of his 26.5 years at Andrews University,” says Frances Faehner. “Dean Carter's love for his Lord and Savior—and his deep passion to foster the growth of young men to be men of integrity and faith come what may—will be the indelible legacy he leaves on the fabric of this campus and in the lives of thousands of men around the world.”

Carter says, “I have deep feelings of humility in receiving this honor, and I am further inspired to live up to the legacy of being God’s man.”