Class of 2018: A Political Science Student Has a Calling for Preaching
D.J. Chatelaine III was this year’s Duke Chapel Student Preacher
Senior D.J. Chatelaine III will deliver a sermon in Duke University Chapel on Sunday, April 8, during the 11 a.m. worship service.
A committee of staff and faculty convened by Duke Chapel chose Chatelaine to be this year’s student preacher.
“Preaching is something I’ve felt called to do for a while,” said Chatelaine, who is president of Duke Lutherans and a Duke Chapel Scholar. In addition to being encouraged toward ministry while at his home church in Owatonna, Minnesota, he said, “I had a moment my freshman year at the East Campus bus stop where this feeling came over me that the time is now to start pursuing this call to ministry.”
Chatelaine, a double major in religious studies and political science, will preach on the first chapter of the book of 1 John.
“The chapter aims to remind followers of Christ that even though Christ is risen, beware of darkness, beware of falling into sin,” he said. “The message is that there’s all this crazy stuff going on in the world right now, but, on this Sunday a week after Easter, there is a light in the darkness.”
The chapel’s director of worship and community ministry, the Rev. Bruce Puckett said Chatelaine’s sermon has a clear message.
“Using 1 John, D.J. calls us to be people of the light,” Puckett said. “His sermon convicts and challenges, even as he reminds us of the light that Christ invites his people to be.”
The sermon will be broadcast live on YouTube, WDNC Radio (620 AM), channel 12 on the Duke Hospital TV system and channel 110 of the Duke Campus Vision TV system.
Through his involvement with Duke Chapel, Chatelaine has read Scripture, served communion, helped direct funds to local nonprofits, participated in book study groups and shared meals with two prominent preachers -- the South African minister Alan Storey and Michael Eric Dyson, a public commentator and sociology professor at Georgetown University.
Before graduating this May, Chatelaine plans to finish his senior thesis on the convergence of the spirituality of The Beatles and Bob Dylan. After graduating, he plans to take a job as the youth director at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church in Rochester, Minnesota.