Continuing on from the success of last semester, worship night returned this Sunday, the 28th of January. The night offered a place for students at Goshen College to come together and worship through singing, as well as time to break off to either pray for oneself, others or journal.
“It’s a really good time to connect with God and also to support other people who are there,” Kelsey Winters, the organizer of the event, said. “It’s not just focus on yourself all the time.”Winters, a sophomore from Upland, Indiana, is a ministry leader this year at GC. She first heard about the idea of a worship night at the beginning of the school year, from former Campus Pastor, Rev. Bob Yoder, when she and the other ministry leaders were at a retreat.
“No one else really seemed interested in taking the reins on it, so I went up to him afterwards,” she said.
Winters believes that these nights offer a new style of worship to students at GC, “It’s different from what you would necessarily experience in chapel or even in some churches,” she said.
Although Winters is in charge of overseeing and organizing the running of the events, she herself does not lead the nights. “I’m not a worship leader at this point in my life,” she said, “It’s not something I’m comfortable with doing, so I get it set up and let other people do that part.”
So far, Winters has entrusted the task of leading the nights to sophomore, Elijah Lora and senior, Taylor Zehr. “They have a lot of freedom,” she said, “They’re people that I know and trust.”
Lora led this past Sunday’s worship and explained the process of how he planned the night.
“The first thing I did is tapped on shoulders of people who I feel have good hearts of worship,” he said, “who will really help me.”
Picking the songs comes down to the music that Lora believes will push people to be more free.
“People have the ability to just listen and to really just worship how they want to worship,” he said.
“To listen to the words and really mean the things they were saying, rather than thinking about the notes they were singing.”
Lora’s enthusiasm to help out with the nights stemmed from his own love for worship.
“Faith is something that’s really important to me.”
Although worship night is led by Christians, Winters explained how it’s open to anyone on campus who wishes to connect with God. “I think anyone who thinks it sounds like fun or interesting should come,” she said.
Sophomore Lourdes Resendiz explained how her love for worship music and God is one of the reasons why she attended. “Anytime to worship God is a great time,” she said, “Especially with other people.”
“You feel them and they’re not putting just a show on, they are worshipping with you.” Resendiz said, referring to the worship leaders. “We all feel so free to just worship God.”
With the first worship night of the semester under their belt, Winters and the rest of the team intend to continue offering the event to the campus community once every month.
