On Sunday, Feb. 19, students gathered in Lower Seeger for the typically-planned Vespers worship service. The only difference? Instead of ending at its usual time, worship continued until 12:30 a.m., and some students remained praying until 2 a.m.
Campus Ministry leaders held an additional service on Monday, Feb. 20 in hopes to open up space for students to encounter the presence of God.
Vespers is a student-led worship service held at 8:30 p.m. on Sunday nights. While meeting before the service that week, the Vespers leadership felt the Holy Spirit moving.
They decided they would play worship music from Spotify at the end of the service, rather than ending with a dance party as is typically done.
“We did not plan anything beyond being prepared to play worship music after the service,”
Vespers Chair Lauren Petty said.
The service began with two songs before the sermon.
“It seemed different than normal,” Vespers Worship Leader Caleb Peterson said. “Some people were raising their hands, and others were on their knees.”
Sophomore Joy Reks preached on the phrase “follow your heart” as part of the Vespers sermon series, “The Bible Doesn’t Say That.” Her main point was that the Bible says to follow Jesus rather than your heart.
After the sermon, the worship team played their two scheduled songs before junior Ryan Broussard gave a closing prayer.
“If you were in that room, you know something was happening,” said Petty. “That wasn’t planned. That wasn’t us.”
Broussard told the students they could stay or they could go, but that they would continue to have worship music playing rather than their typical dance party.
The worship band decided to lead songs instead of turning to Spotify, and so they improvised worship songs to play as they went. At one point, Sam Dorcely, frequent worship leader for Vespers, began singing a Haitian worship song he knew from where he grew up.
“The Holy Spirit can move in planned services,” said Peterson. “But opening things up allowed for moments such as that to occur because there was not a planned song they needed to get to.”
The production and technology team adapted well to the lack of structure and quickly found lyrics to the songs so everybody could sing along. The musicians kept their instrumentation minimal to allow for everyone’s voices to carry.
Students continued to worship and pray until 12:30 a.m., four hours after the service began at 8:30 p.m.
Once sound equipment and instruments were put away, some students remained in Lower Seeger until 2 a.m.
The next day, Campus Ministry leaders discussed how to proceed in light of what happened. Davis said they decided the service would be a part of the broader Campus Ministry because it seemed like something that was happening throughout campus.
“The way that both Rich [Aubrey] and I have tried to do campus ministry is to stay tuned in with what student leaders think about what is going on on campus,” said Davis.
“I think based on what happened at Asbury and how things felt on Sunday, we thought the best thing to do was open up for a time of worship on Monday,” Peterson said.
The extended worship services at Milligan came toward the end of a two-week-long time of worship at Asbury University, which some have considered a revival. Other Christian educational institutions have had similar times of worship.
Petty said the leadership decided to have a four-hour worship service Monday night following the Fellowship of Christian Athletes healing event. Alex Windham, President of FCA, decided to condense their weekly event to lead right into the worship service that would begin at 8 p.m.
Involved in leading the worship service were leaders from Vespers, FCA, MU Prayer, and Apostolos.
Windham said various individuals were “coming together and playing to their strengths.”
The plan was to have four sets of worship leaders take a one-hour shift each.
“This was to take into account the reality of physical limitations,” said Petty.
“You want to balance making space for people, while also taking care of our personnel,” said Davis.
Windham said that he was there to field people who wanted to speak. He has been part of similar services, including being present at Asbury University on Feb. 18. He said that it is helpful to have structure in services where different people are being led to speak.
Windham said he believes the Lord will continue to move in greater measure for those who allow God to break down the “barriers to that in [their] heart.” He said he believes that forgiveness and humility are two ways to do so.
Lauren Petty had similar beliefs.
“Revival can be something on a large scale that lasts for 12 days,” Petty said. “But it can also be something that happens on an individual basis. We never want to get to a place where we’re praying for revival to be like another place, another campus.”
Brealle Davis believes Asbury is an example of how God meets students where they are, and on their campus.
“The goal was to open up a space for students’ hearts to be renewed by what God can do in people’s lives,” Davis said.
Peterson said that he is looking forward to how God will continue to move at Milligan.
“Paul writes letters to different places, and those are all in the Spirit… God has different ways of speaking to different places,” said Peterson. He said that in his experience at Milligan, God has moved in “seeking Jesus together in the community regularly, with consistency.”
Headline Image from Chase McGlamery