A group of motivated Union students have started All Student Worship Nights. These worship nights are open to anyone and last for about an hour to an hour and a half. The expected turnout for the first Worship Night was about twenty people; but over 100 showed up.
These worship nights give students who participate in different organizations a chance to come together for a common purpose. Typically, a worship night will start with the reading of scripture with a time of prayer which will then lead into the musical portion, followed by students sharing their stories.
Sophomore business economics major, Corinne Olund, is the driving force behind these worship nights.
“Last semester I was watching the culture of Union and it bothered me that we were at a Christian school and that it seemed like we lived our lives in a compact way,” said Olund.
This summer Olund had the idea of starting Worship Nights.
“I started sharing that vision with people,” Olund said. “The more people I talked to the more support I got.”
The students who lead worship alongside Olund are freshman undecided major Eli Parker, sophomore public relations major Ashley Exum and senior psychology major Stephanie Olford.
Before the first worship night, the worship leaders gathered together to pray for what was about to happen. They expected about twenty people to show up. As the starting time began to creep closer, more and more students kept showing up. Eventually there were over 100 students packed into the Bowld gym for the sole purpose of worshipping.
“I think it has been stirring in people’s hearts for a while, but no one knew what action to take,” said Olford.
Once action was taken it was clear that Lord was doing bigger things than people could’ve hoped for.
“The heart behind it is to create a sense of Unity because we are taught that we are one body of Christ,” said Olund. “But being a school where there are so many things to be involved in, we want to have something that brings us together outside of a club.
The goal is to have a worship night every other week or monthly. The next planned Worship Night is October 6, in the Bowld Commons.