CARRIE KUNZMANN | staff writer
 |
|
Ben Ritter
|
| JOSEPH SPENCER gospel group leads worship for Gospel Sing. |
|
An orange and yellow draped stage in the Felix Event Center welcomed many performers Saturday night as APU’s Multi-Ethnic Programs Office presented the 18th annual Gospel Sing.
“Perhaps the favorite night that I have all year is the Gospel Sing, and this year was far and away the most amazing of all of them,” Senior Vice President of Student Life and Dean of Students Terry Franson said. “Every year I go, I wish I would have brought everyone I know because it’s such a fantastic experience.”
Gospel Sing is an all-inclusive worship opportunity designed to bring the student body together for a night of free expression and worship without boundaries or cultural divides. Its theme was “Eternal Praise” as inspired by Psalm 34:1.
“It’s a different kind of worship that people don’t get to experience,” explained junior biology major and MESA Co-Leader Adrian Mercado.
Mercado and fellow MESA Co-Leaders, senior mathematics major Jeanie Cho and sophomore art major Jasmine Coleman, have been discussing about the event since they got their positions, but began serious planning in late November, early December.
Multi-Ethnic Programs has a budget allotted for Gospel Sing, but where funds ran short Mercado, Cho, and Coleman wrote sponsorship letters to various offices on campus as well as local businesses and churches.
Performers for the night included APU students and alumni, and also included mainstream Gospel artists such as Grammy Nominee Kim Burrell. Aside from the singing, Everson Marsh provided a spoken word, Pastor Ed Barron led community prayer and APU’s female stomp team, Umoja, graced the stage as part of the worship. Even master of ceremonies, Joel Simpson, broke out into song and dance in between performances.
“Our [master of ceremonies] Joel, and our performers were so phenomenal,” Coleman said. “It was great working with them through this process.”
The performers were not the only ones worshiping Saturday night. Plenty of audience members were singing along, raising hands, running to the front and dancing in the aisles.
“It’s definitely a different style of worship than you get most of the time. You just feel it in a different way than you do with most worship,” sophomore sociology major Matt “Matty P” Peterson said. “It becomes a part of you. You really feel God from head to toe; it’s just a different atmosphere. It’s amazing.”
Most students agreed that Gospel Sing provides a unique night of worship but there is some disagreement as to whether it should remain a one-night event.
“I think it would take away from it if we had it every weekend or once a month,” Junior English major Lauren Brown said. “When you do have one special, big thing the impact will be a lot larger.”
Others felt they wanted more.
“I think a lot of people in MEP and throughout APU would love to see [events like this] more. It started with the Gospel Choir singing in chapel, but I would love to see it integrated even more than that,” Peterson said.
“I think the night was really astounding and full of joy. God’s presence was truly there and it was amazing to see the Holy Spirit come amongst many people,” Coleman said. “I kind of felt like I was reliving the Holy Spirit coming at Pentecost in the Book of Acts chapter one.”
