By Bria Isaacson, Contributing Writer
Worship Him All The Time (WHATT) returns this spring after a rocky semester and scattered participation in the fall. Now under the leadership of co-chairs junior Judah Robinson and senior Aaron Evans, WHATT will maintain many of its old patterns, while aligning itself to a redefined vision.
WHATT, which is a group within the Spiritual Life Board (SLB), maintains its identity as a prayer and worship time. It will continue to meet in the Old Asbury Building every weekday – Monday through Thursday, it will meet from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m and Friday from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Each day has a different focus to pray for: campus, families, Israel, the world as a whole and America.There are two leaders, one for worship and one for prayer, for each day’s worship and prayer time, according to Evans.
The worship leader picks songs that fit the night’s focus. Evans said the prayer leader reads Scripture out loud and prays in between songs or whenever the Spirit leads.
Senior Ben Calicott, who has been involved with WHATT intermittently since its start in the fall of 2014, said he would like his upcoming campus-focused nights to include “times of seamless worship music interlaced with spoken prayer and scripture reading, as well as relaxed moments where people have the time, space and invitation to be relational and share with one another.”
Each WHATT night will look slightly different, either because of different night leaders or because of how the Spirit is moving, according to Calicott.
“In my experience, each WHATT night varies…and I think that is beautiful,” said Calicott. “The variety, the invitation for the Spirit to work and move and take us where He will, and the flexibility to go there are written into the DNA of WHATT, and form the core theme across all the nights.”
Evans and Robinson said they have been praying since before winter break for God’s guidance in leading WHATT this semester. Their prayers have been answered in the form of a redefined vision for WHATT.
“What we feel like the Father wants is a combination of radical worship and radical prayer,” said Evans. “Prayers move and change things even if we can’t see them. Often there’s a heaviness [when we pray]. But really at the core, we want to lift up the nations and our requests and leave our burdens on him.”
In order to accomplish this ultimate goal of radical worship and prayer, WHATT wants to emphasize intimacy and hope across the campus.
“We are creating a space for campus that emphasizes intercession and worship, cultivates unceasing prayer and worship, and creates hope and expectancy,” said Robinson. A part of this goal is to encourage the use of the Old Asbury Building as a prayer room during the day so that there is continuous prayer on campus, according to Robinson.
“We’re trying to create something holistic with the time we spend here,” said Robinson. “We want a culture of prayer and worship, and to answer the questions of ‘How do I pray without ceasing?’ and ‘How do I have a relationship with God outside my Bible reading time?’” These are questions that WHATT hopes to answer with their focus on prayer and worship every weekday.
Anyone is welcome to come and pray and worship with WHATT, and students are encouraged to come and go as they are able.
“People can come in between their busyness,” said Evans. “The Lord can use even 15 minutes, so I encourage the whole campus to get involved.”