By Robin Gericke, Executive Editor
Housed in the Miller Communication Arts building, the worship arts program is a unique highlight of the majors offered at Asbury. Its students play in chapel bands, go on tour, record albums and graduate to pursue opportunities that allow them to serve the Lord through music.
The Value of a Worship Arts Education
The worship arts major is what brought sophomore Emily Nelson to Asbury. She planned to go into pre-med, but during her senior year of high school, the Lord called her to pursue music. “I typed in Christian schools in Kentucky that have worship programs. Asbury was the first that came up,” she said. “I felt like this is what I’m supposed to do, and I felt a lot of peace.”
Junior David Keener is a worship arts major and a music minor. He explained that the “difference between music and worship arts is that in music, you are very classically driven and you have to study theory and have classical training. In worship arts, you go over contemporary theory. It’s newer and relevant to the culture is today, and not just to worship music – country, pop, etc understand this theory.”
Nelson addressed a common critique of Christian music as compared to secular genres. “One thing that I hear is ‘Christian music is not as good as other music’ and that ‘Worship arts isn’t as musically talented as another major.’ Even though we are learning the spirit side of music, we’re also learning musical excellence. We spend so much time in the practice pushing ourselves to be better musically.”
“Being talented frees you up to actually worship,” Keener said. “With a lot of the songs we play, they’re a lot simpler than what we could play, because the focus is corporate worship. We want to play it well enough that It’s not a distraction.”
Nelson doesn’t take leading corporate worship lightly. She believes in the importance of equipping spiritual leaders, and that is why she is a worship arts major and a theology minor. “We make our main pastors go through seminary, and worship is just as important theologically, because you’re leading people in song. When people don’t remember the sermon, they remember the song they were singing,” Nelson said. “It’s important we know what we’re leading our congregation in. It’s important to understand the scriptural context, that way they’re singing truth and not living off emotional things.” Nelson explained that although worship arts majors take some theology class classes, she wanted to go deeper. “We’re saying that God is good, but what does that really mean? This sparked all these questions in me, and that’s why I picked up theology.”
“There is a difference between a worship leader and worship pastor – if people really want to be involved in fabric of church that they do need to go deeper,” Keener said.
How Love Goes / David Keener
Junior and worship arts major David Keener plans to release an EP entitled ‘How Love Goes’ in April. The EP will feature five songs written by Keener and will be available on Spotify. “The reason I’m putting them out on a bigger platform like Spotify is so that’s it’s easier for people to have access to them,” Keener said. He’s not doing it for the money; instead, he wants the EP to serve as “a demo of what I do, to show who I am as a musician.”
Keener wrote most of the songs during fall of sophomore year and started process of recording mid January. “Ideally, I would love to be a professional musician, but the odds of that happening are very low,” said Keener. “But this is the most free time I’ll ever have, so I want to spend senior year being able to play a lot more.”
The encouragement of friends was part of Keener’s motivation to release an EP. “I always wanted to be a musician but was afraid to try because I didn’t want to fail, so I never did anything. I would ‘fun’ record song, but I didn’t want to give 100% of my effort because if I failed my dream would be over,” Keener said. What changed his mind was friends telling him that his music was really good. “If they believe in me why shouldn’t me why shouldn’t I?”
Keener hopes the EP will allow people to listen to his music and serve as a networking tool. “Regardless of what I end up doing, if it’s where God wants me I’ll be happy. I figured I would give it 100% try and see what happened.”
The Live Album Recording / Asbury Worship Collective
The Journey is the next live album recording by the Asbury Worship Collective on Friday, Feb. 23 from 7-9 pm in the Black Box Theatre. Over 50 people from different majors including worship arts, media com, journalism and art have been part of the production. Senior worship arts major Carolyne Clements is the producer of the live album recording. “My favorite part of producing the album is getting to be a part of creating something from the ground up, and watching as God has worked in and through this project from the very beginning,” she said. “It has been an unforgettable experience to come together and write, arrange and perform songs for campus that bring us all closer to Jesus in this season of our journey at Asbury.”
The album features 10 original songs, and students may recognize the songs Stars, Raised Up and Hands and Feet from chapel. “As we are all on different parts of life and our experiences with God, for some reason our paths have all converged here on this campus together. Out of the joys of forward motion, running in circles or feeling stuck on the side of the road, the Holy Spirit is longing to meet and invite us into an honest, grace-filled journey with Him,” Clements said. “Our prayer is that these songs not only reflect the cries/heart of campus, but create space for God to transform us- wherever we are along the Journey. “
“When people come to the recording, they can expect to experience the fruit of a lot of hard work, prayer and pursuit of the Holy Spirit’s guidance in our lives as students,” said Clements. “We will be recording live, so everyone who comes will get to say they are on the album too, and they will get to see some of the behind the scenes of how this album is coming together as it goes from that worship night all the way to when the album is released!”
Tickets are $6, and the album will be available for preorder at the recording. “We are hoping that campus receives the truth, freedom and redemption in these songs and are brought closer to Jesus through it all,” Clements said. “Then, we are praying that people will not only have a significant encounter on Feb. 23rd, but will be able to take these songs to their car, dorm room or life past Asbury to remind them of who God is and how He has moved in us here at Asbury together- and how He longs to meet us in every area of our lives.”