Students and faculty around Asbury’s campus have been marking the dates March 22 and 23 in their calendars and counting down the days until the release of this year’s album from the Asbury Worship Collective band since its announcement. The band is composed of 10 members, all of whom have come into this project with different ideas of what the final album will look—or sound—like. One of the biggest challenges for a group this large was figuring out how to set aside prior expectations and learn to listen and work with each other.
With so many students in the band, six of whom are on the songwriting team, the student producer of the album, Haven Emery (acoustic guitar and vocals), said that this has brought some kind of representation from every corner of campus. When asked how this might affect the sound of the album, Emery had only positive things to say, seeming optimistic about how the band would face the trials that accompany working in such large groups.
Beyond the complex challenge of creating a range of music that will strike a chord in every listener, Emery also pointed out that they had to work to find ways to digest the Outpouring with all students and faculty on campus. As they wrote their songs less than a year after the massive event, they found that the theme of unconventionality was the glue that held the songs together.
Emery explained that each of the songs was written specifically about the results of faith: “We’ll have a song about unconventional love, unconventional joy, unconventional peace.” With so many minds coming together to write the songs and even more to perform them, the range of God’s presence is felt in the songs. They believe that he is doing a new thing on campus, especially after the Outpouring, and they are trying to call attention to it by encapsulating who God is. The combination of God’s miracles and the team’s individual faiths has pushed them to attempt to illustrate his character.
“We’re going back to the roots of our faith and celebrating who God is, and also exploring the results of following an unconventional God and being an unconventional people,” Emery described the framework of the album. The band has started at ground zero, slowly creating the album with these roots and celebrations in mind. They found that even with these positive celebratory intentions, the deeply emotional quality of faith and songwriting has created an uncomfortable and unsettling facet in the music. But, as Emery pointed out, the teachings of Jesus were not quite intended to leave us feeling comfortable.
The release of the album will take place over the span of two evenings, and the band hopes to draw people in from all around campus for this event. For those who are not music-minded, the team has been brainstorming ways to include everyone in this time of worship. As the band plays on the stage of the CLC Luce auditorium, there will be prayer stations set up around the room directly related to each song. It will be unlike anything the Asbury Worship Collective has produced before, and they are excited and have been praying as the release approaches.
Featured image by Macy Carmony.