New Worship Team members work to bring about new change
Who are the new faces behind worship? With chapel being only once a week, sometimes people bypass the individuals who put their time and effort into making the occasion as great as it always is.
Select students from EC meet various times throughout the week to organize a performance doing what they love best; producing music and praising God Almighty with one another. But it’s important to get to know who these students are, and what their motives include for taking on roles as significant as these.
Following a year of almost no in-person chapel, students became deprived of that sense of fellowship and community with each other when it came to worshiping Christ. The teams surrounding chapel were primarily closed down, and there was a severe lack of engagement within the student body. “It felt like something was missing. I was trying to worship and engage, but looking around, that spiritual thirst was lacking within our community. And it made it hard sometimes," shares sophomore Grace Sehulster, a newly-joining instrumentalist involved with the team.
This year, that story hopefully changes. As opportunities open up for students to showcase their abilities publicly, multiple volunteers take to the stage. Ranging from talents such as singing and instruments to providing even the simplest harmonies, the EC community comes together to bring about services never seen before. And it’s all in the name of Jesus.
Introducing a few of these familiar faces becomes ideal, especially since it is important to understand why they take time to do what they do, and be able to share our gratitude with them for making those minor sacrifices.
Sophomore Stone Davis remains one of the newest members of the group, joining as an electric guitarist only this past school year. When asked about his experiences with worship, Davis describes, “It was like reading a book. [Worship] didn't have much meaning to me. But the songs were always about God’s mercy and how He saves us. It really became real to me then.” With his father serving as a Worship Pastor, Stone describes his passion to be able to follow in his footsteps and hopefully engage in a profession like this when he gets older. Eastern Christian Worship Team acts as a propellant forward towards the rest of his life. “I don’t think we can ever know why God does what He does. I just want to show that worship is a fun experience," Stone mentions as he finishes off explaining that although he doesn’t know exactly why God has called him yet, he knows it is for good.
Additionally with Stone, Daniela Bernal, lead singer, also joins the effort in hopes of making an impact on her fellow EC peers. “I’ve been a worship leader all my life. I always loved to use my gift God gave me in order to serve Him”, Bernal states while diving for her purposes behind worship. Daniela describes one of her biggest inspirations, being her father. Alongside him, she was able to grow up understanding why that love for music is so important and even greater, why utilizing it for God’s mission is even more so. Singing and openly praising God through song remains something that she uses to express herself and feel closer to the presence of Christ. “I think God called me to join the Worship Team because He knows that's what I like to do and my goal is to minister to people through my voice and my performance. I want to be an inspiration to others so when they look at me and observe how I worship and how close I am to God, they can follow in that direction," closes Bernal. And that impact is actively growing.
As the Worship Team continues to expand, the hearts and spiritual minds of our community thrives with it. Even only this far into the school year, chapel has become a weekly outlet that people use to remind themselves of His control and power on this temporal earth. Humankind comes and goes. Worldly authority comes and goes. Even this school ground will one day be gone. But above it all, His Word remains firm. And the new Worship Team is one step closer to establishing that truth.