1 2 • GCU TODAY
T
hink about some of the meant-to-be moments in your life. You
can recount some extraordinary coincidences that got you
to those destinations, but you may not have explanations for
them outside of divine intervention.
Such is life these days in Grand Canyon University’s new Center for
Worship Arts, which seeks to turn students into performers who can
lead everything from a church service to a Christian band. Worship
Arts leaders say that things they can’t quite fathom keep happening.
Years from now, they no doubt will look back on these times with a
sense of amazement, but for now, as the story is still unfolding, they
are embracing the joy of being part of events that sometimes defy
explanation.
One such occurrence came on the first night this semester of Worship
Arts Summit, a two-hour weekly class in which students, many in their
“Worshipologist” T-shirts, write their own Christian music. They often
are guided by visiting experts — including center director Bart Millard,
lead singer and founder of the band MercyMe. On this night, Millard
brought along former touring partner Tim Timmons, a prominent
Christian songwriter who was visiting campus.
John Frederick, the center’s worship coordinator, had planned an
evening built around the theme “Union with Christ,” focusing on how
the spirit that brought Jesus back from the dead is alive in us and we
need to completely trust Him.
Frederick didn’t know Timmons was going to be there until just a few hours
earlier. He had met him only once, at a conference years ago, and he hadn’t
shared with Timmons his plans for the program.
And yet whenMillard started the class by introducing Timmons and
asking him to say a fewwords, Timmons offered a passionate discourse about
his 10-year-plus battle with cancer and proceeded to talk about the precise
topic Frederick planned to cover, emphasizing that “the cross is a door.”
Worship Arts students get into the spirit
of new Theology program
B Y R I C K V A C E K
Divine Guidance on
the Road to ‘Worshipology’
Worship Arts students
begin their weekly
“Summit” by singing
Christian songs.
photo by darryl webb
Watch a video about the process students use to try to “catch lightning in
a bottle” (that’s code for “write a hit song”) a
