Huddled together, students came to the altar to pray for and with one another.
At the beginning of every Spring and Fall semester, Taylor University students are invited to pause, reflect and recenter through Spiritual Renewal. It is a time filled with worship, prayer and messages that challenge students to walk more closely with Christ.
From Sept. 8-10, students lined up outside Rediger Auditorium with Bibles and notebooks in hand. Smiles lit up faces and conversations buzzed with anticipation. As the doors opened, hundreds of students flooded through.
“It felt like there's real spiritual fervor on campus, like students really hunger for the Lord and hunger for the Lord's presence,” Nirup Alphonse, lead pastor at LIFEGATE Church in Denver, Colorado, said.
LIFEGATE is a young, Gospel-centered, spirit-filled, multiethnic church that focuses on empowering people to live and walk as Christians, taking the call to follow Jesus seriously, Alphonse said.
Being one of the most-requested bands to serve at Taylor’s chapel, LIFEGATE Church’s mission aligns closely with Taylor’s intent behind Spiritual Renewal. Their goal is to create a space for students to connect deeply with God and His word.
The focus on prayer throughout Spiritual Renewal Week became especially significant in the wake of heartbreaking national news, Greg Dyson, the campus pastor, said. On the final evening of Spiritual Renewal Week, reports revealed Charlie Kirk’s murder and a tragic shooting in Colorado.
“That gave us an opportunity to live out our faith,” Dyson said. “Because we were already focused on prayer, so we knew what to do when something that difficult and terrible happens.”
Alphonse spoke about how our relationship with Christ is nurtured through prayer. The timing reinforced how the Taylor community could stand firm in faith by leaning on God and the power of prayer.
There was time built in for students to come around each other, physically and spiritually, and pray for each other’s personal struggles and Taylor’s campus.
“We can all see that we're very intentional about our faith and that we all want to grow our faith and stretch it and change it,” Adrienne Ash, a sophomore elementary education major, said. “Setting that standard of ‘We do things together and we worship the Lord together as a community.’”
Alphonse said coming to Taylor’s campus is a good reminder that the Lord is working powerfully in campuses across the country. He said he is always encouraged by Taylor, even after ten years of speaking to the student body.
Taylor is hard to beat, from the passion for the Lord to the worship and hunger for God’s presence that lives within the student body, Alphonse said.
“[When] you go into the real world and you're outside of the cocoon of safety that you have here, really take seriously the call of Christ,” Alphonse said. “Spiritual renewal should be more than just a moment, more than just a week. It should be fueling you for the rest of the time that you're a student and then fuel you as you walk in your adulthood, into the real world, to really live as Christ would say, to live as a light of Christ. Shining, seeking the kingdom.”
