Students Find a Variety of Worship Opportunities

The Oklahoma Baptist University mission states the university transforms lives by equipping students to pursue academic excellence, integrate faith with all areas of knowledge, engage a diverse world, and live worth of the high calling of God in Christ. Enabling students toward fulfilling this mission, OBU provides several opportunities for students to engage in worship throughout their week on campus.

Each worship ministry seeks to meet the spiritual needs of students in a manner that best suits their busy schedules, led by Dale Griffin, OBU's campus minister, and a team of student worship leaders. The various outreaches include 905, Chapel, Canterbury, Journey, Refuge, Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) and Linger.

The worship time called 905 is a discipleship-focused opportunity on Tuesday nights. Students gather in the lower Geiger Center at 9:05 p.m. for fellowship through worship and teaching from Scripture. The theme for 905 for the fall semester has been "Desiring God," based on John Piper's book by the same name. The average attendance is 90 students each week.

"905 gives students the chance to come together as a community, in a small setting, to engage in intimate worship and devotion," said Cody Bryan, a sophomore from Spencer, Okla.

Chapel offers a chance for the university as a whole to gather on Wednesdays and glorify God through the integration of faith and learning. The chapel message theme this year is, "Lost and Found: Reclaiming the Knowledge of the Holiness of God," based on the book, "The Knowledge of the Holy,"by A.W. Tozer. Several OBU faculty and guest speakers elaborate on the traits of God in the chapel messages.

Beginning in fall of 2004, Canterbury is a worship-arts focused event where students engage in worship through prayer, music, Scripture reading and other forms of media.

"We see His purpose for the world coming to fruition through three main things: periodic worship gatherings every other Thursday night, deep meetings of close brothers and sisters in house groups throughout the week, and outreach both planned and spontaneous" said Evan Chambers, a senior from Redmond, Wash.

Journey is a men's gathering on Sundays at 9 p.m. in the Bailey Business Center which focuses on the development of Christian character. Women on campus also meet on Sunday nights to learn more about God in a worship opportunity called Refuge, in Stubblefield Chapel. Both men and women participate in Linger, a unique ministry opportunity which focuses on connecting with God through prayer. Fellowship of Christian Athletes is a worship rally for athletes on Wednesday evenings in the Noble Complex.

Even with varying worship style preferences, OBU students are afforded many opportunities each week to grow in their personal faith through community worship experiences.