On Wednesday, Feb. 6, at 7:30 p.m., Christian singer-songwriter Joel Ansett led a unique concert of quiet reflection in Hughes Auditorium at Asbury University.
Whether through its monthly Worship Him at Midnight events or the various other musical artists that have hosted concerts on campus, Asbury University has always placed great value on the power of Christian music. Yet while its previous events tended to offer a more upbeat and exciting environment for students to attend, organizers Ellie Haseloff and Emelia Conley purposefully centered this particular night around a more quiet sense of self-examination.
“This is a Joel Ansett concert and also a night of reflection and worship,” said Haseloff, Vice President of Spiritual Life. “We really wanted to be able to give students a time of personal reflection with their relationship with God, and we thought that Joel Ansett specifically… would be able to carry that space in a way that Asbury hasn’t really seen in other ways.”
After seeing a concert of Ansett’s together last semester, Haseloff and Conley worked hard to bring him to campus, driven to foster a space where students could stop and take time to focus for a moment on their own inner worlds.
“A lot of campus is outward facing,” said Conley, the president of Asbury’s Honors Council. “Even in our worship spaces… but this is a time for students to focus on themselves and their own personal relationship with God.”
To that end, students attending the event were offered small journals and pencils along with printouts of song lyrics and devotional questions to better furnish their own experience during the event.
The concert itself began with an opening from Asbury student Lauren Wilding and her band, featuring the original song “You are the Lord” along with “It is Finished,” “Nearness” and “There is None Like You.” After they had finished, Joel Ansett began his set by expressing his hope for the time together.
“I like to think of music as ancient, high-tech medicine,” said Ansett before beginning his set. “It can hit a lot of different pain points for different people at the same time.”
Rather than writing music to be played in traditional church worship services, Ansett describes his genre as an interpretation of ‘selah,’ a word found in Psalms. Though the exact translation of the word is still unknown, scholars categorize it as a pause, breath or rest in the middle of worship. Centered around the theme of unseen relational barriers in his 2023 album, “Layers,” the set included featured songs such as “Lost for Now,” “It Takes a Long Time to Wait” and “Plead.” Together, these songs and his devotional reflections helped guide students through a night of quiet self-examination.
“It was a concert, but it was also not a showy concert in some ways,” said senior Joy Hibshman, one of the students in the audience. “Joel is a very humble, genuine, present person… and what he said about being grateful and being in the moment just kind of struck me. It was something I appreciated that he talked about.”
Joel Ansett’s “Layers” is available for streaming now on all major music services.
Article by Sabina Boyer.
Photo courtesy of Max Bramer.
