Each year, students as well as the Wilmore community look forward to Set Apart Week. This week is devoted to learning how to live a life set apart by Christ. The Asbury community has now experienced this week full of worship, prayer, encouragement, community and time to receive ministry and growth. Evening services lasted from Monday to Thursday night, along with regular chapels on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
This week’s speaker was Dr. Amanda Drury, Professor of Practical Theology at Indiana Wesleyan University. She spoke about holiness and what it looks like to be made holy. The overarching theme of this week was “Perfect love casts out fear.”
In addition to a nightly message, attendees worshipped alongside student worship teams.
On Wednesday night, all attending were pleasantly surprised to be led in worship by Jonathan Steingard, one of the leads in the Canadian Christian rock band Hawk Nelson. The band grew in popularity in the early 2000s, and many in the service that evening recognized the singer.
Dr. Drury spoke on topics of doubt, anxiety, healing, suffering and gratitude even in the suffering, sharing her own testimony and personal struggles within these areas.
“It’s hard to see how much college students have had to face in their 20 years of life,” said Dr. Drury in one of the evening services.
College is a difficult time for students, full of adjustment, fear, anxiety and learning how to be self sufficient. It is easy to experience burnout, and if we are not careful, we carry these burdens alone. Set Apart Week was a time for students to experience the love of God and community and to be reminded that it is good to share your burdens with others. We were not made to carry them alone.
“Wait on the Lord, and while you are waiting, don’t wait alone,” was one of the empowering messages of Dr. Drury.
On Thursday night, students were given the opportunity to share testimony. They were able to share what they were grateful for even in the midst of hardship. It was a beautiful sight to see students encouraging each other and praying at the altar together. Experiencing the interaction between these students was a small glimpse of what Asbury experienced during the Outpouring of 2023.
Asbury senior, Abby Stephenson, said, “This was my first Set Apart Week. I loved how it was consistent with the same speaker and that the services built on each other. This week provided a nice break and gave me a new perspective for the rest of my semester. The shared student testimonies also helped me realize that we serve a big God. They showed me how God is working in the lives of so many.”
Dr. Drury also taught that God is with us and helping us grow in faith, even in seasons of neutrality or spiritual dryness. She preached that we should be grateful even in those seasons.
Koby Miller, Asbury Ministry Associate, said, “In the past, I have often criticized myself for not experiencing an ongoing spiritual ‘high.’ I have learned over the years that the dailyness – the seemingly neutral times, the doubts – of my relationship with Jesus is also an essential part of its growth and deepening. It is very freeing. How cool is it to know that God is also in the ordinary times?”
Set Apart Week is important because it allows for students to be intentional about growing in their faith.
“A series of services centered around the theme of being set apart provides an opportunity for all of us to examine our current relationship with God and allow the Holy Spirit to teach us or reveal to us areas of our lives that we are holding on to rather than opening them to the love, healing, redeeming, refining, grace of God,” said Miller.
This week is also important, because it is a current-day expression of Asbury’s long heritage centered on holiness.
“When God called John Wesley Hughes to begin an educational institution way back in 1890, Hughes believed one of the reasons for another school at that time was that he did not know of an institution teaching and practicing heart holiness,” said Miller. “He believed holiness was an essential element of the student’s relationship with God to prepare them for God’s calling to take the love of Jesus to the world. Therefore, it is encouraging to know that being Set Apart is still an intentional part of the Asbury student [or] community experience.”
This past week, Dr. Drury has taught that God’s love is unwavering, and despite what hardships we currently face, He is there in the struggles with us. His perfect love is enough to bring unrest to rest and darkness to light. When we decide to walk with Him, we are growing in holiness every step of the way.
Photo courtesy of Emma Farrell.
