WHAM (Worship Him At Midnight) is a major recurring event that takes place on Asbury’s campus. This worship service includes music, prayer, and testimony all from members of Asbury’s student body. WHAM is intended to unite the campus and give students a spiritual outlet at the end of a busy week.
Traditionally, WHAM has been led primarily by worship arts students and some other contributors. The predominant genre fell into the category of western contemporary worship songs. However, recently, organizers have looked for ways for WHAM to become a more inclusive cultural experience. This has led to the creation of intercultural WHAM night.
Intercultural WHAM night is intended to be “a celebration of cultural worship and story,” according to Gabe Ernst. Ernst is a senior and helped coordinate the event this year through his position as an intern with the spiritual life office. Intercultural WHAM was held on Oct. 23 in the Luce.
During the latest rendition of this event, many different areas of culture were included. Everyone from international students to third-culture students to U.S. ethnically minoritized students were invited to participate. Gospel music and mainstream contemporary worship music filled the set list. In addition to diversity of style, diversity of language was integrated as worship leaders sang the verses of the contemporary songs in languages such as Russian and Spanish.
“We’re trying to make sure we can have a lot of different styles and elements incorporated into the service,” said Ernst.
Two students shared their testimonies as part of the service. Ethan Mayo, a senior, spoke of his experience with the global church. Hope Odubena, a sophomore, also spoke of her experience with the church and the impact God’s presence has had on her life.
In the past, these events have only included limited aspects of diversity. To prevent this from happening, lots of planning and meetings took place beforehand. Leaders from various student alliances on campus contributed to the planning of the event. This allowed elements of diversity to be further integrated into the service in hopes this would better represent Asbury’s student body.
In future, Ernst spoke of trying to add some of these elements to other WHAM services as a way to continually include diversity in worship. The vision and purpose behind all of these decisions were carefully considered according to Ernst. Organizers considered what they wanted attendees to be able to take away from the event.
“I hope the students who come will see the different aspects and beauty of other cultures and understand why learning culture is important,” said Annie Pan, a senior and currently the president of Asbury’s international student alliance (ISA). “Christianity is in every culture … There are so many forms of worship and I think all represent different aspects of the truth of God … I want people to see that.”
