{"id":320,"date":"2014-09-30T15:20:35","date_gmt":"2014-09-30T15:20:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/?p=320"},"modified":"2014-09-30T15:24:20","modified_gmt":"2014-09-30T15:24:20","slug":"from-the-verge-to-the-gathering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/?p=320","title":{"rendered":"From The Verge to The Gathering"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Jonelle Bobak<\/p>\n

The student-led worship service, the Verge, which is held on campus at Gardner-Webb has changed its name to The Gathering. Jacob Kirby and Caitlyn Brotherton are the coordinators for the Tuesday night worship service.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Verge has existed at Gardner-Webb for a really long time, nobody knows why or for how long or really the purpose of the service at all,\u201d said Kirby.<\/p>\n

Kirby and Brotherton met for the first time as new co-coordinators back in April and had the same vision from the beginning. \u201cWe recognized that the Verge had drifted away from any real sense of purpose or ownership that the student body had,\u201d said Kirby.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gathering is a place for broken people to be broken people together as Jesus works towards healing, renewal and revival on our campus,\u201d said Kirby. He wants to change how people enter into the worship service. \u201cI think it’s really important for people to know that this is their ministry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Gathering makes me feel like it\u2019s a place where people belong. Not only with each other, but with The Lord as well,\u201d said Brotherton.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Paula Qualls speaks at The Gathering.
Photo by: Elizabeth Banfield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The name change will not affect the purpose of the worship service. \u201cIt was really a re-clarification of purpose for The Gathering. The only change that I think is noticeably different is our effort to include more students in the service,\u201d said Brotherton.<\/p>\n

They are hoping to have more students involved in the service through worship, speaking, opening prayer, benediction or greeting people at the door. They don\u2019t plan on making major changes, but simply want to redefine the purpose.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is still a great group of students attending every week and Jesus was still there doing what He does, but there was a definite disconnect between what students thought the Verge was supposed to be about and what was going on,\u201d said Kirby.<\/p>\n

They are hoping for a good response from the student body.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ll leave here happy if I know that real community happened among believers and nonbelievers alike as they encountered the community God the Father, Christ, and the Holy Spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not all feedback from the worship service name change was positive. Many students have commented that the name reminded them of a \u201ccult\u201d. Questions have been raised of why there even needed to be a name change.<\/p>\n

Cayce Martin, a senior, voiced her concerns. \u201cTo me, the Gathering sounds like more of an exclusive event than inclusive and it\u2019s a Christian worship service,\u201d<\/p>\n

she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt sounds like it\u2019s not very welcoming, like you would have to have a password to get in,\u201d said Cameron Freeman, a junior.<\/p>\n

Brotherton hopes that people will come to the Gathering to experience growth in their relationship with Christ. She said everyone is looking for somewhere<\/p>\n

to fit in, and she wants The Gathering to be that place for people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe gather for the sole purpose of meeting with Jesus and pursuing a deeper\u00a0intimacy with Him. We do that through a lot of different ways on a Tuesday<\/p>\n

\"Students<\/a>
Students at The Gathering.
Photo by: Elizabeth Banfield<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

night, but that’s the main thing! We gather to encounter Jesus together,\u201d said Kirby.<\/p>\n

If you would like to attend a service, the next one will be tonight, September 30th at 7 p.m. in Stewart Hall in the Tucker Student Center. For more information you can contact Jacob Kirby (jkirby@gardner-webb.edu<\/a>) or Caitlyn Brotherton (cbrotherton@gardner-webb.edu<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Jonelle Bobak The student-led worship service, the Verge, which is held on campus at Gardner-Webb has changed its name to The Gathering. Jacob Kirby and Caitlyn Brotherton are the coordinators for the Tuesday night […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-clubs-and-organizations","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gwu-today.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}