Heartsong, OneVoice and Jubilate Present Annual Afternoon of Praise

HeartSong, OneVoice and Jubilate will lead the Cedarville community in worship from 4-6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 8, in the DMC Chapel for an Afternoon of Praise. This free event is an annual encounter anticipated around Parents and Grandparents Weekend.

Jubilate will open the concert. Roger O’Neel, director for Jubilate, said the choir will be doing three contemporary songs: “Yours Will Be” by Big Daddy Weave, “Lord I Need You” by Matt Maher and a song called “Savior.”

“One of the things that everybody involved in worship ministry has is a passion to create a culture of campus worship,” O’Neel said. “Afternoon of Praise is one more opportunity to worship together. All of us have the same goal but we’re all different stylistically, but we love working together.”

Ashlynn Kelly is the director of Cedarville’s OneVoice Gospel Choir and one of the main coordinators for this year’s Afternoon of Praise. She said this is her first involvement in Afternoon of Praise as a staff member.

However, Kelly said she had been involved with OneVoice for four years before attaining her position as director this August.

“Being part of it as a student was really, really fun, but I’m excited to kind of sit back and watch it happen as a staff member,” she said.

Kelly also said OneVoice is going to focus a lot on bringing inthe gospel music aspect to the concert.

“Because the three groups are just so different in what their focus is, we really want to kind of showcase that diversity,” Kelly said. “I’m excited to show — to worship with other worshipers — and just do what we were created to do, to lift high the name of Jesus.”

OneVoice will be performing around 4:30 p.m. following Jubilate. HeartSong will perform at 5 p.m.

Jim Cato is the associate vice president of Christian ministries and works with the HeartSong teams, which Cato said focus their music on leading others in worship.

Afternoon of Praise events were created to bring the campus community together in worship, particularly during Parents and Grandparents Weekend, Cato said.

“I wanted to have some intentional times in our campus life where we all come together for a concentrated time of worship,” Cato said. “I’ve found over the years what an encouragement this is to parents. A lot of parents and (the) churches they come from don’t get to see this type of music at this level, and so it’s been such an encouragement for me to be part of this event.”

The three groups will be doing a joint number, “Victor’s Crown,” at the end of the evening. O’Neel said this will include the estimated 180-200 total singers from the groups.

Cato said, “The psalmist says come let us worship the Lord together, so together is a really important word.”

Ellie Dukes is a freshman nursing major and an arts and entertainment writer for Cedars. She likes to express her artistic abilities through cosmetology and writing. You can spot her anywhere there is a desire for God or there is a Chipotle.