To provide students that cannot commute a night of worship, the Grace Church College Ministry brought “LateNight” on campus for the first time on Feb. 5. The students got to hang out with friends, play games, eat snacks, worship and have a Bible study.

Curtis Lindsey, college and young adults pastor at Grace Church, said, “We want to be a part of helping people mature in a relationship with Jesus through worship songs, studying the Bible together, goofing off and playing together, and even eating snacks.”

LateNight is a Bible study and worship service that Grace Church, a nondenominational church, hosts every Tuesday night at 8 p.m. for students at their campus church. This was the first night that they held a worship service and Bible study on actual campus. The Grace Church College Ministry finally became a recognized campus organization in the fall of 2018.

Cortney Wood, campus coordinator for grace college ministry student leadership team, and mass communication junior, said, “We just wanted to be accessible to the students, we wanted it to be somewhere they can come, grab a bag to eat, hang out, talk with us, play some games, and worship. We just wanted to have a normal church service just on campus.”

About 30 students showed up to the Legacy Multipurpose Room for snacks, games, and worship. The Grace Church members said they did not have a particular set number of people they expected to show up. They saw a couple of new faces and said they are very happy with the service’s outcome.

Natalie Cook, psychology freshman, said, “It’s a lot of fun, you get to talk to a lot of people, and I really enjoy the questions at the end because you get to see what everyone got from the night’s lesson.”

LateNight on Campus lasted from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Throughout the night they would transition from playing some games and having fun to worshipping and studying the Bible together. 

Matthew Tempelmeyer, hospitality leader and kinesiology sophomore, said, “One of our goals tonight was to reach out to as many people as possible and to just spread to them what we’re about and what our mission statement is.”