Liberty students kick off new semester with powerful Night of Worship

Hundreds of Liberty University students gathered on the Academic Lawn on Monday night for an Opening Night of Worship to close out the first day of classes for the Fall 2024 semester.

Joined by various academic deans and university leaders, the students spent the night praising God and thanking Him for His mercy, with music provided by members of the Liberty Worship Collective.

The event, hosted by the College of Applied Studies and Academic Success (CASAS) as part of Liberty’s traditional Welcome Week activities, served as a kickoff event for this semester’s Campus Community series: Witness. Vice President of Spiritual Development Josh Rutledge said the study will analyze how God moved through the Church in the book of Acts and juxtapose the stories with examples of how He continues to do the same on Liberty’s campus.

“Once you are paying attention to it, you start to realize that the same God who was at work in Acts is moving all around us,” he said. “He’s moving in the lives of men and women today if we could only pay attention to it. We’re going to be looking at Acts to see how that God continues to move today in anticipation that we will see Him, even this semester, continue to move in the lives of men and women on this campus.”

Rutledge then invited Chancellor Jonathan Falwell to share how God worked through his father, Liberty’s founder, the late Dr. Jerry Falwell, to build Liberty’s campus from its humble beginnings of a cow pasture.

“I go back 47-48 years and I remember what this place was, and I see what it is today,” Falwell said. “Make no mistake: it is not because of my dad. It is because of God and God alone.”

Referencing Ephesians 3:8-20, he encouraged the students to fully commit their lives to Christ and witness how He will use them to advance the Kingdom of God.

“Every single one of you standing here tonight: Understand there is nothing that God cannot do with you if you will be 100% sold out to Him for the rest of your lives,” Falwell said.

The night concluded with an extended time of worship.

“I love when we do worship nights because you can just feel the Holy Spirit,” sophomore Emma Burns said. “Especially in the world we live in today, it’s really comforting to see all of us out here worshipping the Lord and feeling grateful that He gave us this opportunity to come out here.”

“This is a huge reminder,” she added. “As Jonathan Falwell and Josh Rutledge said, we can look back at tonight and say, ‘Oh my gosh, what a great night that was,’ so every step we take at the university is a step to glorify the Lord and (remind ourselves) that every beat of our heart and breath that we take is the Lord’s.”

Falwell will continue the Witness series at Wednesday’s Campus Community service, set for 7 p.m. in the Vines Center.