By Brit Hutchison

Features Co-Editor

Every Sunday night hundreds of students crowd into the chapel to Live their Faith Together. LOFT, the student-run Sunday night worship service every week, is a relatively young program - only seven years old.

The history dates back to 1994 when Gregory Kett, Calvin alumni, was a first-year student at the Calvin Seminary, engaging in his graduate studies.

``I was looking for work at local churches to gain some ministry experience.  LaGrave CRC [Grand Rapids] was advertising for someone to be creative and start their own ministry that would reach people in the community,'' said Kett. ``One of my own passions was worship that was weighty and done well - but in an atmosphere of informality.''

After gathering some peers together to help preach and lead the worship, Kett's dream began to take shape. But the worship was lacking.

``It was OK, until I asked my friend Gregg DeMey, [Calvin student at the time] to come play the piano,'' said Kett. ``Then the worship took off.''

``Students and some downtown folks started coming right off the bat - the first services were characterized by informality and participation - folks would ask questions during messages, request songs, etc.,'' said DeMey.

``In that smaller setting, we were one big family sharing our hopes, fears and faith in Christ,''said Kett. 

In the first year of LOFT, this smaller setting was characterized by informality; organazation was not the main priority, said DeMey.

``Chaplain Cooper was especially instrumental with helping us think through how to make this change and getting us to be more thoughtful and deliberate in our planning and organization,'' he added.

According to Kett, almost eighty percent of LOFT attendees were Calvin students. In response, at the end of the school year, former Calvin Vice-President Dejonge requested the transplant of LOFT from LaGrave CRC to Calvin.

``In 1995, after a couple weeks in the Chapel at Calvin, The Loft started to flourish,'' said Kett. ``I remember, at one point in October, the Fire Marshall reprimanded us for having too many people. After one school year, we grew from five people to about 250. '' 

The implantation of LOFT came at a time when the traditional Knollcrest worship service offered to students on Sundays was dwindling and students were beginning to lose interest.

``Therefore, to encourage more students to attend for their own spiritual growth and nourishment, The LOFT was added to the line-up,'' said Kett. ``I don't think the traditional service was bad; it just wasn't meeting students where they were at.''

According to Ron Rienstra, LOFT Coordinator, this shift in the style of the Sunday service offered at Calvin presented many controversies within the Calvin community.

``...It was risky for Calvin because they ran the risk of the older generation being upset...for Calvin students it was risky because it wasn't rebellious - but it was more of a `we're gonna do our own thing,''' said Rienstra.

``Ergo, an atmosphere of informality gave students, Gregg and me the freedom to be ourselves before God and worship him with our whole being,'' said Kett. ``There was a room to `wiggle,' stretch our worship wings, and try things a bit differently.''

``Passion and authenticity is what people were looking for,'' said Rienstra. `` `Contemporary with a sense of history' was how they first described it.''

Today, the same goals that Kett had when creating LOFT are still evident in LOFT services today, especially pertaining to the style of the service, said Rienstra.

``If you look at the song lists, they are the same,'' said Rienstra. ``...The mix has not changed. That was always the way that it was.''

Today, Rienstra, who took over the coordination of LOFT a few years ago from Gregg DeMey, supervises the student-run service.

According to senior Peter Armstrong, who works with Molly Delcamp as one of the main leaders of LOFT, every Monday a group of six to eight students meet to talk about the last service and plan for the upcoming week.

``The Monday planning meetings are essential,'' said Armstrong. ``Usually, the speaker for LOFT meets with us to discuss his or her sermon and how the songs would best fit together with the scripture and the sermon.''

``...We attempt to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit as we plan and lead worship. The metaphor we often use is that the Spirit blows where it will. It is our desire to have our sails up and be able to catch it,'' said Armstrong.

Although LOFT is a student run program, the participants still have an obligation to be responsive to the community when they plan for LOFT, Armstrong added.

``We are accountable to the Calvin community,'' he said. ``We pray, talk to our fellow students and attempt to discern the spiritual health of our campus. If there are things that we are struggling with, we try to have a speaker address those needs. Lately, we have been very specific with speakers about which topics we feel the student body is struggling with, so that they can present a word from God to us in our struggle.''

This attempt to get speakers specific to certain topics results in a new speaker each week at LOFT.

``I like the variety of preachers, which gives us a variety of points of view and a variety of different ways to think about the Bible and all sorts of religious issues,'' said junior Scott Ritsema.

However, the constant changing of preachers can seem jarring for some students, according to freshman Michael Lemkuil.

``It doesn't feel personal, because the speaker changes so often,'' he said. ``This results in not allowing themes that will take more than a week to be preached. The lack of feeling like we are growing with or toward a pastor who is supposed to guide us to God is the main reason I don't go. Every week we have a new guide and every week we are expected to put our trust in him.''

As for worship, the LOFT planning team attempts to have a variety of traditional and contemporary songs; however, according to senior Daniel Roels, the meaning behind the songs sung at LOFT is sometimes lacking substantially.

``It appeared to me that amidst all the praise, there was little recognition of our sin - perhaps a few sentences in prayer, or a song immediately followed by more happy stuff- or the tough things about Christianity,'' he said.

However, there has been an overwhelmingly positive response from on-campus students to the worship style that has been a part of LOFT since it began.

``I have regularly attended the Sunday services and enjoy the uplifting praise and worship songs and inspiring messages,'' said sophomore Derek Wright.

``I love the worship and the variety,'' said Ritsema. ``Especially when we do hymns like ``When Peace Like a River'' and ``Beautiful Savior'' with all the symbols and LOFT-esque spice.''

When Calvin made the choice to have LOFT as the Sunday service, they were encouraging students to find a church within the Calvin community, according to Rienstra.

They let go of the Knollcrest worship service in the morning and instituted LOFT at night, freeing up time for students to find a church outside of Calvin for Sunday mornings, he emphasized.

However, according to junior Jonathan La Fleur, LOFT can prohibit students from engaging in a community church on Sunday morning.

``You can legitimately skip church in the morning, go hang out with a bunch of friends at night, sing some songs, and it's good,'' said La Fleur.