Written by Bison Staff // Graphic by Cooper Turman
Every Sunday night, students gather at Downtown Church of Christ for Downtown Singing, an hour of worship and communion. The weekly event has seen a resurgence since the COVID-19 pandemic ended. While anyone is welcome to come, the service is mostly geared toward college students, where they can get away from the stress of classes and relax in the fellowship of their peers to praise God.
“Before [COVID-19], we, as in university programs, saw church attendance decline as a whole,” senior Levi Huddleston, one of the worship leaders for Downtown Singing, said. “After COVID, when we first started back up in the spring of 2021, we had about 250 students a semester attend, and as of this semester, we’ve been averaging about 650 to 700 students a semester.
Huddleston said he thinks a reason behind the rise in attendance is because students are not required to wear masks or are worried about quarantining due to COVID-19 anymore.
“And I feel like we’ve also remained very consistent in providing a high-quality worship service to students,” Huddleston said. “It’s become a place where students just want to be there.”
Alumna Makyla Oviedo-Rodriguez, who worked alongside Huddleston during her time at Harding, said she didn’t know what to expect when Downtown Singing returned in 2021 after the pandemic.
“We were really worried about the lack of people who would be there because it had been so long,” Oviedo-Rodriguez said. “Right before the pandemic started, what we saw separately, people pulled away from Downtown Singing, whether that be faith differences or not necessarily feeling connected to the spirit.”
Oviedo-Rodriguez said that when Downtown Singing returned, they restarted it with a purpose.
“We’re going back to the simplest form it can be: give it to God and go down to the heart of worship.”
Junior Caleb Shockley, who took over after Oviedo-Rodriguez graduated, wasn’t at Harding before the pandemic. However, he was one of the many students positively affected by the revival of Downtown Singing.
“I love it,” Shockley said. “It’s been one of the highlights of college so far for me. I know I was hesitant at first, but we do this for the students. You come together with your friends, sing with them and just get excited about Jesus together. That’s awesome.”
For someone whose college career is in the rearview mirror, Downtown Singing is one of the biggest things Oviedo-Rodriguez misses.
“I miss Harding, and I have made my good parting with the University, but I still get brought to tears about how much I miss Downtown Singing,” Oviedo-Rodriguez said. “I felt more challenged in my time working there than anything else.”
