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Every Thursday at 9 p.m., students from both Ouachita and Henderson gather at Second Baptist Church for Refuge, a worship service for students by students.
The band plays a few songs, the speaker talks for about 20 minutes and then a few more songs are played to round out the service. The whole thing only lasts about an hour. But there’s much more to it than singing and listening to a sermon. What most students don’t know is how much time and effort the band puts into Refuge to make each week possible.
The leader of the band this year is Noah James, a senior Christian studies and philosophy double major. For the record, Mitchell is his last name, not James. “My whole life everybody’s called me Noah James like it is one name,” he said. “It just has a better ring to it than Noah James Mitchell. It is my name, just my middle name.”
Since his freshman year, James has been flexing his musical muscles on- and off-campus. He co-led Refuge with Jarrett Davis, played numerous coffee houses, sung in chapel and recently played a show with Derek Webb in Little Rock. Last semester, after leading Refuge a few times, James Taylor, director of campus ministries, asked him to lead.
Refuge is “a lot more work that I thought it would be,” James said. “It’s really like a part-time job with the amount of time that goes into it. It’s like if you led a service at a church once a week.”
Before Thursday rehearsals take place, James has the responsibility of choosing songs for the service.
“I talk with the speakers about the passages they’re preaching on,” James said. “I will read the passage and pray and just hang out with my guitar for a while. It’s a combination of me sitting down with a passage and trying to find songs that fit with the message and make sense together musically.”
Once James has sent his set list to the rest of the band, by Tuesday at the latest, they will practice throughout the week on their own.
“We definitely stress a lot on being prepared yourself before you show up on Thursday because we have such limited rehearsal time,” said Zach Zucha, drummer for the band and a senior business major. “A lot of churches will have a Wednesday night rehearsal and another rehearsal Sunday morning before the service. With us, it’s kind of a show-up-and-do-it type deal.”
When Thursday arrives, the band gets to Second around 3 or 3:30 p.m. to begin setting up. They haul their own equipment and instruments with them, except for the speaker system. Once everything is in place, they do a sound check and rehearse from 5 to 8.
Before show time, the band meets in the little hallway beside the stage to pray. They pray for the service to go smoothly so there will be no distractions.
After a time of prayer “we all huddle up, put our hands in the middle, count to three and say whatever goofy thing one of us just came up with,” Zucha said. “So it goes from a serious prayer time to a bit of light-hearted fun right before we walk on stage.”
After Refuge is over, breakdown begins.
“We’re lucky if we’re done with the service at 10:30,” said Zucha. “It’s at least 11:15 or 11:30 by the time we’re done because we have to get everybody’s personal instruments out before we can start stage tear down.”
“It definitely consumes your Thursday,” Zucha added. “We all know that professors love to have tests on Friday and I come across that situation a lot. Sometimes that means late night studying Thursday. But I’m in a position where I feel called to serve through Refuge and it’s a sacrifice I have to make. Whatever I end up having to do, it’s definitely worth it.”
James also feels called to serve through Refuge.
“My goal for Refuge is just to lead people, train and grow musicians and grow myself,” he said. “We’re trying to create an environment where people are free to worship. From the sound guys to the slide person to the speakers to the people who attend, everyone is learning to grow and worship.”
For Zucha, leading in worship comes in a few different forms.
“A worship leader isn’t just someone who leads songs upfront. If you’re involved in a worship band, you’re a worship leader,” he said.
The band is in the process of adding new worship leaders.
“We’re bringing on new people and it will be awesome to see how they grow as players and worshippers,” James said. “I just don’t want people to feel that Refuge and the band is this exclusive bunch of guys. I would encourage anybody that feels like they want to be involved that they can. If you play an instrument, then audition on that sucker.
“For me, it’s been a huge training ground, to learn how to lead and to work with the band,” James added. “I can’t explain how much I’ve grown in leading through Refuge.”
After college, James will seek another opportunity to lead worship.
“I want to pursue worship because I feel like that’s where the Lord is opening up opportunities right now,” he said. “I feel heavily called to pursue my own career, but there’s not much money in that either.”
However, his music career dreams are not entirely out of the picture.
“My primary goal is to tour with my original songs,” James added. “The originals I write are worshipful; they’re inspired from the Bible. The way we worship is changing and I think that’s cool because worship music, for a long time, has been behind the curve with actual music.”
Photos by Ryleigh Salmon.
