Greene County News
CEDARVILLE — Cedarville University’s worship program provides practical experience for students to enter their chosen field after graduation. The program equips students to serve while giving them the opportunities to work with ministries across the country.
Hayden Bradley, a senior worship major from Forrest, Ohio, spent the past summer interning at Harvest Bible Chapel in Chicago, home of the Vertical Church Band. Upon completing his internship, Bradley was offered a full-time ministry position with Harvest Bible Chapel.
After graduating in December, Bradley will serve as the head worship leader at the Cathedral Campus and begin touring with Vertical Church Band in March.
“Cedarville has helped me understand what worship really is,” Bradley said. “Cedarville’s focus in the classroom has always been why we worship, not how we worship.”
Three other Cedarville students, Chuck DeBrosse, Ansen Lancaster and Jared Wolfe, also interned at Harvest Bible Chapel this past summer.
Michael Pettus, a 2015 graduate from Cedarville’s worship program, has served at Christ Fellowship Miami as the main campus worship pastor for over a year. He also had the opportunity to lead a worship set with Chris Tomlin during a recent tour.
“One of the features of Cedarville’s worship program is that it’s practically oriented and hands-on,” said Roger O’Neel, Ph.D., associate professor of worship. “We want to prepare students so they’re ready to minister to a local church if that’s where God is calling them. We want our students not to just be good musicians but to have the heart of a worshiper.”
The Cedarville worship program prepares worshipers to serve through practical ministry experience by serving with university touring teams such as Heartsong, Resonance, Rekindle and chapel bands. Each worship student is required to complete field experience their sophomore and junior year, as well as an internship their senior year. Often, these internships lead to full-time positions.
Cedarville worship students are having opportunities to work with many nationally known ministries such as Harvest Bible Church, Elevation Worship and Christ Fellowship that are recruiting Cedarville students.
