The Well Worship Team counts down for their extended worship and prayer night March 11 in the Amphitheater. The band lineup for service included two electric guitarists, a drummer, a bassist, two keyboardists and four vocalists. Photos by Clementine Metz
The Well is a free weekly worship service through the Hub for Spiritual Life. Services take place at the Amphitheater every Wednesday night at 8 p.m., where students engage in over an hour of music, fellowship and a message.
A multidisciplinary team of adult staff members of the Hub as well as student volunteers make up The Well. Together, they compose the Welcome Team, the band, the Tech Team, the Response Team and the Social Media Team.
“Our hope at the Hub for Spiritual Life has always been that the students have a transformational encounter with Jesus,” Jordan Seah, associate director for Worship and Ministry said. “We are simply just doing our best to usher people into the presence of Jesus, and then we let the Lord do all the rest.”
The Worship Team
Seah said he initially became involved with the Hub for Spiritual Life in his junior year at Pepperdine, and now, he has been the Associate Worship Director for The Well for three years. He works alongside the other worship leaders and music directors, including Kolomona Ku, Lily Salanty, Jadyn Gaertner and Nathan Lee.
“It’s an absolute joy; I wake up every morning looking forward to working with my best friends and my family,” Seah said. “We get to create music together by the Pepperdine community, for the Pepperdine community and we get to pray together into what God has for this campus year after year.”
Seah said the worship team begins preparing for a Wednesday night at The Well on the preceding Friday. The leaders prepare the setlist in coordination with the planned message and pray over it in order to ensure cohesion throughout the service.
On the following Tuesday afternoon, they rehearse as a band from 3:30 to 5 p.m. in Tyler Campus Center (TCC), Seah said. On Wednesday, they begin setting up and rehearsing at 3 p.m. for the 8 p.m. service.
“I have to commend everyone involved at The Well — come Wednesday, everything here has to be set up from scratch: sound, furnishing, instruments, sound check and rehearsal,” Seah said. “So from 3 to 10:30 p.m., we’re on the go, and that’s what it takes to run The Well.”
The Tech Team displays the lyrics of Phil Wickham’s worship song, “House of the Lord.” The entire setlist of the night consisted of eleven songs, including “Touch of Heaven” and “Defender.”
The band uses worship as a means to praise God and make use of the talents they’ve been given, Seah said.
“Worship is an offering and a response, using our gifts as musicians, as vocalists and as production members to respond to the Lord and to the Creator who gave us these gifts,” Seah said.
The Tech Team
Marshall Craig, manager of Worship and Technology, leads the Tech Team. Craig said the Tech Team is responsible for running the slides, setting up the camera, changing the lighting and loading the soundboard presets for the instruments.
Student volunteers on the team also mix the sound, which includes adjusting the volume, level and tonality of the music and microphones, Craig said. One member of the team stays in the office in the TCC building during the service to control the system and mix the livestream for YouTube.
“We want our worship team to have all the tools to feel good up there and to feel confident in their singing so that they can be present,” Craig said.
In a perfect world of service running smoothly, the Tech Team would go unnoticed, Craig said.
“God rewards what is done in secret; He says that in the context of prayer, but I think it’s applicable to the work we do,” Craig said. “The work we do is invisible when it’s done well, people don’t notice there aren’t problems.”
Craig said the most enjoyable part of his role is creating an environment that encourages people to worship God and sing praise.
“A worship night, in a sense, is a concert and the audience is God, and we the congregation are all singing to God together,” Craig said. “The people on stage are not performers, they’re leading the congregation in worship together.”
The Response Team
Ministry Specialist Julie Tingleff is responsible for leading the Response Team. She said the heart of the team is meeting others on the basis of God’s provision for anything someone may need prayer over.
“When someone comes to you and asks for prayer, you’re not giving them anything of yourself — you’re just going to God together,” Tingleff said. “We want to pray over the smallest things and something huge and catastrophic, because nothing is too big or too small in God’s eyes.”
Students raise their hands while singing praise in the Amphitheater March 11. Tim Spivey, Vice President of Spiritual Life, and Ministry Manager Holly Reed led the attendees in prayer and gave a message about God’s power and the victory believers have in Jesus.
It is important to pray because it’s the foundation of Christian living and a relationship with God, Tingleff said. To be able to pray with others and for others is special, and it isn’t a one-time-per-week experience.
“I’m praying for you [anyone who asks her for prayer] throughout the week,” Tingleff said. “It’s a touch point between me and God, so it’s a blessing to me as well as to whoever I’m praying for.”
Staff members and student volunteers on the Response Team undergo training to make sure everyone feels supported in the space, Tingleff said. Everyone working in the tent at The Well has experience in intercessory prayer to cultivate a comforting environment.
“If they’re coming and confessing something, God’s not shocked by our past — He knows it all, and you’re just trying to imitate Jesus in that moment, and Jesus is not ever freaked out,” Tingleff said.
Tingleff said the most rewarding part about this role is seeing people walk away lighter than they came.
“I hope they walk away feeling loved and cared for by The Well team,” Tingleff said. “I hope they walk away feeling like God cares for them and sees them where they are and is with them in their troubles.”
Members of the Response Team are available at The Well before, during and after each Wednesday service in the Response Tent for anyone who was touched by the message, needs prayer or wants simple conversation, Tingleff said.
Student Experiences
First-year Samantha Brown heard about The Well through Instagram when researching Pepperdine’s student ministries in her junior year of high school, she said. Now, Brown and her friends attend The Well most weeks.
“The Well is intimate and personal, and you’re able to know people there,” Brown said. “It’s like a big family.”
Brown said she resonates most with the messages, especially when she feels like it’s something she needed to hear.
“Being able to take a step back and realize, ‘Alright, this is who God says I am: a child of God’; just getting that reestablished in you is why spaces like The Well are so important,” Brown said.
Junior Debora Soegiarto said she has been a frequent attendee at The Well since NSO Week of her first year in August 2023.
“It’s a good break in the middle of the week to find spirituality and ground yourself, especially if you have a long week ahead of you,” Soegiarto said. “It’s a kindhearted community and culture and I just feel really close to God whenever I go.”
Soegiarto said The Well is representative of Pepperdine’s care for spiritual life, as their attendees, student volunteers and staff members are all driven for God.
“It’s nice to know that you have a support system and a community that cares about you,” Soegiarto said.
____________________
Follow the Graphic on X: @PeppGraphic
Contact Jordan Baquiran via email: jordanisabel.baquiran@pepperdine.edu