Sophomore Mike Montgomery has faced some interesting situations with his club, Praise and Worship Session, better known as PAWS, but his passion for offering an outlet for worship is as strong as ever.
“Orginally, PAWS was meant to be a transition from youth group to college,” Montgomery said. “Throughout our first year, we realized several things we needed to fix.”
One of the main changes Montgomery pointed out in the group’s mission is for PAWS to become a place of refuge for its members, where they can come and be open about their lives and talk about what is on their hearts.
PAWS meets every Monday evening in the Gough Great Room at 9 p.m. and will be recognized as an official campus club beginning next fall.
With this new focus, Montgomery sought to join forces with a similar group, Immerse, led by first-year Will D’Alesio, and a partnership was formed.
While Immerse also focuses on worship and bible study, the leaders want it to be more than just another campus group.
“Basically, we’re about finding out what your purpose is and learning about your gifts and the God that gave them to you,” first-year Jon-Michael Oden said. “To me, the biggest thing is that we want the Holy Spirit to lead it.”
Immerse meets every Thursday evening in the Walton prayer chapel at 7 p.m.
The groups are excited about working together on future events including one that is currently being finalized, called Shikah, which is the Hebrew word for worship. The tentative date and location for the event is April 23rd in the Dining Commons.
The evening will feature several different stations where people can be intimate with God in numerous ways, including worship, prayer, foot washing and communion.
“We don’t care if there are five or 500 people, as long as people are there being transparent and real with Christ,” Oden said.
For more details about Shikah and other future events please contact Mike Montgomery, Jon-Michael Oden or Will D’Alesio.
Mikaela Brown 
Sophia Hunter 
Jayme Fisher