The ground shook and voices rumbled as nearly 130 students of all ages sang and danced along to the lyrics of “I Thank God,” by Maverik City Music, at Gospel Night, Feb. 28.
Gospel Night is an annual community event run by the executives of high school Christian Clubs in San Diego. This year, the event took four months to plan and was organized by a team of 25 student volunteers from the Christian clubs at Westview, Del Norte, El Camino, Rancho Bernardo, and San Marcos High School. Lighthouse Christian Club president and vice president Erynn Lee (12) and Ellie Kim (11), , were part of this planning committee.
While there have been several other Gospel Nights hosted in the past, none of them have had as large of a turnout or were as big of a production as this year.
“It was definitely exciting [to have so many people there],” Kim said. “I had to run around at the beginning because I had to do all this stuff, but it was a good kind of chaotic because [Gospel Night] was something that I was really excited to be a part of and do.”
According to Kim, Gospel Night is a way for both non-Christians to be introduced to the gospel and for Christians to be able to connect and encourage one another.
“[Through Gospel Night], we wanted to do something where non-believers could come and kind of be introduced to Christianity and God’s love,” Kim said. “We wanted to do something to come together as a body of Christ and praise God and show people, this is who God is, this is what he’s done. This is how he’s transformed all these different people.”
The night started with food and games, followed by musical worship, a sermon, small groups, testimonial sharing, and a closing song.
Lee served as an intercessory prayer leader, and a small group leader, praying over everything during the planning stages of Gospel Night and leading a group of Gospel Night attendees in discussion and encouragement during the event.
“The [intercessory prayer] leaders would meet up once a week to just pray over this event,” Lee said. “I would lead prayer topics and guide them into that prayer session. We would pray for revival through the Gospel Night, that students that would come to Gospel Night [and] that they will encounter Jesus and that all the glory would just be put on to God and nothing else. God calls us to love our neighbors and prayer is a way for me to exercise that, where I can [pray for] a friend or over this event, for God to really move in me, and [for] the leaders to really engage in asking God to really touch the hearts of our friends.”
During the small-group discussions, Lee said she was able to form meaningful connections and answer any questions people had about Christianity.
“We were able to talk about how the event went for each individual and just how we’ve been doing in general in our own walks with God and about ways that God is moving in our lives,” Lee said. “There was one girl who had never been exposed to this kind of church setting, so to her, it was just all new. There are people that are really curious about the gospel and I feel like I’ve gotten to see what God has been doing in their lives and Gospel Night was just a way for them to fully understand the gospel and to see God’s light.”
Similarly, Kim also served as a small group leader, as well as an emcee. He was also a vital member of the media team, creating promotional videos and filming the whole event for a recap video.
“When we were making the promotion videos, I had ideas saved from Instagram and I chose the ones that I thought would be a good fit or I could see being adapted to promote Gospel Night,” Kim said. “We filmed everything, from people coming into the sanctuary, people praying, people worshiping, the worship team, and people having fellowship. We’ve had some experience filming, so we already knew what kinds of angles we wanted.”
To both Kim and Lee, helping to run Gospel Night was more than just hosting a fun community event.
“One of my main reasons why I continue to serve, [is because] I’ve genuinely seen how [God’s] love has transformed not only me, but my friends,” Kim said. “We don’t want to put on a show [and] we don’t want to force [Christianity] on anyone, because it’s their choice. [Gospel Night] was just showing people who we are and God has done. People have so much hurt and trauma in their hearts and I feel like I’ve definitely harbored hate and hurt within my heart. When I truly received God, it was like nothing really mattered. His love truly changes everything and I want everyone to experience that and have that one touch so that they can be completely transformed.”
