By Joshua Michel
In addition to their weekly Tuesday night worship, SOMA has this semester introduced morning prayer, new service opportunities and a revival movement.
“It’s a safe environment. If you don’t have a community at Trevecca, you will find it here. We have bomb worship and cool messages from our peers and friends,” said Maeve Tamez, one of the student leaders.
Joshua Connerty, SOMA chaplain, finds joy in starting his day with morning prayer.
“Something new that we have really enjoyed this semester is morning prayer, which happens every morning at 7 a.m. at the Porch of the Bud Robinson building,” said Connerty.
This half-hour of prayer time consists of silent reflection, singing of a hymn, prayers of thanksgiving, open discussion of sins and prayer in small groups.
“As our family continues to study spiritual discipline together, we have been focusing on the health of our prayer lives, both individually and collectively,” said Connerty.
SOMA has also restructured their social media team, worship team, hospitality team, prayer team and a set-up and tear down team. Any student willing to serve will be welcomed. The most recent development, however, has been coupling with Awaken Nashville.
“We’re partnering with a movement called Awaken Nashville, which is a collective of churches and universities throughout the city that has gathered together. Throughout the month of February, 300 churches from different denominations and regions of Nashville are standing with universities such as Vanderbilt, Tennessee State, Lipscomb, Belmont, Nashville State, and Fisk,” said Connerty.
Students and church members will be praying and fasting for the city of Nashville, and receiving a list of Nashville residents to pray over by name.
While it is a student-organized assembly, SOMA leaders recently have sought the advice of Tim Green, former university chaplain.
“SOMA is under the spiritual umbrella of Trevecca’s religion department. For that reason, Tim Green, as the head of the department, serves the SOMA community as support and supervision. Since our university is currently without a campus chaplain, the relationship has been more of a structure of accountability. ” said Connerty.
Despite the involvement and guidance of the former university chaplain, SOMA does not believe it is a position they are meant to fill.
“SOMA does not fulfill the role of a chaplain or going to chapel. It also doesn’t replace a home church, we’re not trying to be a church, we’re just trying to be a student-led ministry on campus that benefits Trevecca and brings unity,” said Tamez.
SOMA is held every Tuesday night at 9 p.m. in the Porch located in the Bud Robinson building. In addition, student-led morning prayer is likewise held in the Porch of the Bud Robinson building seven days a week from 7:00 to 7:30 a.m.
“We want everyone on campus to come to that, we aim to be a family and take care of each other. We welcome all majors, residents, and commuters,” said Tamez.
SOMA can also be reached on Instagram at @tnusoma.
“Our goal is to be faithful. As we learn to serve God and love one another, we’ve found growth to be one of the many sweet fruits that follow faithfulness,” said Connerty.
