Two new community outreach activities were introduced today at Houghton University, occurring on the eve of a three-day set of campus and regional spiritual revival services.
The ENCORE! ministry for older adults was re-launched following a pandemic interruption, with many different ongoing social and other activities being organized.
In addition, a set of four free musical artist appearances, to start next week with The Cousins Trio, is being offered during the school year.
The ROOTED spiritual gatherings will be held at 7PM tomorrow and Friday nights, from 11:10 to 11:50 AM Friday as the weekly campus chapel service, and at 1PM Saturday in the Wesley Chapel at 1 Willard Drive. Each session is free and open to the public.
Rev. Pierre du Plessis, lead pastor at The Father’s Houses in Rochester will facilitate the spiritual revival sessions, with Jen and Taylor Wilding, 2014 Houghton graduates, leading the praise and worship singing.
Taylor currently is discipleship director and campus worship leader at Trinity Wesleyan Church in Indiana after having served previously as the worship director at Victory Highway Wesleyan Church in Painted Post, N.Y.
Houghton President Wayne D. Lewis, Jr., tells Allegany Hope Community News that he was led to initiate the community transformation series after studying the history of the institution, which started as a seminary some 140 years ago, and then became Houghton College, before being approved as a university within the past several weeks.
He said the focus today of Houghton University providing an academically challenging, Christ-centered education in the liberal arts and sciences to students from diverse traditions and economic backgrounds, hasn’t changed since the institution’s inception.
During this period, there have been at least two recorded spiritual revivals in which students, staff and communities have been drawn closer to God and His purposes for lives, with 1942 and 1951 events spreading outward throughout the region, with major amplifications in areas such as Buffalo and Philadelphia.
Purposes for this week’s chapel gatherings, Lewis said, are spiritual renewal for individuals throughout the regional, including youth and young adults across Western New York, and ongoing prayer for God’s revival on campus.
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