Vertical hosts Shane & Shane during worship service at McLane Stadium

By Avery Ballmann | Staff Writer

Vertical Ministries held their weekly worship service at McLane Stadium Monday night, featuring special guests Shane Everett and Shane Bernard — of Shane & Shane and The Worship Initiative.

Shane & Shane is a worship band that holds weight in the genre, with 92,000 followers on Instagram and 32 studio albums. Southlake senior and Vertical president Emma Murray said the group reached out to Vertical to perform in the spring semester.

“It’s about us abiding in Jesus and how our leaders in the past have faithfully abided in Jesus and how we have seen that modeled,” Murray said. “When we’re abiding in him, great things happen, and so that makes sense that people reach out.”

Vertical’s mission statement is to “ignite the passion in college students for Jesus Christ, for his church and his mission around the world.” Murray said this mission is rooted in John 15:5: “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”

Spring sophomore and Vertical volunteer McKenna Randall is on the outreach committee. Her job is to reach out to students at Vertical by talking with them and creating relationships.

“We talked about it as volunteers,” Randall said. “It’s very exciting because it is something to draw freshmen and some upperclassmen to Vertical. Sometimes it’s hard getting connections with people who don’t already come, so the big names like David Platt and Shane & Shane draw people to it.”

Sugar Land freshman Ryan Oommen has attended Vertical since the first week of school. Shane & Shane and The Worship Initiative opened Vertical with three of their songs: “Reign Above It All,” “Living Hope” and “You’ve Already One.” They also closed out worship with classic Christian hymns such as “How Great Thou Art.” Oommen said the worship was nice.

“Especially hearing they were popular in Christian music, having never heard of them, they were really good,” Oommen said. “It was a really good experience.”

According to the The Worship Initiative website, it was created by Shane & Shane to collaborate with worship leaders and preachers to create meaningful songs that reflect the teachings of the Bible. Randall’s favorite song by them is “Psalm 63.”

“It has a lot of sentimental value to me because I listened to it a lot my freshman year when I was really developing my faith,” Randall said. “The lyric ‘Your love is better than life is’ really changed my life, because it shows how great God is and how having him in your life can change it for the better.”

Shane & Shane met while attending Texas A&M University; from there, they began creating music and touring. When they reached out to Vertical in the spring, Murray said she saw this as a blessing since at the time, they had not picked a new executive leader for Vertical. She said she knew they would have this band scheduled for this week of their ministry.

“A lot of people listen to Shane & Shane and The Worship Initiative,” Murray said. “It’s fun to hear the buzz and hype around campus, and it’s like, ‘Man, what a sweet opportunity to outreach to students with this.’”

As 9 p.m. rolled around, students began filling the stadium, from the stage that began in the end zone closest to the screen all the way to the 50-yard line. As worship began, some students bowed their heads, raised their hands or stood still while singing along.

“We really just want to be welcoming and open to people who haven’t been in anything regarding faith, which could be a big thing tonight, because they hear the names and want to come,” Randall said. “So we’re trained to talk to everyone and get to hear their story.”

Since Shane & Shane have a large following in the genre of Christian music and because of their origin story from their college years, Murray said she thinks they have a heart for campus ministries.

“It’s just refreshing seeing all of these people here,” Oommen said. “It makes my heart feel happy that there’s people like me here. It makes me feel like this was the right school to come to.”

Shane & Shane and The Worship Initiative have resources such as podcasts, blogs and training to strengthen worship groups and individuals. Vertical will be back on Fountain Mall next week.

“That’s the goal: We want people to hear the gospel and have their lives transformed by the grace of Jesus,” Murray said. “So if this is what gets them there, then amazing. It’s so exciting to us.”