By Shelby Peck | Copy Editor
Every Monday night, a gathering of Baylor students can be found singing, worshiping and declaring the same message: They’d “rather have Jesus.” Now, what began as a small group of Baylor students leading one another in prayer and worship is returning to its roots of being student-led.
Vertical Ministries was started in 2009 by four Baylor students who desired to see a university changed by Christ. It has since grown into a weekly worship service held on Baylor’s campus and even counts toward Chapel credit.
According to the Vertical website, it is designed as a supplement to the local church and hopes to challenge students to “actively pursue an authentic and ‘vertical’ relationship with God.”
“We’re evolving again to being more student-led and trying to get back to that,” Anna Webb, associate director of Vertical, said. “Part of how Vertical started was being a student-led ministry. And so, although the ‘who’ has changed over the years, the ‘what’ has never changed … and that is the Lord.”
When Vertical was founded, there were no professional or adult leaders. Students simply began meeting for prayer and worship and inviting their friends. As attendance at the gatherings increased, “friends of the ministry” from areas such as Dallas and Austin traveled to Waco to lead worship.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, however, Vertical transitioned to a virtual platform. Worship had to be recorded by local musicians instead of those from other cities.
“We tried really hard to just get as many different people from different churches as possible, because it’s kind of this cool thing now where it’s like, ‘Hey, if you know Vertical is for the local church, then how awesome is it that the local church can be represented?’” Jessica Lackey, volunteer worship coordinator for Vertical, said.
Lackey, who began working with Vertical while she was a student at Truett Seminary, said the local volunteer worship leaders became known as the “Vertical Collective” when a series of live recordings were released.
Lackey coordinates with speakers to select songs consistent with the message of the night, creating a “cohesive whole.” After she hears what passage of the Bible will be taught, she said she spends time in prayer trying to discern what songs and messages students need to hear.
“I think that it’s really important that you don’t have disjointed segments of a gathering together because it’s all worship — words and singing,” Lackey said.
Lackey said Vertical aims to include songs that students from a variety of Waco churches and denominational backgrounds would know to make the worship accessible.
“The goal would be to make kind of the theme and the messaging of the night holistic,” Webb said. “So from start to finish, from the moment that you walk in the door … we would be kind of hitting the same points. We do collaborate with the speaker and who’s going to be jumping in with worship that week to kind of let them know, ‘Hey, this is where we’re going to be coming out of Scripture. This is kind of the topic of the night and some of the key points.’ And then Jessica [Lackey] kind of does her magic, try and fit some worship music into that theme.”
Webb said Vertical is currently teaching a series titled “The Best Four Years,” named after the saying many students hear from those older than them who are trying to relay the excitement of college.
“There’s this disappointment and discouragement when reality doesn’t actually line up with that statement,” Webb said. “It’s all about helping students navigate that gap in helping teach them, ‘Hey, this is how to actually have the best four years while you’re in college.’ We hope they have a great four years, but we also hope it’s not the best four years of your life because we hope God continues to be good to you for the next 30, 40, 50, 60 years of your life.”
Many of the songs throughout the series have focused not only on adoration and worship but also on the importance of the local church. The song “God of Revival” is a cry for God to “come awaken your people, come awaken your city,” calling Christians to come together and not as separate church bodies.
“Vertical just has this unique opportunity to be that sort of melting pot of students, and specifically as we look into this new season of worship within Vertical where it is students, I’m really excited to see how that grows and flourishes — that you could be standing on stage next to somebody from a different church, and it’s still the same name of Jesus being proclaimed,” Lackey said. “You get to have that really intense unity that’s just a blessing.”
