Trent McCrow
Avondale College is known for a strong spiritual culture and for being a Christian learning environment. The spiritual tone of the Avondale experience has been strongly evident through the many different worship opportunities for the staff and students.
Until 2009, there was a number of compulsory worship services that students were required to attend or face a possible fine. But a change in policy gave students the option to attend or not.
“Requiring people to attend worship is not biblical” says Assistant Director of Watson Hall Shane Roberts. “It’s something we wanted to change…that we can do worship in the way God wants it to be done.”
Since the change in policy there have been fluctuations in worship attendance but currently the spiritual tone of the campus is quite strong. Nikki Durham enjoys Wednesday night worship with the ladies residence. “We work together to help other ladies in need and spend time with God in worship together,” she said.
Another indicator of the spiritual strength of the Avondale Experience is the introduction of a new Sabbath School program – Wildfire. The new worship experience aims to fill the gap between the existing Young Adult Network Sabbath School and the Regeneration programs and provide a new worship experience for students and staff.
Rebekah Bamford is looking forward to Festival of Faith for semester two, which is just around the corner. “The vibe of college during the week of festival of Faith is really amazing. It’s quite spiritual. You’ll find people praying with each other. Others will be discussing what was just spoken about in the meeting before and there’s just a really good vibe because everybody loves to go to Festival of Faith and hang out and just get to know God a bit better.”
Click here for more information on Wildfire Sabbath School
