A close look behind the scenes of the Liberty University Worship Collective

Most students know the Liberty Worship Collective as the people who sing at Convocation and Campus Community. The members of the Liberty Worship Collective come together from all walks of life to try to lead students in worshipping the Lord both on and off the stage. 

The students came to the group through many different paths. Some had dreamed of joining for a long time while others never thought it was something their future could hold. For example, Madison VanderLugt’s dad sent the leadership team an audition tape without her knowing and started her on a journey she never expected. 

“I had this belief that you had to be equipped in order to be called to do something. I didn’t realize that God would equip me as he was calling me,” VanderLugt said. “I think that’s why I never saw myself being a worship leader because I never thought I would be equipped to do it.” 

The process of joining the Collective involves a series of auditions and an interview. In the audition, they have only a few minutes to demonstrate their musical abilities. Depending on the outcome of their first audition, they may go through callback auditions.

The final step in the process is an interview with the leadership of the Collective, focused on the spiritual aspect of being a member. Senior Collective member TJ Lawson has seen the leadership continually grow its emphasis on the interview. 

 “(They) want to make sure that, spiritually, where you are at in your walk with the Lord and your heart is something that’s strong enough and mature enough to handle the responsibility and authority of leading in front of 10,000 of your peers weekly,” Lawson said. 

But not all members of the Collective find themselves onstage. Senior Abram Gilder wasn’t offered a position when he auditioned in 2020 but later had the opportunity to be a production team member in December of 2021. Rather than having to display live production and mixing skills through an audition, students hoping to work with production for the Collective go through an interview. 

The Liberty Worship Collective team consists of instrumentalists, vocalists and production members. The instrumentalists and vocalists do much of what is seen onstage, but the production team is responsible for making sure everything behind the scenes comes together for every worship set. The five members of the production team work on the planning, set-up and technical aspects of Collective events. In addition to leading worship at Convocation and Campus Community, all Collective members attend a weekly class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, where they hear from guest speakers and grow spiritually as a group.   

Members helping lead worship in Convocation and Campus Community show up hours in advance to prepare. While vocalists generally sing at these events one to two times a week, instrumentalists are primarily split up into four teams for the duration of a semester. A given team will participate in leading worship at both Convocations and Campus Community in a single week and then have off for three weeks, with some exceptions. 

 “It allows for people to get more chemistry when they’re playing together and be more comfortable with the people they’re playing,” Gilder said. “That’s one thing we try to stick to, but there are also sometimes block-out dates. Because we have those four main teams, people can fill in at other times.” 

The Worship Collective travels throughout the year, leading worship at different churches and events throughout the country. Collective members travel in smaller groups for these types of events, and the leadership tries to make sure that individual members are not on the road more than twice a month. Sometimes, though, full schedules cannot be avoided. 

“One semester, we had four teams (out) and CFAW happening here,” Lawson said. “We’re not planning to do that ever again.”

“I was on the team that had to stay here, and we had to do Campus Community, Convocation on Friday and CFAW late night because everybody was gone,” VanderLugt said. “And auditions were going on at the same time.” 

Though the schedule can be hectic at times, Lawson thinks the payoff is worth it. Having the opportunity to represent Liberty through worship and leadership across the country brings a new element to the ministry and can have big impacts down the road. 

“We’re not just representing ourselves or the team or even the kingdom (of God), which of course is primary,” Lawson said. “We also represent the university as a whole, which has in turn brought a lot of students who have seen us on the road to Liberty.” 

The Liberty Worship Collective’s mission according to its Instagram page is simple: “celebrating Jesus across the globe.” Its members keep this passion as their driving focus, regardless of the misconceptions that surface. 

“We don’t have a clothing budget,” Gilder said. “I’ve been asked that multiple times, but we do not have a clothing budget.” 

“I think historically people have gotten the wrong understanding of Collective. From being on this team for the last six years I have never met people more fixed on the message of Jesus and more fixed on humility,” VanderLugt said. “These people are fighting pride and fighting all of these things in order to stand up in front of people and be right with God.” 

For the students of the Collective, the heart of what they do is wrapped up in making the gospel known. 

“We understand that our primary goal is to serve the student body of Liberty University by leading them in worship,” Lawson said. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how it sounds if you’re singing heresy. But if you’re singing the truth, if you’re singing the gospel, there’s a point at which it transcends the cultural boundaries of style and those types of things and gets to the heart of ‘we’re here to lift up the name of Jesus.’”

Campbell is a feature reporter for the Liberty Champion