Every Monday, after the sun sets and campus quiets, voices lifting praise and worship can be heard through the open windows of Brooks 129. This is where Met By Love (MBL) meets, a student-led organization focused on fostering worship and community not only on Samford’s campus, but in the Birmingham community as a whole.
MBL, originally founded at Cornerstone University in Michigan, has found a steady home among Samford students. The chapter at Samford first started March of 2023 and has steadily grown since. They meet every Monday in Brooks 129, starting at 8 p.m. and lasting late into the night.
Meeting structures are simple: the leadership team arrives at 7 p.m. and begins to set up for the night.
“We pray and work through the set list, but we’re very Spirit-led, so whatever we have might not always happen. We might change up the songs that we do, but we just like to set the scene for the Lord to come and move,” said worship leader Ava Russell.
After rehearsal, a time that Bennett Wagley, a member of MBL’s student leadership team, called “intercession” begins at 8 p.m.
“We open the doors to Brooks 129 and whoever is there, they come and they help pray over the night,” said Wagley.
After an hour of prayer and intercession, the night truly begins. This time spent worshiping Christ in unity is “the heart of MBL,” as Russell put it.
“It’s not a typical style of worship – there’s no rules,” said Russell. “It’s just a special place where you should come as you are, and you just get to see the heart of the Father and worship Him, however that looks like.”
MBL’s focus is to make the love of Christ a visible force on Samford’s campus and in the greater Birmingham area, as well. Russell’s motivation for on-campus worship is to reignite the love of Christ in the hearts of Samford students.
“People here [at Samford] grew up in faith and are trying to figure out if their faith is their own, so we wanted to bring people to a different depth that they might not have experienced before,” said Russell.
And for Wagley, he believes seeing unity through love across Birmingham starts in a faith-centered place like Samford, through what the MBL organization calls “unity gatherings.”
“We were able to gather students from seven different colleges: Birmingham Southern, Samford, Auburn, University of North Florida, Highlands College, UAB,” said Wagley. “MBL is committed to unifying those people in worship of Jesus, however that looks like.”
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