Worship Arts program graduates standout student |
April 12, 2006 Just six years ago, Heather Combs was a high school junior who hesitantly joined her church’s youth group band on stage for the first time. Looking back, she remembers struggling to keep up with other musicians during the worship service. “I wasn’t plugged in. I couldn’t even play all the chords. I was totally out of my league, but it made me work harder,” she recalls with a laugh. Today, Combs, 22, remains modest about her worship-leading skills, but the difference between her confidence and abilities then and now are as disparate as night and day. She is one of five student leaders who regularly organize and run Corban’s chapel services, and she is a music intern at Dayspring Fellowship, a church of more than 800 members in Keizer, Ore. If the college’s music professors are excited about their three-year-old Worship Arts program, they are doubly impressed by standouts like Combs. A Vocal-Performance-turned-Worship-Arts student, she’s made the most of her time in college. From leading choir to running lights and sounds, Combs has absorbed the skills modern churches seek in a worship leader. “Heather is a good student and a well-rounded musician,” says Virginia Cross, chair of the Music Department. “She gets along with people really well. That’s important because, as a worship leader, you’re trying to lead people to worship God meaningfully. Establishing good connections in the group you lead helps you do that more effectively.” On April 7, Combs hosted An Evening of Worship at the Psalm Performing Arts Center, a benefit for a Romanian mission organization. At the concert, she and her band performed four of her original compositions reflecting her view of God and worship. “We think of worship as music. Worship is all-encompassing,” Combs says. “God created us to worship; it is our response to Him. …It’s how we glorify Him in our lives, our actions, our decisions.” As a child, Combs loved singing and playing instruments. In school, she sang in choir and played trumpet, clarinet and violin before settling on oboe because “it was different.” While attending a magnet arts high school in Vancouver, Wash., she picked up guitar and began playing for her youth group at Glenwood Community Church. Friends encouraged her to apply to Corban, and she started in the Vocal Performance program. While she’s grateful for the training in classical theory and technique she received, she identified more closely with the contemporary church music focus of the Worship Arts program introduced her sophomore year.
To create the new program, Corban faculty met regularly with church worship leaders in the Salem area, asking these leaders to share the skills a Worship Arts graduate should have. With this seasoned input, the school unveiled its popular new courses in fall 2003. Combs quickly realized this was a perfect match for her passion and gifting. From the beginning, she did her best to pour effort into everything, from singing and playing on stage to operating sound, lighting and computer systems in the back of the room. “Being at Corban is what you make it,” she says, her expression serious. “I’ve learned that God will use me, but I have to do my part. If I’m serious about serving in a church, I have to be serious about studying and growing.” With graduation fast approaching, Combs is sending applications to churches throughout the Northwest. “It’s kind of scary; it’s kind of exciting. If God has gifted me, I know He will enable me,” she says, nodding. -- By Christena Brooks |
