Jacob Duran has been involved with dorm worship since his freshman year. Now, as a sophomore, he is the Director of Combined Dorm Worship and Spiritual Residence Assistant for Newton Hall.

In the past years, each residence hall at PUC hosted its own dorm worship. During the 2023-2024 school year, students felt each worship was the same program, leaving them uninvolved with fewer attending throughout the week. Student leaders and staff members wanted to make a change and get them excited to go to dorm worship. This led to combining Winning, Andre, and Newton Hall worship every Tuesday night at Scales Chapel to improve spiritual life on campus. 

Whether working behind the scenes or leading on stage, Jacob enjoys helping with worship services. When RAs from Newton Hall saw how involved he wanted to be, they encouraged him to become director of dorm worship. As spiritual RA for Newton, this is a new position that the deans had in mind for Jacob. 

“What I’ve enjoyed most about being the Spiritual RA is seeing students connect with each other and God through simple yet meaningful programming,” he shared. “The energy that the dorms bring each week to dorm worship has been enjoyable to watch, as it encourages students to come and enjoy a short time together with each other. I’ve also enjoyed the even smaller, more intimate hall worship for Newton. Seeing residents express their thoughts about a certain topic of discussion is refreshing. It allows me to peer into the lives of those who share, and, to me, that’s valuable!”

Jacob generously shared his experience being director of dorm worship and what it means to him.

What does a typical dorm worship entail?

A typical dorm worship consists of music, an icebreaker, a message, and food afterward. However, this year, we want things to be a bit different. This difference is not always having a speaker every week. Though we may have a speaker for one week, we may have a game or activity the next! We want a variety in programming than what we’re typically used to.

Do you have a favorite part of dorm worship? 

Though I love any worship program’s music portion, I enjoy the icebreaker portion of dorm worship. I consider myself a social butterfly; I need that human interaction. Icebreakers allow me to socialize through a silly activity, which I love!

How has a combined dorm worship been different from dorm worships last year?

Combined dorm worship this year, in comparison to last year’s dorm worship programs, follows this rubric: each dorm, Newton, Andre, and Winning, take one week to put the dorm worship program together. We’ve adopted a 3-week rotation. The first week, Newton is in charge of dorm worship, then Winning the next, and Andre the third week. Following this rotation allows for less burnout among the dorms and also allows for time to come up with more creative programs that students would enjoy attending!

Have you seen or heard that combined dorm worship is more popular or well-liked?

So far, we’ve seen and heard good things about combined dorm worship! There seems to be a stronger sense of togetherness due to the “combined” aspect of dorm worship this year. One particular week this was visible was when combined dorm worship hosted a “Dorm Feud” for its main portion of the program! The students enjoyed a programming change to have a friendly competition between the dorms.

How many students do you think go every Tuesday to dorm worship? Are there more students now attending since it is combined, compared to last year having different dorm worships?

This year, we’re seeing about 100-120 students on average attending dorm worship, a massive improvement in comparison to the multiple dorm worships occurring throughout the week last year!

Are there ways students can get involved with dorm worship, aside from going?

Definitely! Students can get involved by helping lead song service whether they sing, play an instrument, or do A/V. Students can also get opportunities to lead out in an activity for the night or share a devotional thought with their peers. Dorm worship is especially a great opportunity for students who want to get involved but are a bit shy about larger events. Though a larger event than last year, dorm worship is still a relatively smaller event. So, students can test the waters of public speaking and other public participation!

If students want to get involved, here’s a couple of things they can do:

• Fill out the Dorm Worship Involvement form
• Reach out to your RAs, student deans, and deans.
• Reach out to me directly through email: jaduran@puc.edu

What responses or positive comments have you received from dorm worship?

We’ve received mostly positive comments so far! Some have appreciated the variety in programming and participants. Others have shared their appreciation for the liveliness of every dorm worship, whether it be through the songs, icebreakers, or the silly teaser videos the dorms post on Instagram promoting dorm worship (I’ve really enjoyed watching those, haha). And to no surprise, many people have been thoroughly enjoying the food afterward. Though I’ve only really heard positive feedback, I am more than happy to hear what’s not enjoyable or what dorm worship could be doing more of!

Here’s a form for students to let us know how we’ve been doing.  

What do you hope students take away from each dorm worship?

As a student myself, I know how busy each of us can be with academics, extracurriculars, and relationships. And I know that we are all on different roads of life. But we hope that students come to dorm worship with their different experiences and enjoy fellowshipping with each other through whatever means. Ultimately, we hope students find a piece of Jesus through music, a message, activities, and, most importantly, each other.