From Sept. 16 to 21, Andrews University hosted daily seminars by Ty Gibson for this semester’s Week of Prayer. Every semester, Andrews University, through the Center for Faith Engagement, hosts what is known as the Week of Prayer. It is a week during which class schedules are modified to accommodate one-hour seminars every morning. This semester’s Week of Prayer speaker was Ty Gibson, the director and speaker for Light Bearers, a group of speakers whose mission is “to vindicate the beauty of God’s character.”
Gibson’s week-long presentation, “The Warfare Within,” was delivered in morning and evening installments and, including the message delivered at a Saturday morning church service, comprised 11 seminars total. During the week, Gibson spoke in Pioneer Memorial church; in each seminar, he discussed a different subject concerning the internal warfare between good and evil.
His opening statement was, “We are born into a battlefield.” Toward the beginning of the week, Gibson discussed the more general origins of this warfare, such as in part two, “Our Inhabited Universe,” about the cosmic war between good and evil and their origins, and part three, “A Psychological Profile of Lucifer,” which dived into the details of Lucifer’s fall and what it determined for the rest of the cosmos. Later, he also tackled the subject of love in part five, “The Six Secrets of Lasting Love,” and part six, “The War on Sex,” which both presented love-related dilemmas we face and discussed how cosmic warfare impacts our quests for love and marriage.
Toward the end of the series, Gibson focused on spreading hope, such as in part 10, “The Fatal Blow,” which dived into understanding God’s love and what Christ’s sacrifice truly meant, saying, “Jesus dealt the fatal blow to Satan’s kingdom by loving all others above Himself to the absolute end of Himself.” He ended the weekday seminars on an emotional and hopeful note as he invited anyone who needed prayer to join with a designated person who would pray over them.
The last presentation, “Cosmic Win,” took place in the Howard Performing Arts Center at New Life Fellowship. The sermon was a final summary of the series, discussing the necessity for compassion and understanding of one another instead of judging those around us. “In the redemption and forgiveness that God lavishes on you and me, the whole universe is stabilized with an eternal security that will never be broken.”
The seminars were extremely study-oriented as Gibson constantly referenced Bible verses and Ellen G. White’s writings, as well as works of thinkers like Kierkegaard and C. S. Lewis, to make his claims, analyzing them carefully alongside the audience to reveal and discuss important subtleties. His heavy reliance on biblical texts and his method of explaining and teaching his message brought the series to the next level in terms of depth and engagement.
According to Chaplain Jose Bourget, so far, there have been eight requests for more information on baptism or re-baptism, 28 requests to learn more about being a student missionary, 34 people want to join a small group or bible study, five want to visit with a chaplain, and over 40 students have been involved with music, AV, discipleship operations, plus various other leadership roles since the Week of Prayer started.
If you could not attend the series or missed one of the seminars, they are all available on the Andrews University YouTube channel.
Jacob Elanko contributed to this article.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.