Gathering for an evening of Christ-centered worship, 5,000 attendees filled Pepperdine University's 校友 Park for the 佩珀代因敬拜峰会 on Saturday, September 13, 2025. The event featured GRAMMY Award-nominated Christian artists Kari Jobe and 科迪肉体, 纽约时报 best-selling author and pastor 弗朗西斯·陈, United Voice Worship, and Pepperdine’s own 波拜.

波拜

Tim Spivey, Pepperdine’s vice president for spiritual life, welcomed the incoming crowd while urging all to posture their hearts towards God. “Take a look around you,” he said. “What you are participating in tonight is not a concert, but a night to worship the Lord. 今晚我要你在上帝面前敞开心扉。 Be ready to celebrate tonight. 今晚准备祈祷吧。 Be ready to receive what God has for you tonight.”

波拜, 佩珀代因大学's worship collective, opened the event with a setlist of “GOODBYE YESTERDAY,” “Holy Forever,” and “Glorious Day,” while introducing an original song, “Move Like Wind,” from their newly released 同名首张专辑.

Dee Dee Mayer, interim chaplain and senior director of RelateStrong at Pepperdine's 布恩家庭中心， introduced United Voice Worship, an a cappella music ministry composed of worship pastors and praise leaders. The group performed a collection of songs including “Praise,” “Great Things,” and “Gratitude,” as well as a creative mashup of “How Great is Our God” and “How Great Thou Art.” Throughout the set, United Voice Worship encouraged audience members to join in song, while emphasizing the unity of Christ’s worshipping body through both their musical harmonies and meaningful crowd interaction.

“United Voice Worship has been at every single 佩珀代因敬拜峰会,” said Mayer as she addressed the audience. “What they bring as an a cappella group is an incredibly beautiful harmony, and these harmonies showcase Pepperdine’s rich Church of Christ heritage as they lift up their voice to Christ and invite your voices in.”

科迪肉体

Following United Worship’s performance, a video message from NFL running back Christian McCaffrey played on a large screen above the stage. McCaffrey shared testimony of his faith while urging the Pepperdine community, especially young people, “to stand firm in their faith” while embodying lives of purpose.

President Jim Gash (JD ’93) introduced Jobe and Carnes to the stage while inviting everyone into a moment of prayer. “圣灵，欢迎你来到这里。 Holy Spirit, rain down. 填满观众。 填满今晚。 Fill our hearts and fill our lives with a wind, with a fire, and with a desire to love and to serve you.”

Jobe and Carnes performed a selection of popular songs, such as “Take You at Your Word,” "Forever," and “Firm Foundation (He Won't),” while encouraging the audience to anchor their faith to withstand current personal and national tragedies. Jobe prayed, “Jesus, remind our own souls that you are the rock of our salvation, the only one we can stand on when everything else feels wild and hard and shaky. 你没有发抖。 你是我们牢固的基础，是我们生活的基石。”

As Danny DeWalt, senior vice president for global impact and chief of staff, welcomed Chan to the stage, he echoed Jobe’s call to stand in full faith amidst present hardships. “There’s never been a more important time for the church to stand in bold faith against the unspeakable evil that assassinated Charlie Kirk this week. Lord, we pray Your presence and Your peace and Your comfort over his family. We thank You that You are the God of life. 你是叫人复活的神。 We thank You that Charlie is with You, and we stand as the church now, and we take up the torch to be Your church. It’s on us to stand in bold faith. That’s why we’re here tonight to stand together as the one church of Jesus Christ and to declare Him as Lord and Savior.”

弗朗西斯·陈

德沃特分享了陈作为牧师、多产作家和国际演说家的背景。 “弗朗西斯·陈 has given his life to building the church and to building his disciples of Jesus,” he said, “so we have the incredible privilege and honor to sit at the feet of one of the most transformative teachers of our time.”

Drawing themes from passages such as Romans 5 and Jeremiah 32, Chan reminded his listeners to lean into God’s presence and boundless love—which, he shared, is the only remedy to healing inner unrest. Chan testified to how his childhood adversities deepened his necessity to draw nearer to God, imploring the audience to seek God with the same earnestness and reverence. 成龙说：“神是一个你爱的真实的人。 Hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Chan then invited Jobe and Carnes back onto stage to join him in a silent prayer and, addressing the crowd, said, “We’re going to be praying that God comes and meets each one of you. 我们不知道你需要什么。 Some of you don’t trust that God loves you, but we’re going to leave some space right now for God to do whatever He needs to do in your heart.”

Kari Jobe为观众祈祷

Jobe and Carnes closed the evening with an encore of songs, including “Nothing Else” and “The Blessing,” as the audience lifted their voices together. In her final benediction to the audience, Jobe said, “I just want you all to say, ‘God, I surrender to You. I come out of agreement with every lie and back into agreement with who You say that I am.耶稣，你是我们唯一寻求的真理。”

Pepperdine’s Worship Summit welcomed over 1,000 current students, many of whom stood and worshiped together at the foot of the stage.

西维尔大学 student, Joshua Young, remarked that, “Joining with thousands of voices raised in worship together reminded me that we weren’t just making noise—we were offering praise to the Creator of the universe. After an emotionally divisive week for the nation, it was refreshing to take part in a Christ-centered gathering that reminded me of how gathering in worship as a community draws us back to what’s eternal.”

敬拜高峰人群靠近舞台脚下

Emma Kirby, a current graduate student at the Grazidio Business School, was deeply impacted by elements of the event which created a space for Christ-centered reflection. 陈冯富珍带领我们默默祈祷，这是一个意想不到但又美妙的时刻。 In that sudden silence, when he paused all the excitement and energy of the worship music and his sermon, his remaining words spoken over us felt all the more effective.”

Pepperdine welcomed many members of its alumni community, such as 西维尔大学 alumnus Ryan Gordon (’23), who continue to return to the event annually, considering the occasion a powerful one that unifies the surrounding community while providing an environment wholly dedicated to Christ-centered worship.

Gordon said, “Getting to hear from someone like 弗朗西斯·陈 is always an attractive offer, but to me, witnessing this large of a crowd coming together to worship the Lord, in a city where faith is often overlooked, is a powerful reminder of the impact and relevancy of the Gospel.”