The Indiana Wesleyan University Spiritual Formation Office hosted their first House Party event on Sept. 19, 2025.
The event consisted of a worship service on the chapel lawn, s’mores, live music after the service and laser tag inside the chapel building.
Andrea Summers, campus pastor and Dean of Spiritual Formation, said the Spiritual Formation Office envisions this event having an evangelistic impulse on the IWU campus.
The Spiritual Formation Office encouraged students to bring their friends who do not attend IWU.
Maria Miller, connections assistant at the Spiritual Formation Office, said, “We’re trying to invite people in the space to have fun, and to worship, and to get to hear the word, and also bring people who don’t go here from other colleges and from the community onto campus to worship together.”
Attendee Emma Long said she graduated from IWU in 2024. She said she decided to attend the event because her brother drums in the worship band.
“I like how everyone’s coming together,” Long said. “The community is invited.”
Long said she would have liked to have House Parties as an IWU student.
“I like that it’s on a weekend,” Long said. “I remember people always trying to find different events to go to on the weekends.”
Attendee Jonah Smith from Taylor University said he came to the event because his girlfriend invited him.
“This is a really, really cool event and it’s fun to see the way that the community is getting together and doing all these events together,” Smith said. “We just got out of laser tag. It was really, really fun, honestly. It’s cool to just enjoy time and build fellowship with those around us, to be serious.”
Pastor Jonathan Rivera spoke to college students during the worship service portion of the event.
IWU student Kayla Jones said she enjoyed the speaker and thought his message appealed to college students in a moving and powerful way.
“I thought it (the event) was a nice way to keep people on campus and show that worship and praising Jesus can be fun, and just nice community for the campus,” Jones said.
Adrick Phillips led worship at the event. He said, “The Lord definitely blew my mind with the amount of people that showed up, so we’re grateful for the turnout.”
Summers said in an email that 430 IWU students scanned for credit during the event.
Miller said, “We had approximately 500-ish people, which isn’t an exact number, but I think it was a great turnout, especially for a Friday night over the weekend.”
Miller said she thought people seemed engaged and excited to be at the event. She said the Spiritual Formation Office has already planned more House Parties for the rest of the year.
“I’m really looking forward to getting feedback from a student perspective, people who aren’t biased by the office,” Miller said. “And, I think there’s a lot of potential for it to gain even more traction and people to bring more friends. And also, we’ll do different after parties every time, so I’m excited to get different crowds each month.”
