A big empty parking garage is filled with voices coming together in worship. Eyes are closed, hands are raised and the focus is on the Lord. All are welcome, worship leaders said. No fancy lights, no big speakers, no performance, just praising God. Students, alumni and friends gather together for worship in the Fermanian Parking Garage at Point Loma Nazarene University on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m.
The worship night has been a gathering for about six years now and hundreds of students have been a part of it.
Julia McGinnis, a third-year psychology major, said that the night is something she looks forward to each week since discovering it in her first year at PLNU.
“The worship garage has been one of the biggest blessings to me since coming to Point Loma,” McGinnis said. “Walking in that atmosphere … there’s no word other than ‘transformative.’ I feel like that was one of the first spaces where I started to learn to hear the Lord’s voice.”
The event has been transformative for many and continues to welcome newcomers with open arms, according to McGinnis.
“As a freshman, it was a very sacred place for me to go, sit with the Lord, partake in communion, listen to a message and learn from these upperclassmen who are still such huge parts of my life,” McGinnis said. “That garage was one of the most free places I could go to just be myself. I didn’t have to think about who was watching me.”
Sam Wilson, a third-year communication major on the PLNU women’s soccer team, said that the worship night is a safe space to escape from responsibilities and focus on God.
“It’s a space to freely worship without any judgment … in the midst of school, soccer and life, an hour or two designated to be still and worship was vital for my faith journey,” Wilson said. “This gathering provided space to explore and become more comfortable being in the presence of God. It’s also a great space for community and fellowship where I’ve gotten to meet some lifelong friends.”
These favored worship nights did not always take place in the Fermanian Garage. It started in a small house where a group of students came together to worship weekly in 2019.
Alumnus Camryn Harrell, who graduated in 2024 with a communication degree, was one of the students who attended those nights and watched it travel to Fermanian.
“When I was a freshman at Point Loma … I became fascinated by the fact that students were wanting to come together and worship God,” Harrell said. “To adhere to more people, every other week we started going into the [Fermanian] parking garage and it was so awesome to be a part of this grassroots thing that was filled with the presence of God.”
Time went on and more people kept joining, and the parking garage became the regular meeting place. A missionary movement called “Met By Love” (MBL) heard about the gathering and partnered with PLNU to help guide and offer encouragement.
MBL Worship is part of the EveryHeart Movement – a Youth With A Mission organization – and is known for spreading out at different college campuses to host worship experiences. They are a group that consists of mission-minded worship leaders who have a hunger for the presence of God, according to their website. Their goal is to share that hunger with others, especially college students.
Although PLNU’s worship night is still student-led, MBL has partnered with them to serve as a guide and someone to look to for mentorship and encouragement.
MBL has also been involved as a helping hand in passing the torch as students graduate and others step into leadership. Harrell became one of those leaders. As an upperclassman, she got involved with leading worship and still does after graduating.
Harrell said it’s been special to get to guide her friends who are also taking up leadership roles in Tuesday night worship, using her own experience.
“The reason I wanted to continue my involvement after graduating is because there was still so much that the Lord wanted to do at Point Loma and use me to be a part of it in some way,” she said. “It’s been such a blessing to watch this gathering grow from a small group of students in a house to what it is now in the garage.”
