Mental Health | 5 Self compassion: Treating yourself as you treat others
February 1, 2023 Collegedale, Tennessee
Opinion | 6
Religion | 6
Artificial intelligence: Why I'm not worried
Personal testimony: Finding my voice on and off paper
Lifestyle | 7 Stop letting society dictate what you like
Southern Accent
Vol. 78 Issue 14
The student voice since 1926
Ignite Live to host Cory Asbury as featured guest artist Génesis Ventura Reporter This semester, Ignite Live will feature singer/songwriter and Grammy-award winner Cory Asbury, according to Southern Adventist University’s website. Asbury is a successful artist and the composer of “Reckless Love” and “Sparrows,” a song he wrote during the pandemic using imagery from Matthew 6. The event will take place Saturday, Feb. 4, at 8 p.m. in Iles P.E. Center. As of Monday evening, tickets were sold out online. They were free for Southern students and alumni. For those who do not attend Southern, tickets cost $10 for adults, $5 for high school and college students and $25 for family packages of four. Aaron Patterson, senior media production major and the producer, marketing assistant and co-host of Ignite, shared details about the event in an interview with the Accent. Patterson said the Ignite Live team has been planning this event for a long time and originally had another guest in mind. They initially built the show around that guest, but it did not work out. “Right before Christmas break,
they gave us a call and said that they were unavailable because the person had become pregnant, which is super cool,” Patterson said. “But it was kind of a frustrating thing to try, then, to pull something together.” Patterson emphasized that he and Ignite sponsor Pablo Fernandez had to act quickly to find a guest for the event, which was two months away. When Patterson was trying to get in contact with Asbury, he sent several emails, and someone named Rebecca Cox got back to him. While conversing with her, they discovered that they knew each other because she took pictures for his wedding. Patterson said that was a blessing because Cox knowing him was all the credibility he needed to secure Asbury as a guest. “I'm super proud of my team,” Patterson said. “I absolutely could not have done it without them, like, actually, could not have done it without them, because it was just such an incredible amount to do.” Patterson said Ignite Live is like a Christian late night talk show. This year, it will be centered around the anxiety and stress that Asbury talks about in his song “Sparrows.”
Health science major Gianna Bacchiocchi, who serves as co-host and internal marketing director for Ignite, shared some more details about the event. “We put in a lot of work to make a night for the students so that they can come and sit back and relax and experience playing games and good conversation and even better music,” Bacchiocchi said. “Cory is super talented. Not only is he going to be presenting just amazingly, brilliantly written songs … he's also going to be shedding light on Christ.” Senior advertising major Sarah Manuel, marketing director for Ignite, emphasized the work the team has put into this production. “Ignite Live is a student-led production,” Manuel said. “I think it would be super cool for people to come out and support the hard work that has been put into this because the clubs are involved, [as well as] the School of Journalism and Communication and other departments. We are trying to show students that not just people from the [SJC] can be involved with Ignite Live — that everyone is welcomed!”
IGNITE LIVE GAMES | LIVE MUSIC | INTERVIEWS
FREE TICKETS:
"RECKLESS LOVE"
FEBRUARY 4 AT 8 P.M. ILES P.E. CENTER REGISTRATION REQUIRED
SOUTHERN.EDU/IGNITE
Singer/songwriter and Grammy award-winner Cory Asbury (Photo courtesy of the School of Journalism and Communication)
Southern Adventist University Steel Band goes on first ever tour Alana Crosby
Editor-in-Chief
Southern Adventist University Steel Band members pose for a picture. (Photo courtesy of School of Music)
On Jan. 18, the Southern Adventist University Steel Band left for its first tour. The group, which consists of 12 members directed by Keith Lloyd, visited Walker Memorial High School, Forest Lake Education Center, Forest Lake Academy and Whole Life Church on their trip to central Florida. According to Ken Parsons, band member and associate professor in the School of Music, it is the only steel band in the Tennessee Valley. The ensemble was created in 2019, according to Parsons. Although the band has existed for four years, this was their first opportunity to tour due to COVID19 and other issues.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said. In an email to the Accent, Lloyd wrote that the tour was a tremendous success. “The trip was outstanding!” Lloyd wrote. “We performed for at least 1,500 people over five concerts at four different locations in Florida. … In addition to sharing music with many people, the students were able to enjoy time at the beach and go on a canoe trip at a natural spring. The trip would not have been possible if it wasn’t for SAU Director of Bands, Ken Parsons. He put all of the work into planning a terrific trip so that the students and I could focus on sharing music and fel-
lowship with many wonderful people in Florida.” In an interview with the Accent, four steel band members spoke enthusiastically about their tour experience. Amy Van Arsdell, junior history major, said the trip has, so far, been the highlight of her college experience. “I feel like people have fun when they're in the audience listening to us, like the kids are always clapping and bobbing their heads,” Van Arsdell said. “But no matter how much fun they're having, we're having more fun, like twice as much fun playing it ourselves.” The Steel Band offers a unique See STEEL BAND on page 3
Collegedale church expands livestreaming system Alexis Dewey Staff Writer The Collegedale Church of Seventh-day Adventists, also known as the university church, has been expanding the last several years. With roughly 3,000 members, the church is always looking for ways to serve others and “share Christ effectively,” according to the church’s website. The newest improvement to the church is its new livestreaming system. “In the last few years, we have seen the need to expand the ministry,” said Matt Spears, a staff member at the church who heads the livestreaming system. Although the church began livestreaming in the winter of 2010, Spears said administrators noticed a great need for an upgrade, especially due to COVID-19. Roughly 50 to 200 people watch the livestreamed services, so the church wanted to raise its production quality and began gathering the funds to do so. Noah Bynum, a student who recently graduated from the School of Journalism and Communication (SJC), took on this task as his senior project. Bynum was the manager and researcher for the podcasting and livestreaming studio during the fall of 2022. He kept in touch with a team that designs
TV studio sets and worked for the same company that constructed the SAU News set on campus. The project, Bynum said, is still being constructed and designed. The live streaming system will bring some changes, the biggest being the location of the studio. Bynum said the studio was previously in a janitor’s closet. Soon, the project will take place in the former training chapel, which has been divided into two rooms. One room will be dedicated to livestreaming and the other for podcasts. Bynum also mentioned that the studio is changing locations so the audio-visual (AV) team has a better view of the sanctuary. Before, they used pan-tilt-zoom (PTZ) cameras. The AV team will be able to do their job much better when they are able to see what is going on more clearly. Bynum said the church intends to have a section in the room where the pastor can say a few words during the children's story regarding the sermon he’s about to preach. This addition will only be for the livestreaming audience, as the church does not want to have the children on the livestream, said Bynum. The church is still in the progress of making these changes and
advancing the livestreaming studio. “Our hope is that our livestreaming program will only grow and
get better as we seek to make improvements,” said Spears. The podcasts can be accessed on
the church’s website, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. The live streams can be viewed on the website.
Andrew Boggess works with the Audio Visual team of the Collegedale Church of Seventh-day Adventists in their new livestreaming room. Saturday, January 28, 2022. (Photo by Adam De Lisser)