Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland is home to a little more than 400 students. Today, almost three times that number of people will converge on the campus for a sold-out Christian concert.

Shane & Shane, Starfield and Bethany Dillon will all be performing in the school’s gymnasium as part of the Vision of You spring tour. Speaker David Nasser also will join them.

According to Shane Barnard, lead vocalist of Shane & Shane, "from start to finish (the concert) is going to be a full-on worship experience."

"It’s going to be one very God-centered evening, uniquely so; I mean, more so, I feel like, than usual," he added.

Shane & Shane are the headliners of the event and present an acoustic style of praise and worship music. Their most recent album, "Pages," was released toward the end of last year. The openers, Starfield and Bethany Dillon, have different sounds, with Starfield being more rock-influenced and Dillon more contemporary. But all the bands have one thing in common: Worshiping God.

Leading in worship

"We really and legitimately feel called to lead the church, the greater church, the family of God in worship," said Tim Neufeld, lead singer and acoustic guitarist for Starfield.

The band describes themselves specifically as a worship band, with lyrics focusing on theological concepts more than just life in general.

"We write modern day church kind of liturgical worship," Neufeld said. "So, essentially we’re kind of like a modern day version of what hymns were in the 15th, 16th, 17th century."

With a powerful rock sound, the band may be more than a slight departure from traditional hymns. But the purpose of the music is the same — a shared worship experience.

"(It’s) not just a band singing through a sound system at a crowd, but everybody kind of participating together," Neufeld said.

And participation is key.

"I’d rather have a room with 50 people in it that are all engaged with us than a room with 5,000 or 50,000 that were just kind of there to be entertained," Neufeld said. "Entertainment is a part of that, but we just, more than any of that, want to have an experience with a room full of people that isn’t about us and isn’t about them. It’s just all about everybody meeting with their creator and with their God together."

Barnard said the concert and tour in general should be about more than songs and speeches. He said the band’s hope is that God would "allow us to lead change" and create a place where people are "loving (God) more than we did when we came."

To create that atmosphere, song words will be projected on a screen for the audience to see. And with lyrics like "Awaken what’s inside of me, tune my heart to all you are in me ... God come" from Shane & Shane’s song "Vision of You," it’s hard to mistake the purpose of singing.

There will also be times where the musicians are all on stage singing together. According to Neufeld, there should never be a moment where it is just a band on stage singing.

Joining in worship

The worship aspect of the concert is important to more than the artists, though. For many planning to be in the audience, the worship is what they’re most looking forward to.

Truett-McConnell sophomore Kason Moody said he is "most excited about just the worship time, as in just worshiping my God through music."

Christina Wingo, student and president of the baptist collegiate ministry, is "looking forward to just the community coming out to this event and seeing people from all over Georgia, really, just in one room, praising Jesus Christ in one room."

According to Truett-McConnell sophomore Ciara Canady, "worshiping at a concert is amazing. You can’t help but to focus on the Lord and worship him for every blessing in your life."

That atmosphere separates this concert from others for Wingo.

"At other concerts that are secular there’s not, like, a presence of Jesus Christ. Like at Shane & Shane concerts you just feel, like, calm. You feel Christ in the room."

Heart of worship

Moody, who is in a worship band himself, described that experience as analogous to a sporting event.

"You go to a Braves game or any kind of sports game, and you just want to, like, lift up your hands, clap as loud as you can and just root on your team as loud as you can," he said. "A worship experience for a Christian is the same. God is who you worship, and he’s so amazing and so incredible. And you just really want to express that in any way possible by lifting your hands, or clapping or even dancing around and singing at the top of your lungs to let him know how powerful he is."

And for a Christian, Moody said, "it brings joy to our heart knowing that we’re lifting up our God. More than anything, it just brings joy to us knowing we’re bringing joy to God."

According to Neufeld, the experience is different for everyone, but one important aspect is to come to God honestly.

"I think God’s hope is that people would come to him honestly," he said. "I think there’s a really strong misconception that says that as Christians we need to come, or even as people that wouldn’t say they’re Christians, that we need to come to God with our lives already put together as if he’s got entrance requirements into his family... And the truth is that the only entrance requirements there are is just to come with an honest heart ready to receive what he might have for you."

More than worship

For Truett-McConnell, bringing this caliber of Christian bands to campus is a very big deal, and according to David Kirkland, campus minister at the college, this is the first event of this magnitude that the college has had.

The concert is also a fundraiser for the Truett-McConnell Baptist Collegiate Ministries, with profits going to support summer mission trips. And there will be a part of the concert sponsored by World Vision that will encourage people to sponsor a child in a developing country.

The bands said they will play a mix of old and new songs. Starfield has a new CD coming out in March, and they will be debuting some of their new music.

The music, crowd, bands and even the call to give will all be pointing to one thing, though — an experience with God.

"(To) let our lives be changed and our hearts be moved, and hopefully we’re all brought to a deeper understanding of who God is. That’s our deepest desire as Starfield, for sure, just to be part of an evening with a room full of people from, you know, a town in Georgia," Neufeld said. "And it’s also going to be a great time ... all that said, it’s designed to be entertaining as well."