Worship band gets Christians outside church walls

Aug. 11—WAPAKONETA — Joshua Steinke didn't expect to sell out the Arbogast Performing Arts Center when he and a few friends formed a worship band.

Their vision was simple: use music to get Christians "outside the four walls of their churches," said Steinke, founder and singer for Worship Anyway.

The band, which describes itself as a "movement of believers in Jesus," has become a regional phenomenon since its first gig at Wapakoneta High School in 2015: selling out the Arbogast Performing Arts Center in Troy, performing in the streets of Wapakoneta, the Auglaize County Fair and the Allen County Fair's Gospel Singing Tent.

The music is versatile, the shows energetic, complete with prayer warriors and a mobile baptism tank.

"We dance. We sing. We clap. We cry," Steinke said. He added, "We throw a party, it's just a different kind of party."

Steinke returned to his hometown of Wapakoneta years ago to open his chiropractic practice after experiencing a "radical life change."

The experience inspired him to form a worship band with several friends from churches in the Wapakoneta and St. Marys area, originally known as Lifted Up, which played one community worship service per year in places like Wapakoneta High School and the Wapa Theatre.

"I fell in love with seeing people's lives changed for the cause of Jesus," Steinke said, "because that's how my life got changed."

The band briefly considered disbanding in 2020 because of pandemic restrictions. "We started praying and the answer we got was we needed to worship anyway," Steinke said. The band repeated the phrase so many times that they changed their name.

Their popularity took off that same year during a worship service at Quellhorst Farm. Steinke didn't expect anyone to come out, but around 600 people came out to worship "in the middle of a barnyard, out in the middle of nowhere," he said.

The band has grown to include 19 members from nearly a dozen churches, who will hold a weekend worship retreat at the Auglaize County Fairgrounds in September in addition to shows at the Allen County Fair, St. Marys Summer Fest and the APRC in August.

"We see so many Christians divided by things from the Bible that they interpret differently," said Zoe Johns, an intern and singer for Worship Anyway. "So for many denominations of Christians to come together is rare, and I think that's why so many people are curious about it."

The songs "speak to our testimonies," said Johns, who performed her first baptism while singing with Worship Anyway last summer. A young girl approached and told Johns she wanted to be baptized.

"I bent down and I was like, 'Have you accepted Jesus as your savior? Do you know what it means to follow the Lord?" Johns recalled. "I explained everything to her and she was like, 'Yeah, I want to do it.' So I prayed with her."