My Unspiritual Thoughts About Worship. (Part 2)

God showed up on Sunday. But then again, He does every week. We welcome Him, we expect Him, and it’s our intention that everything we do on the platform merely sets the tone for Him to be center stage.

I feel the weight of responsibility every Sunday. Not because I think it’s my “job” to get kids to hear God or “create a moment.” Ugh. No. The very thought of that resting in my control makes me cringe as I write. I’m thankful. We aren’t leading kids into something we create on a Sunday… it’s about leading out of a revelation of who God is. Our kids are savvy these days. The best way to get them to connect with and believe in a God they can’t see, is for them to see modeled real, intense, messy worship by someone they can. To show it to them, and explain it to them. That’s when they start to get it, and want it themselves. And when they want it, they’ll break down a few walls and actually get into it… without the Holy Spirit knocking them over.

That happened Sunday in BASE56. It’s the kind of thing you pray about but halfway through a sound check gone awry, you apologize to God and tell Him maybe next week you’ll get it good enough for Him to move. I think sometimes God must take us up on the challenge we don’t even realize we give Him.

And He moves. And kids start jumping and singing on Mercy is Falling. And the mercy and the grace and the joy that it speaks of in the song begins to palpably fill the room. And you see that it’s not about every kid breaking out in revival dance, but about the few that do that usually don’t and the changed hearts you can see on faces that normally scowl. And it’s so. so. fun.

And that’s where some throw on the brakes.

Worship is fun. When I describe a specific worship service as such I’m not under-spiritualizing the encounter. To me, there is no greater joy than seeing 5^th and 6^th graders catch it. I want worship to be every kid’s favorite part of Sunday morning. It’s not an effort to pad my ego, it’s a hope that they meet God and are rocked by it.

I tend to say “it was so fun,” a lot around here. If you watched the kids worship at Family Worship Night you know why. Because that joy unspeakable that won’t go away is contagious, and beautiful, and just so fun to watch. Because it’s real. And if we are raising up worshipers and sowing deposits… that’s what I want them to get.