I’m at camp, camp is a full emotional worship experience, but do the kids know what they’re doing? or are they just doing what they’re told?
Morning worship services for camps and retreats are tough when students stay up all night, there is no energy. We break up the highschool and middleschool for morning worship, challenge and devotions because each group has different needs. At sugar creek the student ministry has fostered a sense that in order to engage in worship you have to bum rush the stage (not that it’s a bad thing to do!). A couple of middleschoolers were standing up front, one with hands raised in worship. They realized their friend didn’t have their hands raised and so they reached over and put them in the air for them. Because that is what they’re supposed to do right? – story via Aric Harding
How do you foster and teach authentic biblical worship?
I’m just asking questions, not giving answers.
If you’re fostering a worship environment then there has to be some kind of gauge for the temperature of authentic worship. What do you consider a gauge? Is it when all of the kids rush the stage and stand there looking at you with a deer in the headlights look? Is it when kids raise their hands but don’t know what is going on?
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But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
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The man bowed his head and worshiped the Lord
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Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre!
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All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name. Selah
Judge worship out of scripture. Are people worshiping in spirit and in truth? What does that truly look like and is that solely in music? Is worship all about raising your hands? Scripture says the man bowed his head and worshiped, another section of scripture says Moses worshiped this way. David DANCED before the Lord. It all seems to be personal preference and comfort level to me. The other thing that bowing your head says to me is that there is a huge sense of reverence. Scripture in relation to worship shows people bowing their head or laying prostrate in presence of God. The Psalm 66:4 verse separates worship and singing praises to God. That just gives an inkling that worship isn’t just surrounded by music but is life itself. Are you worshiping God in spirit and in truth not just in music, singing, dancing, or bowing your head, but with your life?
If your goal is to foster biblical worship how are you teaching it? are you teaching it to where its a series of motions like the middleschool student who thought worship is engaging by raising your hands? Are you explaining WHO they are worshiping and how that is to look like? Are you using scripture in worship or are you just getting up and singing songs? Are you leading out with a life of worship?
Last but not least, what does your worship environment look like? Is it sterile? As a tech/creative I look at the room environment too. Because the protestants wanted to move far away from Catholicism we stripped away any iconography or visual element to a sunday ‘worship experience’. As a creative I want my senses engaged. I enjoy engaging others senses with sound but also visually, bringing in with projection what the environment lacks with images of the cross, nature, stained glass, color etc. We shouldn’t be afraid of the visual, God is the creator of the visual and beauty.
We need to embrace what God has created us to do, worshiping him in spirit and in truth.
So how do we do that?
