Term 4 Training- WORSHIP

The wonderfulTaryn shared some stories with us from her recent time at Bethel School ofWorship, highlighting some lessons and examples that we can apply to lunchtimegroups. See the following summary:

Worship canlook like many things, we can worship continuously throughout the day, and wecan also spend uninterrupted time with God in worship. Corporate worship, whenwe come together e.g. at church, unifies us and can be especially encouraging.We don’t need to worship because God has a low self-esteem or because it’s whathappens at church, it’s what we’re born to do! We become what we worship andwhen we love God, it becomes a natural overflow and response to his love.Worship connects us to God and what He is doing. It reminds us who we arebefore him and gives us strength to face battles and hardships.

We talkedabout worship through painting and dance, two expressions not many people feelimmediately comfortable with.  Wewere reminded of the place of dance within the bible, that dancers were sentout before the arc of the covenant to prepare the way, and before battle.Worship is powerful! It’s a physical expression of a spiritual truth. We arecreated as holistic beings – mind, body, spirit – and often we engage our mindsin our worship, but how often do we engage our bodies?

Challenge: do we approach worship with an expectation thatGod will come into the room? Or dowe sing the songs out of habit and duty? And when we face a battle – is worshipour first response?

Worshiping Godis a sacrifice where we express how great He is, and how in need of Him we are.When Taryn took a singing class and was challenged to sing a prayer aloud infront of the class she was encouraged by the teacher’s comment that the perfectsound is a surrendered soul.  Wecan be so insecure about ourselves and what we have to offer that we forgetthat worship is WHO we are – not what we do. What we do is an overflow of whowe are.

Challenge: Often we are waiting to experience somethingincredible that will stir us into action. Sometimes though, it is when we takethe risk and jump in, and throw ourselves into worshipping God with all we’vegot, that we discover where he’s at and what he’s doing. God has already moved –Jesus – and worship is our response.

So how does this apply to our Lunchtime Groups andLive Events?

Every group isreally different… but if we can facilitate opportunities where our groups canmeet with Jesus, the natural response will probably be worship.

Mustard Lunchtime Groups:           

No end to theways that we can express our love to God…

Live Events:

Setting ourperspective at the start of the day

Finding waysof getting students to connect with Jesus

Creative tools: We’ve come up with alist of tools that can help…

Soaking / Meditation

Get studentsto lie on the floor with their eyes closed, play some music in the backgroundand take them through a guided meditation, leaving space for Jesus to speak tothem and for them to ask Jesus questions.

Encouraging Art

Get thestudents to partner up and spend a minute or two in silence asking God to showthem something encouraging to draw for the other person. It can be a simpleimage, it doesn’t have to be an amazing work of art. Leave about 5/10mins to dothe drawings, and this is best done in silence (or with music on in thebackground). Then get them to explain the drawing to the other person, and whatthey feel God is speaking through it. 

Personal Breakthrough Watercolor Activity

Get studentsto list on one side of a page areas that they need breakthrough in their lives.After that, on the other half of the page get them to list areas in the worldaround them (family / school / church / wider world) that need breakthrough. Then ask them to circleone thing from each list. Afer that, get them to draw a line between the twothings and get them to write in a sentence or so, what they connection isbetween the two circled things. Then get them to spend a minute asking God togive them a picture that shows how he is going to bring breakthrough to thoseareas and what he is doing. Then flip the paper over and using watercolor,paint the picture. This is quite a freeing exercise. Afterwards they canexplain to the people around them what they felt God was speaking to them.

Magazine Collages

Spend a bit oftime at the start just waiting on God, welcoming his presence into the room.Then ask him to lead you through magazines, show you what pictures / words /images to cut out and let him speak through them.

Encouragement andprayer requests

Everyone has a bit of paper with 'an encouragement...' and 'pleasepray for me for...' and writes something encouraging for the person to theirright and a prayer request for themselves, then passes the bit of paper on tothem to keep.

Thinking aboutbeing 'the salt of the earth' (Matthew 5:13-16)

Print the verses out and put on a table, a bowl of salted pretzelsand a bowl of unsalted pretzels... taste the difference and use to reflect onour calling to be salt. What does it mean? How do we live it out?

Matthew 13:44 'thehidden treasure' stations of reflection

Put together the following stations: a bead in a bowl of rice forpeople to find and then hide again, rocks/pebbles representing what we'd sell,perfume to represent the kingdom being present now, flowers or a photo todepict the beauty/preciousness of the treasure. Move around these stations toreflect / meditate on the parable.

What car are you?

Collect pictures of heaps of different types of cars... get studentstake their time to choose one that represents where they're at at the momentand explain a bit of why they chose it to the group.

The Vine and the Branches

Find a branch, some pieces of paper and pens. Choose a couple ofpsalms or a passage you've been thinking about in the group lately. Let eachstudent write a prayer and attach it to the branch with a peg. You can talkabout drawing nourishment from God, the vine, or about the fruit we long to seein our lives and the world. An alternative would be to cut a cloud shapeout of some cardboard or newspaper, and some raindrops (big enough to writeon). Give the students space to find a psalm or couple of verses to write ontheir raindrop. Explain that the raindrops will represent God's word, goodness,love, nourishment falling down onto us. When they're done, blue tac them to thewall under the cloud and chat about what you were thinking about as you did it.

What’s your song?

Ask a student or two to bring in a song they've been listening tolately that has thought-provoking lyrics and base a discussion on it. What'strue in it? How do you see God in it? What does it say about life? Do yourelate to it?