Worship. Define it. What does it mean? What does it look like? How is it done? Where is it done? Why is it done? Who is it meant for?
The other week I taught Kids Ministry at our church and that’s where this thought train got on the rails. I was watching the youngest of the kids, around 1st grade I suppose. We had the sing-a-long music blasting, cool video on the screen, and me leading with random motions and tons of energy. I loved it! The youngest of the young were jumping up and down, full of smiles, and in the middle of it all. You would have thought their team won the tournament by the way they were acting. I then looked at the others: 2nd grade was going after it too, 3rd grade was – but their jumping wasn’t quite as high as the little ones in front, 4th grade still had the head bopping going on but no jumping, and finally the 5th graders were clapping. Ha, just to be real the 5th graders were clapping against the beat (much to my chagrin…how’s that for a fancy word?!). It dawned on me, we weren’t reaching the 5th grade the same way we were reaching the 1st grade. That’s not good. We have to reach those 5th graders, but in a different way since the first way wasn’t working.
Then I thought about youth group. Why is it if we stick the youth in the middle of a 1,000 other youth they will jump up and down with the crowd (sure, I work with youth and I know all about peer pressure)? I could stick the same youth by themselves and they would be gripping the sides of their jeans in fear that if they were to clap their hands might explode. Actually, that would make for an interesting youth service!!
So this got me thinking. What is real worship? Why is it we (yes adults, we do the same thing) are open to worship when it’s comfortable and the norm? I don’t think that we are truly worshiping if we worship only when it’s comfortable. I know 17 months ago I was singing “trading my sorrows” in our church service, but I sang it completely torn because our son was in the NICU for the first month of his life and diagnosed with CF. I had an inner battle to actually trade my sorrows for God’s peace. But isn’t that worship? Isn’t worship just giving it all to God no matter the good, bad, or whatever the situation in your life is? Tonight I am teaching on worship to our middle and high school students and we will be setting up 11 stations that including writing, drama, singing, molding, praying, etc…to show them the various forms of worship. We will be diving into the thought process of describing what worship is really about and what it means to us.
Earlier I asked you a series of questions. Not just for my benefit, but for ours. Think about worship for a moment. What does it mean? What does it look like? How is it done? Where is it done? Why is it done? Who is it meant for? Hows that for locking you in the “think tank” for a couple of minutes
Live The Vision 
I think worship is the part of life where what you do is no longer about yourself but about God. It can be singing, playing and instrument, dancing, painting, writing, and even lying on the floor sobbing. It is for both God and us. Obviously, it glorifies God, and that’s the main point. However, I think worship is one way that people can most easily connect to God. It’s a pathway to deeper spirituality.