Friday, January 30, 2009

Surprise Me God - Day 17 - Wednesday

Energy abounding

Our confirmation program at Word of Peace is one that is very unique. The reason I say this s because no other confirmation has the brains of Derek and Dain Swanson behind it. We really enjoy what we do and we love to get the energy going as much as possible when we open the evening with worship. Tonight was no different. We were even talking about worship in confirmation this evening so we thought it would be appropriate to have a good time. So we picked all the songs that would help us lead the group into a crazy dancing and jumping time of worship.

What I saw during our worship set was something that wasn't really a surprise when I look back on it but more of a reaffirmation of something I already knew. Let me explain.

The way we had the band set up lent itself to lots of space to dance and sing in the front of the sanctuary and up on stage with the band. At first we had some of the high schoolers go out and grab some people to come up and have a dance competition. We had one person volunteer and come willingly (he was in High School) and two other girls who had to be dragged onto stage and forced to dance. In the end the high schooler won and it was still fun. We then invited everyone to come up and dance in the middle of the sanctuary. What I saw next was very strange but very true.

On the front let side of the sanctuary I saw a huge group of middle school students who had left the comfort of standing in front of their seat and start to come to the front. But as soon as they became visible, or were in front of their peers the posted a hasty retreat. What I saw was bit of a "mosh pit" of "You go first, no you go first, no you go!" No one wanted to be the first person to go out and make a fool of themselves even though there were high schoolers out there already doing it. We were worshiping and do you think they were focused on God? I don't. I think they were so focused on whether or not they looked dumb that God wasn't even in the minds at that moment.

The sad thing is adults are the same way. We get into church and start to focus on God but then we are asked to do something like sing...out loud....so others can hear me. (Personally, I don't know how you can sing without opening your mouth, otherwise it's called humming) Yes we want you to sing. And in the service I lead we want you to clap and smile and even move your body, do some actions, get your hand up in the air. (That last one is really hard for Lutherans to understand)

In this very moment I am being convicted of what I am saying. If I am up front and I am leading people to worship God and I am focused on what they are doing, what I see or don't see, then am I focused on God? How can people worship God when the person leading them is not focused on God? It makes it very hard.

Back to middle schoolers. They are at an interesting time in their life. They want to be popular. They want to be liked. And for some reason they believe that the best way to get their is to not care and do as little as possible to get noticed? There is something goofy about this. I can see how that could work inside a school but in a church, it is a place free from judgement right? I guess as long as you are not the first one doing it.

I would hope that in our lives we can break free of the middle school behavior. That our faith is something we take seriously. So seriously that we don't care who sees that we believe in a loving God. I would hope we are willing to be the first to offer love, service and worship to our God. And that we would not judge the first person to steps out in faith.

Blessings,

dain

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