Hey there! We are kicking off our first series of the year with Through the Window a look at what worship really means. Below is an overview of the series and each session. There are some questions for you to engage further with your student.
Through the Window:
Series Overview
What comes to mind when you think of the word “worship?” Whether it’s choir robes or skinny jeans, we all have some idea of what worship looks like. For most of us, worship is pretty personal, even if it’s something we have experienced with lots of other people around us. For others, worship is nothing more than singing a few songs every week before hearing a message. But what would happen if we took this idea of worship and blew it up? What if we could rearrange our picture of what worship is and get a fuller view of how we can worship God with our lives, even in the midst of some messy circumstances? Worship can be about expressing praise to God through music but it’s really about so much more. It’s about community. It’s about identity. It’s about letting who God is speak into every part of our wonderful and sometimes complicated lives.
Session 1: We Are Together
We sit in rows, week after week, singing songs, listening to messages and “doing” church. But what happens when we go home? What happens when real life hits and all of the sudden the idea of “worship” needs to be broader—your definition of who God is needs to be broader? Worship is about us and God, but it’s about so much more. It’s about the past. It’s about the people in our present life and it’s about the activity of our day in and day out world. Worship isn’t just singing songs. Worship is how we live our lives.
Session 1 Parent Cue: How would you define worship? How have you experienced worship, both privately and publicly? Is worship something you enjoy? What do you think of the idea that we can worship God with both music and also with our lives?
Session 2: We Are His
Have you ever thought of your anger, pain and sadness as an avenue for worship? We often think that worship is only about expressing our feelings to God when we are happy and life is going just as we want it to. But, God is big enough to hear our complaints too! As a matter of fact, God wants us to be honest with Him—and not just kind of honest, completely honest. Worship is about other people and it’s also about the beautiful, authentic relationship we have with the One who made us and knows us inside and out. Authentic worship is what reminds us that we belong to God.
Session 2 Parent Cue: What do you think about the idea that even our angry feelings can be used as worship? How does knowing that God can handle that part of you change your view of Him?
Session 3: We Are Grateful
When we see our worship as more than just a few minutes on Sunday morning and learn to be honest with God in our worship, we begin to get a more complete picture of who God is and who we are. But once we have broken into an authentic view of worship and learned that it’s ok to express the deepest parts of ourselves to God, where do we go? How do we move forward and not get stuck in the process of pain and hurt? When we remember the former things—when we remember who God has been to us in the past—we allow God to rearrange our broken window into something new and beautiful.
Session 3 Parent Cue: Do you think you tend to see life through the lens of your pain or through who you know God to be? What are the characteristics of God you have seen when He came through for you in some really tough times? How would seeing God this way all the time change the way you handle more difficult times?
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