Worship

Tonight we led worship at 3 different sessions of confirmation. Each session had between 100 & 225 people at it. But because we "merged" confirmation with the Wednesday worship, the vast majority (90%) were jr. high/middle school students.

The 6pm and 7:15pm sessions went fine. But 4:30 was kind of a disaster. Kids talked through the service. There was general rudeness. They weren't hanging with their group leader.

As the worship leader, and also the person responsible for the night as a faith-formation activity, I was torn. I could stop and "correct" (or berate) the jr highers, but that would put a serious damper in the worship moment. Of course, that was already happening.

I guess the moment surprised me.

The root of my question is "what place does reverance have in our culture". Is there anything that brings about or inspires awe? There are times, when the setting is right, and often surrounded by music, that I am emotionally/spiritually taken to another place by a worship experience. It doesn't happen often. But I have experienced it. Because of it, because of how God has worked in those moments, I come at worship with a sense of respect for what it is and can be.

The young people in the room at 4:30pm tonight did not have that. How do we teach worship? How do we teach reverance? How do we teach awe?

It is not something we find, I suppose. It is something that finds us. In the same way I have experienced it, it will be experienced by the young people in the room tonight. God will work in spite of them. God will work in spite of us.

But I want to think about how we create these moments...this holy time...kairos...where young people experience this. We will set the table. God will serve.