Worshiping God Backwards


The sanctuary filled and everyone waited eagerly for the church bell to ring so we could start service lead by the youth. However, the church bell never rung and where was the praise band? At the traditional service folks whispered in confusion as they watched the acolyte put out the candles on the altar as he took the flame out of the sanctuary. Then the strangest thing happened... freshman, Hannah Maynard, asked everyone to rise and receive the benediction as she prayed for God to be with everyone as they left church today. There were many blank stares and puzzled looks as people were flipping through their bulletins trying to figure out what was happening. We then sang our closing worship song and some of the confusion was cleared up in the sermon by seniors Alli Dickey and Susan Crawford.

Why on earth did we do the church service backwards? The message of our youth Sunday was to remind the congregation that worshiping God goes beyond a structured order of service at church. Worshiping God is more than a church service it is a life-style. God's power is too wonderful to be put in a box. When we live a life following His agenda we are truly worshiping God with all our heart, mind, and soul! Therefore, it doesn't matter what order the church service is in and we can't force God to work according to our agenda. Worshiping God is a daily effort as we aim to imitate Christ's likeness. When God came and walked in human shoes as Jesus Christ He constantly blew away people's expectations of what it means to truly worship Him. People were so caught up in the rules of religion and the structured way of life, they wouldn't even listen to Jesus' teachings of how to live the good life. Jesus flipped all the rules completely upside-down.  He was radical! He loved to change expectations. Since we aim to imitate Christ, (Ephesians 5:1-4) we too wanted to change expectations for one Sunday and help people worship God in a fresh way.

Expectations of church were still being rocked as the youth continued on with the service. Testimonies were shared and skits were performed about worshiping God through prayer. We sang our opening praise songs and then sophomore, Josh Mucci got up and did the announcements and welcomed everyone to church. The bell finally rung and people sat frozen in their seats unsure of what just happened. That was the end of our youth Sunday... or was it the beginning????



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