One of the marks of maturity that we want to develop in our student ministry is a permanent attitude of worship. Christians often tend to narrowly define worship in terms of Sunday morning sing-a-longs and sermons. But worship is much more than what happens on Sunday morning and Wed. nights in the church building. We want our students to understand that worship is the way we live our lives.
Romans 12 describes worship as offering ourselves as a living sacrifice to God. At its heart, this offering is the alignment of our lives with His mission. Taking into account the mercy He has shown us, what other response could be more appropriate than to give ourselves to His mission to restore humanity to relationship with Him? This isn’t a once a week event – it is a consistent lifestyle of transformation. It is continually placing ourselves before God with humility, asking Him to shape us for His service. It is sincerely loving His family, including His missing children.
I don’t think I’d be too far out on a limb to say that outside of this type of loving life of service, adherence to a Sunday morning ritual is pointless. It doesn’t matter if you attend a ‘worship service’ every week of your life, if your life the rest of the week doesn’t reflect His transforming work. It doesn’t matter if you hear all the greatest sermons, if you don’t ever let the Word of God come alive in your actions and attitudes. Real worship isn’t about ‘going to church’. In fact, I pray often that people would quit going to church – and learn to BE the church.
A permanent attitude of worship:
– Relies on the mercy of God – always
– Engages in a life-long process of transformation
– Works humbly with whatever gifts God has given for the benefit of His Kingdom
– Loves sincerely both inside and outside the church
May we learn to live as an offering to Him.