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Learning to
worship
David Vogel
Junior
Hillsboro (Kan.) MB Church
The flight home from California gave me a needed stretch
of time to think about the short, yet fierce time I had
just spent in Anaheim. For me, Anaheim ‘07 was a time to
grow and mature in my spiritual walk overall, yet the
one thing that really hit me was worship.
As I sat in the darkened plane
cabin, I reflected on what was said during the mealtime
prayer at the World Vision warehouse in downtown Los
Angeles. My youth group was one of many that were sent
there to help clean and organize the facilities as part
of our Tourformation activity on Monday. Several hundred
teens joined hands in the large, dusty warehouse as a
man said a prayer that spoke to me as much as the
general session later that day. One point of his prayer
struck me: Christians are from all different races and
parts of the world, going about our separate lives, yet
when we worship God, we’re all working toward one
objective, and that simple act of glorifying him unites
us.
Worship was also the focus of the
ministry track session that I attended on Sunday. Before
the group broke into the different subdivisions such as
singing, guitar, drums and technology, Tim Neufeld led a
short introduction. He pointed out that a worship
service consists of three groups: the actors, the
audience and the directors. The directors, as one would
expect, are those who are on stage, leading the service.
The actors are all those who are participating in
worship. But the audience is an audience of one: God.
All of our praise should be
directed toward God. This sounds like a typical Sunday
School answer, but it finally started connecting to me
as he spoke. It’s not just about getting up on stage and
saying, “Look how well I can sing!”
I am active in leading worship in
the both Sunday morning services and Wednesday evening
classes. As Neufeld spoke, I began to understand that I
was not there for entertainment, but to help direct the
rest of the audience’s praise to God. But it doesn’t end
there. Our worship should not just happen in a certain
place once or twice a week, when the right atmosphere is
created; worship should be a lifestyle.
I leaned back into my seat on the
plane and closed my eyes. I thought about how guilty I
was. The way I’ve lived my life is not always leading
the way to worshipping God. Even on the Anaheim trip, I
realized I had done some stupid things that hindered my
connection with my Creator. On the other hand, I had
just returned from an exciting week of growth, and I did
learn a lot about leading others to praise and my own
personal worship.
Silence, as Tim pointed out, is an
important element in worship. The airplane ride was just
what I needed to clear my head and reflect. I now have a
new perspective on worship that I hadn’t had before. I’m
excited for the next time I will be leading worship, not
because I have the opportunity to flaunt my voice before
a quasi-captive audience, but because I know that I will
get to use my God-given talents to direct others to him.
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