Worship Workshop!
So first I want to thank everyone that commented and gave ideas on the title for the worship workshop that I hosted. The name I ended up submitting was
This came from me wanting to really get their viewpoint of worshiping together with others as a young person. I get to see a lot of them during times of worship and they don't seem interested....
Being able to host a workshop was amazing and a little nerve-wrecking at the same time - to have about 30 students and another faculty member sit in my room and listen to me present? I wanted to do a good job. I knew that I didn't want to talk the whole time; that would be uncomfortable for them and me. I also knew that I didn't want to shoot a bunch of scriptures at them either. So I tried to make it fun and interactive. Still, anxiety set in a little: would it be boring? will they think I was wack? I kept trying to figure out from what angle I would approach the workshop but in the end all I can say is God is perfect in all of his ways.
If you know me, you know I loooove singing, I love worshiping especially through song. It's a great way to connect with God and just focus on how great and worthy he is. And it makes me feel free to just let go and give him glory! I wondered how I would relate these feelings to high school students in a society where God is vaguely believed-in and seldom reverenced. But again, God planned it out perfectly!
The number of students that signed up for my workshop was startling (I was afraid no one would). The room was packed, and other people started coming in just because it "looked fun" as someone put it. I started with a welcome and prayer. Then we did an activity where they stood under the emoji that expressed how they felt after seeing words like chapel and worship chapel (these are events that they go to every week at school), worship, christian, witness, praise, minister, God, self-reflection, etc.
Now that I think about it, I wish I had added "church" to the list.
Anyway, that activity was very enlightening just to get an idea of where everyone's thoughts were.
Next, I showed them two videos: one was of a group that I sung with a couple of years ago. The second was a dumb video that I recorded this morning of me singing the same song with no emotion and terrible sounding music. We compared the videos and everyone agreed that the one that would make them want to participate more was the one with the group where the music sounded good and the singers had energy and looked interested. They said it was "lit" lol.
After this, they took 1 minute to discuss in groups their idea of worship and what it means to them. Then we talked about it as 1 big group. I asked questions such as how they felt about corporate worship. Some like worshiping together with their friends but some also would rather worship by themselves. Something that stuck out was that a girl mentioned that she feels like worship might be more genuine if people weren't forced to do it.This made me think of church. A lot of times, youth aren't as engaged in corporate worship for a number of reasons.
From there, we talked about what worship is, and how they worship God through their everyday behavior and interests. In the end, they worked in groups to write a worship song. A couple of groups had a tune with their song, some ended up having a beautiful poem. One group even made a rap. I loved all of it.
Something that blew me away was that while a student was on stage later leading worship, she talked about how in the workshop, I stated that worship isn't just something you do, it's a lifestyle. She mentioned how she usually looks at worship like something you were going to do like "I'm going to worship" but she got a different perspective.
It really made my heart flutter. Something resonated with someone. I just thanked God that he used me and I was able to connect with youth today outside of just teaching them math.
#ThrowbackThursday, when worshiping together was cool.
This came from me wanting to really get their viewpoint of worshiping together with others as a young person. I get to see a lot of them during times of worship and they don't seem interested....Being able to host a workshop was amazing and a little nerve-wrecking at the same time - to have about 30 students and another faculty member sit in my room and listen to me present? I wanted to do a good job. I knew that I didn't want to talk the whole time; that would be uncomfortable for them and me. I also knew that I didn't want to shoot a bunch of scriptures at them either. So I tried to make it fun and interactive. Still, anxiety set in a little: would it be boring? will they think I was wack? I kept trying to figure out from what angle I would approach the workshop but in the end all I can say is God is perfect in all of his ways.
If you know me, you know I loooove singing, I love worshiping especially through song. It's a great way to connect with God and just focus on how great and worthy he is. And it makes me feel free to just let go and give him glory! I wondered how I would relate these feelings to high school students in a society where God is vaguely believed-in and seldom reverenced. But again, God planned it out perfectly!
The number of students that signed up for my workshop was startling (I was afraid no one would). The room was packed, and other people started coming in just because it "looked fun" as someone put it. I started with a welcome and prayer. Then we did an activity where they stood under the emoji that expressed how they felt after seeing words like chapel and worship chapel (these are events that they go to every week at school), worship, christian, witness, praise, minister, God, self-reflection, etc.
Now that I think about it, I wish I had added "church" to the list.
Anyway, that activity was very enlightening just to get an idea of where everyone's thoughts were.
Next, I showed them two videos: one was of a group that I sung with a couple of years ago. The second was a dumb video that I recorded this morning of me singing the same song with no emotion and terrible sounding music. We compared the videos and everyone agreed that the one that would make them want to participate more was the one with the group where the music sounded good and the singers had energy and looked interested. They said it was "lit" lol.
After this, they took 1 minute to discuss in groups their idea of worship and what it means to them. Then we talked about it as 1 big group. I asked questions such as how they felt about corporate worship. Some like worshiping together with their friends but some also would rather worship by themselves. Something that stuck out was that a girl mentioned that she feels like worship might be more genuine if people weren't forced to do it.This made me think of church. A lot of times, youth aren't as engaged in corporate worship for a number of reasons.
- Maybe they don't understand worship so they don't feel connected.
- Maybe they don't know or like the songs that are sung for worship.
- Maybe they just don't feel comfortable around other people.
From there, we talked about what worship is, and how they worship God through their everyday behavior and interests. In the end, they worked in groups to write a worship song. A couple of groups had a tune with their song, some ended up having a beautiful poem. One group even made a rap. I loved all of it.
Something that blew me away was that while a student was on stage later leading worship, she talked about how in the workshop, I stated that worship isn't just something you do, it's a lifestyle. She mentioned how she usually looks at worship like something you were going to do like "I'm going to worship" but she got a different perspective.
It really made my heart flutter. Something resonated with someone. I just thanked God that he used me and I was able to connect with youth today outside of just teaching them math.
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