Worship Complete

What do you do when you have a desire to do something that involves the “buy-in” of other people? Normally it is very easy to locate people who will participate in an event that you plan when they themselves or their respective cause will benefit in one or another way from it. The major issue is then to get people on board whom it might cost something in terms of time and / or personal contribution.

Well I actually don’t want to attempt to respond to the somewhat negative sounding statement in the first paragraph, but I’d rather like to share how amazingly true God is to His word. In Psalm 37 the psalmist invites the reader to “commit your ways to the Lord” and it is followed then with a promise that says “and He shall bring it to pass”.  During 2008 a desire surfaced in my heart to be involved in the lives of young believers to assist them to meet the person of Christ and not the religion of christianity. Through the years of leading worship I’ve seen how God reveals Himself to people during times of corporate worship, and I believe that the time is here for young people to meet God themselves. Another event probed the feeling more during the prepatations for a new years eve event in December 2008. I walked into a room where a group of young guys were having lunch, but some worship music was playing and they weren’t relaxing and chatting anymore as when I left them about 20 minutes ago. They where spontaneously just talking to God, each on his own. Some where sitting, others were standing and some were lying down on the floor, but I realised that God was working with them and He revealed Himself as a real person to them.

The only way I could think of to create an opportunity for young adults to experience this, would be at a kind of focused youth camp. I spoke with some people about my thought, but I was flooded with ideas and concepts that wasn’t in line with this that was in my heart. So in the end I moved it a bit to the back-burner and didn’t really speak to much about it at all with people. Secondly I really wasn’t up to getting involved in all the practical arrangements that goes with organising a weekend event like that, as I’m still full-time employed.

Then in August,  a youth-worker contacted me from a neighbouring town about a certain type of camp that she would like to do for her youth group. Well needless to say, the concept that she presented was exactly what I wanted to do. The amazing thing in the end was that she wanted to be involved mostly with all the arrangements and not with the program for the weekend that much. I really couldn’t believe it that there are people who just want to serve behind the scene and enable others to do what they do best. Now I really understand why the last shall be the first(possibly out of context), but her servant-heart is worth much more than a million words. Something else to note is the fact that in the end it will be youth from three different churches, much more than originally anticipated.

Anyway, I’m just amazed at how true God is when He says that He will finish the good work He has started in us. So this coming weekend we will see how true we are to God’s will as I strongly believe that He is still the same to confirm His word with signs and wonders, and in this situation, signs and wonders of changed young adults, who came face to face with Him. To be changed by Him and not the words of a person, neither the teachings of a religious organisation.

During next week I’ll let you guys know how it went. Keep it real!!!

Louw