WORSHIP IDEA: Emerging...

[idea derived, inspired from JoelDanielHarris' blog & the Dr. DKS]
Joel had a contest to see who could use this YouTube clip in worship or some other form... here is what we did...

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we have a worship service directed towards youth that takes place monthly, called the Breakfast Club.

at our Feb. 1st Breakfast Club the theme was Meltaway. we talked about what we need to do to avoid having our faith ‘melt away’ like snow in 40 degree weather.

get involved in Christian service, tame the tongue, confess, practice sound wisdom, & find and share your faith.

when we find our faith, we have to leave our baggage behind. baggage might be those outside influences that bring unnecessary hurt, anger, fear, etc… Baggage that weighs us down and prevents us from having true faith. We need to dump the baggage, leave the suitcases behind and run toward faith.

when we run towards faith and find God - it is impossible for us to contain our sense of joy and hope.

long story short… o.k. long story, i know, but here is when we got to the EMERGE youtube clip from William Lamson. I showed the clip and talked about how hard it is to contain our faith when we are in tune with God.

it’s like the balloons popping out of the water… they cannot be contained any more… not only do they rise to the surface, but they rise up and float away for all to see. i paralleled this by reminding the students that when they are swimming in a swimming pool, what happens when they try to hold a floaty toy, raft or beach ball underwater… what happens?

eventually the ball or toy will shoot out of the water… it can not be contained for too long.

this is what it looks like when we share our joy and hope and faith rooted in God’s love with others. It can not be contained… not meant to be contained!

one of our ideas that would have gone along with this was to have a 40 gal. tub full of water up on the stage with balloons in the water. we were then going to have a few youth come up and try to hold them under the water.

we secured the balloons, but it proved to be a bigger challenge to get a tub of water… it was possible, but better planning was needed.

none the less, this is how we used ‘Emerge’.

my wife helped me come up with the idea for this.

Tim Beck
Director of Youth Ministry
Christ UMC, Louisville, OH
http://www.alienuth.com