We were created to worship – to bring glory to God, putting Him first in all things and all areas of our lives. Not forsaking the gathering together, it says in Hebrews, but more than just ‘going to church.’

Before I served on a local church staff in weekend ministry, I entertained some crazy thoughts about when and how to worship our great God. I attended a traditional service where I thought, “If I sing louder, I’d be worshipping God more.” Nope. It was good, but that wasn’t it. Then I began attending a contemporary service where I thought, “If I stood more, I could worship God more.” Nope. It was good, but that wasn’t it. I even took sign language classes at the local recreation center, three seasons of sign language classes with my high school daughter, where I thought, “If I moved more, I could worship God more.” Nope. It was good, but that wasn’t it.

It really wasn’t until I studied Revelation 5 last year that I figured out a way that I could tell if I am really worshipping the Lord…not just a feeling, not just a noun, not just a service, but the when and how of worship.

“Then I (John) looked and heard, the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand (THAT’s community!). They encircled the throne and the living creature and the elders (serving a God of order.) In a loud voice they sang (singing is still a part): Worthy is the Lamb (Jesus) who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!” Revelation 5:11-12 NIV

This was revealed to John of how Jesus will be worshiped in Heaven. Doesn’t He deserve the same worship from me, from us, here on earth now? I am SO visual, it gives me a great picture of what it means to really worship our great God.

So I ask myself these questions:

How can I worship Him today in power? With my emotions. I have power over my emotions, my disposition, and whom I will please. What I have power over, I can worship Him in joyful obedience. Lord, break my heart for what breaks Yours. Then give me opportunities where I have the power to do something about it.

How can I worship Him today in wealth? With my money. We give because we serve a generous God and He desires for us be a generous people (John 3:16). He calls us to give regularly, in percentages, and cheerfully. He has chosen the local storehouse, the local church, and that is where we are to give. Returning to Him which was His in the first place is an act of trust and obedience. Giving is the act of returning. Giving is worship.

How can I worship Him today in wisdom? With my mind. Romans 12:2 reads, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Jesus understood that any authentic transformation will happen for all of us in our minds first. When I am regularly in The Word, learning the language and vocabulary of God, transformation takes place. This one is seriously on me. If I claim I am not hearing from God…If I state that ‘I don’t get fed at church’… If I hold on to the idea that my personal preferences for Sunday morning worship determines if I worship or not… I am SO out of sinc with what God intended worship to be. When in study, in bible reading, in Sunday school, in ANY way of learning the language and vocabulary of God, I am in worship.

How can I worship Him today in strength? With my body. I am 54 years old. I KNOW my triggers. Peanut M&Ms are my Judas sin…you know, sin that comes at you looking like a friend, kissing you on the cheek, then turning on you. I may not be able to scale a 10 foot wall, but taking care of my body is worship. Thank you, Fitbit, for the accountability help.

How can I worship Him today in honor? With my deeds. I honor our great God when I bake a cake, write a note, make a phone call, send an encouraging text, share a casserole (this is how we really share love in the south, right?), bring a flower, go above and beyond in my work, drop off a 24-pack of toilet paper when my neighbor has house guests due to a funeral or a wedding. How and when I serve should bring Him honor. Once a week, won’t cut it for me. God’s abundant love has ruined me for the typical, the ordinary, the mediocre.

How can I worship Him today in glory? With expressions of hope, encouragement, and forgiving well.  Glory has a weight to it, a leaning-in quality. Ephesians 4:32 reads, “Be ye kind, one to another, tenderhearted, and forgiving one another, just as in Christ God forgave you.” So I give Him glory when I extend the same forgiveness He gives me. This is when worship doesn’t come easy.

How can I worship Him today in praise? With my words and my speech. The power of words and the way words are shared move entire countries to do amazing things or bit by bit, inch by inch to tolerate and promote unbelievable atrocities. That may be taking it a bit too far, but this I know: my words can heal or hurt, my countenance when sharing those words can help or hinder, my heart is heard by my words.

I can worship our great God in ways that are measurable. Not in a legalistic sort of way, but rather, an accountability sort of way. And because we are ‘better together’, I can present this worship best in community. This makes me downright giddy!

Jesus alone is worthy of this kind of worship; God the Son. Worship is not where I go, it’s how we are to live. Not once a week, but every single day!

“Here I am to worship. Here I am to bow down. Here I am to say that You’re my God.” Phillips, Craig & Dean…now imagine Mr. Bob stepping out into the aisle to give me plenty of room to worship in sign.

We have lots of events that take place on and off campus throughout the year, but we intentionally have four events each year where our sole purpose is to ‘get folks on campus to bump elbows with each other.’ We do ALOT off-campus love on our community, both locally and globally. But there is joy and work involved in making sure our own folks, all ages, all stages, have an easy win to invite their neighbors, co-workers, and family to church: when they can be sure it is done well, it’s for fellowship, and all hands are on deck without killing any one volunteer base.

The four basic parameters are:

1. Partner with multiple areas so one area doesn’t have to take on all the work, or work in silo mode
2. We don’t exhaust our volunteer base
3. Space it out on the calendar so one event doesn’t immediately follow another and it matches the rhythm of our community
4. Sole purpose – An easy invite for the whole family, not matter the age or the stage of life each person is open to give lots of folks the chance to bump elbows with new and old friends

Over the last three years, we’ve found these four church-wide events work for us:

1. Palm Sunday – Adult praise band/choir Cantata (adult music) program at one service, Donkey selfies (worship), egg hunt (adults fill eggs picked up from children’s ministry since Ash Wednesday, and youth place them out to be hunted), missions luncheon (missions team provides a lunch with donations going to missions trips). Multiple areas involved in pieces, no one group is overloaded with responsibility, and it takes place in the spring with a follow up invite to Easter services.
2. VBS End of the Week Party – Children in attendance from VBS, supper provided by team of volunteers who can’t serve during the day yet are available at night, Sunday school classes provide donations of food and supplies for the week, youth & adult volunteers on site every day, and takes place in the summer. Our pastor let us dye his hair and I took a pie to the face because we met our goal of Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes…folks came out of the woodwork! We follow up with an invite to Blessing of the Backpacks at the beginning of school.
3. Trunk or Treat – Enlist the help of some grill-cooks to have as part of their trunks, challenge the Sunday School classes with a prize for the most trunks represented, inflatables for kids to jump and adults to chat and bump elbows, youth to facilitate carnival games. This takes place the last Sunday in October during the regular youth/CLUB345/Adult bible study time. We follow up with an invite to multiple small groups.
4. Drive-Thru Nativity – We started this in 2015 and it was a huge hit involving children, youth, animals, carolers, drama, costumes, hot chocolate, and pizza. All hands on deck, two nights, inviting the community, and we have the perfect drive way to pull it off. We had tried several things around Christmas, but this is the winner by far. We follow up with invites to Christmas Eve services.

We enjoy many different special activities church-wide, but there are four very specific to our folks bumping elbows with the community and each other.  What about you?

“They celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness.” Psalm 145:7

The Winter Ball Invitational is an evening of ball food, ball games, inviting several other local churches to bring their 3rd-5th graders, and building connectional community. We started it in 2013 and I blogged about it here.  We have tweaked it a bit since then, so this is how we ran it last weekend.  We so thoroughly enjoy it that it has become a great tradition for our CLUB345 and schedule it for our first gathering in the new year. It is truly one of the best nights to invite a friend…and they do!

These are the logistics:

5pm – 5:30 dinner  Meatball subs (cut hot dog buns in half with one meatball smothered in spaghetti sauce, sprinkled with shredded cheese), cake balls, cheese balls, carrots, ice water in dispensers.  This is when we have continued a tradition of finding out how many cheeseballs can a kid, or leader, put in their mouth all at once. Because we can…Ms Kate wins this year at 40!

5:30 Introduce Games in the gym through 6:00 at stations inside gym with Icebreaker (this gives our youth and the adults a chance to pick  up the tables and chairs to prepare for ball stations already set up by some great youth who started this event in Children’s Ministry and have it down to a science).

Icebreaker:  Students meet at center of gym and move from one side of the gym to the other
Cake balls or Cheese balls
Cake or Cookie
Coke or Slurpie
Popcorn or Candy
Radio or iPod
Basketball or Soccer
Tennis or Football
Video Games or Board Games
Board Games or Card Games
Mountains or Beach
Circus Clown or Circus tiger trainer
Book or Movie
QT or RaceTrac
Target or WalMart
Jonah or David
Mary or Esther

These are the games, set up in our gym, in 9 different stations:

Bible Station has a stack of bibles set on a chair in the middle of the gym. To find out who goes first, each youth station leader asks a question and the students have to dive into the scriptures, then leave the bible and run back with the answer.

Basketball Wrap
Supplies: Toilet paper, Basketballs, Trash can
Who goes first question or picks their team first: What friend of Jesus, who was the brother of Mary and Martha, was brought back to life when he was already buried with burial clothes when Jesus said, “Come out!” John 11:43
Answer: Lazarus
To Play: Work in a team of 2. At the GO, wrap a basketball in an entire roll of toilet paper.  First team to use all the toilet paper, wins!

Football Twister
Goal: Be the last well-balanced player
Supplies: Twister Game mat (we duct tape 6 mats together to make a huge mat and use it all the time)
Football as the spinner (we found a spinner that adds tasks like rock paper scissors people on yellow, scream for 5 seconds, play pat-a-cake with the mat, etc. which makes for a loud and hilarious game).
Who goes first question:Where was Jesus when He raised His hand and said, “Be still!” Mark 4:39
Answer: in a boat
To Play: Everyone plays and last one standing, or leaning, wins.

That’s My Bucket
Goal: Toss mini basketballs (happened to find a bucket of these at a leadership conference years ago) to fill buckets while scripture is read by 2 teammates
Supplies: Buckets, Mini basketballs, Kid’s bibles
Break into two teams. Teammates toss mini basketballs into buckets while partner teammates read a passage of scripture aloud.  Most mini basketballs in the bucket wins!
Scripture Passages:
The shortest chapter in the bible – Psalm 117
The shortest book of the bible – 3 John
Most commonly quoted chapter – Psalm 23

10 Commandment Ball
Supplies:
10 buckets numbered 1-10,  tennis balls (a local tennis pro leaves a bag of hundreds of tennis balls on her front porch a couple times a year and posts on Facebook for whomever gets to her porch first can take them home.)
“Who’s first” Question: In what 2 books of the bible do you find the 10 commandments?
Answer: Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5
Actions for each numbered bucket:
1 jump up and down 3 times
2 whistle
3 snap your fingers
4 answer “what do you like best about your church?”
5 tell a grown up, “thanks”
6 do a cheer
7 answer “what is your favorite thing your parents do for you?”
8 answer “if you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be?”
9 high 5 everyone at your station
10 make a funny face

Ice Hockey
Supplies: Snow Balls (white cotton batting in white socks), little hockey sticks (found these in the storage closet one year and have no idea where they came from.)
Construction paper
Who goes first question: In Mark 16:15, Jesus told His disciples to “Go into the world and preach the _______ _______ to all _________.”
To Play: Break into two teams and hockey the snow balls from behind the line onto the colored construction paper. Which team gets all their snow balls on the construction paper mat first, wins.

Horse Love
Supplies: Basketball, Basketball hoop
Who goes first question: Who was Jesus talking to when He spoke John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believed in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life?”
Answer: Nicodemus
To Play: Play HORSE, but spell LOVE. Everyone plays, even the youth station leader. (make it easy or no one will ever win and there can easily be a lot of frustration).

Big Stuff
Supplies: Kiddie pool, Plastic balls (got 150 balls at Toys R Us for $24 last weekend to restock).
Who goes first question: In John 14:1-5, Jesus told His disciples, “In my Father’s house, are many what?”
Answer: rooms/mansions
To Play: At the GO, who can stuff the most balls into their clothes by the time the youth leader counts to 14 or stops a stopwatch/clock. Count.  Repeat.

In The Hole
Supplies: Ping Pong balls and/or Cottonballs, 2 boxes on side
Who goes first question: Ask how many books are in the bible?
Answer: 66
To Play: Break into 2 teams. One play from each team kneels behind the line by his starting line with a Ping-Pong/cotton ball on the floor in front of him.  At GO, players blow the Ping-Pong/cotton balls along the floor and into the hole on their side of the box.  First player to blow his ball into the box, wins.  Players can not touch their ball or interfere with an opponent’s ball.

Kickin’ Back
Supplies: 2 footballs, Cones
Ask who goes first question: What are the first 4 words in the bible?
Answer: Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God”
To Play: Relay kicking a ball around an obstacle course and returning to your team/line. First team to complete the course wins.  Replay linking arms of 2 players who have to kick together.  Replay moving the ball without feet.

Our fabulous youth facilitate each ball station and we blow a whistle every 5 minutes to rotate clockwise.  Each team has between 4-6 team members. When we have all played every station, we play a couple games of Rock, Paper, Scissors and build a huge snake chain to see who wins. We offer short devotion, then award trophies to each church represented to take home. Our youth leader is an artist and she can do amazing things with old basketball trophies.  Team photos are taken and everyone goes home.

There are some amazing KidMin directors within my networking group and playing with them and their kids always makes for a fun and memorable night.  I’m still grinning over Sunday’s fun, fellowship, and fanning the flame of connectedness with champions for children’s ministry who serve with intention and collaboration without fear, comparison, or competition…except for how many cheese balls you can fit in your mouth!

“Glorify the Lord with me; let us exalt His name together.” Psalm 34:3

Words have power. A spoken word can empower, tear down, and even change the trajectory of one’s life. When an uncle teased me for having big lips and a teacher told me I had a great voice for teaching, both gave fuel for accomplishment and problem solving. A written word can heal a deep wound or wack your legs out from under you.

I typically choose a scripture for the year, but I’ll be choosing a word for 2016 instead. There are many scriptures that align with the word and I just didn’t feel the pull to rest on only one.  With the word comes a visual for me. I am visual by nature and a tool makes for greater reinforcement and, dare I say it, play. It makes me smile.

In my husband’s work, his supervisor and peer team communicate best by conference call. When a celebration takes place, they each ring a call bell. Hearing it go off several times a few years ago, I thought, “What a great way to celebrate and praise the Lord!”  The ‘glory bell’ was born.

It sits in the kitchen, the central part of our southern home. When we pass a test? DING! When we get ‘that’ phone call? DING! When we have enough change saved in the jar to eat out?” DING! When I get flowers from #1 Son ‘just because’? DING! When I get a ‘good news’ text? DING! When I want to praise the Lord and give Him the glory? DING! When I want to AMEN a statement made by family, friends, neighbors, house guests? DING! When I hear that Baby Girl slept through the night because her little people are well? DING!

I just purchased beaucoup call bells from Staples online. I am able to pick them up in an hour and use a 20% online coupon this week. There’ll be some glory bells going out in the mail in the next few weeks with other prayer prompters to several young women I love. They helped me hear, see, feel, taste, and even smell my word for 2016: GLORY!

What is your word for 2016?

Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. 1 Chronicles 16:10