I am so aware of the power of words—and the power of defining words.
In my first column for YouthWorker Journal, I wrote about how it is so important that we correctly define worship for youth. So often, we subtly (and not so subtly) teach teenagers that worship equals music as our music leaders say, “Let’s now worship,” and the singing begins, as we call the band leaders in our churches worship leaders, and as we see “Best of Worship” CDs that reinforce the idea that music is the primary—or only—form of worship.
I recently attended a college-age gathering, and after the worship time ended, the person up front who announced that the offering would be taken referred to it as a time of sacrifice as we give our finances as an act of worship. The word sacrifice really stood out to me. Probably money and time are the biggest sacrifices we make as members of a Christian community.
When you study the whole of the Bible, you will see that worship so often involved the sacrifice of something.
At the college-age gathering I attended, I watched the bags being passed around for the offering, and maybe one out of every 20 people put anything at all in the offering bags. I fully understand that people give online, and people may give bi-weekly or monthly, so this isn’t an accurate representation of how much actually was given that morning.
Still, this poor response to the request for financial sacrifice served to illustrate how easy it is for us to worship God when all that is required is singing a few songs, and how difficult it is for us to worship God by giving financially or giving up some of our precious time.
Singing or listening to music really doesn’t cost us anything. These activities are only a form of worship; and frankly, the least demanding.
The giving of money and time, however, are acts of worship that cost us and often involve sacrificing on our part, which brings me back to how important words and their definitions are when communicating with our youth today.
What does worship mean to our youth if the only time they hear the word used in church services or youth groups is used in connection with music?
Why don’t we switch the title of “worship pastor” or “worship leader” to the person who oversees the finances of the church, usually the church accountant. Isn’t that person the one who truly oversees the most sacrificial worship of the people of the church?
How would a teenager react if we began calling the church bookkeeper or accountant the “worship pastor” or “worship leader”?
What if we told our kids that our best example of a worshipping Christian is the person who sacrifices time to work in a community soup kitchen or some other meaningful outreach?
This might require a paradigm shift on our part (and for our kids), but what an interesting theological discussion we would have. Perhaps if we were more careful and intentional about how we define worship, teenagers would grow in their understanding of what it really means to love and serve God.
