Clarifying Our Vision - Celebrate

For the next three weeks along with the whole church we will be "clarifying our vision" by studying the process that our church follows in making disciples. This process can be described using three words: Celebrate, Connect, and Contribute.

This Sunday, Josh will be leading our time together. Here are some things Josh has given me to be studying and preparing for:

Ice-Breakers (Introduction Q’s to get em’ talking)
- What has been a time in your life when you felt God’s presence in a particularly strong way?
- What is the goal of missions? (This is a good one to get them thinking, but that will need some direction from you as a group leader. The ultimate goal of missions is to see worshippers created out of the lost. Missions exists where worship doesn’t and for the purpose of inspiring worship in new hearts.)
- What picture do you get in your head when you think of “worship”?


Lesson-Builders

Worship/Celebration in the church is primarily a “corporate” act; something we think of doing as a group instead of thinking about it as if we were individuals worshipping in the same room.
o Read: Colossians 3:16, Hebrews 10:24-25, Exodus 7:16 (God’s purpose in freeing Israelites from Egypt was so that they could worship Him, Hebrews 12:18-29
o Possible Discussion Questions: based on those passages, what should be different about our corporate worship gatherings? What should be some of your goals when you go to WOW or come on Sunday morning? Based on these passages, what could you do to enhance our Student Ministry’s worship gatherings?

We should Celebrate/Worship in “Spirit and Truth” (John 4:26)
o This means worshiping God inwardly (in spirit) is more important to God than exterior things such as raising our hands or closing our eyes and that worshiping God for who He has revealed himself to be in the Bible (in Truth) as opposed to who we’ve made him out to be or wish that He was is of the utmost importance.
o Read and Discuss: John 4:23
o Possible Discussion Questions: What does it mean to worship God “in Spirit”? How could someone fail to worship God “in truth”?

Worship is an action and not a feeling
o Possible intro question to this point: Is worship something that we do or something that we feel?
o Scripture: point out to them that in every passage concerning worship in the Bible worship is a verb that is often described as being accompanied by feelings, but not as a feeling – ever.
o Possible Discussion Questions: What does it mean if your worship isn’t accompanied by emotion? What emotions are most prominent during your worship? Are these feelings unique to times of woship?