In the midst of worship

We're right in the middle of our Worship series at FOCUS.  So far, we've learned about how worship starts in ourselves.  Worship starts when we turn our hearts to God and focus on him.  We then bring our worshipful hearts together to worship as a church family.  We've looked at how prayer must start with our own silent prayers, then branch out to communal prayer together.  We've looked at music and how music shapes our worship.  We talked about Communion, and how rememberin'g Christ's death and the last supper is not limited to our "communion" time at church, but that when we come together and commune together, we as a church body are reminded of the sacrifice made.

When we went to worship with First Methodist Church at their Saturday Night Worship, the minister there (Wayne Williams) gave one of the simplest, and most complete definitions of worship that there is:  Worship is our response to God.  When you think about worship, don't just think about the songs... and the prayers... and all we do together.  As we strive to worship more fully in spirit and in truth, let's remember that at the base level worship is how we respond to God.  

God loves you.  He walks with you.  He's there when you hurt, and when you rejoice.  How do you respond to Him?

Joy... and happiness

When looking at this past weekend that the youth experienced, one word sticks out:  Joy... ok, there are actually two words that stick out:  Joy and happiness.

These aren't the same thing.  You can experience Joy at times when you don't even have the ability to smile.  Joy goes deeper than just a feeling of happiness:  Joy is a state of heart.  This weekend, we got to experience both.

King's Club:  It was in the 40's, and windy.  Our youth had to scrape themselves out of bed and be there at the crack of 10AM (yeah, that's early for them).  They showed up with hearts of Joy, and shared it with the children they played with.  Somewhere, in the midst of all the cold wind, happiness showed up.  There were smiles on the faces of the children there, and our youth.  Through living in Joy, our youth helped find, and share, happiness.

Sunday Morning:  On Sunday morning, two of our regular youth (Kayla Johnson and Starla Rosentreter) joined our church.  They were scared.  The idea of going up in front of all those people wasn't very appealing to them, but they went anyway.  They both had a mission:  They wanted to publicly profess their faith in Christ.  They took their hearts of Joy... their longing to be part of this great congregation... their need to say out loud, "I love Jesus," and walked right through their fears up to the front of the church.  In this intense, joyful moment, both of these young ladies got the biggest smile on their faces.  They, when walking in Joy, found happiness.  

Worship with St. Louis Catholic Church:  We attended St. Louis in order to witness what worship is like for the Catholic Church.  They sat through a service very different from what they're used to.  They didn't understand everything that was going on.  At first, they were happy that this church included footrests on the back of the pews... only to find out that they can't put their feet on them:  They're not footrests, they're a place to kneel while praying.  They didn't know the hymns, or much of anything that was going on, but they sat through and paid attention.  The beauty of the ceremony had grabbed them.

After the service, they had the opportunity to talk to Father John Guzaldo, the priest of the church.  One youth asked, "Why do you sing/chant so many of your prayers?"  Father John responded something like this:

"There wasn't as much singing as their normally is in a mass.  We like to sing as much as we can.  We want to rejoice in everything we do.  We believe there is great joy in what we are celebrating, and we want to rejoice as much as we can. "

We went to worship with another type of Christianity.  We went to see things that they do well.  We went to experience a little different worship... and we found joy.  

Joy and Happiness.  Thought they aren't necessarily the same thing, we found them both this weekend.  

Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday--A Chance for celebration and service

On Monday, January 16, all the schools in the Waco area were closed.  Our youth woke up early (they had to be at Mission Waco at the crack of 10 AM!), donned their work clothes, and met at the Mission Waco Jubilee Theater in North Waco.  

We gathered with many other people from the Waco area to celebrate what Martin Luther King Jr. gave to all of us.  The youth not only got to learn about the Dr. King of the civil rights movement, but they also got a glimpse of the man of faith he was.  Everything King did stemmed from his deep relationship with God.  His cry for all people to be banded to gether was not a racial cry, it was a cry of a man who truly believed that "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28).  

How do we honor a man who gave so much for the Kingdom of God to come to earth?  We give back.  We put on our work gloves and spent the afternoon trying to restore a part of Bellmead that has been a dumping ground for a while.  With their sweat, and in one case even blood, our youth gave of themselves as King did years ago.  The work was pretty... nasty.  We found a little bit of everything there... it was gross... and these great young people worked all the way through.  Great work, CCC youth, you made a difference.

For more pictures from this event, click here.