Wake

The Idea: God is at work around us all the time. His calls us to stop taking the world around us at face value and start "waking-up" to the His presence. In Romans 13 He tells us that the night is almost over so we should WAKE UP! It is hard to explain the presence of God to someone. Just as you can't tell someone how to see those "magic eye" pictures. You can give hints and ideas, but it is up to them to see. God isn't hiding from us, but he does call us to search for Him. Over the centuries He has used the arts to move us beyond ourselves to "hint" at his glory. This worship gathering is designed hoping that students will wake-up to the God who is all around them.

Setup: The overall room should be lit with candles. Be sure each station has enough candle light to read the scriptures and to write. Candles are an important element to setting the mood. It signals that something different is taking place, maybe even something otherworldly. If you have windows in your room you may want to black them out so that the room is lit only by candlelight.

Spread the 4 stations around the room with a place to sit in the middle for those who just want to sing. If you can place a screen or curtain around the dance station to help people feel a little more free to dance. Set a microphone in the front of the room for people to come an read their poems and stories. The art station will need a TV with the art video playing.

Downloads:

Station Sheets (adobe acrobat)

Art Video (Quicktime)

Art Video (.mpeg)

Student Stories

The Stations:

Art: Somehow as we have moved through the centuries we have forgotten about how God speaks to us through art. When you entered the temple that Solomon built you were surrounded by gold and carvings and statues. God made his house a place full of art.

Read 1 Kings 6:21-30 for just a small taste of how magnificent the temple was. God understands that art moves people. In your quest to WAKE UP. Use the art here as a guide. Watch the video, or look at the prints and find a piece that speaks to you. Then dwell on that piece. Ask God to move your heart, to wake you up to who He is and what He has planned for you.

Then if you would like draw what that painting inspires in you. You may want to draw a similar picture, or one very different. Just express yourself to God.

What you will need:

Set up a place to show the video and to set up some print outs of Christian art work.

Provide colored pencils, markers, paper, and other drawing items. You may want to post a large sheet of paper on the wall for participants to create a mural or just individual paper for them to use.

Dance: Read Ecclesiastes 3:1-4 and 2 Samuel 6:12-15 Ever since worship began dance has been an important part. The posture of your body effects what is happening in your heart and mind. That is why we kneel to pray and lift our hands to worship. It is also important to worship God with your whole body. That is what we call dance.

Right now you have been given an opportunity to dance before the Lord. Using the CD players placed here find a song that you like and create your own dance. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or anything special. Just Dance before the Lord.

What you will need:

Collect several walkman type CD or tape players. Make a compilation of songs that includes some Dance Christian music (Andy Hunter is a good way to go) add to that some other upbeat Christian songs and round it off with some more mellow choruses or Christian songs. The idea is to have a variety of music for the participants to chose from.

You may want this section behind a screen or some other divider so participants will be a little less self-conscious of others watching them.

Poetry: Take a moment and read some of the poetry in the Bible Psalm 42:5-11; Psalm 61:2-5; and then read in Job 38:12-30 where God speaks in a poem.

The Bible is full of imagery and wonder. It is full of poetry. Poetry is a great way to WAKE UP to the truth about God. It moves you beyond what you see into what is real. Read some of the poems that are here on the table. Then write a poem of your own. It can be about waking up, about the awesomeness of God, or about whatever God puts on your heart.

Once you are finished, if you would like, you can go to the microphone and read your poem and add your words to our worship gathering

What you will need:

The set up for this is fairly simple. On a table provide pens, paper, the participant sheets, and a collection of worship poetry. Check out the Spoken Word Worship or Poetry Section for some worship poetry. you can also add your own works, or poetry from the Bible. If you have some poems by students in your group be sure to include those as well.

Story: What is your story? Read Jeremiah 29:11 Acts 17:24-26 God set forth the time and the place that you should live. He has plans for you, plans that are part of his large and wonderful story. So in essence when you tell your story you are telling God’s story. You are part of the work of God here on earth, and God has plans for you to be a part of something even greater.

Read some of the stories I have included here. Then take some time and write you own faith story. It doesn’t have to be long or amazing. Simply write about your journey with God. How did it start? What do you feel called to do? What troubles have you had? How did God help you overcome them? What’s next?

When you finish you can keep you story, or if you would like you can leave it in the box provided to be shared in future worship experiences. Also, if you would like, you can go to the microphone and read your story and add your words to our worship gathering

What you will need:

You will need a table with paper and pens. You will also need a place for students to put their stories once they are completed. I will be including some of the stories that my students wrote here in the next few day so you can include those in your station as well.

Music:

The final station of this gathering is music. All throughout the gathering continue to play praise choruses. Let people sit and sing as they feel. This station will allow people who don't feel comfortable with the more personal stuff have a place where they can worship. Music is also moves us in ways that the other art forms can't. It is a great way to wake up to who God is.

The Gathering:

So alright here is what we did. You can modify this to make it work for you.

• First we played a game. We have a room where we can play before we move into the worship room. It was just a silly game to get everyone moving and touching.

• I had everyone take off their shoes and find a Bible (I had Bibles there waiting for them)

• One note about the Bibles. In the past I had printed verses on sheets at the stations, but I am trying to show the importance of knowing your Bible so I wanted students to look the verses up themselves. If you have lots of non-church people you may want to take a moment to explain how to find things in the Bible

• Then I gathered everyone back together and explained each of the stations. I said a little something about this being a quiet time between each person and God. I also explained about the Microphone. You may want to stress that this is only for people reading their art, not for general comments or you are going to get a share service not a worship service.

• Then we prayed

• Then we moved into the worship room

• We started our corporate worship with some quiet songs that they enjoy. We sang 3 songs.

• Then I played a clip from the Matrix. (the scene with Neo meeting Morpheous for the first time. It begins with "let me tell you why you're here." You can end when he chooses the pill or earlier. "It is the world pulled over your eyes" is a good place to stop too.

• Then I talked a little about how God was at work around us, and it was time for us to wake up to him. We have been blinded by the things of the world for too long.

• You can read Romans 13 here is you like.

• Then I prayed and opened up the stations for worship

• Don't forget to continue to play choruses for people in the middle to sing

• After about 30 minutes I turned up the music a little. People slowly started filtering back towards the middle and singing along.

• We closed with a worship chorus, prayed and went out.

• If this is your first gathering of this type you may want to debrief a little. Asking students what they felt or what God said to them.

• Email me and let me know how it went