Wednesday

Alright, so the end of September is not nearly as fun when the Cubs are stinking it up, but it's still been a pretty good start to the school year around here. Congrats to all of our students who are having some standout sports seasons, have some great roles in school productions, and are staying above water with all the early year homework. Also, I never congratulated everyone who did such a great job at the fair. It's just great having so many talented students around here.

Wednesday was a big and LONG day here, starting with meeting students at 6:30am to go to See You at the Pole at OHS. This is a annual gathering of Christian students at their school's flag pole before class starts to pray for their friends, teachers, school leaders, their community, state, nation, and world (over 3 million high schoolers participate nationwide). Thanks to all the students who were willing to take a leadership role this year, as well as all of you who got up extra early to be there. The fact that we never told the parents about this, just the students, and had so many students come, is a real testament to their passion and faith. I just enjoyed seeing so many young Christians willing to show up early, stand for their faith, and pray together. Real cool.

Wednesday night we worshiped with our Middle School Ministry as we discussed the purpose of worship. Thanks to those willing to be on the 1st ever MS Worship team, and you did a great job. We said four big things about worship.
1st, worship is NOT ABOUT YOU! We illustrated this out of the gate with blow pop necklaces. If you talked about yourself at any point you had to give your necklace up. It's REALLY hard not to lose that necklace, because we live in a world that is so about us. But worship by definition cannot be focused on us, it's all about god. 2nd, we said that worship is singing a LOVE SONG to God (when students entered we played the hit song Love Song). Worship is about praising and thanking God for all the great things God does, especially dying on the cross to save us.
3rd, worship is about seeking help. We played our own version of 1 vs. 100, which our 1 would have lost very quickly if not for the three helps we offered her. Life is the same way. We can not have the best life possible, or gain eternal life, without seeking God's help. Worship is about telling God we are sinful (do bad things) and asking God to forgive us and help us be better.
Finally, worship is about being charged up to be God's light in the world. We need to let what happens in worship charge our batteries so we can go into the world and make it a better place in God's name. Everyone got some glowsticks to help illustrate this.

Wednesday Night Set-list
Love Song: Sara Bareilles
We Shine: Central Church Vegas
Take it All: Hillsong United
Cartoon Song: Christ Rice
With Everything: Hillsong United