The other night, the last night of a youth group mission trip, as a reward for a hard week of work, I carried the group to see a 3-D movie. The plot was cheesy and had a lot of holes. And if you tried to watch the movie in the conventional manner, it was blurry, the colors were blotchy, and honestly it would give you a headache. But when you put on the 3-D glasses, everything came to life. We immediately forgot about the cheesy plot. The once-blurry colors now came to life and not only blended crisp and clear, but actually jumped off the screen. Characters and objects projected on the wall seemed to float right in front of our lap…all because of a 99 cent pair of sunglasses.
As I left, I began to think about the contrast between the experience with the glasses and the mundane headache without them and realized that’s what leading worship is all about. As people, we worship a God that is truly amazing, yet we get so bogged down with “the worries of this life” (Matthew 13:32, Parable of the Sower) that we are often unable to see this great God we serve. Jesus said in John 10:10 that he came to give us abundant life. Part of creating meaningful worship experiences is to allow worshipers to put on their own set of 3-D glasses and see God for who he truly is and experience more of that abundant life. Worship is the lens by which many people see and experience God. Worship leading can make a huge impact on what people think and feel about God. Therefore, we should always put forth our best effort in planning our worship experiences—even when doing less is actually more. Yes, God will pick up the slack for our failures, but we should plan our worship services to the best of our ability.
Jason Huffman is the Director of Youth Ministries at First United Methodist Church in Palestine, TX. He also works with the youth worship team.www.reachyouthministries.org
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