At AgIV's Large Group last Thursday, I opened with this story I wrote:
Imagine you graduated college a decade or two ago, you’ve moved to a small town - one stop light, one school, one grocery store. You head to the grocery store in the middle of the day, when no one you know will be there, because everyone's been gossiping about you, and in a small town, that really means everyone. You're short on cash, but your grocery list is long. You hope you have enough. Is it your imagination, or is the grocery stocker giving you a dirty look? So you may have moved in with somebody new right after your divorce, so what? Is it really everyone's business? You get to the check-out line, and in front of you is a guy you've never seen before. Maybe a visitor, or just moved to town. But then he turns around and starts talking to you. And not just about the weather. He actually asks you if you'll buy him a Coke. And when you laugh at him and say no, he tells you that if you knew who he was, you'd be asking him for a Coke. And not just one Coke, but a lifetime supply of Coke. So you ask him who he is, thinking he must be the president of Coke or something. And he tells you - a travelling preacher. A travelling preacher! Hah! Well, if he can afford to buy you a lifetime supply of Coke, he must be a swindler. I mean, who is this guy? So you ask him to give you the lifetime supply of Coke. Who wouldn't? Even if you don't like Coke, who’d turn that down? Preacher man tells you to go get your spouse. And when you say you don't have one, he says you're right. You've been married a few times, and you’re shacked up with someone new right now. Well that freaks you out a little. You start backing away and say you don't believe in going to church and you're just fine with doing good and worshiping God in your own way at home. And preacher dude actually agrees with you. This is what he says, "The Baptists and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and the Pentecostals and all those Bible church folks have got the wrong focus. It's not about going to church, worshiping God in a building with guitar and piano and drums, and Powerpoint slides with cool backgrounds. It's not about Hillsong or David Crowder or even hymns from past centuries. It's about knowing God the Father, and worshiping him in spirit and in truth. That's it. It's that simple."
It's loosely based on Jesus' encounter with a Samaritan woman, from John 4. I focused in on 4:19-26, helping students to dig a little into what it means to worship in spirit and in truth. I told them a lot, "Either you're worshiping, or you're not." It sounds like semantics, but it's true - everywhere you go you can worship God, and everything you do can be worship if you know God and are choosing to worship him. But even singing worship songs in church is not worship if you're just going through the motions out of habit or because you need to do it to look good to yourself or others. So, "Either you're worshiping God, or you're not."
