To the Shame of a Rising Generation

As I am writing this post, I am still processing the events of the weekend in which I spent with 7,000 teenagers who demonstrated to passion to recklessly pursue God. One could make several arguments about some of the things that went on in this massive movement of motivating youth to take their place in the kingdom of God and some of what went on in that arena was in my opinion a waste of time (some of the “bands” chosen to play demonstrated nothing but a strong image of being like the world is an attractive endeavor). There is one thing, however, I still cannot escape and if you are an adult reading this blog, prepare to be rebuked (just as I was rebuked by the Lord)!

There was a moment on the final evening where the youth were challenged to actually abandon themselves and attempt to worship God with every ounce of their being. The speaker spoke of King David who unashamedly became “undignified” before the Lord in a holy pursuit of worshiping the Lord. It was a holy moment but it was full of passion! The place erupted with thousands of teenagers and adult leaders letting themselves go for the sake of simply telling Jesus, “With my entire being, I will love you! ----dancing, shouting, crying out to God as an army of worshipers who wanted to let the General of their Soul know that showing their allegiance to Him was more important than the dignity of their self-image. After things came to a holy hush, I was confronted with one of the most convicting questions I have been asked by the Lord in quite some time: “Why did they have to be motivated to abandon themselves to Me?” 

In that moment, I felt somewhat ashamed. Here is a generation of young people who sit in their churches week after week and seldom to almost never see the worship of adults with such unbridled passion. After all, we’re way to dignified and postured to look like fools in expressing our love to the Creator of the Universe. We like to convince ourselves, “I’m more of the reserved type.” I’ll simply respond with the truth, “You’re a liar.” You are simply more passionate about saving face in keeping your self-image than in losing it for the sake of worshiping God. Sure, many will claim that in the Acquire the Fire atmosphere the music and speaker serve only to “manipulate” the teens to have an emotional experience. If we were not created to be “emotional” in worship then why were you created with emotions? To repress them in order to not be so “radical” in demonstrating your love for God? 

The reason these teens had to be encouraged to “abandon themselves” fully in worship is because the older generation has not taught them to do so. Instead, we want a “respectable “ form of worship that seeks to maintain a “form” of worship but controls the “god of self” from being humbled and even “humiliated” before the One True God. The Bible is full of expressions of worship and yet we pretend that it is much like a menu at a fast food restaurant. We pick and choose the expressions that are comfortable to us and ignore the expressions that actually require a “sacrifice of praise” unto the Lord. Is God not worthy of the sacrifice of our dignity for the sake of giving Him all of ourselves in worship? Does not the Bible admonish us to “Love the Lord your God with ALL your heart, and with ALL your soul, and with ALL your mind, and with ALL your STRENGTH”? (Mark 12:30). Our reserved-ness is killing the spirit of worship in the future generations. What will happen when the day comes as the Bible warns (see Matthew 24-25), when a radical line will have to be drawn in where your allegiance lies? If we’re ashamed to freely worship God in the safety of the Body of Christ----do we think we will stand up for Him with a sword at our throat? We are communicating to this next generation that “worship” is a concept of the mind and that we are not to be moved by God’s presence in a way that radically affects our entire being. We are communicating to this rising generation that Christ is not worth giving ALL to as they observed our posture toward this “GOD” that we claim we “love so much.” We have way too much dignity and pride to be moved with a passion for God to the point where we are visibly showing our complete abandonment to all of our common sense---and yet on a cross, Jesus hung NAKED and SHAMED so that we could even have the privilege to come into the presence of the Lord!   

Why can’t we just be honest to ourselves and to the generation that has watched us model “worship” before them? Why can’t we come to the truth that we really do not love God that much? Why don’t we simply tell them that there are limits as to how far we are willing to go in order to publically acknowledge our love and passion to a God who loves us passionately? We break the heart of God and we do not care! We are raising a generation of young people who will we overly saturated with head knowledge of Jesus, and yet have absolutely no clue as to how to worship and experience this relationship that we claim as being “so wonderful.”  Pastors who quench the expression of worship in your churches SHAME ON YOU FOR GRIEVING THE SPIRIT OF GOD AND SELLING OUT THE RISING GENERATION FOR THE SAKE OF MAINTAINING NUMBERS IN YOUR CHURCH! WORSHIP IS OFFENSIVE TO THOSE WHO DON’T WORSHIP! WORSHIP IS OFFENSIVE WHERE THE SPIRIT OF RELIGION REIGNS! 

2 Samuel 6:23 give us the result of what will happen to the future generation if we fail to model and express worship as it was meant to be before the Lord: “And Michal daughter of Saul had no children to the day of her death.” Do understand the significance of this statement in light of King David dancing undignified before the Lord? Everything dies where free worship is hindered! There is no “next generation” to be raised up when we restrict the spirit of worship in our lives and in the Body of Christ. The lack of truly expressing ourselves in worship speaks to the fact that we are not worshiping. We are in control and if we are in control then we are still on the throne of our heart. I think of the old song, “Be careful little eyes of what you see…” and I realize what those little eyes have been seeing in the church….a pitiful picture of worship. We’re calculated, predictable, scheduled, and comfortable. And worse yet, we’re teaching a rising generation that “lip service” to our King is the most acceptable form of worship. After all young person, even if God takes everything from you in this life, at least you can still hang on to your dignity, as in the church today it is the most important thing. To this rising generation, I ask for your forgiveness in allowing myself to remain dignified in worship. To those I have led in worship for so long, forgive me for the times I have remained reserved and not allowed my passion to worship God to shine through my life. Finally, to my Lord and my God, I ask you to forgive me for allowing myself to be concerned about my image over Yours and may I never aspire to save my face for the sake of seeking Yours.