Word Alive Youth: XP3 Students: Through the Window Parent Cue

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT:

Here is an overview of what we’re talking about. Listed below the summary is a parent cue to help you dialog with your child about the session. These questions are intended not just to be asked by you, but to be responded to by BOTH of you. Use this opportunity to find out what God is teaching your child, and allow your child to see what God is teaching you as well.

Through the Window:

Series Overview

What comes to mind when you think of the word “worship?” Whether it’s choir robes or skinny jeans, we all have some idea of what worship looks like. For most of us, worship is pretty personal, even if it’s something we have experienced with lots of other people around us. For others, worship is nothing more than singing a few songs every week before hearing a message. But what would happen if we took this idea of worship and blew it up? What if we could rearrange our picture of what worship is and get a fuller view of how we can worship God with our lives, even in the midst of some messy circumstances? Worship can be about expressing praise to God through music but it’s really about so much more. It’s about community. It’s about identity. It’s about letting who God is speak into every part of our wonderful and sometimes complicated lives.

Session 1: We Are Together (Nov. 7)

We sit in rows, week after week, singing songs, listening to messages and “doing” church. But what happens when we go home? What happens when real life hits and all of the sudden the idea of “worship” needs to be broader—your definition of who God is needs to be broader? Worship is about us and God, but it’s about so much more. It’s about the past. It’s about the people in our present life and it’s about the activity of our day in and day out world. Worship isn’t just singing songs. Worship is how we live our lives.

Session 1 Parent Cue: How would you define worship? How have you experienced worship, both privately and publicly? Is worship something you enjoy? What do you think of the idea that we can worship God with both music and also with our lives?

Session 2: We Are His (Nov. 13)

Have you ever thought of your anger, pain and sadness as an avenue for worship? We often think that worship is only about expressing our feelings to God when we are happy and life is going just as we want it to. But, God is big enough to hear our complaints too! As a matter of fact, God wants us to be honest with Him—and not just kind of honest, completely honest. Worship is about other people and it’s also about the beautiful, authentic relationship we have with the One who made us and knows us inside and out. Authentic worship is what reminds us that we belong to God.

Session 2 Parent Cue: What do you think about the idea that even our angry feelings can be used as worship? How does knowing that God can handle that part of you change your view of Him?

Session 3: We Are Grateful (Nov. 27)

When we see our worship as more than just a few minutes on Sunday morning and learn to be honest with God in our worship, we begin to get a more complete picture of who God is and who we are. But once we have broken into an authentic view of worship and learned that it’s ok to express the deepest parts of ourselves to God, where do we go? How do we move forward and not get stuck in the process of pain and hurt? When we remember the former things—when we remember who God has been to us in the past—we allow God to rearrange our broken window into something new and beautiful.

Session 3 Parent Cue: Do you think you tend to see life through the lens of your pain or through who you know God to be? What are the characteristics of God you have seen when He came through for you in some really tough times? How would seeing God this way all the time change the way you handle more difficult times?

Widening the Circle

Invite others to invest in your teen, so your sons and daughters have other voices that will help shape and determine the direction of their lives.

We all filter the experiences in our lives through our emotions. They are the God–given lens we use to process the everyday occurrences that challenge us, hurt us and give us hope. For your student, the world is a cycle of experiences, emotions and responses. Sometimes they can feel alone in what they are experiencing. As we have been walking through this three-week series on worship, we have been talking about worship as a communal act—something we do with the community of God, both past and present. Your students have been invited to participate in a blog where they have been responding to different Psalms in order to try to understand what the writer was feeling and use those Psalms to create their own expression of worship through writing a response to those Psalms. Their worship expression can be one of joy, lament, grief or praise, recognizing that God accepts our worship no matter what emotional state we are in.

Now, it is your turn to get online and participate in the dialogue. As you read through what different students have written, you are invited to comment in an encouraging manner. This is a place for you to recognize what the student community is feeling and encourage them that God is for them and so are you. The students will be logging on under “student” so that they can write with freedom. As well, when you log on to comment, be sure to comment under the label “parent.” This is an opportunity for you as the parent community to invest in and encourage your student community. Celebrate the life changes you have seen in your students! Tell them where you see God at work in them.

Our Blog address for this is: www.respondingtothepsalms.blogspot.com

Note for middle school parents: Developmentally, your student is in a place of “multiple personalities,” meaning they have many different sides of their personalities that are still synthesizing into who they will become. With this in mind, if you read something that seems oddly intense or unlike the students you see on Sunday, recognize that they may be “trying on” a particular side of their personality. See your comments as an opportunity to affirm who they are and give voice to what they are going through rather than to try to stamp out what you might perceive as an inauthentic representation of who they are.

Note for high school parents: Developmentally, your student is in a phase of awakening. They are starting to see outside of themselves and are beginning to understand that they indeed have an impact on the world around them. Because of this developmental shift, they not only feel things quite deeply but also have a greater sense of and desire for open and honest discussion. This is a great opportunity to encourage their developing sense of self and the thought processes and emotional processes they are going through. Rather than “challenge” them in your comments, try to remember what it was like to be a teenager and empathize with what they are writing.

Get connected to a wider community of parents at www.orangeparents.org.

hvarvell@wordalive.org