We were in week five of a five week series entitled ‘Living out God’s purposes’ in Student Quest this week. It’s actually centered around our student ministry purpose statement, ‘We are real people, in love with a real God, making a real difference in the world.’ That statement contains five values, or purposes:

• Real People: Fellowship
• Real God: Worship, Discipleship
• Real Difference: Evangelism, Service

We’re using a study called ‘Living out God’s purposes’ from the Live Curriculum as our launching point. However, we changed it up significantly this week – we had our student worship team plan the whole hour, invited parents and families to attend, and let the teens that are a part of our worship group lead the music and do the teaching. Four students, Zach H, Jack S, Kiley A, and Rachael G, each taught on a way of giving worship to God. You can listen to them on our podcast feed; I just updated it.

Parents, consider using the following for a followup discussion on worship this week at home:

We’ve been looking at the story of Mary and how she lived out God’s purposes in her life. Mary understood that worship is a lifestyle, and she worshiped when she obeyed God, when she revealed her servant’s heart, when she studied and lived out Scripture, and when she sang songs of praise. She turned each activity in her life into an opportunity to bring honor to God. Mary encountered a living God, and she knew her only response could be worship. Similarly, as we encounter and draw closer to God, we find that our natural response is to pursue a lifestyle of worship.

• How do you think Mary might have defined the word “worship”? How do you define it? How has your definition changed through your high school years?
• Why do many Christians see “worship” as just something that’s expressed through music? Is that a reflection of problems in how churches talk about worship, or are there other factors that contribute to this misunderstanding? Explain.
• Where are you already living a lifestyle of worship? What’s one area of your life you’ve never really thought of as an opportunity to worship God, but now do? Explain.

I pray this has been a helpful, insightful, challenging series for your student. Thanks for your continued prayers for our small group ministry!