Adaptable Meeting Guide: Isaiah - A Leader who Worshipped | Issues

THIS WEEK’S PASSAGE Isaiah 6:1-8

BACKGROUND PREPARATION Think about how you will carry out ‘the wow of worship’ and make arrangements to take your young people off-site if appropriate.

My greatest wow!

5 mins

As you start the session, ask your young people to think about the things that ‘wow’ them. Can they identify one moment that impressed them or blew them away more than any other? It could have been going to a live concert or sports event, a visit to a significant landmark or a moment within their family life. What was so special about that moment? Ask your young people to share their experiences.

Isaiah’s wow!

5 mins

Explain that during the session, we will be looking at Isaiah 6:1-8 in three separate sections. Ask someone to read Isaiah 6:1-4, in which Isaiah describes a vision he receives of God. There are many unfamiliar terms in this passage which you may need to explain for your young people, but make it clear that this is such a powerful description which we cannot simplify too greatly. Isaiah describes something so extraordinary; is it possible to imagine what it would be like to see God?

Say: this is Isaiah’s wow moment. He has a vision of God which completely blows him away.

The wow of worship

20 mins

If appropriate, send your young people out around your venue with their mobile phones or digital cameras and ask them to go looking for examples of other people’s expressions of the ‘wow’ of worship. Perhaps they will find a piece of artwork, a stained glass window or some song lyrics. If your venue is particularly unsuited to this activity you could either arrange for a visit elsewhere or provide access to the internet for your young people to search for appropriate images. When your young people return, ask them to share the pictures that they have taken, if possible by projecting them on a large screen, and explain why they chose these. Help your young people to appreciate the difference between being overwhelmed by who God is, as was the case in the passage from Isaiah, and being caught up in the experience of worship.

Falling short

5 mins

Return to the passage and invite someone to read verses five and six. Explain that Isaiah’s response to seeing the greatness of God was to realise just how far he fell short of God’s purity. Remind your young people that it doesn’t end there, with Isaiah left in a pit of guilt, but rather that God offers forgiveness and an opportunity to make things right. Explain to your young people that when the angel anoints Isaiah’s lips with the burning coal, it reminds us of the symbolism of purification; being made clean by God.

Confession

10 mins

Tell your young people that just as Isaiah became aware of his own failings and came to a point of confession before God, worship requires us to open our hearts completely to God. Tell your young people that we are going to take some time out for ourselves now to open our hearts to God and ask him to show us where we do not meet his high standards.

Encourage your young people to find a space away from other people where they can be still before God. Provide pens and paper and allow them, in complete confidence, to write down the things that they want to confess to God. Set up a metal bin and invite your young people to throw their screwed up pieces of paper into the bin before setting fire to them to show that these things have been dealt with by God. (If you are unable to do this, you could use a shredder instead).

Responding by acting

5 mins

Ask someone to read Isaiah 6:8. Tell your young people that this is where we see the outcome of Isaiah’s encounter with God. He goes away from this encounter a changed person, and his response is to ask God how he can serve him. Point out to your young people that Isaiah does not wait to find out exactly what God has in store for him to do, neither does he give God a list of terms under which he will agree to serve. This is the shortest section of the reading that we have looked at, and yet it is also the most decisive. Isaiah simply says ‘yes’ to whatever God will ask of him.

Send me!

10 mins

As you close the session, help your young people to see how different Isaiah’s model of worship is, to the song-singing we often reduce our worship to. Acknowledge that for some of your young people, tonight they may have experienced something new of God which they want to respond to; perhaps this is their ‘send me’ moment. Encourage those young people to talk to someone after the session. Pray for all your young people, that they would continue to be authentic in their worship.

KEY POINT #1

The photos that we have taken show examples of other people’s response to God. They can help us to connect with God in worship, but the heart of worship has to be our response to God himself and the way that we respond to him.