Worship Like College Football?

I've only ever been to one college football game in my life, and that was several years ago. But its entirely different when you are going with your son on parents weekend....it just seems to matter more for some reason.

All the cheering, the game itself has special meaning, the jumbo tron, it all is significant, and to be honest I didn't want to miss a moment. You may not be able to read that sign in the photo but we had our own leader, helping us to know when to raise our collective voices and make "noise" to cheer the team on to success. And we won resoundingly. When we left it was 45 to 7 Grizzlies, and Sacramento State didn't seem to be mounting much of a rebound effort.

It hit me as I surveyed the maroon and silver clad enthusiastic capacity crowd, what if we got this excited on Sunday morning when we got ready to worship our God, or Saturday, or Monday or Tuesday or whenever? Haven't you heard your worship leader lament on occasion how they wished the congregation would get into it a little more?

I mean this crowd was down right excited beyond anything I've ever seen, they surpassed my ten year old at the Hanson concert for sure. I was completely fascinated. Chants, cheers, waves, you name it they had it. And I couldn't help but think, that the enthusiasm of football fans infused into any worship service would really make worship much more exciting.

Think about it, what if we had a few waves for God? What if we cheered a little more for what He did in our lives, or we got on our feet spontaneously without someone having to cajole us into it? Or if we simply expressed our delight at the success we experienced in life, or the setbacks as a collective body?

Here is something truly amazing......every seat was filled in the stadium a full 16 minutes before the game! What if that was church and we were ready before the service instead of coming in late? I am going to give it a try this week. I am going to dress up for church like I did this week for the Griz game, I am going to prepare myself for worship like we prepared for college football, learn the prayers on the calendar of our church that week, and the songs, and come ready...ready to worship.

What if nobody needed to come in front of you with a sign this week that says "noise" and encourage you to sing out, but rather you were to come to church this week already dressed in garments of praise, ready to worship....

I don't know about you but I am going to try it. It might not be exactly like college football, but I know one thing for sure, I will leave that gathering completely transformed!