How do we worship?
Ask your group to write a list of the things they and their friends 'worship', e.g. TV, sport, fashion, money and pop groups.

• What do they do to show their 'worship' for these objects and people? (Consider merchandise, clothing, and season tickets, particularly for football)
• What do they see others 'worship'? (Money, power, technology)

Suggest that we can tell what people's priorities are by what they worship, and how much they value something by how much they are willing to give for it.

Key point: Our priorities will influence and affect how we spend our time and make decisions.

What is worship?
Worship can be defined as adoration. Christians would say that all humankind feels drawn to worship because we were created to worship God.

The first time the word worship is mentioned in the Bible is in Genesis 22 when Abraham is asked by God to offer Isaac as a sacrifice. Read up to verse 18 and make the point that God's request was not cruelty, simply part of his plan to test Abraham and see if he was prepared to obey God in everything.

• How can Abraham's actions be seen as a good illustration of true worship?
• Does worship have to include surrender?
• What would you find impossible to surrender as an act of worship?
• What do you find easy to worship?

Bible bit
Read Romans 12:1 and ask the group:

• What does it mean to 'offer your body as a living sacrifice'?
• Is worship something that must involve music?
• If not, why is it so central to our church services and why d
o the Psalms so often encourage us to 'sing to the Lord'?
• What, if anything, is special about musical worship?

Activity
Give each young person paper and pens and ask them to draw a pie chart of their day, giving time to each activity such as sleeping, eating, walking to school etc. Discuss how they could potentially use each activity and each time of day to worship God.

Key point: Worship is not limited to certain activities, days or times.