Why Worship Is the Best Tool to Abolish Human Trafficking

Think about it.  People come into church worship services to encounter God.  They come in fragmented, distracted, but anticipating some new teaching or experience.  The music begins, and the worship starts flowing from the music into announcements, then offerings, communion, prayer, and sermon.  God does show up.  People worship.  God pours out blessings, insights, and direction.  The people of God unite, ready to follow God.  Then the pastor whips out the gun, starts the benediction, and fires the shot after the “amen.”

The people of God then rush out into our deeply fractured world to transform it in the power of the Spirit, bringing hope and healing along with the good news.  Joy explodes.  Love invades.  God’s people take the worship, the blessings of God that they’ve received, and give it away. 

Worship transforms us, and then we transform the world.

Worship realigns us. 

Worship gives us the energy to follow God.

Worship is the catalyst for action. 

This is the vision of Not For Sale’s Freedom Sunday campaign.  What is the best way to defeat the evil driving modern-day slavery?  Worship.  Not sit in the church and soak it up worship; not singing in the car on the way to the mall worship; but hope-infused, prayer-filled, smart activism worship. 

Isaiah understood this.  In Isaiah 58, the prophet chastises the people for separating righteous living from a life of worship.  He redefines for the people what true fasting, true worship, really includes: prayer and feeding the hungry; denying our desires and setting others free; caring for the homeless, the wounded, the lonely, and the poor and receiving God’s blessings.

Jesus, also, within the context of worship, announces in Luke 4:14-21 his ministry plans.  This five-fold plan includes setting others free.  Not just stated once, but twice.  That’s significant.  Jesus’ mission is our mission.  He wants to set everyone free.  This should be on our radar, compelling us to do all we can to pursue holistic freedom for others.  God has set us free, so now we set others free. 

Freedom Sunday will be celebrated on February 26, 2012 in more than 4,000 churches in at least 90 countries.  People will sing, preach, pray, dance, and proclaim that no one should be for sale.  But Freedom Sunday celebrations will be a waste of time if God’s people don’t then take to the streets to fulfill the mission of Jesus. 

To this end, the Freedom Sunday Web site has resources to help leaders give their churches what is needed to effectively hammer slavery back into the history books.  There are fact sheets, sermons, youth curriculum, children’s curriculum, videos, worship aids, etc. (Not For Sale also welcomes your resources to upload for others to use.)  The church locator will help you find churches in your community with whom to collaborate.  The new Fast For Freedom Devotional is a great tool to help people go deeper during the season of Lent or any other time. 

Moses went to Pharaoh over and over again.  The ask was the same: “God says: ‘Let my people go so they may worship me!’”  God desires that all be set free.  The ultimate goal of this holistic freedom is worship.  It’s all interconnected.  It’s also all within our reach.  We set others free.  We invite them to worship God. 

You can get your track and field starter gun here.