The Best Worship Service I've Ever Been To

I went to a U2 concert on Friday night in Croke Park, Dublin - it was the best worship service I've ever been to. God was truly present. The gig had all the elements of a worship service. Worship (you try listening to 80 000 people singing Yahweh with their hands in the air - I wonder how many knew who they were singing too ? or singing I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For......); a preach (about social justice & how as one person we don't think we can do a lot, but if we all do it, look at the difference we can make - he got us all to hold up our mobile/ cell phones with the back light on - the stadium lighting up was amazing).

Bono for one was (in my opinion) truly worshipping. At several points he stopped & related everything back to Jesus (His words were - "at the end of the day it all comes back to Jesus".) He changed the lyrics of some of his songs so that they were overtly Christian. We could see him praying. There was very little attitude of performance present from the band. They came out with no pomp or ceremony - just walked onto the stage & got on with it. (Tho maybe when you are U2 you can do that !)

It was strange - I was at a worship concert with a few of our youth recently (i'll not name the band, suffice to say they are pretty famous in Christian circles :) ) - our youth hated it - they said there was too much performance from the band & it wasn't about God.

It's got me thinking, that U2 concert may be as close as some will ever get to "church" - I reckon God spoke to many & used Bono & the guys to call people's hearts home to Him. How often do we write off Christian 'rockstars' who go mainstream as having sold out to 'the world' instead of praying for them as God uses them as a witness ?

We sang a song at church last week - one of the lines said "I'm singing just to see you smile" - I think God was smiling Friday night (& probably had his air guitar/ drum kit out too).