December 7 , 2005 Featured Article
Try something new in worship? No way! by Ken Johnson |
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Making your Worship New and Fresh each time you get together Worship is one of the most important things that we do as a church and it is probably one of the most misunderstood areas. In most churches it is a constant place for battles and a place where most pastors are afraid to make needed changes because of the “That’s the way we’ve always done it” syndrome.
Worship is a time that we should come together to worship God and God alone. Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.” (Matthew 4: 10, NIV) It is a time to show our love for God. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:5, NIV) It is a time to depend on the Holy Spirit. “God is the spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4: 24, NIV) And worship is a time where Formal ritual is insufficient. “I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, I will have no regard for them. Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.” (Amos 6: 21-24, NIV) Our normal worship time, whenever that might be, should be a time when we refill our “tanks,” so to speak, and prepare to go out into the world and minister for Him.
Worship is also something that we as Christians should do 24/7. We should be continually worshipping God—thanking Him for what He has done for us, and asking Him what we can do for Him. Worship is a time when we should not be worrying about what the building looks like or whether the pulpit is centered properly, but we should be taking time to make ourselves right with God and preparing to move on through the rest of our lives. We should put aside all of our cares and concerns from the week past and focus on what is to come.
In this the 21st century it is important to change your order of worship on a fairly regular basis. Anyone who has a TV or is out in the public today is used to things changing and it is important that we do the same thing in our worship services. Don’t just change to change use the change to create an exciting new flow to your service. It’s very important that you service has a flow to it that will allow for the most worshipful experience.
I realize that in many of the contemporary churches the worship consists of music-offering-sermon-music and close, but even that has to have a flow or it will ruin any kind of worship experience for many of your people and visitors.
The following is a listing of the normal parts of a worship service. They are identified and clarified with a modern look at how to use them. These parts of worship are used in both traditional and contemporary services in a variety of ways so see what will work for your service. The names in italics are possible contemporary names for the different sections of your bulletin. Try to find ways to modernize your bulletin. You can even rename your bulletin. Maybe Worship Folder?
Prelude Gathering Music This is a very important part of worship. I think that it is probably the most important time since it brings people into the sanctuary and gets them mentally prepared for worship. It can be the organ, the piano, a vocal group, an instrumental group, a drama group, a CD, etc., etc.
You will have to decide if you want total quiet in the sanctuary during the prelude—this is when the community begins to get together and it is important for them to communicate. Sometimes this is the only time your congregation members ever communicate with other people in the community. This is a great time for the pastor(s) to get around and greet people. This is when we begin preparing for worship. Please tell the people doing the prelude that it’s alright if the people talk if you allow them to do that because they (the folks doing the prelude) are not doing a performance they are setting the mood.
Call to worship Bringing people into the worship atmosphere. This could be sung, spoken, played, or dramatized. The Call needs to be fairly bright and shining not drab and dreary. It needs to be something that wakes up the people and gets them to think about what is to come. It is also important that this happen from a variety of places in the sanctuary not the same place every Sunday or you will begin digging the rut. It needs to be less than 30 seconds long.
Welcome A Time of Greeting This is a very important part of worship and should only happen after the entire congregation is in the sanctuary, seated and listening. Passing the Peace—this is something that can happen but the people need to truly understand what it is for. Remember greeting each other doesn’t mean just greeting your friends. Greet everyone around you and move as far as you can from your seat before they call you back together again.
Music Praise Songs=Songs of Faith Hymns=A Hymn of Praise or A Hymn of Meditation Praise songs—what are praise songs? I feel like every song you sing in the service is a praise song. The traditional hymns, the new hymns, the choruses, the contemporary Christian songs, whatever you sing should be considered a praise song. Let’s stop worrying about what we call the congregational songs and just sing praise to God. The most important thing you have to do is get the congregation involved.
You need to use hymns, choruses, anthems, instrumental pieces, vocal and instrumental solos, small groups and any other musical presentations you can find that will add to your worship experience. Also, get your musicians off of the platform—get them out in the congregation—allow them to be a part of the congregation and not“the stars up front.”
It’s very important that all of your musicians keep their eyes open and use their eyes to communicate with the congregation. Don’t allow your musicians to look like they are in a bar on Saturday night—communicate, communicate, communicate.
Announcements All in the Family This is such an important part of worship because it tells the members of the community what is happening in the life of the church. The announcements need to be creatively offered to the congregation, not boringly read. Please don’t put this at the beginning of the service before everyone is seated and listening. This is the third most important thing you do in worship after allowing the people to turn their lives over to Christ, and sending them out into the world to minister.
People need to see or hear something at least seven times before it sticks in their minds so it is imperative that you do your announcements within the worship service when everyone is there. If you don’t do them during the service then don’t complain when the people don’t show up for your “previously announced program.”
Drama An excellent three to five minute drama or skit is one of those things that can turn a worship service around. This would usually be something that would tie into the theme of the service and would be a quick in and out. You can usually just use a chair or two or something easily moved as props unless you have a facility that would allow for a set to be in place from the beginning of the service. Remember you need to utilize the entire sanctuary so don’t feel like it always has to be on the platform. Use other parts of the sanctuary. This drama could happen before the service begins, within the service, or after the service—wherever it fits in the context of the service.
Liturgical Dance Liturgical dance is an area of ministry that has had its ups and downs over the years. Dance is something that happens throughout the Bible and should be something that is very exciting and usable in the church. What is Liturgical Dance? It is dance performed to Christian music. Well done dance can take a very plain piece of music and make the lyrics or music more understandable. For those people who need to see something to understand it, dance is the perfect medium.
Signing Signing is very much like dance and takes the lyrics of a piece of music and creates in essence Choralography. A well rehearsed signer can make a piece of music look spectacular.
Unison and Responsive Readings We usually think of these as something that are used in the more traditional services, but there is no reason that they can’t be used in the more informal services. The big problem is there over use. In many mainline churches readings have become worship for many people. “If I go to church and participate in all of the readings, say the Lord’s Prayer and sing the hymns, then I have done all that I need to do this week to get to Heaven.” That’s not what it’s all about. We need to do more than that—we need to truly worship God.
Make the readings meaningful to the context of the service not just what we did last week so we will do it again this week.
Scripture A Reading from God’s Word This is a very important aspect and needs to speak directly to the congregation. It is a time for the congregation to look at the Bible. Encourage your people to bring their Bibles and don’t put the page number in the bulletin. Make your people find the place in the Bible. Try doing the scripture from memory, do it as a responsive reading, have the congregation read all of the scripture, do it as a call and response (you sing a phrase and the congregation will repeat it), etc., etc. Again be creative.
Prayer Opening Prayer=Prayer of Praise and Worship Pastoral Prayer=The Prayers of God’s People Matthew 6: 7 and 8 says: “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (NIV)
Why does someone on the platform have to do the prayer? Have people in the congregation say the prayer from where they sit and whatever other creative ways you can come up with. Make sure that you have cleared it with that person before you call on them. When you pray do you speak to God or to some ethereal thing up in the sky? Get rid of the “Thee’s” and “Thou’s” and make it a personal talk with God. Bring Him into the room with you. Talk to God like your child would talk to you. Make it very personal.
Message Listening for God’s Word The message can be spoken by the pastor or a representative of theirs, it can be a drama, it could be a cantata, it could be a children’s message, again, be creative. I personally like having a pastor who has their message memorized and is able to communicate with their eyes as well as all of their dramatic ability. What a difference that makes. I also like the pastor or whoever it is giving the message to get out from behind the pulpit and even off the platform. Get down into the congregation and become a part of the people. I really believe that that is what Jesus did. It’s also important to have an interactive message if not every Sunday at least once or twice a month. Get the people involved in every way that you can. Don’t allow them to get complacent during your message.
Offering To God with Love…We Give Our Offerings The offering is important because it gives the community an opportunity to give of their resources to God. It’s very important that you allow everyone, members and visitors alike, to give to the offering. Don’t say: “If you are a visitor you are our guest, please don’t feel the need to give to the offering.” Just allow God to move in their hearts and give if they feel the need. This may be the exact thing that they have a need to do. Likewise, don’t go on and on about giving and embarrass them if they don’t give.
Children’s Message Special Moment’s for Our Children A variety of things can happen at this time. Make sure that you have a little fun as you teach.
Celebrating the Sacraments –Communion and Baptism Remember, neither of these Sacraments will get you to Heaven so there is no reason not to experiment with how you do them.
Why not try some different ways, for instance:
The most important thing to remember is that communion will not get you into Heaven so value this as an outward sign of your commitment to God.
What should we do with the music during communion? Again you are only limited by your creativity. Here are some things that I have done:
Baptism Either immersion or sprinkling Both of these need to be times of celebration, and when I say celebration I mean jump up and down celebration. Make sure that you do the baptism service in different ways not the same way all of the time. Don’t be afraid to let people use something that will make this baptism more meaningful to them. For example: using water from the Jordan River. Oh, and by the way, baptism won’t get you into Heaven so think of it as an outward symbol to show your commitment to God. There are some denominations, churches, and individuals who won’t baptise children until they are old enough to understand what it means so they dedicate their babies. Do what is right for you.
Final Hymn A Hymn of Commitment The final hymn needs to be one that will send the people out into the world to spread the “Good News” so it needs to be uplifting. This hymn needs to be one that makes you want to go out and preach the gospel and also one that makes you want to come back to worship the next time it happens. Sometimes you can have them sing the hymn as they leave the sanctuary according to what hymn you use.
The Benediction Webster’s says that the benediction is: to speak well of; an expression of good wishes; the short blessing with which public worship is concluded; something that promotes goodness or well being. So what is a blessing? Webster says that this is: APPROVAL, ENCOURAGEMENT; a thing conducive to happiness or welfare. The Benediction is the last spoken part of the service and is usually said with eyes open in a very positive manner. Note what Webster says—the short blessing…
Benediction Response This needs to be a “blow them away” piece either by the organ, the choir, the Praise Team, a small ensemble, etc. Send them out with joy. If you use lyrics make sure that the lyrics challenge them to go out in joy and minister in His name.
Postlude Music for Life’s Journey For the postlude you use the organ, the choir, the Praise Team, the Praise Band, a CD, etc. There will be people talking so don’t make it soft—make it loud enough so the people can hear. Make it a piece that will send them out with joy.
I realize that you may not use many of these things in your worship, but with the ones you do use them in a way that will make them more meaningful to your people. You might even try some new ones—you may like them. The most important thing is to be creative. Regularly try something new. Become a 21st century church. © 2005, Ken Johnson, President and CEO of The Ken Johnson Group, LLC. To contact Ken, or for permission to reprint this article, send an e-mail to: ken@thekenjohnsongroup.com |