The process of designing a weekend worship experience begins well before the Sunday in question and continues after the weekend has run its course. And as savvy church leaders can attest, designing an engaging worship experience requires far more than a sermon topic and set list.
Weekend worship. In most churches it is the biggest event in the life of the congregation. Each week we gather, we sing, we greet one another, we listen to the Word in Scripture and in sermon, and we are sent into the world. Leaders know that none of this happens by accident, and none of this takes place without design, intentionality, and purpose. Even services that are driven by spontaneity have to plan and create space for extemporaneous worship.
But what does it take to plan a weekend worship experience? Different leaders have different approaches, and each strategy has its unique strengths. Design in worship is critical, and planning well can create the space needed for the Holy Spirit to work and to yield exponential growth in the life of individuals and in the life of the church as a whole.
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Having a Vision
Having a vision for the worship experience both as a single event and as part of a series is the first step in establishing an effective approach to the worship planning process.
For churches that do not follow the liturgical calendar, preaching themes and order of worship are largely at the discretion of a group of leaders who determine Scripture readings, content and direction of the sermon, musical selection, visual elements, and the time and space for communion or baptism. In the absence of the church calendar, outside of Christmas and Easter, leaders must discern the doctrinal and pastoral needs of their congregation as well as the specific missional and communal direction to which their particular body is being called. Determining these elements and weaving them together as a single thread results in the establishment of a common vision.
Connie Stella, Creative Director of Worship at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection in Leawood, Kansas, says that the senior pastor, Adam Hamilton, largely determines the overall vision in their congregation for each sermon series. But each week, Stella’s team of leaders asks, “What is the experience we want our congregation to have? What do we want to happen individually and congregationally?” These questions help set the tone for how their creative team works together to cast and solidify the vision they have for each worship experience.
From Vision to Teamwork
Once the vision is put into place and the direction for the weekend worship service is set, the next step in the worship planning process is working with a team to bring the vision to reality.
Depending on the specific context, different worship designers undertake the worship planning process in different ways. Some churches depend on teaching and leadership teams to develop ideas and chart a course for the weekend worship experience. Other churches depend foremost on the vision and direction of the senior pastor, who under the leading of the Holy Spirit speaks authoritatively concerning the major themes that will dominate the worship experience during those gatherings.
But every leader I talked to spoke of a creative process that involves a diverse blend of leaders in different ministry areas working together as part of a structure in which ideas are generated, processed, enhanced, rejected, and coalesced into a unified plan for the weekend worship experience. For the worship designer, this requires keeping two major components in view, what Stella calls “big picture” and “detail picture.” Both must work together to bring about a coherent and powerful experience.
For worship designers who are responsible for working with a number of other creatives on their team, this raises many important questions, such as:
At what point (or points) during the week does our leadership need to meet and discuss the vision for worship?
How much of our time will be devoted to the upcoming experience, and when will we designate time to dream about the weeks and months to come?
Who are the most important people to have around the table at each meeting?
And who, ultimately, is the one who has the final call on important decisions?
These questions can help determine a set structure for teamwork in the planning process.
In addition to the questions listed above, there is another team activity that can help any worship planner in clarifying vision and bringing that vision to realization. Stella describes an exercise that the creative team at Resurrection uses to help them work together in creating a unified worship experience.
In the early stages of preparation, the Resurrection team generates a list of words, images, and color palates that reflect the mood and thrust of the direction of the series. Her team also generates a list of words, images, and colors that they do not believe best supports the overall direction. Going through this exercise helps the music and visual teams better imagine what type of sound, video, and digital and print imagery might suit the service in question.
Whether you are a solo pastor working with a volunteer music coordinator or a large church pastor working with a broadly diversified team, planning worship requires engaging with other people, laying out a plan, listening to their input, and finally executing the worship experience.
Continual Evaluation
Leading and discipling people in the Christian life requires constant reflection and evaluation. Determining what is and what is not working, celebrating excellence, and altering the approach to worship over time helps leaders better prepare, plan, and direct each experience so that people might encounter Jesus Christ. Here is a list of questions that church leaders can ask in evaluating their worship experiences:
Did we meet our communicative, visual, technical, and/or liturgical objectives for the weekend?
What positive lessons can we take away from this experience? What was received well? Where did our people experience God? Where did we see transformation happen?
Were there shortcomings or technical issues that could be refined for future worship experiences? Could we be clearer? Could we improve the experience by tightening transitions, adding other visual elements, or altering the progression of different liturgical elements?
Are there shifting trends or perceived needs that have emerged in our conversations with our people that may indicate a direction or a change in approach that may be needed within the coming weeks or years?
Connie Stella says, “The key thing for us in evaluation is to clearly define our objectives from the start. If you have different services, the objectives may be different for each. Your evaluation process may be the same across the board, but you should evaluate based on a specific set of expectations for that service.”
Among the leaders I spoke with, evaluation is a continual process. Leaders evaluate experiences as they unfold and after they are completed, seeking to better understand what works and what doesn’t for their congregation. Over time, this results in what Kim Miller, Campus Designer and worship coordinator at Ginghamsburg Church in Tipp City, Ohio, calls “congregational intelligence” and helps strengthen the worship design process over time.
Passionate, Powerful Encounters With God
A good worship planning process should bring about powerful encounters with God. According to Miller, “Every event that we plan is life and death. If it doesn’t feel like life and death then you probably aren’t wired for worship design.”
In order to maximize the potential impact each experience will have on the congregation, worship planners must prepare well enough to have a clear picture of exactly what will happen in their minds before the worship experience takes place.
“I’ve been to this weekend already,” says Miller. “I can see ahead how things are going to play out, and if I don’t have a great feeling that something is going to be powerful or worth our time or really mesh with everything else, then I’m going to speak up. I’ve been in worship design for a long time and you get a sense of what is powerful and what is going to play out powerfully and what people may not get.”
If you are refining your worship planning process or installing an ordered approach for the first time, know that there is always more to learn. There is always room to grow. There is always room for innovation, for change, for streamlining, or expanding the scope of your creative team. And as you innovate, generate ideas, and utilize your God given creativity may your efforts, by God’s grace, bring glory to the King.
