by Don Chapman
02.06.08 WorshipIdeas.com is now 6 years
old! The first article was emailed to about 400
people back on February
11, 2002. My email
database now tells me that
exactly 80,620
people have signed up to
receive the newsletter
over these 5 years! Thanks
for your support
: ) Here's my first article:
Jumpstart Your Worship
Planning Creativity
Now that you've settled
in to 2002, it's
back to the grindstone
of weekly worship
planning. For churches
that don't follow
a liturgical calendar,
creating a new worship
experience each week can
be a daunting and
draining task for the worship
leader.
Right now, take a moment
and ask God to guide
you this year. Ask Him
to help you as you
pick songs and create a
flow of worship that
will enable your congregation
to draw closer
to Him.
Before you start planning
music, consult
your pastor. Does he have
an idea of what
his sermon will be this
week and upcoming
weeks? Ask him to give
you Scripture texts.
He'll appreciate your willingness
to collaborate,
and you'll have themes
on which to base your
praise sets.
No input from your pastor?
Then you'll have
to come up with a theme
from scratch.
Determine if anything special
is going on
this month. Will you have
Communion, a baby
dedication or holiday?
Plan appropriate songs
to fit the theme.
Often when I sit down to
plan our weekly
service I think of something
Joe Horness
said at a Willow Creek
Arts Conference I
attended. Before he begins
planning, he asks
God "What would You
like to hear Your
people sing this week?"
Let God impress
your heart with a song.
Maybe there's a new
tune you've been itching
to do or a melody
that's been running through
your mind. Or
perhaps you remember an
old hymn you haven't
sung in ages. This could
be the foundation
for your set, and you can
build songs around
this theme.
Still no ideas? Try making
a song list. Keep
a catalogue of every song
your church sings.
Organize it by fast songs,
medium songs and
slow songs. Refer to it
when you have worship
planning block -- which
songs haven't you
done in awhile that your
congregation would
like to sing again? Your
church probably
knows so many songs that
some of them will
slip your mind. Your own
song list will jog
your memory.
>Bottom Line: Protect yourself from worship planning block.
Ask God to give you help,
consult your pastor
for sermon topics, identify
any special events
for the month, determine
if there are any
songs on your heart and
develop a song list.
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