Mark Cole provides some helpful insights to help you become a better worship leader and help your congregation move from simply singing songs to truly worshipping God.
Top 100 Easter Worship Songs
PraiseCharts.com has compiled a comprehensive list of the top 100 Easter worship songs, offering a wealth of musical options for churches and worship teams. The selection includes classic hymns, modern worship and everything in between, providing a broad representation of the diverse expressions of worship during the Easter season.
Worship Resources For Lent & Easter
As we look forward to the Lenten season, Kenny Lamm has put together a great resource of worship resources for Lent and Easter. With Ash Wednesday just around the corner (February 22), now is the time to start planning your church’s worship services. These resources will help you bring Lent and Easter alive for your congregation, making these special times that much more meaningful.
Easter Sunday Roadmap
With Easter Sunday soon approaching, it’s crucial to have a clear understanding of what to expect during your service. As always, planning is the key to a smooth worship experience!
Starting with Music
Unlike some churches that start with a welcome, starting with music sets the tone for the service and gives latecomers a chance to settle in. Give a brief welcome as the music begins, then have your official welcome right before the preaching. Aim for a praise set of 3-5 songs, mixing familiar favorites (both hymns and choruses) and special songs for the day. Easter is NOT the time to introduce new songs! Cherry-pick the favorites your congregation loves.
Offering and Announcements
Don’t just call it an “announcement time,” it’s more than that. This is your chance to welcome guests, share your church’s mission and show its impact through a real-life story, then ask for support. Make this moment impactful – leave the standard housekeeping announcements for your email newsletter or social media. Maintaining a visitor-focused mindset will help you keep this time in your service on point.
Sermon
Easter is one of the few times each year when people who don’t regularly attend church are more likely to visit. Consider keeping sermons short on holidays when people, particularly children, can be distracted and restless. As you prepare, consider not only what your congregation needs to hear, but also what those visiting who might be unfamiliar with Jesus need to hear. The Easter sermon has the potential to capture their attention and interest, so work to present it in a concise and impactful way.
Follow Up
Most churches will be giving an invitation for people to surrender their lives to Jesus. Take a moment to think about what that process looks like, not just on Easter Sunday, but in the days after. Give them a Bible and devotional, get their contact info and have a follow-up plan. If nobody decides to accept Jesus this Easter, that’s okay. All you have to do is share the Gospel and leave the rest to God. It can take a few times of hearing the Good News before someone is ready to accept Christ.
Bottom Line: Easter Sunday is a time to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and to reflect on His death and the hope that it brings. Having a clear Easter roadmap helps you give your congregation and guests an opportunity to experience the joy of Easter in a meaningful way without distraction.
The Complete Checklist for Being a Successful Worship Leader
It’s no secret that being a successful worship leader takes hard work, dedication, and organization. From finding the right songs to creating a set list to training your team, there is a lot that goes into leading worship effectively. To help make the process easier, Worshipflow has put together an ultimate checklist for any aspiring or veteran worship leader.
“What Is Easter?” Is Not A Silly Question
This Easter, take the time to plan for a service that truly celebrates this day. Choose scripture readings and songs with great intention, and practice them beforehand. Create a visual representation of life and use color and light to represent the newness of life that Jesus brought after death. Shine the spotlight on Jesus – He is what it’s all about!
3 Features To Look For In Texting Services For Your Church
The CTT Staff writes that text messaging has become one of the most popular ways for churches to communicate with their members. It’s fast, efficient, and cost-effective. But not all church texting services are created equal. To get the most out of your church texting service, you need to make sure it offers certain features that are essential for churches.
There are many features that can increase the strategic nature of your communications work. Not all texting platforms are the same today, and so if you’re serious about guest follow-up or other growth-oriented activities, then considering what any given texting platform can provide is important. Some key features to look for include: an intuitive and mobile-friendly user interface, bulk messaging capabilities, automation of follow-up responses, contact segmentation, accessible customer support, integration with other software programs, two-way conversation options, and comprehensive analytics.
Group or mass messaging is crucial for churches. It allows you to send messages to multiple people at once, which is especially helpful for announcements or reminders about upcoming events or services. Make sure the group messaging feature is easy to use and can handle large numbers of recipients. This saves time and eliminates the need to manually enter each phone number every time you want to send a message. Group texting is useful for coordinating volunteers, staff meetings, and church events.
Automated messages are another important feature. They allow you to set up messages in advance so they go out regularly without extra work on your part. This is great for sending confirmations, reminders, prayer requests, appointment instructions, event invitations, and guest follow-up sequences.
A good church texting service should also provide data collection and analysis capabilities. This lets you track who is responding to your messages and how they respond. The information is invaluable for making decisions about which messages resonate best with your audience. You can use it to get feedback on sermon topics, track event attendance, and better target outreach efforts.
Why Your Church Must Replace 32% of Attendees Annually to Maintain Size
Thom S. Rainer talks about how hard it is for churches to keep the same number of people coming to worship services. He gives an example of a church that has 100 people attending on average. This church would need to add 32 new people every year just to keep attendance the same.
There are a few main reasons why churches lose attendees:
1. Death: In the United States, about 1 out of every 100 people die each year. This number might be higher in churches with older members.
2. Moving Away: In 2020, about 9 out of every 100 people in the U.S. moved to a new place. Many of these people move out of the area where their church is located.
3. Switching Churches: For every 100 people attending a church, about 7 will leave to go to a different church in the same community.
4. Going to Church Less Often: People are going to church less frequently than they used to. This is the biggest reason why churches are getting smaller. It’s estimated that church attendance drops by about 15% every year.
So, if a church has 100 people attending, they can expect to lose 1 person to death, 9 to moving away, 7 to switching churches, and 15 to going to church less often. This means they need to add 32 new people each year just to keep attendance the same. If they add fewer than 32, the church will get smaller.
But Rainer says there is still hope for churches, even with these challenges. Read the full article.
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