ChurchStageDesigns.com has posted pics of some incredible church creativity for Christmas!
Elements of a Great Worship Service
God does what He does when He wants to. There’s no special formula to create a worship atmosphere. But with a humble heart, consider these ideas that will encourage an attitude of worship in the hearts of your people:
1. Pray.
This goes without saying, but how often do we get so caught up in the job of worship leading that we forget why we do what we do? Pray as you plan, pray as you perform. Pray that God will reveal Himself to the hearts of His people. Ever hear the saying “work like it all depends on you and pray like it all depends on God?” I think that motto is fitting here. What good is all the work we do as worship leaders if the Lord isn’t in it? Why bother?
Ever had a Sunday when everything went like clockwork and the congregation yawned? Conversely, have you ever had things go completely wrong in your service, only to have God show up? (I think He does this to teach us that it’s all about Him, not us!) This isn’t an excuse to be lazy… I believe in working and planning ahead to avoid a glitch that might distract the congregation.
2. On a foundation of familiarity, throw in something different.
If you generally begin your music with uptempo songs, try starting once in a while with a ballad. This throws the congregation – they get a little antsy during a starting ballad, and seem to release their pent up energy when the upbeat songs kick in.
If your worship palette is mainly an electric-guitar driven band, change it up occasionally by going acoustic one Sunday, or better yet – throw in an unusual instrument. Remember when the beautiful worship song “Be the Centre” was all the rage (was this ten years ago??!!) I was playing at a hipster church at the time and, like the original recording, opened the song by playing a tin whistle. The electric guitarist was so outraged he almost quit (for you see, in churches like this, EVERY song in EVERY set on EVERY Sunday MUST be electric guitar driven!) The congregation loved it and several months later at a church picnic a burly, Joe-the-Plumber-type said to me “Hey, aren’t you the guy who played that flute thing?” I thought, oh no, he’s going to punch me or something! He continued, “I LOVED that! Why don’t you play it again?” The lesson here is to not let the tail (or electric guitarist) wag the dog – if you’re in this type of church your congregation is probably desperately yearning for some musical variety.
3. Longer, heartfelt prayer.
I remember once when a woman on the praise team prayed a touching, spontaneous prayer in the middle of our praise set that gripped the congregation. I quietly played the keyboard while she prayed, transitioning into the key of the next song that was coming up.
You, as worship leader, don’t need to monopolize all the time speaking and praying. Let others you trust on your praise team participate. Find the people in your congregation and praise team that have the “gift of prayer.” You know, those people who seem to touch the heart of God with their eloquent prayers. I don’t mean the staid, ornate “O great God of the universe, we beseech Thee” type of prayers, either! Look for people who pray to God like He’s their best friend. This can be the most important time of your worship, where people truly interact with God. (Some people may tend to ramble. Have them focus on one idea in their prayer, perhaps the theme of the morning.)
4. Acoustic guitar.
On tender worship songs, try an extended intro featuring acoustic guitar. It’s amazing how this instrument can draw people in.
5. Familiar songs.
Some worship leaders get into the rut of constantly throwing new songs at the congregation and then wonder why nobody’s worshipping. Remember, we musical worship leaders are way ahead of the average person in the congregation. We’re tired of the latest worship songs before 99% of the congregation even know these songs exist (most Christians never step foot in a Christian bookstore OR listen to Christian radio, let alone care about the latest hot worship leader.) “Open the Eyes of My Heart,” Paul Baloche’s mammoth worship hit written in 1997, at this writing is #36 on the CCLI chart!
A few years ago I visited several Dallas megachurches in one weekend. I experienced great production, great music, but little worship going on and lots of performances. However, at one megachurch in particular I remember very distinctly being drawn in and touched by the worship. Suddenly it hit me: I happened to know all the songs in the set and I realized something important: people worship best with songs they know. It’s simply harder to worship when the mind is intent on learning a new tune, but the mind is freed up when the song is familiar and the heart can worship more easily.
>Bottom Line: Determine this week to partner with God in making your church’s worship the best it can be!
Setting the Stage for Christmas
Christmas is an extremely busy time for churches. Creating the perfect Christmas Eve service takes a lot of planning and preparation. As a stage designer, you may feel pressure to go all out with an elaborate, over-the-top set design. However, it’s important to keep things tasteful and know the vision of your church’s leadership.
When designing your Christmas set, first consider how big you really need to go. Make sure the design fits the space and works with any other elements of the service, like performances. Also, remember that many people will view the set through live stream or video, so plan attractive camera shots.
Next, be wise with your budget. Focus spending on one or two key items, then get creative with cheaper materials for other elements. And don’t forget to utilize volunteer help to save on labor costs.
Finally, make sure you have enough time to execute the set design properly. Delegate tasks and be willing to scale back aspects of the design if needed. Keep things simple and don’t expect perfection.
Most importantly, remember why you do this in the first place – to gather people and share the Christmas story of Jesus. Maintain perspective and joy this season amidst the busyness of it all.
Work to End Your Recurring Rehearsal Problems
by Adam Dye
A rehearsal is meant to prepare you for a service, and the preparation for that rehearsal needs to begin far before rehearsal time.
When rehearsal ends, do you feel calm and ready for the service, or are you in a frantic state of fixing, changing, running around, and praying that everything goes significantly better than you’re assuming it will?
While you’re never going to get everything right all of the time, running a smooth rehearsal isn’t as out of reach as it seems.
The single most important way to ensure a productive rehearsal is to prepare for it in advance.
While it is such a simple concept, it is one that gets lost on so many of us.
I’m not just talking about being sure the sound system and projectors are turned on, but instead preparing for the countless tiny things that slow down rehearsals or keep them from starting on time.
What are the little problems in your rehearsals that recur week after week that could have been fixed when you were setting up? For us it’s not having instrument cables ready to go with each direct input; it’s not having the worship leader’s mic loud enough in the choir monitors; it’s having a different lyrics roadmap in ProPresenter than the worship leader planned on singing.
If you’re the team that’s known for consistently not having prepared, then work hard to identify those trouble spots and write them down.
Really, put them on actual paper.
Make a setup checklist, and include on it things as mundane as “confirm each musician has a music stand.” This will help you prepare consistently and it will also be a guide for anyone filling in for you.
Depending on your church’s schedule, a great time to prepare for weekend services is Friday. Fridays are when we check most of the items off of our checklist: double-check lyrics and ID slides, replace lamps that are out, and do a final check of the stage and consoles to be sure everything is set up correctly. Our checklist is two pages long, and even though we have most of it memorized, we still print it out and check the items off every single week.
Next, be sure you know how to communicate with the band, and when the appropriate time is to do that.
Front of house audio engineers, I’m looking at you!
You may be in a role where you have the authority to act as a producer, and if so, have a conversation with your worship leader about how he or she best responds to your constructive criticism. Whether it’s between songs privately in rehearsal, or through a talkback mic to the entire band, it’s critical that everyone knows that you’ve been given authority to offer comments to the band and vocalists.
If you do offer comments, offer them gracefully, in the same way that you’d like to receive comments about your mix. Offering your comments during rehearsal in the way that you and the worship leader have previously agreed upon will help build trust between the stage and the booth.
Rehearsing songs isn’t the only part of rehearsal.
Transitions between songs and out of songs, into speakers, videos, and other segments are often done for the first time during the service, and that’s not the right time to be perfecting those elements!
Try to build in time for a full run-through after the band and production team have rehearsed each individual song. Transition rehearsals will help every person on your team with their cues, whether it’s unmuting mics or beings sure the stage is lit correctly.
Since it’s unlikely to get people such as your pastor to attend rehearsal, have someone step in for him. Even a 10-second “I’m the pastor and this is where I’ll stand during the sermon,” can be sufficient for the production team to understand how one segment of the service flows into the sermon.
It can be difficult to find time for a full run-through; it took us years to get to the point where we could do it for one of our services, and we have other services that still do not do a run-through. Work with your worship pastor, band leader, or whomever else to determine whether how the rehearsal is run is most efficient and beneficial in order to cover all of your bases.
You may find that musicians need to be practicing more at home prior to rehearsal, or that the production team needs to arrive 30 minutes earlier each week to get set up. Identifying those areas may help you uncover the extra time you need to do a full run-through.
When you’re finished with rehearsal, your team is going to have a lot to do. Final checks on cleaning up the stage, looking at battery levels, fixing lyrics, touching up lighting cues… the list goes on and on.
If you can, though, take some time to build community with your team. For one of our services, we sit down to read the pastor’s scripture text from a few different Bible translations, and then take turns discussing in just a few sentences what stood out to us in that passage.
Psalm 51:10 (ESV) says “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” My guess is that you won’t have time for a full-on Bible study before your service begins, but even that 5 or 10 minutes preparing spiritually for the service can put your team in the right frame of mind to serve with a right spirit.
After all of this, you should feel relaxed and ready for the service to begin. It’s worth noting that your schedule may not allow for you to be relaxed!
Many churches are like ours in that they have two completely different services back-to-back, in the same room, on the same morning. For us, that means the band has 15 minutes to get on stage, plug in, get sounds, rehearse songs, and be done. Half of what I wrote above is out the window for that service! But if anything, we prepare even better in advance for that service, because we know we won’t have a second of extra margin.
And if you are fortunate enough to prepare well enough to have some newfound margin, you’ll find yourself in a much better spot to make any last-minute changes. After praying with the band, the worship leader may decide to add another song. Great! Your team finally has the margin to prepare those lyrics without breaking out into a sweat!
A great rehearsal will help lead to a great service. So spend some time during the week to do whatever you can do to prepare for that rehearsal!
Adam Dye is the Media Director at Brentwood Baptist Church, just south of Nashville, Tennessee, where he oversees production for the church’s six campuses. Originally working in the recording industry, he’s had the opportunity to work with some of the greatest country, Christian, and rock artists in the country, but most loves working with the amazing volunteers who serve alongside him at the church. He spends time each summer with high school friends hiking the Appalachian trail, is his church staff’s resident Tour de France fan, and enjoys discovering bike trails and greenways around Nashville with his wife, Allison.
When To Challenge Or Compromise On Worship
Navigating worship preferences and disputes is a delicate dance. The question is: when to challenge and when to compromise on worship issues? Discover a three-step process involving theology, values, and mission to guide productive conversations. Learn principles of healthy compromise as well as when to stand firm. Get equipped to address worship conflicts in a Biblical way that builds unity.
Babylon Bee Whips Furtick Followers Into Frenzy
That hilarious Christian satire site TheBabylonBee.com (one of my favorite articles is “Christians Beg God To Not Let Male Rompers Catch On Among Worship Leaders“) has once again trolled gullible Christians. This time they’ve tricked Furtick followers into believing he was lured away from Elevation Church by non other than Joel Osteen to form a “superstar preaching team.”
A Beginner’s Guide to Using Pads In Worship
You’ll learn a simple, step-by-step approach on how to use pads in worship from WorshipTeamCoach.com. Go to worshipteamcoach.com/pads to get the free diagram and equipment list. You will also find a discount code and link to a free sample pack there.
Voices of Lee: What A Beautiful Name
One group of singers is becoming a sweeping, viral-video sensation as they reach millions with the name of Jesus.
The Voices of Lee, a group of singers representing Lee University, posted a moving video of them performing Hillsong’s “What a Beautiful Name,” on Facebook July 2.
Since then, it definitely deserves the term “gone viral.” It’s been viewed more than 11 million times. More than 70,000 people have “liked” or “loved” it; and, over 110,000 have shared it including Christian actor Kirk Cameron.
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