WORSHIP LEADERS
COMBINED CHURCH EVENTS // BUILDING A UNIFYING PROGRAM | Grant Norsworthy
What happens when worshippers from different congregations gather in one room, set aside their musical and stylistic preferences, and sing to God with one voice?
Something more than a good church service happens. It becomes a visible, audible expression of the unity we already have in Christ.
I am a passionate advocate for combinedchurch special events because I have seen their tangible, positive impact. They bring Christian congregations in a region together to worship God at one time, in one place, and with a shared purpose.
If such an event is in your plans, I hope these thoughts and experiences will be helpful. If it is not yet on your radar, perhaps this article will provide the nudge you need.
Even if it happens only once a year, a combinedchurch event gives us a valuable opportunity to turn up the volume on the things we agree on— and turn down the volume on peripheral theological or stylistic differences that can divide us when we give them too much attention.
I recently had the joy and privilege of helping with my home region’ s combined-church celebration of Pentecost Sunday. The church culture here in rural New Zealand may differ from yours, but I believe the underlying considerations are universal. Using that event as an example, allow me to share some of the intentional steps our organizing team took in building the program.
EXISTING, AUTHENTIC NETWORK OF CHURCH LEADERS I am grateful that the pastors and leaders of the Christian churches in my region meet regularly. They know one another, share meals, pray for one another, and offer mutual support. Authentic relationships and trust among church leaders are essential prerequisites for a combined-church event.
VENUE We knew that a neutral venue— a public hall rather than one of our church auditoriums— would be ideal. While using one of the available churches might be easier and less expensive, a venue that is not the home base of any partner church communicates the combined-church theme more effectively.
That said, mainly because of budget limitations, we decided to use the facility of the largest and most centrally located church for this event.
EVENT NAME: KARAKIA: SONGS, SCRIPTURE, PRAYER The event name, along with the wording in our promotional material, was chosen very intentionally. We wanted everyone to feel warmly invited and confident that this would be a positive, unifying opportunity to worship God together.
Te reo Māori is the indigenous language of Aotearoa New Zealand. Most New Zealanders know at least a few Māori words, including karakia. Traditionally, karakia refers to a prayerful, spiritual song or chant. In modern contexts, it is often used to mean a blessing or even a church service. It seemed a fitting name across all our churches.
The subtitle—“ Songs, Scripture, Prayer”— helped people understand that these three activities would be the focus. Karakia would be an opportunity for people from the many expressions of“ church” in our region to gather and practice these shared elements of faith. We would sing worshipfully together, read the Bible together, and pray together.
SONG SELECTION A few weeks before the event, those responsible for musical leadership in the region’ s five most prominent churches met to choose the songs we would sing at Karakia. We agreed that the congregation should be familiar enough with each selection to sing it as a genuine expression of worship. The meeting was a lot of fun and went very smoothly.
While one church may have favorites unfamiliar to others, we recognized that the final selections needed to have broad recognition across the congregations. By comparing each church’ s repertoire, we found considerable overlap. We could not guarantee that everyone would know and love every song, but we made careful choices that increased that likelihood.
THE SINGERS AND INSTRUMENTALISTS ON THE PLATFORM Often, a combined-church event draws singers and instrumentalists from the local church with the“ best,” most vibrant, or perhaps largest team. That can certainly be expedient. In our case, however, we wanted the team on the platform to create both a visual and musical picture of unity through diversity.
Each church contributed one or two members, and we added a choir of roughly 30 voices to add another layer to that picture. Not only was every church represented, but we also included a broad range of ages, ethnicities, and vocal abilities.
THE PROGRAM ITSELF Before the 7:00 p. m. start time, we played New Zealand’ s contribution to the virtual choir response to the COVID-19 pandemic: Elevation
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