Spoken Word - Be intentional about what you speak and when . You never know what the Holy Spirit will do with a well-thought out encouragement , exhortation , or short , personal story . And don ’ t feel the need to do all the talking . Invite your church to speak out words of praise or recite faith-forming creeds . ( Remember , not everyone ’ s worship language is singing .)
Sacraments - In most churches , these include baptism and the Eucharist ( the Lord ’ s Table or Communion ) and are sometimes stand-alone events . But if you get the chance to plan the journey around these elements , invite people into the wonder and mystery of these ancient rituals .
Silence - We too often fill every moment of the set with voices or music . But silence and quiet is also an expression of worship . The time of silence might be for prayer , confession , or contemplation . Or it might be a way to allow the Holy Spirit to give words to the unspeakable .
As I write this , it ’ s a few days after the shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde , Texas that took the lives of nineteen children and two teachers . In times of immense tragedies like this , sometimes a shared moment of quiet grief is far more meaningful than words .
SUSTAINABLE SUNDAY PLANNING It ’ s good to lean into the creative craft of planning powerful journeys of worship , but you have to take into account that you need to do it again next week . And the week after that . And the week after that . The unrelenting rhythm of running a worship ministry requires that you have efficient and repeatable processes to help you create the desired outcome week after week — without burning out .
Let me give you three practical ways to make set planning sustainable for the long term .
First , “ batch process .” Batch processing is grouping similar tasks to do all at once for more efficiency . Batch processing makes worship planning more efficient . Why ? Because it takes less time to plan four Sundays of songs at one time than it does four Sundays at four different times .
Even if you ’ re only selecting the songs for those four Sundays ( and save the scriptures , segues , etc . for later ), that will still save you time . ( And hint , this will enable your team to prepare better when the music is posted sooner .)
Second , be realistic . Your song planning efforts will be more sustainable if you ’ re not ‘ swinging for the fences ’ every week . Worship leaders get stuck in a vicious cycle of trying to top their last ‘ home run ’ service . But remember , base hits win games .
For the non-baseball people : A long sequence of solid , intentionally-planned services will do more for your church ’ s culture of worship than the occasional , outlying “ awesome Sunday .” Just strive for consistent quality each week and make incremental improvements . As you ’ re working on your other growth engines , your team will improve and your Sundays will inevitably reach new levels of excellence .
And the third way to make planning worship sets more efficient and sustainable for the long term ? Work on the next Sunday-focused growth engine .
GROWTH ENGINE # 2 : SONG ROTATION & MANAGEMENT Definition : This is the process of managing a healthy song rotation that promotes active participation by your church .
If you create a process to rotate your songs intentionally …
• Your church family will sing more . They ’ ll be singing more from the heart than the screen .
• Your team will require less preparation time . They ’ ll be playing / singing from the heart and not the chart .
• Your platform team will be more confident . You ’ ll see more expressive worship and hear a tighter and more together band .
And , like I already mentioned …
• Your planning process will be simplified . You ’ ll know which songs are due to be rotated . You ’ ll be efficiently choosing from a list of 30 or 40 songs , not weeding through the 200 - 300 tunes that have accumulated over the years .
So , how do you create a healthy song rotation ? To help worship leaders do that , I wrote an entire book , The SongCycle : How to Simplify Planning and Re-Engaged Your Church . ( Yes , I am a nerd . And yes , it ’ s available on Amazon .) But since you may not want to read an entire book , I ’ ll tell you the system in five words :
Rotate fewer songs more often . This means you can ’ t introduce as many new songs . And when you do , rotate them more often until they stick . Also , “ slow the roll ” on the tried and true songs by scheduling them less often . And even retire them when it ’ s time .
And this is the most critical thing when rotating fewer songs more often : When your team is getting sick of a song , that probably means your congregation is just now catching on . Remind your team that our job is to worship God and serve the congregation , not feed our own musical preferences .
Over the next few issues , we ’ ll be covering the other six growth engines . But if you don ’ t want to wait , I got something to hold you over until the next installment .
If you
visit this page , you can download a free checklist ( no sign-up required ) that tells you all eight essential growth engines . The checklist also includes a short assessment and implementation questions for each engine . I also added a few practical videos on that page , which will help you start to intentionally improve those areas of your worship ministry .
Jon Nicol Jon lives in the middle of Ohio with his wife Shannon and their four kids . He ’ s the founder of WorshipTeamCoach . com and WorshipWorkshop . com , two sites that help worship leaders make every Sunday exceptional . If you ’ d like to connect with Jon for coaching or mentoring ,
visit this page . WorshipWorkshop . com WorshipTeamCoach . com