How do you plan a worship service? Where do you start?

It’s likely that the process looks different from church to church and worship planner to worship planner, but I thought it might be helpful to share an inside look at my worship planning process, from start to finish.

Before I do that, however, I want to share a few articles and resources that have been helpful to me:

UMC Discipleship - Worship Planning - sample orders of worship, sermon notes, hymn/song suggestions, and other resources (click “This Week’s Planning Resources” to see worship planning suggestions for each week)

A Single-Thread Worship Planning Model - an insightful look at integrated liturgy and the benefits of planning sermon series

The Nuts and Bolts of Worship Planning - "collected wisdom from 100 congregations"

There are some themes and symbols that appear over and over again in scripture: creation, light, bread, water. And every few weeks, I seem to find myself planning around a certain theme and searching for worship planning inspiration:

“hymns about light”
“songs about water”
“ribbon banner for worship”

You, too? Okay, good. Based on my own planning for a service later this spring, I’m sharing my favorite stories, music, and worship planning ideas for services about water.

Water symbolizes baptism and rebirth, healing and renewal, creation and order from chaos. It ebbs and flows, waves and ripples: a living, moving thing. It sustains us and life on earth. It cleanses us and makes us new.

There’s no denying it: We live in a visual age.

Statistics show that only 10% of people remember things they hear and only 20% remember things they read. But, a remarkable 80% of people remember things they see and do. (source)

Visuals play a huge role in how we learn and process information. Did you know that our eyes process visuals 60,000x faster than text? (source). Understanding the power of visuals and the role they play in our everyday lives is crucial to planning and creating meaningful, engaging worship services.

”The visual arts used in worship bring the gospel to life.” (source)

Modern worship is informed by a rich heritage, a collection of sacred symbols and icons, and tangible things like bread and wine. How can we integrate visuals into our worship services on a more regular basis? How can we depict the story of the gospel through art and media? How can we enhance the spoken Word, the prayers, the rituals, the music with visual art forms?

One of my favorite things about this time of year is reading everyone's book lists. I love seeing what other people are reading, hearing about new releases, and connecting with others over shared interests.

Over the past few years, I've built a little time for reading into my daily routine (usually in the evening as we wind down from the day).

As I've shared before, I like to have variety in what I read, so I tend to choose books that cover all of these categories:

Health/Lifestyle
Spiritual
Pleasure/Personal
Business

Here are the books I plan to read (or re-read) this year:

Earlier this week, I shared helpful tools and resources for teaching a congregational class or workshop, including several ready-made classes and seminars and step-by-step directions for creating your own class or workshop (read it here, in case you missed it).

For those of you that may not have done something like this before, the idea of standing up in front of a room of people and talking may feel a little outside of your comfort zone. 

I get it. 

I mean, we’re musicians, right? Playing or singing in front of people is no big deal, but talking is a whole different story.

If teaching is new for you, here are a few practical tips for keeping your cool and creating a fun, meaningful, engaging learning experience for your participants.

Have you ever considered teaching a class or workshop?

Some of you may already do this - at a community music school, K-12 school, or local college or university. But, have you ever considered teaching members of your congregation?

Short-term classes, workshops, and mini-series are a great way to teach church members about music, worship, denominational history, etc. and help build a sense of community among the congregation.

Plus, if you plan a class that's several weeks long and happens to meet on Sundays, you may also (inadvertently) encourage regular attendance in worship.

If you love to read, research, and teach and you have curious congregation members who love to learn, this post is for you. Here's what you need to know:

Happy New Year's Eve!

It's become a fun tradition here on the blog to recap our year on New Year’s Eve - our travels, everyday adventures, highlights, memories, and all the little things in between. 

2016 was a wonderful year full of milestones, travel, adventure, and puppy kisses. Here is a look back:

It’s Christmas week and church musicians everywhere are gearing up for one of the busiest weekends of the year - Christmas Eve on Saturday and Christmas Day on Sunday. If you’re involved in church services this weekend, you’re probably not describing your week as “calm” and “bright.” Your to-do list probably looks a lot like mine: 

practice
write thank you notes
finish newsletter article
proof bulletins
finish wrapping
meet piano tuner
etc.

It’s a crazy time, I know, but I’m determined to not let this season pass me by while I was caught up in the details and the planning. I don’t want to miss the spectacle, the gift, the presence of God in our midst. 

Every few years (six or seven, to be exact), Christmas Day falls on a Sunday. This is one of those years.

It makes for a long weekend for those of us involved in worship planning and leadership (especially if you have an 11 p.m. service on Christmas Eve!), but what a privilege to gather together as a church on one of the greatest holidays of the church year.

For many of us, worship planning is a big part of our jobs. It's creative and fulfilling, but it can also be tedious and a little time-consuming.

Plus, the more people that are involved in your worship planning, the more complicated it gets:

Susan coordinates the lay leaders
Chris oversees the audio/visual team
The pastor plans the Scriptures, prayers, and sermon
And then there's all the music in the service...

Good communication is key to planning and leading worship services and having everything go smoothly.