These five elements will enrich your weekend worship services
Let me tell you what this post is NOT.
This is not another rant against contemporary music or a plea for more hymns. What I have to say here applies to any kind of worship gathering, no matter what you call it and no matter what kind of music you use.
And this is not a set of recommendations from a seasoned, professional worship leader. No one’s ever paid me to lead worship or sing or play, although I’ve done a little of all three.
These simply are observations from a lifetime corporate worship participant who’s thought a lot about this subject. Please go to the comments and tell whether you agree or disagree with my thoughts, and why. I believe these are ideas that deserve discussion.
Surprise
Let’s start with a question that can stimulate thought about everything else I have to say here. How do your worship services catch and keep worshippers’ attention? Maybe you haven’t thought about that, but I believe too many worship services suffer from sameness. Before you arrive, you know what’s going to happen: how many songs will be sung, and when; when you’ll have Communion, or whether; how long the preacher will speak, and who the speaker will be; what the closing commitment plea will look like, or if there will be one; who will pray, or will there be prayers at all?
Granted, there’s security in routine. Worshippers should not be shocked by drastic, whipsaw changes from week to week that make them uncomfortable. But can we offer a different voice, a different element, a new order of service now and then, a fresh way of handling a regular feature? Any of these can stimulate fresh thought and deeper meaning.
Engagement
What can we do to keep worshippers more connected with each other and God than they are in a concert or a movie? Can we sing familiar words to a new tune? Can we interview a church member or a special guest—before a shorter sermon or instead of one? Can we make time for a personal testimony from the platform? Can we distribute or project a Scripture or a statement of commitment for worshippers to read aloud in unison?
Can we get worshippers moving? There are a dozen easy, non-threatening invitations to do this: Come to these prayer stations to pray with a trained volunteer. Write your commitment on a card and put it in the basket in the front. Write a prayer request or thanks for a forgiven sin on a slip of paper and come forward to nail it to a cross. Face each other to sing instead of always facing forward. Raise hands or stand in response to a brief poll. Text questions or comments during the sermon to a bank of moderators trained to respond. Kneel for prayer or stand with open palms. Ask for volunteers to stand and offer one-sentence prayers. (Emphasize the one-sentence part!) Ask worshippers to voice out loud sentences of praise or the names of the ill needing prayer—all at the same time, creating a humming symphony of prayer.
And can we do some of these things in the middle of the “worship time” (i.e., singing) to break up the all-too-common concert vibe?
Scripture
We say we believe the Bible. We claim God’s Word is our only standard for faith and practice. But we hear far too little of it in many worship times.
Can we quote a Scripture verse to introduce a worship song? Can we ask prepared readers, maybe a group of them, to read verses of Scripture? Can we recruit whole families to share in reading aloud a passage? Can we print or project responsive readings of Scripture? Can we ask the whole congregation to repeat aloud one verse of Scripture several times throughout the service—and then challenge them to commit it to memory before the week is out?
Silence
We’ve repeated “Be still and know that I am God” and embroidered it on wall hangings. But when do we experience God-centered silence in everyday life or corporate worship? Can we teach worshippers how to use 60 seconds of silence by incorporating it into a service—maybe during the music, maybe in the middle of the sermon, maybe before the commitment song is sung, maybe in response to a special prayer need? If we’re afraid their minds will wander, can we project or print a thought or Bible verse for them to consider as they listen for God?
Lament
Almost one-third (42 to be exact) of the Psalms are songs or prayers of lament, yet we shy away from it. But if the psalmists and the writer of Lamentations expressed faith and found hope by taking their grief to God, why shouldn’t we? And what better way can Christians learn how to do this than by seeing and hearing it modeled in corporate worship?
In his award-winning Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy, Mark Vroegop says, “Lament is how we bring our sorrow to God. Without lament we won’t know how to process pain. Silence, bitterness, and even anger can dominate our spiritual lives instead. . . . Lament is a prayer in pain that leads to trust.”
Can we give space for lament in our corporate worship? Can we invite worshippers to write prayers of lament and find a way for them to share them? Can we express lament in public prayers? Can we plan moments—or even whole worship services—to lament disease, injustice, or disasters, telling God we trust him to be with us in our pain?
We can!
My proposition is that every church, every worship planner can, indeed, answer “yes” to every question I’ve posed here. Not all of them every week, of course. But I firmly believe a willingness to try just one something new week after week can rekindle faith, encourage commitment, and stimulate spiritual growth.
Our God created attention-grabbing diversity throughout the world around us. Why not mimic him, and why not return some of that diversity back to him, in the worship we offer when we gather together?
Photos by KEEM IBARRA and by Ismael Paramo on
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