Variety in our worship services is something that I really strive for. Like anyone else, we have our “liturgy” (ours is the standard megachurch fare of 3-4 worship songs, announcements, video, special music & message). However, I really try to look at what can be done to change things up – not to be “presentational,” but really to be more relational. In any relationship, you’re always wanting to tell friends about new things that have happened to you, or interesting things that you have found out (as opposed to telling the same story in the same way every time you meet them). Our Story doesn’t change, but there are virtually endless ways in which we can tell it – and virtually endless types of people waiting to receive it.
An easy way to inject variety in a service is to change up the style of music. Each of us has styles of music that we like best (and do better than other styles). However, just because you don’t like country (I’m not wild about it) doesn’t mean that a country song isn’t the best choice to support a particular topic. We did a ska song this morning, believe it or not, and it really went well!
Don’t use the same instrumentation on every song. Just because you have a killer 7-piece band doesn’t mean that you have to use all 7 players in every song. It’s not going to kill a player to stand there as a song (or part of a song) is being played that he or she is not part of. More to come…
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I'm a Christian, a husband, a dad, a son, a pastor, a consultant, a musician, a writer, and bits and pieces of a bunch of other things. My work life has followed three main phases - business to teaching to church. I was the Weekend Services Pastor for nine years at Northview Church, an awesome church in the Indianapolis suburbs. I used to work for Willow Creek, another awesome church in the Chicago area. Plus I've written for various magazines and websites, and other freelancy sorts of things... My life mission is to help the church be as excellent as it can be.
Oh yeah - the name's Greg. Greg Wallace. But not the race car driver or the major league pitcher or the British celebrity chef. Just the creative worship guy. Hi.
It's my hope that these ideas, musings, rants, raves, etc... will inspire you. They're just my opinions - but again, I hope that they'll help to inspire you. Because the church really, really needs inspired creative types. If you're a creative type (and most people are, deep-down), ask God for help. Then take any ideas that are useful to you - borrow them, nab them, use them, adapt them - and make them into something greater...
You can head over to my Instagram site for an abundance of shorter posts: creativeworshipideas. If you're looking for consulting - especially on weekend services, team leadership or multi-site strategies - I'd love to help. Just message me here, and I'll be in touch - Greg
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