This week our church hosted a Chris Tomlin worship concert [see my post a few days ago]. It was a wonderful time of worship and many people were touch and impacted. I have been able to help book and plan quite a few Christian concerts over the years. I think they are a win for the church.
That being said, I think that church leadership has to have a clear understanding of what the concerts can and cannot do. The biggest misperception that I see out there is the idea that the concerts will help to grow the church. Understand that [with a few exceptions] these events will not be evangelical in nature – the hard reality is that unchurched people don’t often flock to buy tickets for Christian artists.
Given that, why do them?
It’s fun. It’s a God-focused form of entertainment [or more than that, depending on the worship focus of the event];
It allows people from multiple churches to worship together;
It inspires congregational members that their church would be willing and able to host a concert;
Most Christian concerts support/work with some sort of charitable cause.
I have found that nights of worship are personally the most impactful, but – that being said – the majority of Christian artists have had spiritual impact on people’s lives in some way, which is part of what makes them a potential “draw” for a concert.
[Attached Photo: Matthew West in concert at Northview Church – Carmel Campus, Carmel, IN]
Hmmm - well, let's see...
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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