Transitions are the glue that holds a service together. You can have a great worship song, with another great worship song right after it, but – if there is an awkward transition – the flow is broken. A good quality worship service isn’t simply a grouping of disassociated elements.
Think of it this way… Trying to build a good service without good transitions is like leaving out key connecting words in a sentence. “Let’s go out to eat – should we go for pizza or sushi or burgers?” would become “Let’s go out eat – should we go for pizza sushi burgers?” It doesn’t make sense [yes, yes, I know – someone out there is thinking “Pizza sushi burgers would be awesome!”].
A bad worship transition can instantly make a worshipful moment cringe-worthy. The way to address it is to practice the transitions. Make sure that at some point in your process you do at least one complete run-through – every element and every transition [minus the message] exactly as it will be in the service. Otherwise, you have only practiced bits and pieces – you haven’t rehearsed the service [and you’re leaving the tech/production team out to dry, because they haven’t had a chance to make sure that all of the things that they need to cover to effectively shift between service elements are ready to roll].
Ultimately God is going to do what God is going to do, and He can make incredible things happen in the midst of our less than stellar efforts, but that’s no excuse for lazy prep-work. Do the run-throughs. Rehearse the “connectors.” And – if you’re shooting for the ultimate transition – aim for zero seconds. : )
creativeworshipideas 