How much is too much?

Yesterday, I talked about the dangers of getting into a rut. Let’s discuss the dangers of too much variety.

Variety is the spice of life, but – as I’ve heard it said recently – spices are not meant to be the main course. A steak with a dash of salt? Awesome. A pile of salt with a little piece of steak in the middle? Not so much…

Sometimes we kill things that really are working well – simply because we’re bored. We kill worship songs because we’ve “done them a million times,” forgetting the fact that the congregation only sings them once for every 15+ times the team does [including practice & rehearsals]. 

In my early years overseeing weekend services, I probably pushed variety too much [as in almost every week]. If the drum set was on the left side of the platform one week, I wanted it on the right side the next, and in the center the week after that. Too much variety simply turns into a “new norm” – demanding lots of additional effort with little discernable effect on the congregation and guests. Save some oomph for big services like Easter and Christmas Eve. Then, every so often [quarterly to once a month, depending on the vibe of your church], do something unexpected or out of the norm. “Moments” are memorable because they are unique.