Don’t auto-pilot service planning. What do I mean by that? It’s doing what you did last week, with slightly different songs and a slightly different sermon.
How to avoid auto-pilot? Determine the “one thing” for that service. It’s the bottom line – what you want people to walk away with as they head out the church doors. It’s what should be different in the congregation after the service is over – a difference in thinking, or a specific action to take. THAT’S the driver.
It may be that you’ll be able to get across what you feel God calling you to share using your “standard” service format, but maybe not. You might need to switch things up. For instance, a sermon on worship might work best with worship at the end of the service, instead up upfront as usual. It might be that a 10-min video interview in the middle of the message would be the perfect thing to help encourage people to serve. It might be that a “handoff” during worship from the adult team to the youth team will help the congregation to see that we have a responsibility to the future as well as to ourselves.
For all these things, the key is to work backwards – beginning with the end in mind.
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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