Planning a Worship Experience - Ministry Exchange (MX)

Planning a worship experience:

Worship = Shared ecstasy in which people are caught up in an erotically
tinged euphoria wherein they lose their individuality and find a one ness
with God and with each other! – Max Schmolenbach, sociologist

1. Gather your team together. 2. Prayer – Ask God for wisdom and discernment. Spend some time listening. Ask for God to give you insight into what your congregation needs to be reminded about Him, what theme do they need to reflect on, what aspects of the theme are most important. 3. Do Lectio Divina with the scripture that will be taught. Allow the phrases that emerge as potential for developing angles in reflection. 4. Brainstorm answers to the following questions: a. God’s Character – What do we need to be reminded about God in order to listen to His invitation to us? b. Invitation to interaction – What do we need to let go of, or confess, in order to respond to this theme? What is a step of growth for this community to believe this theme, or live out this theme?What do we need to commit to before we leave in order to live in a new way because of our interaction with God and this theme? c. Lies – What lies, common incorrect perceptions of God, or elements of worldliness would prevent us from saying yes to the invitation? What do we need to remember about who God is, in order to open ourselves up to Him in worship and respond in obedience? 5. Brainstorm possible songs that speak about the above issues/elements. 6. Brainstorm other resources do you have that will address these questions other than participatory song? Other elements that can create moments of exchange and interaction with God. Ex. Video, art, movement, solo music, spoken word, teaching. 7. Create a flow of the service using the ideas you came up with in step 3 & 4. See hand-out. Reminder: Leaders are the hosts, models of whole-hearted worship and prompters into the mystery of worship Congregation is the performers of worship, active participants whose spirit meets the Spirit through acts of worship. God – is the audience. 8. Consider how other elements can help transitions and who will lead those: – where will you need to stop and teach a concept/action/style? – where would a scripture or a prayer help the transition? 9. Personal Practice – the more comfortable you are with what you are doing, the more you will be able to not think about the mechanics and enter freely into worship. 10. Team Practice – allow for time for the team to run through the flow and make adjustments if necessary. -if possible have your power point person there to practice how the song goes. -allow for time to learn in scripture, time to pray together, time to learn songs that will require more practice than 2 hours to lead excellently. 11. Don’t forget to allow for the Holy Spirit to change your plans.

Questions to ask to assess your planned time in debrief, post-worship time:

1. Did we lift the name of Jesus up as the centerpiece of why we gathered
2. Did we experience a reminder of who God is, both in celebration and

intimacy?
3. Did we have a time in the Scriptures learning the story of God and man? Did we invite everyone to be part of his story today in Kingdom living?
4. Did we pray together and have enough time to slow down and quiet our hearts to hear God’s voice and yield to his Spirit?
5. Did we experience the joy, love and encouragement of being together as a church?
6. Did we somehow remind everyone of the mission of the church and why we exist?
7. Did we enable people to individually contribute something as part of the body of Christ? Was there an interaction between our spirit and the Holy Spirit?