Category: Worship Leading Wednesdays

A one hour worship service from scratch

Worship leaders from time to time may be called upon to plan a worship service start to finish, as I was this time last year. Here’s how I chose to give shape to an hour of worship with a group of student ministry leaders. This is one of many possible ways to go, but I did find that the sense of structure and movement helped us to feel like we had gotten somewhere by the end. Here is a version of the run sheet I used for myself.

Intro: Explanation of A.C.T.S. acronym

  • What it stands for: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication
  • Why it’s important: keeps us focused on God….keeps us balanced in prayer life (not just “Me, me, me”)
  • It will frame our worship time together
  • We’ll weave between Scripture and Song and Prayer, standing and sitting, together and alone

Adoration

Confession

  • Prayer: (seated) Confession of Sin
    • Moment of Silence for individual confession
    • Confession from Book of Common Prayer
    • Assurance of Pardon from 1 John (read in unison)
  • Song: (standing or seated) (optional) I Love the Lord

Thanksgiving

  • Song: How Great Thou Art
  • Scripture: (seated) Lectio Divinia with Colossians 3:15-17
    • Explain Lectio Divina (Powerpoint slide with all four steps, one after the other)
    • NOTE: Four volunteer readers needed

Supplication

  • Prayer: (remain seated) How can we be praying for each other?  For our community?
  • (standing) Teach song: Today
  • Scripture: Joshua 24:14-15 with intro (give its context)
  • Song: Today

Conclusion: close in prayer

In the very near future I’m leading this same group in an hour of worship. I’m thinking through selecting songs, Scriptures, and prayers that follow the basic outline of salvation history: Creation, Fall, Redemption, Consummation. I’ll post the outline of that service on a future Worship Leading Wednesday.

Worship Leading Wednesday: You are what you worship

Some words of wisdom from Gary A. Parrett and S. Steve Kang:

That the formation of God’s people is a legitimate concern of our worship gatherings can be demonstrated by appeal to a number of biblical passages. First of all, worship itself is presented as intrinsically formative–for good or for ill. We read in several Old Testament passages, for example, that those who worship idols are doomed to become like the objects of their worship.

…That which is true in such profoundly negative and destructive ways, however, is also true in the positive. In other words, those who worship the living God will become like the object of their worship. Those who abide in the presence of the Lord, reflecting or contemplating his glory, are “transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit” (2 Cor 3:18). Worshiping the God who is love, who is holy and righteous and true, we shall ourselves become more loving, holy righteous and true.

–from Teaching the Faith, Forming the Faithful: A Biblical Vision for Education in the Church, pp. 339-340

“Bringing our Pain to God” (Michael Card)

We’re afraid of other people’s pain. Like Job’s friends, we’re afraid when we don’t have answers. Job doesn’t get any answers for his sufferings, but he gets God.

–Michael Card, from this great article on Biblical lament in worship.

He’s got an album called The Hidden Face of God, which you can hear at Grooveshark for free (or click on the album image to the left). It kicks off with a great Gospel-flavored track called, “Come Lift Up Your Sorrows.”

Prayer in the liturgy: Is it worth it?

Today’s post comes from Timothy Dean Roth, author of The Week That Changed the World: The Complete Easter Story (amzn). There are few people whose words inspire, challenge, and fill me with a sense of God’s presence more than Tim’s. His book has been an excellent aid to my experience of Holy Week these last two years. He’s given me some of my best sermon ideas. Etc., etc. He’s a great dialogue partner and friend. As Words on the Word addresses themes of worship and liturgy on Wednesdays, Tim asks today: “Prayer in the liturgy: Is it worth it?”

If you go to a Church that has a time when a lector reads prayers and the congregation responds after each one-sentence prayer, “Lord, hear our prayer,” you may wonder sometimes whether the Lord really does hear our prayer, especially if you were spacing out and can’t even remember what the prayer was. The answer is that God does indeed hear these prayers, and he responds to them.

Here’s why. These prayers are themselves written by liturgists in a spirit of prayer in response to the needs of the times we live in. The Holy Spirit himself prompts liturgists who are attuned to his voice to write down these prayers. I have never heard a prayer read to the congregation that could be considered outside God’s will (and hopefully you haven’t either), and we know that God favorably answers prayers that are in accordance with his will. We also know that God the Father answers the prayers of the righteous, just like he answered the prayers of his own Son, though only if prayed in a spirit of steadfast faith and without doubt, which is the hard part.

Fortunately for those of us with weak faith, there are some crazy people out there who do believe that when we pray outlandish things like, “That you may increase peace in the Middle East” or, “That you may help all politicians recognize the value of life,” these things are actually going to happen. God hears these people, even if we can’t quite figure out how. What if a suicide bomber changes his mind the day before blowing up a mosque because enough people like the one right next to you sincerely said, “Lord, hear our prayer”? We can’t know how these prayers are answered, but they are. God’s word promises us that. Every little prayer counts, every little prayer brings a little more good into the world and a little less evil, and even the tiniest difference in the chaotic, unpredictable daily stock market fluctuations of good versus evil is worth the effort.

God is going to answer these prayers with or without your participation, so why not participate, why not fully abandon yourself to these prayers? Through these prayers, he’s inviting every one of us, from greatest to least, to join the battle, to actively participate in his work of transforming this world.

Ever tried to play guitar with a credit card? (as a pick?)

I have. (It was an old credit card.) Expired credit cards and insurance cards have a good thickness to them. Perfect for a gritty, hard plastic-on-steel sound.

But they’re a little unwieldy. Not quite pick-shaped. So check this out–guitar players can use this “pick punch” on Amazon to make their own guitar picks out of just about anything. A bit pricey, but an interesting novelty item nonetheless.

One-Stop Site for Worship Planning


In January I had the privilege of taking two college students with me to join with a gathering of worship leaders from many backgrounds at the Calvin Symposium on Worship. I’m still making use of the things I learned while there.

The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship has a fantastic Website. It’s a good place to spend some time, and on this Worship Leading Wednesday at WotW, I heartily recommend it. One of their resources that I’ve found most helpful as a worship planner is their “Plan Worship” space. Here you can, in their words:

The CICW also provide links to help in the crafting of music, prayers, and art for worship services.

It All Starts Here: The Soul of Worship (Facedown)

Mark D. Roberts is a pastor, author, speaker, and blogger. A few years ago I came across a mini-book he wrote, The Soul of Worship. It is a series of blog posts about worship leading, based on Matt Redman’s album Facedown. Roberts was asked to do a review of the album for Worship Leader magazine. He writes:

I was eager to review Facedown because I have deeply appreciated Matt’s music in the past. Among other things, he is an outstanding lyricist, combining strengths as a poet and theologian. Thus I began to listen to Facedown with high expectations. But nothing prepared me for what I heard. This is an exceptional album musically, but a unique album lyrically. In fact, from a theological point of view, Facedown is the premier praise and worship album in the world today.

You can listen to all of Facedown free and legally here. I agree with Roberts–it’s some of the best stuff I’ve seen in the contemporary worship music scene.

Roberts’s mini-book, then, draws its inspiration from Redman’s album, and discusses it at length. Read all of The Soul of Worship here. I know of no better place for worship leaders to begin.

Here’s Redman:

Worship Leading Wednesday: Planning a Band Rehearsal

It’s the first Worship Leading Wednesday at Words on the Word. My vocational work is to lead worship and help coach worship leaders at an undergraduate college. In some way or another, I’ve been leading worship in church settings (and now a college setting) for the last 18 years.

One of the hardest things for me as a worship leader, especially early on when I started leading, has been making sure everything is prepared for band rehearsals. How many times have you, as a leader or musician, shown up to a band practice only to have no chord charts from which to play? Or have to change the key because the leader didn’t test out the key beforehand? (I’m guilty of such crimes myself.)

Here are some practical things to keep in mind in planning a worship band rehearsal.

1. Figure out what your goals are for that particular rehearsal.

  • This may entail a regular/weekly meeting with your co-leader(s), if you have them, so you all can do this work together
  • Think through the larger service for which you are preparing. Is there a theme? Important Scriptures to take note of? Something the speaker/preacher is going to touch on that you could bring out through song? What are the other worship elements that are going to be present, and how does your music tie in?
  • Are there long-term things as a band to work on? Unity? Fellowship? People talking over each other at rehearsals or other such bad band habits? Think through how to address those larger issues in practice, too
  • Plan a prayer/Bible study component of practice, so that you remember what you’re about
2. Get the songs ready.
  • Select the songs that you will rehearse, and what order to do them in in the rehearsal.
  • Sing and play through them first to be sure they are in a comfortable key (excellent post about that here–worth reading every word)
  • Secure copies of the chord charts. We use CCLI’s Song Select service.
3. Get your team ready.
  • Make sure they know, with plenty of lead time and reminders, where and when the rehearsal is. Note that if you want to start making music at 7pm, that means members can’t just show up at 7pm. Encourage them to leave time to get equipment set up (e.g., come at 6:30pm, we’ll start playing at 7pm).
  • Get the chord charts to your band members in advance–emailing .pdfs is a good way to go here
  • Flag any particular issues or unique arrangements that they should be ready for in practice
  • Make sure you know who is leading vocally for each song, and convey that information to the team
  • Consider whether it’s worth scheduling a separate practice just for vocalists
4. Intangible but important
  • Think through things to say before, after, and in-between songs. E.g., is there a good verse of Scripture that sets up a given song that you could read beforehand? Do this planning as part of your rehearsal planning
  • Figure out the tech side of things: amps, mics, someone to run the sound board (if appropriate)
  • Chord charts often don’t have intros or outros to songs (lead sheets do)… think about how you want to begin each song and end each song. Are there other things you plan to do differently from what’s on the chord chart? Make sure this gets noted on the charts, whether electronically or by hand
5. Ways to make your team happy
  • Bring printed chord charts to practice
  • Bring pencils
  • Be the first one there to help other team members (especially drums!) set up as needed
  • Have Bibles on hand for any Bible study you’ll do

I’ll write more in future Worship Leading Wednesdays about how to run the rehearsal itself… for now, are there any other things you can think of that are important to do to prepare well for a worship band rehearsal?