How Does It All Happen? part 1

From time to time I get asked about the preparations of our worship services.  Sometimes I sense genuine curiosities, while other times negative insinuations.  Regardless, I’m always happy to share my process, and in so doing, hopefully help worshipers to better understand what we are doing as God’s people and the purposes of corporate worship.  It’s a sacred trust in which we all take part.  So, over the next few months I’ll try my best to line out some of the different aspects of what/how/why we do what we do.

I’ll start this series of articles in the same place I start preparing for every series of services at Greenwood Christian – with Scripture.

It begins with a key passage(s) from Matt’s message.  Every message is centered on a key passage of Scripture, and usually part of a greater series of teaching over a typical 4-6 week period.  I do a study of that passage, cross-referencing it with other related passages and considering how those passages can be present in our service, asking these basic questions:

1. Can the passage be read by the congregation, and if so, how?  Responsively?  Corporately?
2. Can the passage be read to the congregation?
3. What translation or paraphrase best conveys the meaning of the passage and for our congregation?
4. Can the passage be sung?  Familiar passages of Scripture are found in many of the songs of worship, either as partial or complete, direct or indirect, quotations.
5. What other presentation will lend itself to the particular passage (dramatic reading, visual, etc.)?

I also take into account, beyond the specific sermon, where we are in the Christian Year.  This is the calendar that begins a few weeks prior to Christmas with Advent, and continues all the way through Easter up until Pentecost.  Thus, by following the Christian Year, over a three-year period, we walk through the entire life and ministry of Christ’s arrival to the Holy Spirit’s arrival; a great spiritual guide for us as the Church.

With each week of the Christian Year there are passages from Old and New Testaments, the Psalms, and Gospels.    A great resource, if you’d like to know more about this aspect is the website The Text This Week, www.textweek.com.

Once some decisions have been made with regard to Scriptures and how they will be presented in the service, I then move on to fleshing out the rest of the service with regard to congregational song.  I’m basically asking the question of theme: What songs will help to reinforce the biblical theme being brought to the congregation in the service?

But, as we’ll see in the articles to come, that’s not the only question to ask in the selection of music – or in the selection of other elements of the service.  It’s just the start.  And keep in mind, while one service is at this point in the process, another service is all but finished and about to take place; yet another service is midway through the process; and still another service’s planning has not even begun…