Prodigal Worship Conference

I had all the best intentions about blogging throughout the Prodigal Worship Conference held this past Tuesday...but the irony of that is the same thing I was trying to do is often the problem with worship: taking it in pieces rather than as a whole. I mean, think about it...

Most churches and pastors plan worship with a plug and play kind of approach. We need a call to worship, a prayer, a few hymns. We make an honest attempt to tie them together, but most weeks, pastors are so overwhelmed by all the stuff that comes across their desks that any sort of thematic cohesion in the service is an accomplishment. Instead, worship planners today are advocating for an integration of all those involved in worship planning in an attempt not only to boost the quality of worship, but also the creativity.

I must admit that not everything I heard at the Prodigal Worship conference was news to me. I heard a lot of, "Well, and what they don't teach you in seminary is..." followed by something that I DID learn in seminary. Analyze the culture as part of your sermon prep? Yep. Use technology with quality and integrity, not just to say you used powerpoint? Check. Not think any video someone has done is awesome just because you don't personally know how to edit videos? Indeed.

What did most hit home with me was the discussions about forming a worship planning team to meet regularly (Gingamsburg's team meets on Wednesdays AND Friday...I think weekly is quite a goal).

Worship planning teams should ideally, we were told, not only meet regularly, but also me made up of 4 to 8 people. Less, and there's not enough input. More, and it's hard to get anything done. There are different roles that should be represented, yet everyone should throw in ideas for all aspects.

For Calvary, this is especially timely as beginning our new, third worship service (Koinonia) gives us a good opportunity to look at how we plan all worship.

So, we're going to try it. Ken and I and a handful of folks will be meeting weekly to see how we can enhance and raise the bar in our worship. It's going to be a big change in how we do things, but we are confident it will be an exceedingly beneficial one. We hope to start with May services...so you'll have to know if you notice a difference in worship and what you think!