By Shockley Flick
Here are 10 suggestions that may bring a fresh spark to your worship services. As you read through them, choose one or two that appeal to you and plug them into this Sunday”s service. New additions to your service or even slight changes will help trigger the mind to be open to a fresh look at the Savior.
Pray
Each week ask the Lord to change lives. Recruit volunteers to walk through the seats before the service, praying for those who will be coming. Ask the choir/praise group to pray for the first four people they see when they walk into the sanctuary.
Preparation
Make sure the technical aspects of the service will enhance and not distract. It is very frustrating for any worshiper to hear feedback, not hear a speaker because the mic was turned on late, or not be able to sing because the slide was not advanced in time to read it.
Communicate with your technical people (they can”t read your mind). Check the words on the songs that will be projected on the screen. Have a run-through of the service with all the tech people present.
Language
Use language that everyone can understand. Use words that even the first-time visitor will understand. Explain any word that is “churchie.”
Opening the Service
Use a repeat-after-me Scripture (e.g., “Give thanks to the Lord/for he is good/his love endures forever” Psalm 107:1). Use a solo/praise group/choir to introduce your first song. Use a good old-fashioned call to worship. (You don”t have to call it that.)
LEADER: The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer.
PEOPLE: I love you, O Lord, my strength!
LEADER: My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
PEOPLE: I love you, O Lord, my strength!
LEADER: He is my shield and the horn of my salvation””my stronghold.
PEOPLE: I love you, O Lord, my strength!
Communion
Vary Communion to help keep the mind engaged. Use a song as the meditation. Have people come up to the table(s) to take Communion. Vary the normal bread you use: loaf, crackers, homemade.
Serve by intinction””have elders (servers, ministers) hold a loaf of bread and as people break off a piece, the servers say, “This is Christ”s body, broken for you.” Then, the people dip the bread in the cup of grape juice and eat the juice-moistened bread. This format will be familiar to many people from denominational backgrounds.
Prayers
End one of your typical prayers with the Lord”s Prayer said in unison. Have people from the congregation come up to the front and pray for specific needs. Include some quiet time during the prayer. Kneel. Hold hands. Lead directed prayer (suggested items for which to pray). Pray for the person on your right and left. Break up in pairs or small groups. Pray for the children just before they go to children”s church. Ask people for prayer requests (either out loud or written). Have various groups stand to be prayed for:
“¢ Teachers before school starts in the fall
“¢ Graduates in the spring
“¢ City workers
“¢ VBS workers the Sunday before VBS
“¢ Short-term missions groups before they leave
Special Emphasis Sundays
Focus your service around a special emphasis:
“¢ Sanctity of Life Sunday””usually the third or fourth Sunday in January
“¢ Parent/baby recognition
“¢ Mission Sunday with a phone link to a missionary or your preacher when he is on a missions trip
“¢ Show a recorded interview with a missionary
“¢ Persecuted Church Sunday
“¢ Palm Sunday””have the children process with palms as the congregation/choir/praise group sing
“¢ Say a memory verse together each week that highlights the sermon series
“¢ Put a baptism in the middle of your service
Symbols
Have the congregation pin pieces of paper on a cross to represent sin, hurts, burdens, and commitments. Use candles for Good Friday, Maundy Thursday, or prayer services. Pass out items that highlight the sermon: nails, figs, strips of cloth, crackers, or cups of water. Decorate the platform with items that complement the sermon series””pillars for “Pillars from Rome,” road signs for “Directions in Life,” or lanterns for Advent services.
Wall Hangings or Banners
Hang banners in the sanctuary/worship center to emphasize topics of a sermon series, names of Jesus, Scriptures dealing with praise and worship, or the church”s mission statement.
Scripture Reading
More than once I”ve been told that for people who hold the Bible in such high esteem, we don”t often read it in our services. Ask your best interpretive readers to read the text of the sermon, call to worship, or Scripture before Communion.
If the passage lends itself to this, assign different people from the congregation to read the lines of the narrative, the lines of Jesus, and the words of Nicodemus, Pharisees, or any other “voice” found in the passage. Use original responsive readings or readings from the hymnal and other sources.
Read short passages in unison. Have the congregation stand as the Scripture is read.
While it is a wonderful, yet awesome, responsibility to design the Sunday services each week, it is very easy to fall back into a “default setting.” Unless we are purposeful in our planning, the “sacred hour on Sunday” will become “just another hour on Sunday.”
In your planning, ask the Lord to guide you in fresh ways to express the wonderful story of Jesus and his love. Ask him to help you make your worship services fresh, engaging, relevant, meaningful, and God honoring.
Shockley Flick is worship pastor at East 91st Street Christian Church, Indianapolis, Indiana.
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