Planning Theologically-Themed Worship Services
Regarding last week’s blog, some asked for an elaboration on how worship has changed our congregation.
There are a lot of essential elements to worship described in the New Testament. Prayer, singing, public reading of scripture, teaching/preaching, and observation of the ordinances are just a few. True worship is comprised not just of the elements of worship but also by the spirit and focus of the worshiper.
The key New Testament passage on worship is probably John 4:24 in which Jesus says that God is seeking worshipers who worship Him in “spirit and in truth.” While there may be a debate, I believe that the “spirit” in the passage is not referring to the Holy Spirit but rather sincerity of spirit. The second aspect of the statement is worship in truth—with accurate understanding. With this goal in mind, we took some specific steps years ago to engage the minds and hearts of our congregation in sincerity and truth.
One of the ways in which we did that was to develop worship services around a theological theme—theology proper that is—some aspect, attribute, activity or characteristic of God. We have developed a list of over 150 themes that we work through every three years or so.
We plan our worship services three months in advance and plan a month at a time. Our worship planning team meets once a month to go over each service, discuss the theme and determine how best to communicate that theme to the congregation so that they can truly meditate and worship during the service. We use simple explanation, testimonies, examples, and even object lessons to help the congregation focus. We then plan congregational singing and any other music to reflect that theme. Explanations are given if necessary. The public reading of scripture also demonstrates how the theme rises out of the scripture itself.
I am a big believer in the importance of the Senior Pastor being on that planning team. After all, the planning is more about truth than it is about music. If he is not engaged and enthusiastic, this type of worship service will likely fail.
We do not try to plan the worship around the preaching. There are two simple practical reasons for that. First, it is just too difficult to coordinate that far ahead of time. Preachers have to have the ability to change messages, combine, or divide, and circumstances dictate. Worship planning cannot be that flexible. Second, preaching—especially expository preaching—is not always easily developed into a worship theme.
Some Sundays we do it better than others. We have changed our typical order of service to better maintain continuity for worship and we will also change on specific Sundays to accommodate the particular theme we are using.
There have been some unintended consequences of following this process. We have been forced to use a lot more of the old hymns that focus on God Himself, along with some new theologically based congregational music. Music that is worshiper-focused just does not fit—this would include much of the revival music that has been so common in many fundamental churches. It is not that the music is wrong or bad, but that it just does not accomplish our purpose. We still use that music in other settings.
Another unintended consequence is that our congregation has gained a very clear and deep understanding of the doctrine of God Himself. We focus on it every Sunday. A clear view of God is the foundation of the Christian walk and so we find that true worship is also an incidental tool in discipleship and sanctification.
Caleb French, our music director, and I have had the privilege of teaching on worship and worship-themed services in Mexico and Kenya and there are churches in those countries planning their worship just like this now. It takes work and planning ahead, but the beauty of a theologically-themed worship service is that it can work anywhere and with any sized congregation. In fact, it might be more effective in smaller churches than in larger ones.
Taking the time to plan, communicate, and truly meditate together as a congregation has been a great blessing to us. If you are not already doing something like this, I would encourage you to consider it.
Thank you for a great explanation and challenge. When I was pastoring, I found that the hardest thing for me to do on any given Sunday was to worship. Sunday was a day for making sure everyone and everything was in place and working properly (including me). I think it is especially difficult for pastors of small churches since they and their families are doing most of the “busy stuff.” Planning and praying created an atmosphere in which my spirit could rest rather than fret.
I appreciate the emphasis of this post. For too long true worship has been absent from our ecclesiology–a continuing consequence of the revivalism that swept through American churches following the Second Great Awakening. Revivalism is decidedly man-centered whereas worship, by definition, is God-centered. Thus, all true worship is necessarily theological.
I am a bit curious about two ideas included in the post. First, the second paragraph indicates that the Bible lists many more essential elements of worship than those listed. I wonder what those might be. Scriptures mandate “essential” elements so that we must include them in our worship services frequently, if not weekly. I am only aware of one other truly essential element, namely the collection. The Regulative Principle of Worship, faithfully held by all Baptists prior to the influence of Finney, excludes any other elements from our worship services.
Second, I am puzzled by the recommended disjunction between the theological theme of the service and the focus of the sermon. It seems to me counterproductive and unnecessary. I believe that the best approach to expository preaching follows a pattern often called lectio continua, that is, “continuous reading,” or preaching through a book, section by section. If I may suggest, establishing an accurate outline of the book in advance will identify the sermonic units contained in the sermon series. One practical benefit of the outline is the ability to assign dates to sermon texts six months to a year in advance. Flexibility occasionally becomes necessary, but it is rare and easily managed. This long view of the preaching plan allows for successful coordination of the service theme with the sermon theme.
A. W. Tozer called worship the “missing jewel” in the churches of his day. The situation has hardly improved in our day. Therefore, I appreciate this encouragement to recover worship in our churches.
Ephesians 5:19 lists psalms (directly from or songs written from specific psalms), hymns (about God), and spiritual songs (our personal experience). I don’t see how you can eliminate a section that’s clearly in scripture. I would categorize your term “worshiper-focused” as the spiritual song. Appropriate and suitable worship has to include all three.