Liturgy of Worship Planning
To most, worship planning can seem pretty simple. It is often thought of as picking three songs and that’s it. It can be perceived as the musical aspect of a service and nothing more. Often, there isn’t much thought as to what worship planning actually is until one is personally stretched, educated, and empowered to do so. Not by worship planning alone, but by the church, pastors, and most of the all the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Usually, when a worship leader or pastor first begins their journey of worship and what it means, their perception can be shallow. I myself can testify to this. Yet, it is only by the grace and mercy of God that a worshipper or even a pastor can faithfully grow and attempt to begin to encapsulate what planning a worship service truly is.
At the basis of this, is humility. One must realize that this thing is not about them, musical abilities, or aesthetic. While all of that factors into the human idea of how well a service may be, they do not define the service at all, Christ does. Worship planning and leadership require a deep humility to set aside personal agendas and wants to simply ask Jesus where he is taking the service, surrender, and follow. Worship planning is a yielding to the will of Christ and the gospel. While He is not always at His rightful place in our services, the Good News and Jesus should always be at the center of them. So, while it is so easy to get caught up in lights and “glamour” of modern-day worship leading and planning, we must die to self to glorify Jesus. It is rarely stated and known, but ultimately, Jesus is the worship leader, not us. Therefore, with planning a worship service we must begin by praying and asking Christ to lead us and show us His will for a service or liturgy.
Constance Cherry tells readers in her book the Worship Architect that these church services and meetings are the Lord’s. He gives us the invitation and we accept or decline. Frequently we take up this thought that God is the guest by singing songs with lyrics like Holy Spirit you are welcome here and Holy Spirit come rest on us as if the Spirit of God is not home or needs an offering to come meet His people. Perhaps that is the case on some occasions where self-centered worship trumps Christ-Centered worship, but that idea is wrong. In worship and throughout the story of the Bible, God always acts first. Therefore, worship planning begins with humility and continues with the fact that God is ever present in these gatherings and the entire service is His.
Once that is thought through, we can begin to see the godly needs of the specific body we are called to and accurately craft our liturgies. This is not a thing to be done by one person. In fact, it is a team effort of moving the people closer to God, towards some sort of action and response. Church leadership must work together so that the service moves as one notion of the living God speaking and acting first so that the people can accuratly respond to what is being communicated from Heaven to earth. Understanding must be apparent that the word, musical worship, and other aspects of a service such as communion or baptism do not and should not compete but should work in harmony as one big conversation with the Lord where the congregants are actively interacting and responding to God. Thus, the goal of worship planning, I believe, is cultivating a space where people encounter and respond to Christ weekly that creates habitual change in their daily lives and in everything they do. Because of this goal, song choice matters, sermon text matters, and everything we craft from beginning to end matters. What is crafted creates, stretches, and forms the appetite of the congregants. Therefore, it is imperative that not only accurate theology be present within those crafting the services, but a sense of balance too. If it is engrained in leadership and services, then it will flow down to the congregants. The structure and routine of our liturgies help form these appetites and behaviors needed for Christians to better run the race of Christianity and get closer to the Lord.
Furthermore, our song choice is a way of training the congregations how to respond to God and worship in all times instead of one. Song choice plays a huge part in spiritual formation. When choosing songs, leaders should know their congregation. Not for the fear of creating offense, but for the purpose of leading and teaching them how to worship, which then allows that worship to take multiple forms in different actions of response unto our Father. These actions include, but are not limited to, thanksgiving, praise, confession, lament, and so much more. In the Psalms, there are many examples displayed. The psalmists do not hold back, and that is how our worship should be. Mainstream Christian song choice has taken a form of what tickles the ears and makes people feel good when singing and praising God. Partly playing into the trend of prosperity gospels instead of the true gospel. However, if our worship is supposed to be Christ-centered and pointing to the works of God then we have to sing about it all, the good, sad, and bad. We sing as an act of not adoration of the Lord alone, but we sing for the lifting up of others, dealing with spiritual warfare, because the Bible tells us to, and so much more. The songs of Christians have power. So our song choice needs to reflect the true story of the fact that God is faithful in good times and bad, and acknowledge that true Christianity is not easy but rather painful and often a struggle that is impossible without God.
Our services disciple the body of Christ. Often church is where believers learn to be believers. They then take the thoughts and actions caught in services and carry them throughout the week to different circumstances. So worship plans teach the congregation. This is why it is important to have a diverse selection within our liturgies. Meaning more than to simply diversify a song list but to diversify the elements within the entire service. Things like the public reading of scripture, confession, reading creeds and the doxology as one body aloud, communion, and so much more are elements to be incorporated that feed the congregation and grow them. Occasionally, in modern day church, many believers are bored. I find that often when talking to people they are not satisfied with word and worship alone. There is a hunger is within the people, especially the younger generation, to know more, connect more, and better respond to our God. People are not satisfied with regular traditional church. Meaning, our services are not acting as they are supposed to. These services are not meant to tickle ears, get our own personal feeling across, or any other man empowered act. Rather, they are meant to be something deeper where people find true life, joy, and hope that stays within them no matter the circumstances they may face. That joy is Jesus Christ. Not saying all churches are this way, but there is a need for theology, balance, and diversity within our liturgies that shows the numerous interactions that can be always found with the Lord. Perhaps this is how we feed the people, encourage, and edify them. Our services should build up the body of Christ and equip them. Christ tells us that He will build his church (Matt. 16:18). However, with Christ centered worship, this is how He equips and builds them up. Worship Planning is essentially just that. We leaders are just mere servants acting as the hands and feet, while following the plan of Christ building His church. So, at the basis of planning a worship service is Christ’s will and His will alone. We are just faithful servants following his will.
Sources:
Chapell, Bryan. Christ-Centered Worship. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009.
Cherry, Constance. The Worship Architect. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academics, 2010.
