If you’re doing Communion that week, how do you want to do it? Dim lights, rearrangement of the sanctuary, acoustic music? Any videos that are being considered for the service should be screened by all involved.
Keep in mind the mood that you are attempting to convey for the service. If you’ve got a somber, introspective service planned you certainly don’t want a lively, comedic video.
For worship music, remember that a large portion of the mood for service will be set by the music you pick and the way it is played. There’s really no one recipe for worship flow but I’ve seen this model work for me. But only you know the way your congregation comes in and responds to worship so it may or may not work for you.
The opening song is usually an upbeat one. Itets the blood pumping and a lot of times it’s a throwaway song since people are still coming in and haven’t prepared themselves in advance to get into worship.
Next song is a call to worship. This is what starts opening hearts.
After that it depends on the vision. If the service is meant to have a somber tone I’ll start dialing down the songs, ending with a soulful, cry-out-to-God-type song. The one thing you don’t want to do is to have worship mood be different from the sermon mood.
Technical leaders, you need to get with the worship leader and go through the songs verse by verse, noting the dynamics of the song on your run sheet. You are as much a part of the worship team as any of the members. That means you need to know the songs and the way the band is going to perform them.
You have the ability to affect the dynamics of the song and subsequently can help the band make the song more powerful. Trust must be built between the technical and worship leaders to do this seamlessly and invisbly. Nothing is worse than a sound tech bringing up or down the levels of the various instruments or vocals at the wrong time, or worse yet, doing it out of sequence with the dynamics that the band is doing. If you don’t know when you should adjust the dynamics, don’t do it.
If you have control over the lighting, both on the stage and overall, you also need to have your light tech as part of the organizational meeting. As with sound you have the ability to control the congregation’s mood and receptivity toward worship and the sermon through appropriate lighting.
Don’t get caught up in the “must-do-everything-big” syndrome. Some of the most effective and impactful moments that I’ve experienced in churches where when things were kept simple and everything focused on feeling God come into the house.
You can plan, organize, practice and implement everything you thought you were supposed to do, but when God comes into the house, He takes over. It doesn’t matter what song you’ve selected or what awesome background you chose to go along with the song. Keep your hearts open to hear His voice and His direction.
