Planning
I usually find the best results when the whole team participates in a brainstorming or brain mapping session, with the pastor acting as the moderator. Having a whiteboard that you can write ideas down is helpful. There are no wrong ideas at this point.
The whole object is just to get things down in writing. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve been in a brainstorming session where we’re all tossing ideas around and then out of the mess comes an idea that had nothing to do with any other ideas, but it ended up being the right one. All because something someone said generated the seed of the final idea.
Practice makes perfect. The first few times you go through this will probably feel awkward, and you all may wonder what the point is, but after a few times it will start to feel natural and you won’t want to do it any other way.
A couple of tips, particularly for the first meeting. First, bring food to the table—people tend to drop their guards when they’re breaking bread with others. It’s a great way to bring up the comfort level.
Second, hold your planning meetings as far ahead as possible—at least a month if not longer. The farther out you plan the more you’ll be able to do and the more relaxed you’ll be. No one likes being under the pressure of last minute planning sessions. You’re cheating the congregation out of a transparent worship experience and you’re short-changing God by not being able to do the best that you can do.
Once you get the genesis of the idea just remember that it is never set in stone. Change can be good and even though an idea may initially have sounded good on paper, once you get going make sure everyone knows that the freedom to suggest changes is encouraged.
This doesn’t mean that on the Saturday before service that it’s OK to totally change everything around! But as you build upon the idea continue to refine it always going back to what the main point is.
Pastors, the earlier you can get your sermon outline to the worship and tech teams, the better chance they have at integrating your message points into worship songs and imagery. I’m a firm believer that you should be able to communicate what the main point of your sermon or better yet, your sermon series, to the teams at least a month before.
If you’re going to commit your church to technically transparent worship then you need to commit to giving the team as much lead time as possible. Big churches do things as seamlessly as they do because they start planning at least six months out.
Worship leaders, keep the technical team in the loop as you develop the song list. Part of being a worship leader is providing the right environment for the congregation to enter into worship. It doesn’t help anyone to have the main point defined without realizing that the presentation of the lyrics also has as much an effect as the actual performance of the song by the band.
As a team you need to set the stage (so to speak). It’s not just worship songs or music backgrounds but also visual cues and stage sets that you all need to be thinking about.
If you’re going to do technically transparent worshipm you need to think outside of the church box and expand how you view the service experience in terms of what people see, hear and feel when they go to a play or a performance, or even a movie.
Every part of those experiences are carefully choreographed to either enhance the experience, or to make it more memorable. It’s the little things that matterm and when you’re planning things out, look at it from the viewpoint of someone who has never been to your church and walks in to the building for the first time.
Technical leaders, ensure that you are a part of the planning process. You need the lead time to come up with video backgrounds, set design, lyric presentation, video or still imagery to coordinate with the worship experience.