Guiding Worship
For those who plan and lead worship events.
Make your planning group gel
By Karen Martens Zimmerly
Every June, our congregation hosts a Sunday school picnic that begins with an outdoor worship service. This standalone worship service is a good opportunity to invite people who aren’t regularly part of worship planning to be involved. Last summer, I asked my Bible study group to become the worship planning team. The group included parents with children ranging from preschool to late teens, and reflected a diversity of worship preferences.
As I worked with this group, a set of insights emerged that can help any worship planning group become an effective and harmonious team.
Begin by honoring each other
The temptation in worship planning is to go straight to the details of the service. A far more foundational step is to have members listen to each other’s concerns and hopes as they approach the planning.
In our group’s sharing time, it soon became clear that they wanted intergenerational participation, movement, and visual expression. As we evaluated the proposed biblical texts, we realized that some seemed too somber for an outdoor service, while the Saskatchewan wind could play havoc with words for some people. One couple with young children asked “How can we translate this theme into meaningful expression and involvement for the children?”
In the end, we felt the story of Noah’s ark lent itself best to the hopes we had named. Even though we couldn’t incorporate all the ideas and concerns, taking the time to hear them did much to lead to a harmonious worship service.
Equip team members
Worship planners need enough information and training that they feel their role is important and contributes to the whole. You may need to provide guidance on a biblical understanding of corporate worship. Be prepared to review or explain the parts of a service and how each one contributes to worship. It may also be helpful to do a group Bible study around the theme or story.
I found that our group needed focus on God’s role of power—both in judgment and salvation. This was important because worship is not just what we offer to God but how God can change us. We also reviewed the significance of the parts of our weekly worship: gathering, offering ourselves to God, proclaiming, and sending. This helped the group connect the story of Noah to our own gathering around God’s call to respond faithfully in the midst of life’s sometimes messy situations.
Plan the parts of worship
When team members are conscious of their hopes, focused on a theme, and aware of what needs to happen in worship, they are ready to plan the parts of the service. The following questions can guide the planning:
1. What worship acts can best express this worship theme—music, drama, visuals, sermon, or multimedia presentation?
2. How does each act of worship help us face our human reality and God’s call to us in a balanced way?
Our team decided that the biblical story itself would form a structure for the service, inviting the congregation to enter the story through active participation at each point:
■ Gathering – God calls Noah (Genesis 6:9-22)
■ Offering ourselves to God – Noah responds (Genesis 7:6-9)
■ Proclaiming – God’s judgement and salvation (Genesis 7:17-23; 8:6-12)
■ Sending – God’s promise (Genesis 9:12-16)
Encourage members to use their gifts
Unity in worship planning is strengthened when members see their own gifts helping to fulfill the purpose of the service. Our group originally thought a skit would be appropriate for this service, but no one felt they could write one. So I suggested we use the talents of the group, such as music and dance. Enthusiasm grew, and the group began to build on the suggestions, keeping in mind our framework and the desire for congregational participation. Sure enough, as children and adults marked off 300 cubits by 50 cubits at the beginning of the service, we “saw” how generous is God’s desire is to save.Karen Martens Zimmerly copastors Grace Mennonite Church in Regina, Saskatchewan, along with her husband Terry.