This is Part 4 of our series “Why We Do What We Do.”
Did you know that …
- Pastor Greg prays about his message topics months in advance?
- He gives these topics to the worship team months in advance?
- Anyone doing “special music” receives the topic in advance so they can choose a song that complements the theme?
- Every time the worship team picks up their music there is a cover sheet that includes “Today’s Worship Focus: _____________”?
- In the service planning process, song lyrics and Scripture passages are pored over to find ones that will bring our thoughts toward the specific worship theme?
The Worship Idea Team looks at the sermon topics and discusses ways to bring the theme before the congregation. Some recent examples of this are:
- The “Walking With Jesus” photos we showed all through the I John summer sermon series
- The “Take It to the Streets” and “Offering Pie” videos for the sermons on evangelism and financial stewardship
- The classical violin piece and the special offering of “gifts and talents” for the message on stewardship of our lives
- Older and younger guest worship team members leading in worship for the message on intergenerational fellowship
- The 2008 Advent theme of “The Gift,” including the Advent wreath readings each Sunday, the take-home Advent readings and “gift” boxes, and the beautiful banners–thanks to the Crimmins and the Emersons!–, all based on the John 3:16 sermon series
I give these examples to paint a picture of what can happen when we build a service around a specific theme. But what is the reason we do this? As in every ministry in the church, we hopefully never do things just for the sake of doing them! In a nutshell, the reason we plan services around a worship theme is so that we, as a congregation and as individuals, will go home on Sunday afternoons understanding what God has said to us through His Word and what He wants us to do about it.
Music and the other aspects of Sunday morning worship are not just a warmup for the sermon. We are reminded of God’s truth as we sing. Our hearts are stirred as we sing. The songs, Scriptures, visual and other elements that make up part of our Sunday morning times are just as integral a part of worship as is our listening to the sermon. But how much better will we hear and respond to what God is saying through the very important preaching of the Word if we have already had our hearts softened and our minds directed to that message through the other elements of the service?
Worship consultant Alison Siewert refers to Nehemiah chapter 8 as an example of how this can happen. Ezra and Nehemiah knew that the people of Israel needed to reconnect with God’s law and with God Himself after their long exile. So they put together a service that focused on this one need, and the result was that “Israel understood and acted on what they heard and saw. They repented and celebrated what God was doing, and their lives were never the same.” (If you read this chapter you’ll see that the service, celebration and response actually extended to a full 8 days!)
How can we at UBC know if we have understood what God has been saying to us each Sunday morning? Let’s use Nehemiah 8 as our plumbline: If we go home each Sunday more the people God intends us to be than when we came, then we have heard Him. And if we as a church continue to grow together by listening to what He is saying on any particular Sunday morning, He will be glorified! Is there any better goal in worship than that?
