Blended services
- scripture: Psalm 8
- All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name (band arrangement)
- prayer/greet/announcements
- missions
- All the Way My Savior Leads Me (trad. style hymn)
- reading: Ten Commandments
- O God of Mine (Rita Springer)
- Praise the Name of Jesus
- prayer
- offering: duet, More Than Wonderful (yes, the Sandi Patti/Larnelle Harris)
- message
- The Solid Rock
Contemporary Service
- Isaiah 40
- Everlasting God (Brenton Brown/Ken Riley)
- Cry Out Your Name (Jeff Moore)
- prayer/greet/announcements
- missions
- prayer
- (offering) O God of Mine (Rita Springer)
- None But Jesus (Brooke Fraser)
- Hallelujah (Marty Sampson & friends…)
- message
- Give Us Clean Hands (Charlie Hall)
Ever have one of those Sundays where nothing big really goes wrong, but you’re distracted by what seems to not be working very well? That was yesterday for me. It’s difficult to judge this by watching people, but I would say that we didn’t give people the best vehicles to worship through, especially in the blended services. My pastor has this great analogy…. if you think of participating in worship service as sitting to enjoy a meal, sometimes you’ve got a four course fine dining experience, and sometimes you have a Big Mac. Both will keep you from starvation, both are nourishment (ok, don’t run too far with that on the Big Mac….) but one is a more notable experience. Hopefully, the worship we offer on Sundays is always sincerely God-centered; sometime it’s just not as notable as others, maybe because of the flow of things, or the way songs draw people into participating…. the whole thing is terribly mysterious and impossible to quantify. It shouldn’t matter, should it, how much we’re ‘drawn in’. That said, yesterday’s blended services were Big Macs. I’m sad about that because last week was such a great four-course meal!
The contemporary service was, maybe, an Applebee’s salad with a great dessert later. I love the song ‘None But Jesus’. Absolutely love it. We’ve done it a few times, and I think I can say that it doesn’t seem to be grabbing our congregation as a terribly effective tool for them to worship through. It’s funny how that happens… I’ve been surprised by songs that do work, and songs that don’t. We did find the groove for ‘Everlasting God’ that really works for us, finally. And these days, when given ‘permission’, our congregation grabs a hold of things like the ‘Hallelujah’ from Hillsong… I call them ‘punctuation mark’ songs. And ‘Give Us Clean Hands’ is a timeless song, and fitting for a response to a sermon about the first 2 commandments (of the 10).
So… here’s a question. How do you evaluate how ‘effective’ a worship experience is for your church? Is it a visible level of participation? Or what people say to you after the service? Is it even possible to evaluate? And is it even a valid question? If we truly believe God is the ‘audience’ of our worship, does it matter how effective it is for us? Hmmm…
For me, I often use how much I feel the presence of God’s Spirit moving in the worship for this. Of course, it’s all about Him & what we give to Him, but He blesses us with the bonuses of worship by blessing us, making us feel better in times of trial, speaking to us (& through us to others), drawing us closer to Him, the list goes on…
This I wonder though, is that a good barometer to gauge on? I believe it is, but there are people in the services, whether unsaved or just believers who aren’t as in tune with the Holy Spirit or engaged in deeper communication with Him than others, who will notice ‘something’ when God is really manifesting His present in the place (or in them/a particular person), but they can’t quite put their finger on it.
Often, I could see it coming out as comments from people such as “the music was flawless today” or “their was this energy in worship today like never before.” Of course, sometimes this isn’t necessarily relating to the Holy Spirit moving, but I think most of the time it is–when it isn’t, it may just be a place or people who are viewing the worship more as entertainment for themselves instead of as an offering to God, or there may even been singers/musicians performing instead of truly worshiping.
All that being said, I think the visible level of participation can gauge this as well, but it may not be the visible things we would expect–say, people sitting quietly, taking in all they can of God & worshiping silently while others are singing, clapping & stretching out their hands high in worship.
I think it is definitely about God over us, but as I said before, we do receive benefits from it, as our Father in Heaven loves to show His love especially when worship in spirit & in truth is reaching up & touching Heaven from earth!
Wow, that was long… :)
Great thoughts, A. You’re moving around the same circles of this topic that I usually do when I try to think it through. Bottom line is that we can’t control the move of the Spirit, we can’t ‘program’ for it, and we can’t measure it. Probably it’s just that we are called to worship, and out of obedience and our own need, we do it. And God works and we look around in wonder.
I agree. The Holy Spirit is present. Period. But whether I sense it or not is dependent on MY heart and focus at the moment. What has ‘gone wrong’ when I sense it but the congregation doesn’t…or the other way around? We’re not at the same worship place at the same time — the ultimate goal, I suppose. The reality for me is that my personal prep for worship (spiritual weighing in more than musical) is almost always propotional to my ‘sense’ of the Holy Spirit on Sunday.
I think figuring out how to ‘measure’ or ‘evaluate’ congregational response to the HS has merits in that we are called to lead this group of people (read: worship)before the throne of God and if we are not doing that or if the cong just isn’t responding…then some questions need to be answered about the Why. The usual barometers are fine — hands raised, other forms of participation, comments, etc. — but for us, one for the most accurate measures is the amount of ‘community’ after the service. Meaning, how long do people hang out after church? Our experience has been that those Sundays where we as leaders feel positive about the Worship Experience are the same Sundays that the cong lingers and visits and just hangs out after church. Unconventional, but interesting to me.
Your comment on “None But Jesus” is familiar. We have a couple of songs that the band loves and the congregation just flatlines. Go figure.
Cathy, you are, as always, my hero.
What a great observation…the thing about noticing how worship affects the immediate expression of community. I have never thought about that before. I’ll have to start watching for it. You know, just to see if you’re right. :)
Oh, community! Yes! I totally didn’t think of this, but once during a service, our worship pastor dismissed them after the final song, & no one moved! The entire congregation felt ‘something else’ waiting… & we had planned another song but it didn’t look like we were going to use it until this happened.
& of course, people standing around after services more, congregating… heh. :) There is a handful of us who do this, but when there are those who are that often bolt afterward, it can be ‘surprising’ – makes you realize that these people have felt the Holy Spirit moving as well.
I think I had more to say, but I must get going for the day! :)