Comments on: The Main Idea in Worship Design

By: Worship in HD — Blog — Designing a Worship Service

Worship in HD — Blog — Designing a Worship Service — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 03:54:45 +0000

[...] read an interesting article from the Midnight Oil guys recently about the Main Idea. ¬? The challenge they give is a good one: “What is the single, central theme derived from [...]

By: The MO Guys

The MO Guys — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 19:40:20 +0000

Philis,

A couple of thoughts.

One is to ask the question first, what is our big idea for this day? And then let all decisions derive from that. Avoid “pre-booking” events for worship as much as possible. For example, when the music director has a person’s solo planned for a certain date in worship far advance of any knowledge about that day’s sermon. Effective planning allows for the main idea to be the driving force for all other worship decisions.

Second, we’ve heard it said that to get bigger means you get smaller. In other words, the more people attend worship, the more you need to adhere to the rule that what is communicated from upfront needs to apply to everyone in attendance, or at least the vast majority of people. Some churches, although large, act small, by inviting every ministry in the church to participate in worship – the bigger the numbers, the more you move from being a “small town” feel where everyone knows everyone else’s business, to a “city” feel, where relationships still occur, but as part of a larger network. The common link to every person in a large church are not individual relationships but ideas. The demand for effectively communicated ideas grows with bigger numbers. This is actually a whole separate blog post.

By: Philis

Philis — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:22:56 +0000

Excellent article and great video. Regarding the “layers of influence” what is the best way to approach them? Before or after worship, etc.? When to or not to integrate layers of influence in the message? Bottom line is: what are the do’s and don’t when it comes to handling layers of influcence.

By: The MO Guys

The MO Guys — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:03:56 +0000

Sharon, Here is the order of worship from that day:

9:25 Stage Dark CD playing

9:30 Congregation Sings
“Marvelous Light”

9:35 Advent Candle Video/Lighting with Video/Family

9:41 Welcome & Greeting

9:43 Coffee Video

9:46 Spoken word theme setup

9:47 Congregation Sings
1) “Sing to the King”
2) “Everlasting God”
3) “Create In Me A Clean Heart” (short version)

9:59 Scripture Video Luke 3:15-18

10:02 Prayers

10:05 Offertory Chris Rice Coffee Song

10:09 Message
Walk up: Movie Clip “I Am Sam”
John makes coffee during message
Intro
Pray: “Breathe On Me Breath of God”
Instructions for passing out/filling out filters
Write on coffee filters – how are you going to purify your life in preparation for Christmas
Music playing with vocals while people are writing, come forward and lay on altar and pray while music is going
Call and Response prayer to end, music behind instrumentally

10:29 Congregation Sings
“Create In Me A Clean Heart” Invite New Members forward

10:33 New Members/Benediction

10:35 Exit Music, Chris Rice song

By: Sharon Pippin

Sharon Pippin — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:18:32 +0000

So what did the rest of the service look like in structure. I get the metaphor thing and am a fan of that, but as mentioned in the above article, so many other elements get thrown into a service, we have a hard time being able to focus just on the service without the peripheral elements honing in on it.

By: Colin Blake

Colin Blake — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:19:53 +0000

Excellent article and video, We have a coffee shop ministry and I would love to use this material with our team to prepare for a special event. Is there any chance that we could also download a copy of the film etc.

Thanks

Colin

By: The MO Guys

The MO Guys — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:19:52 +0000

Shawn,

We’d be happy to send you a copy. It’s rather large though. Contact us through the site and we can make arrangements.

By: Shawn Coons

Shawn Coons — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:40:07 +0000

We’d like to share this article and video with out worship team. Is there anyway to download a copy of the video?

Thanks!

By: Osborn4

Osborn4 — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 18:04:12 +0000

Even in the sermon on the Sermon on the Mount, which covered a lot of ground, had a cohesive theme to tie it together.

By: The MO Guys

The MO Guys — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:10:29 +0000

True, it is ultimately all about Jesus. But, when it comes to Jesus, there’s a lot to talk about. Look at the illustration on Reagan. With Ronald Reagan, or any president, ultimately it’s all about government, but within that realm there are many ideas. Or you could use the NFL as an example, or even just the Packers, your hometown team. Every time it could be a different idea … Their OL play, Favre’s legacy, etc. If you try to cover many aspects of govt or the Packers at once you don’t get the opportunity to really cover any single idea well.