It is amazing how Sundays come around so regularly each and every 7 days! And with each Sunday comes another worship service here at the Gaylord E-Free Church. But how does a service come about? Here at the Gaylord E-Free Church it follows this path. Each step is done with great prayer:
First, I as the Lead Pastor seek God and prayerfully decide on a message series.
Second, I then spend time in sermon preparation putting together the main objectives for the series as well as rough drafts for each week's message in the series.
Third, three months in advance of the message series I send the main objectives of the series and the rough drafts of each message via email to our Creative Ideas Team. This is the team that helps to brainstorm what creative elements we can use Sunday to Sunday to help those who attend really connect with the truth of Scripture. This gives this team a month to read through the outlines, read the Scripture passages, and prayerfully begin to think through ideas of creative elements that would be effective for that message series.
Fourth, two months in advance our Creative Ideas Team meets early on a Saturday morning from 7-9am to brainstorm together the possible elements that could be used. This meeting ends with deciding on what appears to be the most effective ideas and assigning different team members to pursue the elements chosen.
Fifth, Our Worship Design Group meets each and every Tuesday morning. Though there is some overlap, this team is different than Creative Ideas team. The Worship Design Group is more logistical in nature. On these weekly meetings, this team looks at the upcoming 2 or 3 Sundays to finalize all plans and make sure that logistics are in place for effective services.
Sixth, Joshua Rupp, our Director of Worship here at E-Free, and myself meet five days prior to the service to nail down the service format and make any and all final decision that need to be made.
Seventh, the Sunday service takes place with full dependence on God.
Eighth, The Worship Design Group meets on the Tuesday following the service to evaluate what went well and what did not. We use this time to discuss how we could have been more effective so that each week our services improve.
So as you see, Sunday services don't just magically happen here at E-Free. There is a lot of hard work and preparation that goes into each one. Two principles are applied each step of the way. They are:
Proper preparation prepares for powerful performance!
Nothing of eternal importance happens apart from prayer!
2 comments:
How do you choose who you have on your creative team? Do you expect them to come prepared? Do you rotate people in and out according to series topic...(for example if you were doing a series called DRIVE ... would you get a mechanic or race car driver in the church involved for just that series?)
When you give your creative team meetings, what exactly do you provide for them? You have a series name already? Do you have a main point for each sermon or just ideas... I guess it would be helpful if you just sent me what you give them...
Great questions, Jacob. Our creative team is a set team. Some are on the team due to a talent such as drama or arts or staging. Some are on the team simply for their creativity. It is all led by our worship director who leads the meeting. Usually I have amides for the series title but I am always open to their ideas.
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