“Sunday’s Coming” Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.
The video, “Sunday’s Coming,” has been making its way around the internet for a month or so now and has drawn quite a few laughs and “I told you so’s” from folks who are not fans of contemporary worship. The video, however, was made by folks who participate in this type of worship each week. More than anything, it seems that they are poking a little fun at themselves and pointing out the fact that we shouldn’t just copy a worship style or stop being intentional and thoughtful about each element of the worship service.
I saw this video at an interesting time when I had just finished re-vamping the worship elements and flow of our Sunday contemporary service for college students at Tempe First UMC. I almost cried when I saw it because I felt like I had worked hard to avoid exactly what the video was parodying. After I re-grouped I spent some time reflecting on how to create a contemporary worship service with integrity.
I grew up in a UMC with traditional worship and interned in seminary with what I considered to be a “high” traditional worship service. The service I grew-up with is what I consider typical “casual traditional” United Methodist worship. It has all the elements of a traditional service: hymns, call to worship, communal and responsive prayers and liturgy, multiple scripture readings, and joys and concerns style prayer time. All of these elements are great and these types of services include lots of different people who are involved in leading the service. The issue, however, is these services don’t have any flow and can even be kind of clumsy from week to week. The service usually opens with a way too long announcement time that sucks all of the energy out of the worship space before things ever get going. There are usually poor or clumsy transitions as there are lots of directives like “please stand and join me in…,” “please turn to hymnal page X as we sing [insert hymn title here].”
At the church I interned at the traditional service had all of the above elements, however, the flow was beautiful. The service began with a hymn and a grand processional which included a crucifer, well-trained acolytes, the entire choir, and the clergy. No one ever said “please stand for the beginning of worship,” as there was a musical transition between the prelude and opening hymn that cued the worshipers to stand as the processional entered the sanctuary. Musical and liturgical transitions (such as “Let us pray”) kept the service moving and there were rarely awkward or clunky transitions between worship elements.
United Methodist worship expert, Taylor Burton Edwards, has offered a very detailed analysis of “Sunday’s Coming” and the type of worship it presents. He’s pretty critical and focuses on how the video underscores the individualistic and self-centered aspects of contemporary worship, however, in a second post he offers some positive analysis of this style of contemporary worship, which include:
- A powerful act of entrance
- A continuous sense of focus and flow
- A powerful act of sending
What he really seemed to focus on as the positives were the flow, focus, and smooth and rehearsed transitions of contemporary worship. Overall, what this means is that no matter what sort of service you design from week-to-week, the service should have great flow that keeps the worshiper focused and involved in the service. Basically whatever you do should be quality and done with excellence. I have been to just as many terrible (if not more) contemporary services as traditional services in my life (and am guilty at designing and leading terrible services of both kinds). Services do not have to follow an exact template either. You can mix and match music and liturgy and move things around as long as you stay focused on how it all flows and transitions.
Just as importantly, the rest of the aspects of the service should have high quality standards, from your hospitality to the technology you use. Contemporary worship services, however, can be expensive to resource. Expensive technology, though, is not a magic bullet either, especially if you do not know how to use it. Sometimes keeping it simple can save you money and keep the quality high too. One thing I learned is that just because you have an awesome new worship software program, doesn’t mean you have to use all of the bells and whistles, especially if you do not know what you are doing. If you do not have an artistic or creative eye, or technological expertise then find someone who does or just keep everything clean and simple. For example, don’t clutter the worship presentation slides with too many words or a ton of pictures. A few beautiful and high-quality pictures and white song lyrics on black backgrounds make for a nice looking and easy to follow worship presentation. Overall, if it looks, sounds, or feels awkward, clunky, or just plain terrible, keep it simple or eliminate that aspect of the service all together until it can be improved. If the video projector is not bright enough to show high-quality video clips, then consider not using clips during the service. A well rehearsed live drama or a detailed verbal description of a movie scene as a sermon illustration is going to be a lot better than a video clip that the congregation can hardly see.
Finally, the bottom line seems to be authenticity. Don’t force something into a worship service just because “everyone else is doing it.” If you or the worship leadership do not feel you can be authentic about something then don’t mislead the congregation by forcing it into the service. For example, our worship team argued back and forth about talking between songs as transitions because it seemed like other worship bands did that. Each time it was done, however, it felt unauthentic and awkward. No one in the band was a natural at leading spoken transitions. What we discovered though is that the band was great at creating seamless musical transitions between songs. These felt natural and kept the service flowing and we stopped worrying about who was going to say what between songs.
I’m pretty sure working with contemporary worship has turned a few of my hairs grey and as someone who leans more towards traditional worship I think I will always struggle with finding a place of comfort within contemporary worship. What this has taught me though is that no matter the style of service, the goal is too keep the focus on flow and quality so the congregation can keep its focus on worshiping God and be inspired to serve God and neighbor when they walk out of the worship space when the service is over.
What has been your experience with designing and leading or participating in contemporary worship services? What worked? What didn’t work? Do you agree that flow, quality and authenticity are the most important things to consider when designing a worship service?
