Worship improvement and transition...

Today in our church staff meeting, we spent a good amount of time discussing the current state of worship in our church. Generally speaking, our church is stale and stagnant in it's worship. There is little that would fall into the "moving" category. Few, if any, are inspired. It's more of a process of going through the motions on most weekends. While I can't speak for each person's heart, it is obvious from the glazed over look on most people's faces that they aren't being engaged by our current practices. I've been pushing for change in this area for a couple of years, and now it appears things are starting to happen.

I made a few suggestions today that might be useful in your church/ministry setting. First, put the new songs you are going to be singing over the next few months onto a CD and give each worship team member (singers and musicians) a copy. Tell them to listen to it a few times a week. Provide sheet music for those who can read it to find their parts. This lets them become familiar with the new music, and it begins to resonate within them. That way, when time comes to practice it, they hit their intros, they are able to look up from the music sheets, and they are able to sing more confidently (or play more confidently). Give out CD's like this 3-4 times a year with new songs that you might add in. If you don't ever add them in, then the people were just exposed to some good worship music. If you do add them in, you have equipped your team with another tool for success.

Second, put into your music ministry budget a line for acquisition of new music. Whoever is in charge of your music needs to have a steady flow of new music across their desk. A new CD every couple of weeks will keep new songs, ideas, and styles fresh in this leader's mind. The result will be better variety and more contemporary music. This of course is not to mean abandon old songs, especially hymns. But on that note, there are new presentations of hymns that are worth investigating as well, from groups like Jars of Clay.

Music is important. Do it well. Give God glory through it.
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Update: Tim Challies (challies.com) has posted on hymns as well. I posted first. I'm such a trend setter (not!).