Planning for the Future

Have you ever wondered what they future holds?  What will your life look like in a few weeks, years?  What will the church look like in those same weeks and years?  

Planning for the future is one of the hardest things to do, but is still very important.  There is no real way of knowing what will happen in the future, but if you plan for some of the bigger possibilities and continue to maintain the equipment and supplies you have, then most likely you will be ready for anything.

At Word of Peace we are currently walking a very fine line with our projection system in the sanctuary.  We installed it 8 years ago and the projectors have been going strong ever since...until recently.  We have replaced the bulbs when needed and cleaned the filters every 2 months or so, and that has helped get us this far.

But recently I have been very worried about replacing them before it is to late.  We have not put this plan into practice yet, but I am hoping that the projectors last till the 2015 budget comes through so we can start in January (fingers crossed).

Here is an example of a plan to keep your projectors in good working order while replacing them PROACTIVELY rather than reactively.

1.  Projectors today are made with shorter lives than even 5 years ago.  The term "they don't make them like they used to" is true in more than one way.  PLAN TO REPLACE YOUR PROJECTOR EVERY 3-5 YEARS. 


2.  If you have multiple projectors, plan a rotation where you replace at least one projector when it's age is between 3-5 years.  

Example:  2015 - replace projector 1

                   2016 - replace projector 2

                   2018 -19 - replace projector 1

                   2019 - 20 - replace projector 2

3.  Don't get rid of the projectors.  Most churches have other uses for projectors elsewhere in the building.  Save the unit and use it in a smaller room somewhere.  The new location will give new life to the image it projects because of the smaller size and less intense ambient light.  

4.  If you have other mounted projectors in the church, consider putting them in the rotation as well.  

Example:  Sanctuary projector is replaced.  Old sanctuary unit is moved to the youth room.  Youth room projector is moved to a rolling cart.  Then repeat this process the next time a new unit is purchased.  Then recycle the unit on the cart.  

This rotation will also help you be good stewards of the money donated to the church.  Rather than dropping a huge chunk of change for a whole new system, you budget a smaller amount each year to keep the rotation up to date.

We use our projectors for every service (4) and confirmation during the year.  It is a vital part to our ministry that would be missed if it were to break.  I hope we can start the rotation in 2015 and I hope you never have to scramble to find a quick replacement. 

God Bless,

The Summer Lull

Is there really such thing as a summer lull?  It seems to me like the moment things start to "slow down" you are already ramping back up for the start of the school year.  

I was looking through the newspaper the other day and noticed that the ads for dorm room decorations and school supplies and could hardly believe it.  Summer is half over but there is still a great half left and more than enough time to be enriched and inspired for the stressful months just around the corner.

Here are a few things that I do in order to take full advantage of the summer down time.

1.  Read

This is some of the best advice I have.  There is hardly time for me to read anything during the busy times.  I alway get pulled away from what I intend to do for something more pressing.  Reading articles about visual arts, music, worship and creativity are tons of fun and very inspiring.  They help with great ideas and I have time to sit and think about them.  maybe even hash out a few details.  While you are reading don't forget to...

2.  Take notes

Write down your thoughts.  Type them out.  Draw pictures.  Whatever works for you is what you need to do before you forget those amazing thoughts you just had.  Keeping track of the different things you discover is a vital part to reading.  I go through so many different articles that I can hardly remember where it came from let alone what the idea was if I don't find a way to document it.  I love Steno notebooks and good ol' Microsoft Word.

3.  Clean and Organize

The other hard thing for me in the midst of a year and stress is finding time to organize and clean up from the multitude of messes I created during the year.  Luckily I found some wonderful friends that also like to clean and so we made it a day and a half together.  The result was freeing.  Starting fresh with organization at the end of August is a great way to start the new school year off.  

4.  Pilot new programs or ideas.

For some strange reason people seem to be more open to the idea of new things during the summer.  There is a relaxed mood and willingness to spend time on something never tried before when the weather is warm and days are longer.  Try new music in worship, find some fun decorations to use during the 20+ Sundays of Pentecost.  Be sure to get solid feedback from people as well to see how they liked or disliked what was done.  This will be a huge boost to the ideas and programs you plan to do in the fall.

5.  Visit other churches for inspiration

In the end we are all in this together and each church is different.  There are different people, communities and building as well as ways to minister to members of the congregation.  What I need to remind myself is that no church is perfect and has it all right.  They may be doing some amazing things that could be adapted for your own congregation, but don't forget the ADAPT part.  Taking a program or ministry or even a simple decoration and recreating it and then expecting the exact same result is pretty crazy.  Look at the benefits and key point in what they are doing and then se how they fit into your church's vision and mission first.  

Summer is a wonderful time to relax and dream.  I encourage you to do just that.  Otherwise there might not be time during the school year.  And that leads to burnout.  

God Bless you in your summer and take advantage of it before it's too late.

A Weird VBS

Each year Word of Peace Lutheran Church puts on a week-long extravaganza that provides an opportunity for the children and youth of the community to experience the love of Jesus in an exciting and energy packed event.  This year was no different as we had around 530 participants and over 200 volunteers make it possible.  

One of the favorite things for me is to see the amazing creativity and decorations and ideas created by our staff and volunteers.  This year was no different.  Check out some of the pictures in the previous post here.  

Here are some helpful hints and ideas for creating amazing yet simple visuals for your vacation bible school.  

Styrofoam is your friend

It may not be the best for the environment, but you can't argue about the versatility of the light plastic material.  The best part of using styrofoam is it's ability to be painted, give off very vibrant colors and also provide amazing realism if desired.  

Styrofoam cutting tools are essential.  There are many different types and styles.  We have used a number of them and find that the creative juices begin to flow with a hot foam carving knife in our hands.  Here is one of the brands we use.   

Getting the right kind of foam is also key.  We find our at Home Depot of Lowes.  They are white and generally used for insulation.  There are different thicknesses and densities as well.  This is a good example of what we use.  

Don't be limited to one piece of foam either.  Glue them together to create three demential set pieces.  If you need more inspiration just watch your favorite movie that takes place on an alien world or something like Lord of the Rings and you will likely see set pieces make from styrofoam.  Check these out.  Amazing isn't it?  

One note about cutting styrofoam...do it outside.  It produces some bad smells and fumes.

Be Bold with Colors

I can not stress the importance of color during Vacation Bible School.  Whether you are creating your own or using a canned theme you must utilize the color theme throughout the church.  

This year we used bold primary colors that reminded us of a Dr. Seuss book.  Wherever the kids walked there was some color that signified they were still in VBS land.  Some of the simple decoration ideas came from our VBS curriculum provider and Pinterest.  Utilize these boards and ideas because there are too many good ones not to.  One of our favorites was the spiral pool noodles that we hung from the ceiling.  

Brainstorm with out fear of how you will actually make it

When we think about what VBS will look like we never worry about how we will make it happen.  Most likely we will be able to find a way to bring an idea to life if we give it a chance.  As an example, we had a staff member who is known more for her amazing spreadsheets than here creative mind, but she came up with a fantastic idea for decoration this year.  The real question was "how are we going to do that?"  She came to me with the idea and together we worked to make it happen.  Take a look at what we created

The idea was a canopy in our gathering area and the question was how do we do it?  We ended up using anchors in the block and brick, then suspended green show fence using cables between walls.  We attached balloons and tissue paper to complete the effect.  People loved it.  It was a little sad to take it down today.  

In the end the environment we we very excited with how the week looked and was received.  We are so thankful to all of our volunteers and creative minds that helped make this week possible.  I hope you are equally excited and please with any VBS decorating you do this summer and I encourage you to share your ideas with those around you.

God Bless

Vacation Bible School

It is that time of year again and Vacation Bible School is in fill swing here at Word of Peace.  We have a rather large VBS ministry and amazing staff and volunteers that help make it happen.  To give you an idea about the size of our VBS we have 530 kids and over 200 volunteers for the week.  We have a morning VBS from 9-12 and the energy here is thick.

This year's theme is Weird Animals.  We thought it was a strange idea too.  The hardest part for us was trying to visualize what the decorations would look like.  We normally take the ideas given to us and tweak them...a lot.  What we came up with was something right out of Dr. Seuss.  Take a look.

The bright colors and fun shapes have really made the week fun.  We are only through one day, but everyone seems to be having fun so far.  Next week I will go into a little more about how we created the fun things you see here.

Till then, God bless.

Spring Cleaning

One common problem in churches around the country would have to be storage, or in our case lack there of.  Churches do a great job of accumulating stuff.  There are always people that look through their house and think "I have no use for this anymore, but I'm sure the church could use it!"  This is not a bad mindset to have.  If only people had that same attitude about their money.  But that is for another time.

The visual ministry at Word of Peace has done a great job at having a wide variety of useful items that were acquired at little to no cost.  But over the past 3 years we have looked at our storage room and said the same thing: "We need to go through this and clean."  

This past week we finally did just that.  It felt so good.  

Some things we learned that could be helpful to other churches. 

Enough Storage is a Rare Commodity.

To put it lightly, we were starting to be a fire hazard.  The decorations, worship elements and seasonal items were beginning to encroach on the fuse boxes and that's a big No-No!  We have shelves but they were overflowing.  We also have two offsite storage units that we have been too lazy to get bring stuff to.  If you have little to no space on site I highly recommend looking into off site storage lockers for your seasonal items.  For Word of Peace we keep our Christmas decorations, Vacation Bible School supplies, kids choir play sets and once a year festival games in the lockers.  This is a huge weight off the small storage rooms we have here on site.



Organization, Organization, Organization!

Investing in shelving, strong clear plastic tubs and labeling can save the day.  One of the hardest things we dealt with this year was a departure of 3 of our long time visual ministry team members and they new where and what everything was.  Rather than calling them every time we needed to find something we decided to go through everything relabel everything.  The end result was fantastic and anyone can walk into our room and know where something is.  

Inventory  

I like to work in a way that is very similar to one of my favorite TV show growing up: MacGyver.  He would take the materials around him and get out of a jam and save the world.  Now, I am not saving the world, but saving money and using what you have rather than buying new every time is key in a church.  The problem was I had no idea what materials we had to use.  This may take some time but:

1.  Go through everything
2.  Label and group together like seasons or materials
3.  Create a spreadsheet with all of the supplies and keep it updated



This way you can reference the work you have done and pick and choose from the supplies you already own to create something new.  

Involve Others

As a staff member it is good that I know and hold the inventory of the Visual Ministry supplies, but our church is packed with volunteers and other ministries that could use the supplies we have.  Share your knowledge with others and invite them to respectfully use them.  You as a church are in the business of ministry and helping each other out.  Other churches are also in the same boat.  We welcome people and churches that want to use what we have.  Anything to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.

In the end it feels so good to step back and look at a room that was packed and feel like we have "extra" room now.  Just remember to keep tabs on the clutter, it will sneak up on you.  

Here are some more pictures of what we did.  

 Exploding into the sanctuary!

Our awesome Volunteers

During 

After!

Easter 2014 Tweaking Tradition

Celebrating Easter is something I look forward to more than most things in my life.  Having the anticipatory Lent and Holy Week prior to Easter Sunday, not to mention the tiredness and long hours, all make me ready for a day packed with praise and worship fueled by adrenaline.  

There are a few decoration traditions here at Word of Peace that have been observed the entire 10 years I have worked at the church.  They weren't bad, but this year we had a few additions that made us rethink the traditional decoration scheme.

For starters we needed to incorporate the very large tomb from the Holy Week Walk.  The point was for those who attended to be invited back for Sunday worship to hear the rest of the story.  Check out the Holy Week Walk post here.

The other issues on Easter Sunday consist of figuring where to put all the people who come to worship, brass, choir and pastors in and amongst the decorations.

This year we had a wonderful theme of butterflies.  We hung them from the center of the sanctuary and made a large banner for behind the altar.  We also had around 75 fresh spring plants that are scattered around the chancel (stage) area.  

The other large object is the Good Friday cross.  This is the tradition that needed to be tweaked.  We pounded nails into it on Friday and normally on Sunday we flip it over and place the flowers in and around the cross.  But that would take up too much space with new large tomb.  What to do?

In the end we still used the cross at the foot of the tomb.  We rolled the stone away and placed flowers around all of it.  It was truly beautiful.  We received many great comments on the decorations and I was glad to continue to use the traditional cross in a new way.

Tomb and Cross

Altar and Butterfly Banner

Flowers around musicians

Dealing with Tradition

First of all, tradition is not a bad thing.  We would never be where we are as a church without our traditions.  But, we would also NOT be where we are today if we would have not broken tradition.  There is a fine balance and it is not easy to walk that line.  

In the area of creative worship it is implied that there will be new ideas.  Being creative is not just about sticking to the rules and doing the same thing year after year.  To me that actually sounds like there might be a lack of creativity.  

For me, my creative juices flow when I see something inspiring or moving.  Many times they come from looking at traditional things and wondering how we can use them in a more modern / contemporary way.  

In the case of the tomb and the cross we had two major center pieces, both with significant meaning on Easter.  Without the cross there is no need for the tomb and without the empty tomb there is no point to Easter, no forgiveness...death wins.  But Jesus did not stay dead and that is the reason we need to be reminded of both his death and resurrection.

In the same way we as a church need to remember where we came from and those traditions that got us this far.  As a church we should strive to hold those traditions dear and continue to create new traditions that will sustain the church for years to come.

Blessings,

Dain

Holy Week Walk (Behind the Scenes)

I have to preface this article with a few things before I begin. 

1.  Our congregation has amazing volunteers and we could not have done the Holy Week Walk with out them.

2.  We did not have a budget for this event.  We actually took a hit in 2013, so we had very little means to create what we did.

3.  This was the first time we did this and we planned for the better part of a year to make it happen.

With that said...here we go.

Pre planning

It goes without saying that any event needs some kind of planning.  And the better the planning the more likely you will meet your goals and succeed during the event.  In the case of the Holy Week Walk (see last weeks post for details) we knew we were going to need time and help to pull it off.  We actually had the idea about 3 years ago when our Education Director visited the church that gave us the idea.  She took part in the walk and thought we could bring it to Word of Peace.  It took her and the education team of volunteers a year and a half to finally put it into motion and 6 months of meetings to work out the details.  Whew, that's a lot!  But it was needed.  The Holy Week Walk is no easy task.  In the end there were over 60 volunteers, food for 300, a script to write and 6 different scenes to create.

The Volunteers

Love your volunteers, thank your volunteers and most of all ask everyone to volunteer.  We were so blessed with amazing people, most of which have never been a part of a drama at church, be willing to help.  It's not easy finding 12 guys to act as disciples!  We also discovered so many new gifts in the congregation that we never knew existed.  

Food

Finding grape juice, parsley, water and salt is fairly easy for 300 people.  Matzo on the other hand was not.  Planning ahead was crucial here so we could have enough supplies.  

The Script

Knowing your audience for our script was imperative.  We wanted to bring the last week of Jesus to people of all ages.  More importantly, we wanted children to understand what Jesus went through for us.  

This framed our script and made some of the heaver points less important.  We thought having a narrator and two witnesses travel with and guide the group through the different scenes would be most effective.  The job of the witnesses was to ask the questions that everyone, especially the children would be thinking.  "Why is Jesus washing their feet?  Why are they arresting Jesus?  Who is that woman and why is she crying?"

Looking at the life of Jesus through the eyes of children is a wonderful way to deepen your faith and even ask some great questions.

We did leave a few parts out of Holy Week.  We didn't show any of the brutal beating or crucifixion or Jesus hanging on the cross.  Those are important parts, but all lead to the death of Jesus and that is the most important.  

Setting the Scene

This is the most expensive part of the Holy Week Walk.  The more props you have, the better it will look and feel.  Costumes were key.  They helped differentiate the actors from the participants.  

We did purchase a few big items like a Jesus, Pilate and Roman Solider costumes.  We also found 4 shade tents at a really good price for the streets of Jerusalem marketplace.  

The rest came from donations, things we had laying around the church or items from people's homes.  

Preparing for the Unknown

When all the planning was said and done we still had no idea how many people to expect.  This was our first time.  It's on a weekday afternoon.  

We needed a way to know how many to plan for so we invited the congregation to "RSVP" for a time through text and email.  This was also the first time we tried something like this.  We got a small response at first but as the week went on the responses started coming in more and more.  We began to be concerned if we would have enough.  We set up for 125 at each walk.  When almost 220 showed up each time it was a modern day Fish and Loafs story.  We had enough and God blessed us with an amazing showing of support.

Final Thoughts

We are so happy that this went well.  We have lots to learn and even more ideas for next year.  If you or your church would be interested in something like this, we would be more than happy to answer any questions for you.

My advise: start planning now because Easter is coming sooner than you think.

God Bless,

Dain

Holy Week Walk

Trying something new comes with risks and rewards.  

Over the past few years we noticed that our congregation and their families tend to show up in droves to Christmas, Palm Sunday and Easter.  Don't get me wrong, we love to pack the place whenever we can, but we were noticing something wrong with this picture.  The celebration of the birth, triumphal entry and resurrection of Jesus are all positive.  What we saw were families missing the whole point of Jesus' resurrection.  Why was Jesus born, why did he come into Jerusalem and why do we celebrate the resurrection?  As Christians and Lutherans we believe that we are both sinner and saint, at the same time.  This means that there are two sides to the story.  Baby Jesus was born so that he may die.  He entered Jerusalem as a beginning of a journey to the cross.  And most importantly, you can't resurrect without first dying!  As a church we had to ask the tough question of "how do offer opportunities for our community to experience holy week?"  

In past years we have done more of a Passion Sunday rather than just Palm Sunday where we experience the entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper and a little of Good Friday all within the Palm Sunday worship service.  It helped to educate people more about Holy Week, but it didn't help involve anyone outside of our Sunday or Monday services.  

Our Education director Kristin Skare recently visited St. Andrew's Lutheran in Mahtomedi, MN and experienced their Holy Week "Walk with Jesus".  She was impressed at the number of families involved and was moved by the "incompleteness" of the story and subsequent invitation to come back on Easter to see how the story ends.  

Implementing something like this at Word of Peace would be no easy task, but we have never backed down from a good challenge.  Could we pull it off?  How many people would come?  Was it worth it?  We have always been blessed with amazing volunteers and when the idea was pitched the support from staff and congregation members alike made us very hopeful.

Over the course of 3 months we prepared for the Holy Week Walk.  In the end we transformed our entire church into the major scenes of Holy Week inviting families to come and walk in the steps of Jesus and experience his final week before the cross.  Below is a brief outline of the Holy Week Walk.

The Streets of Jerusalem

When people attending the Holy Week Walk arrive they are greeted by a gathering area that had been transformed into a Jerusalem street.  Different vendors and actors roam the booths and invite people to take part.  We had different booths for fish, pottery, bread, and spices.  There was also a prayer wall where people could write down prayers and tie them to a wall.  

The walk was lead by a Narrator and two witnesses.  They helped people along and described the events that were taking place.  There were also musicians with guitars that would lead a song or two in every scene.  Jesus entered the street and was followed by a live colt.  The kids loved that one!  We then followed Jesus and his disciples to the Last Supper

The Last Supper

The crowd was welcomed into our sanctuary for the Seder Meal.  Jesus and his followers sat up front and acted out the last supper.  The narrator and witnesses then invited everyone to try some of the unleavened bread, bitter herbs and grape juice.

The Garden of Gethsemane

We then headed to the garden where Jesus prayed.  We had originally planned to be outside, but 9 inches of snow changed our minds.  We quickly created a garden scene on one corner of the sanctuary that was not being used.  

Our next stop was the house of Pontius Pilate where Jesus was placed on trial.

One of the things we were concerned about was the crucifixion and how we wanted to treat the death of Jesus.  We decided to not show any blood or Jesus hanging on the cross.  We made sure people knew that Jesus died, but they only thing they saw was an empty cross.

Here we gathered everyone at the foot of the cross with Mary the mother of Jesus.  The song Pie Jesu by Andrew Webber was sung as a duet and the crowd was invited back into the sanctuary to see the tomb.

In the end we planned for 125 people to come for 2 showings.  We had over 220 people there each time!  We were blown away by the response and couldn't believe how God was working through us.  We were truly blessed this Holy Week and are so excited for next year.

We took a risk that involved a lot of work, changes in the Good Friday traditional worship service and involving tons of people on a weekday in the afternoon.  but our prayers were answered and amazing things happened!

Next week I will focus a little more on the behind the scenes aspects of the Holy Week walk and what it took for us to accomplish it.

Till then, God bless.

Dain

Crucify Him - Good Friday 2014

To be perfectly honest, my favorite day of Holy Week is Good Friday.  For some reason I feel closer to God through the suffering and anguish of Jesus on Good Friday.  How many times have I asked the same questions as Jesus in the garden?  "Lord take this cup from me," I don't want to do this, why do I have to go through this?  But Jesus continues on and prays a prayer that I would hope everyone could bring themselves to say: "Yet, not my will Lord, but your will be done."

This is why I love Good Friday.  I love the questions, the darkness, the suffering, the pain.  I love that Jesus knows my pain and suffering in my life because of the excruciating ordeal he went through in order for us to spend eternity together in heaven.  Without Good Friday there is no Easter!  

A few years back I attended a Good Friday service at The Upper Room and I was moved in ways that filled my soul with a true meaning and depth of what Jesus did for us.  Their use of video clips, smells, the cross, and the sound of nails pounding created a multi-sensory experience that I wanted to recreate at Word of Peace.

The Passion Experience is a small experiential worship service held in a large back room that can fit about 60 people.  The service is media based and all instructions, prayers, video clips and words to songs are projected on the wall.  The room is decorated with candles, a cross and mood lighting.  The chairs have a black piece of paper and a pencil for use during the service.  The video clips are taken from The Passion of Christ movie.  I edited them down and incorporated Bible verses that a narrator reads.  The music during the service is one voice and a guitar.  The simplicity is powerful.  

At one point during the service the congregation is invited to write down sins and nail them to the cross while we sing Jesus Paid it All and the Wonderful Cross.  Once again...powerful.  

The end of the service is the most important part.  Even though people know Easter is coming we leave the worship service as a cliffhanger.  There is no hint of the resurrection and only an invitation to finish the story on Sunday morning.  

The service is prayerful and very introspective for those that attend and I am excited that it has become a tradition for a small number of worshippers at Word of Peace.  The content of the video is more mature, but because of the way I have edited the clips children as young as 5th grade have come to the service.  

Continually look at Holy week as an opportunity to explore the story of Jesus.  It is rich and full of meaning.  Focus on the sights, sounds, smells and feelings that took place those final days of Jesus' life.  Bring the story to life and have people participate in more than just song during the service.  You might just be surprised how meaningful this can be to people and their faith.

Blessings,

Dain

Lenten Worship and the art of invitation and curiosity

Holy Week has come and gone and I can finally get back to the blog!  It has been a whirlwind of a past few weeks and I have many things to share in the upcoming posts.  I hope you enjoy them.

This week I want to focus on the close of Lent.  First off, I am glad that Lent is five weeks long.  It seems like just the right amount of time to prepare for Holy Week and Easter.  You ramp up Lenten worship and the Lenten disciplines and then just by the time you start to feel like it's never going to end...it does.  

This year's main piece was our Lenten chalkboard and dramas.  Each week we worshipped with the Holden Evening Prayer Service, a drama based on the Parables of Jesus and a chance to write on the chalkboard.  Here is the list of the parables and phrases on the board.  There is also a link to watch the worship services and dramas as well.

Week 1.  The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
                 Chalkboard:  Jesus I Pray...




Week 2.  The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
                 Chalkboard:  I am forgiven for...  &  I need to forgive someone for...




Week 3.  The Parable of the Sower
                 Chalkboard:  My roots grow deep when...


     

Week 4.  The Parable of the Prodigal Son.
                 Chalkboard:  God's Love is...



Week 5.  The Parable of the Good Samaritan
                 Chalkboard: I am a neighbor when...




For me, the most important part of Lent this year was letting people who only can come to worship on Sundays also be able to participate in our Lenten journey together.  So often we create a "mini congregation" on Wednesday nights during Lent and the smaller number of people that attend are the only ones that know what is going on.  The positive side is that they go on this journey together and they share a rather unique experience.  The down side is they generally keep the experience to themselves.  

I tried to be more inclusive by moving the chalkboard out into our gathering area during the rest of the week.  Not only were people able to view the responses from the Wednesday night services they were encouraged to add their own.  A sign was placed on the board that invited them to attend the services as well.  

My hope was to see an exponential jump in numbers for our Wednesday night services because people saw the chalkboard on Sunday.  Numbers did grow, but not like I had hoped.  

What I did hear was how much the people who did attend enjoyed the chalkboard experience.  There were many comments about how they loved seeing their confirmation classes excited each week to come to worship and PARTICIPATE.  This, for me, is a huge win!  Middle school youth and adults excited to see what next week has in store; one would hope this could be a new trend in our church today.

What I learned

1.  Inspiring people to worship is not my job.  This is the job of the Holy Spirit, Jesus and God the Father!  We are only vessels in which God can use to help inspire those to a life of worship and growing in their faith. Our job is to listen and follow where Christ is leading us.

2.  Attendance isn't everything.  Numbers and statistics are a great way to keep track of activity in your congregation, but there is no way to put a number to how people are effected emotionally or their life is changed because of a song, drama or writing on a chalkboard.  Our hope as the Worship and Visual Arts Team at Word of Peace is to provide the opportunities for people to encounter Christ in new ways.  The numbers and feedback from worship attendees will give us a good idea as to what worked and what didn't, but in the end faith is a personal matter and it comes in many forms.  Attending worship is only one of many.

3.  Invitation is a culture that needs cultivation.  Honestly, Word of Peace is not a church that tends to invite people to worship.  Church (Sunday) School, Confirmation, Youth Group and the community Corn Feed; these are the types of ministries that have a strong culture of invitation.  Inviting people to worship is a different and slightly more difficult and personal matter.  Finding people who have a gift of invitation and hospitality should be essential for every congregation.  We as worship and visual and media artists need to provide aspects of worship that will give those people specifics when describing something "new and exciting" at our church they "have to come and experience".  It's teamwork and lot of work.  But if a culture of invitation and curiosity is continually cultivated then seeds will be planted about worship.  They may not grow right away, but who doesn't appreciate being invited to something.  The key is to invite them to something specific.  "We are doing this awesome series in worship," or "We've had really great dramas and this cool chalkboard during worship on Wednesday night, you should come and check it out."  

4.  Follow up is also key.  If you invite someone to worship, why not worship with them?  Be that familiar face so they will know someone and feel comfortable coming into your church.

In the coming weeks I will be focusing on the amazing things that happened at Word of Peace during Holy Week.  We focused on some of our traditional Palm Sunday events as well as introducing something brand new on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.  Not to mention all the great visuals on Easter.  Check back every week for more posts.

God Bless,

Dain

Lenten Worship pt 2

Trying Something New

The idea of trying something new is at best a little scary in a church setting.  Churches are built on traditions and stories of Jesus who is 2000 years old.  There are a lot of traditions to deal with when attending a church.  

At Word of Peace we are Lutheran, and that means we have traditions.  We are in the midwest, so that means lots of Scandinavians.  And that also means resistance to change and new things.  But I am a person that likes to try new things.  I love to eat at the latest restaurant as well as frequent favorites.  I like to listen to new music and decide AFTER I hear it whether or not I like it.  I like to create, and in worship, I like to experience God in a way that will pull me slightly out of my comfort zone and challenge me to think about faith in new and different ways.

I do understand that not everyone is like that.  My worry is that people are so resistant to change in our churches they are even afraid to attempt something new or different.  I think they are afraid.  Afraid, they might just like it.

Our Lenten Chalkboard has been a new thing for us this Lenten season.  We built it specifically for our Lenten worship services and there were a large number of people that looked at me with a "you want to do what?" expression that was rather priceless.  

I assured them that we were not going to force people to come up but rather invite and encourage if they feel comfortable.  The results have been surprising!  

To be honest I was worried during the first Lenten Worship service how the board would be received.  Would only the confirmation kids in the congregation come up?  Would people write appropriate responses on the board?  What if no one understood what to do?

We are now three weeks into Lent and the people who originally were worried about the board are some of the first to come up and write on it.  Confirmation kids do come up in droves, but they are shoulder to hip with adults waiting for a piece of chalk.  

The most surprising aspect of the chalkboard has been the phrases and words written.  I spend a good portion of Wednesday night and Thursday just looking and reading how people completed the sentences started for them.  The best part...people are baring their souls in an somewhat anonymous public forum about their sins and how they experience God.  I am pulled into a time of prayer just looking at the board.  

Never would have I thought this would be the result of trying something new.  Never would I have believed that the people most concerned would be most ministered to.  I could have only hoped this would be the reception.  And now the door has open a small crack.  A seed of trust for doing something new has been planted and we are on our way to experiencing God in new and wonderful ways together as a congregation.

Here are some key things to consider when implementing something new into a worship service.

1.  How much of the service is going to be new?  Will it be a complete overhaul or changing a small number of things?  

My recommendation is to start with small changes.  The main part of our Lenten service (the Holden Evening Prayer) is the same.  We still have dramas, but go about it a different way and the chalk board is entirely new.

2.  Speak to people about what they like best/least about the worship service.

The only way to know how and what to change in a worship service is by talking to people.  If you have an idea of what to change and haven't asked if anyone agrees with you, then you might be the only one that thinks it's a good idea.  

3.  Explain in order to bring people along.

Don't just plop something new down in front of someone and say "go for it!" The immediate reaction will be fear and reservation.  Give people fair warning about the new worship element.  Prepare them at the beginning of the service while placing the element in the later half.  Invite people to participate.  Have something else happening like music, video or communion at the same time so no one feels pressured. 

Change is never easy or good just for the sake of doing something different.  There needs to be purpose and thought put into everything we do as a congregation.  Everything should be focused on or pointing people to the cross, because without the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ we are nothing but lost sheep.

Blessings on your continued Lenten journey....Easter is coming.

Dain