Six Steps to Make Worship More Inspiring

STEP 1: Start with the sermon.

Sermons that engage real life questions and issues with real life application help make worship more inspiring.

STEP 2: Involve more people.

Worship is not just a spectator event. Members of the congregation can be intentionally involved by planning for testimonies, encouraging a variety of special music, enlisting greeters and ushers, and arranging Scripture readers.

STEP 3: Visit other churches.

While every church is unique and no church should simply copy what another is doing, every church can learn from other churches what works in worship in their settings.

STEP 4: Look at the music.

Worship leaders are often surprised by how few hymns and songs are used when the list of music that is used is compiled over a year or so. While a steady diet of all new songs can be difficult, so can a steady diet of 10-12 hymns and gospel songs that are repeated throughout the year.

STEP 5: Use seasonal themes.

When the worship planner looks at the church year and the civil calendar and includes these elements in the worship service it becomes more inspirational since it connects to elements of life that are common to our culture.

STEP 6: Recognize time constraints.

Every local church will develop its own worship culture as to what is an appropriate length of time for most worship services. Worship that inspires will therefore be worship that is planned to fit within the accepted time frames of the participants.

Part 1. RECOGNIZE

First Steps in Turnaround – Part 1. RECOGNIZE

Part 1. RECOGNIZE

This is the first part in a series which comes from the 2016 Turnaround 2020 Plan Book. A full version of this plan book is available by download at www.Turnaround2020.net or by hard copy from Congregational Ministries, 573-785-7746.

What Is Your Church’s Redemptive Potential?

Suppose your church became all that the Lord intended it to become? What might result? What is the full redemptive potential of a local church? Is it measured by attendance, programs, life transformation or some other metric?

A variety of factors impact the redemptive potential of any local church. Some of them are simple and practical. For example, megachurches are always found in large population centers. Villages do not contain the level of population to produce a megachurch.

Other factors are more complex and elusive. Craig Groeschel wrote a few years ago about having “It” and while sometimes “It” can be identified, it is often more obvious when “It” is missing.

In our Turnaround 2020 strategy we first take stock of the current reality. By recognizing where we are, we should be better able to chart where the Lord will lead us as we endeavor to become all that He intends us to become.

A. Church Life Cycles

Churches, like the people who comprise them, move through cycles in their existence. Some of these cycles a church moves through are life cycles. People are born, grow to maturity, then they age and die. Churches, too, are born and grow to maturity. Churches age. Some churches complete their life cycle and others discover new periods of growth and development.

Learning where a church is on its life cycle helps church leaders develop appropriate strategies. Learning life cycle status often provides a sense of urgency for church leaders as they plan for new cycles of growth and development to avoid the life cycle of decline. Life cycle may be measured by attitudes, chronology and comfort zone.

Because the life cycle is not always as predictable and smooth as many may think, it is important to avoid alarm over short periods of plateau or decline. The best possible advice for any church is to remain vigilant. Once a problem is spotted, ensure that all possible measures are taken to reverse decline before it leads to drop out and death. Continue reading

First Steps in Turnaround

First Steps in Turnaround – An Introduction

First Steps in Turnaround: Recognize, Organize, Mobilize

This is the first part in a series which comes from the 2016 Turnaround 2020 Plan Book written and compiled by Dr. Franklin R. Dumond, Director of Congregational Ministries. A full version of this plan book is available by download at www.Turnaround2020.net or by hard copy from Congregational Ministries, 573-785-7746.

I received an unusual combination Father’s Day/Birthday gift this year. The gift was a print out of plans for a new picnic table for the backyard along with the promise of assistance with the labor to construct the project. The plans had been selected based on seating capacity and the design features that would allow an umbrella to be placed in the center of the octagonal shape of the picnic table.

Investigating the plans for shaping rectangular boards into an octagonal pattern revealed a series of angled cuts and pocket holes for screws that seemed a bit complex but manageable. Further investigation of the size of the table and the amount of lumber included suggested that it would be heavy. Indeed, it appeared it would be very, very heavy. Since we planned to place the table in the backyard to take advantage of shade from our large pecan tree, it appeared that the very, very heavy table would need to be moved several times each year to mow the grass.

Evaluating the plans against our carpentry skills and with the notion of mobility in mind led us to scrap the elaborate octagonal shaped table in favor of a traditional rectangular picnic table.

Churches and their leaders who plan and work toward turnaround must use the same kind of process to discern the right plan to both take advantage of the human resources available in the congregation and reach the unchurched and dechurched population in the community.

Turnaround 2020 will assist General Baptist churches to discover and to achieve their full redemptive potential by the year 2020. Many participating churches will see significant increases in attendance. Others will double or triple in size as they realize the potential the Lord has placed before them. Still others will see revitalized programs and more effective ministries as a result of Turnaround 2020.

Turnaround 2020 - First StepsTurnaround, by simple definition, results in something different. Change can be awkward and frightening or it can be pleasant and rewarding. Undergirding our overall approach to turnaround in existing congregations are four core principles that will always show up in turnaround.

  1. An outward focus will be regained or intensified.
  2. Members will display responsible, high-expectation behavior.
  3. A clear discipleship process will be in place.
  4. Leadership and relational skills will constantly improve.

Continue reading