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VITAL REVITALIZATION: Turning a Traditional service into a Blended service
Here are some ideas for turning your Traditional Service into a Blended service that will enable you to attract new families.
The blended service I put together for Caliente Community UMC, has been well received. The church had a Traditional service when I arrived in July. We now have a blended service with a good balance of HYMNS and CONTEMPORARY WORSHIP music. I use my Liturgist for The SCRIPTURE READINGS and PREPARING FOR WORSHIP RESPONSES. Multimedia is now used throughout the service, using film clips and music in my presentation of the messages.
Below, I touch on the main areas of a typical service I do. I have made notes under each area
In how I present these. You may do all of these, or none. I just thought they may be new to some of you and might give you some new ideas in how to present some of these areas in a different way.
THE PRESENTATION OF YOUR MESSAGE
Everything in the room should try to reflect what your message is about.
This helps keep your people focused.
SONGS (Hymns and Contemporary Music, special music)
Think about the things they will see, hear and touch.
Banners
Decorations
Handouts they take home
Videos
object lessons
dramas
testimonies
Bulletins
Greeting to one another
Interactive participation
MESSAGE
My messages are relevant to today’s issues.
My goal is to help people understand how much they need a relationship with God.
I have a wide range of ages that attend. I do a simple one point sermon.
I try to have some way for people to respond to the message. Since this church is not use to alter calls, and they are more conservative in their worship, I usually do this either through media (emotionally) or with an action on their part. This engages them in the message physically and helps them in remembering what the message is asking them to step forward in.
I may ask them to come to the alter and take something or leave something.
Or have them write something, say something or hold something during prayer.
This allows them to act out their response. And this connects them to the message spiritually.
We recently had some prayer benches made. I have these out during Communion. They are an option for people to use after the have communion. So far, they have been well received and used!
The main reason I use media in my messages, is that it gives me more ways to present the point I’m making. People are all different. They respond differently to what they see, hear, taste and smell. I have found that even when the older generations first question the use of video clips, they soon find themselves emotionally engaged when they can personally relate to it. Media creates an emotional reaction. And when I can get people to experience an emotional reaction, I have an open door into their hearts with God’s love. The walls start coming down and their need of God begins to surface more. As you well know, your message has a better opportunity to enter an open heart of need. And media and music stirs the heart.
KEEP THE FLOW OF WORSHIP GOING
Many times services will start into worship and then stop everything by doing announcements or children’s moments’ right in the middle of worship!
This kills the momentum and the flow of the spirit.
We usually do our celebrations and all announcements at the very beginning, before we PREPARE FOR WORSHIP.
We begin worship with one song and then greet one another with a phrase I have them to say to each other. The phrase relates to my message.
This is a great ice breaker and everyone is up and ready to enter into PRAISE.
Then we do three more songs. Ending with a prayer that prepares everyone’s hearts for centering on God.
Try to keep your worship together. We begin with Contemporary worship.
First two songs: PRAISE AND CELEBRATION SONGS (the outer courts praise)
Last two songs: MORE PERSONAL and DEVOTIONAL WORSHIP into the Throne room (the inner courtyard)
HYMNS
I use 2 Hymns in the service.
One HYMN after the SCRIPTURE READING just before the SERMON,
Unless we have special music.
The other HYMN is just before the SHARING OUR CONCERNS
We will have a closing song just before BLESSINGS/BENEDICTION.
(many times we will repeat one of the newer songs we sung at the beginning of service)
On the Hymns, I let everyone know that they can also use the Hymnals
If they prefer. The Name and the Hymn number is on the opening screen.
PREPARING FOR WORSHIP
Printed in the bulletin and on the screen.
TIME OF SHARING OUR CONCERNS
We share concerns, and then we pause for a time of lifting these concerns in prayer. During this time, there is music in the background. Then I have a Pastoral Prayer and we end with the Lord ’s Prayer.
THE LORD’S PRAYER
I have the Lord ’s Prayer printed in the bulletin and on the screen.
SCRIPTURE READING
Liturgist reads from the screen and congregation’s response is also on screen.
PRAYER AND REFLECTION
I pray with music in the background. Sometimes I will use a short Video or create one that pertains to the message they just heard.
PREPARE FOR COMMUNION REFLECTION
I look for something reflective like a WORSHIP MUSIC VIDEO or a MINI VIDEO SHORT that will keep the momentum of the theme of the message continuing throughout the service, and how this connects with communion.
COMMMUNION
Our communion is simple, we do not read out of the Hymnals. I will usually talk about communion, bringing the message into it somehow. As I present the bread and the cup, my words are reflective and I speak with music in the background. The presentation of communion may change depending on the Sunday. (special days, etc.) We recently did a ”bread of life” Communion, which involved a cross made out of large rolls of bread loafs. This was very meaningful to the congregation. I will be posting a video on how I made this on our website this month.
HERE ARE SOME IDEAS AND RESOURCES ON DIFFERENT MUSIC APPLICATIONS THAT MAY BE HELPFUL FOR YOUR SERVICE
NO MULTI MEDIA (MUSIC ONLY)
If you don’t have multimedia, the simplest way to have some kind of worship music for singing would be to use a CD player.
This has been the cheapest way I’ve found for music only.
You can download just the music from AMAZON.COM. Or order a CD.
This will allow you to have music for people to sing with or have a soloist or a small choir sing with it.
NO PIANO PLAYER
We have a 3 piece worship band. Presently, I have no piano player for Hymns, so I found an excellent resource called WORSHIP SERVICE RESOURCES. If you go to AMAZON.COM and select the MP3 Downloads, you can download a Hymn for 99 cents! Type in WORSHIP SERVICE RESOURCES and about 5 albums will come up. A good amount of these are in our Hymnals. Another one is PRAISE HYMN TRACKS.
The piano on these recordings are of decent quality.
NO LIVE BAND
Now, if you don’t have a worship band, may I suggest doing the opposite. Go to AMAZON MP3 Download for Your Contemporary music.
Type in WORSHIP TRACKS. A whole list of Contemporary praise worship tracks will come up. Another one is ULTIMATE TRACKS.
And you can download them for 99 cents each.
MULTIMEDIA PRESENTATIONS
I use MEDIA SHOUT 4 for my worship service presentations. This is powerful software that needs a powerful laptop to run it. And I have used POWERPOINT in a few churches.
If you have access to multimedia software, USE IT. Learn the basics. I taught myself Media Shout. Whatever program you have, as a pastor, learn to use it. If someone does your presentations, make a point to have them teach you the basics. Technologies are here to stay. And the more a Pastor knows, the more resources you have to reach todays generation.
If you don’t have a multimedia access, then a good start would be to get a 26” to 55” TV (flat screen is best) If you don’t have the money, a 26” to 32” TV works just as well, especially if you can get one donated! But it needs to be able to have hook up for a DVD player.
You can download or purchase a DVD of WORSHIP MUSIC VIDEOS, SERMON STARTERS AND MINI MOVIE SHORTS and some even have HYMNS with the words, from websites like;
These sites all have great selections of media for sermons and Worship Music Videos that you can use (until you get a band together).
And if you’re looking for some excellent Christian drama skits, these 2 sites are great! They also have the skits to download if you have a drama team.
I hope some of these ideas may be helpful to you in some way.
Please visit www.calientecommunityumc.com
If you click on the PASTOR TERESA tab, there is a link to
My personal website. If you go there, I have many pictures and more
Ideas for churches. I will be adding more there soon on things you can do
For service and creative ideas for your sermons.
Blessings,
Pastor Teresa Adams
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