Stage 2: Preparation

We covered “Explanation” in Stage 1, because it starts the process of all the steps. Now that you have shared “why” you are doing a service, it’s time for “Preparation.”

This is where details are nailed down and signed off on by those in charge. Once that happens, then prayer, set building, music selection, charts, rehearsals, lighting cues, volunteer recruitment, sermon prep, and many more activities can begin.

No one can be allowed to regularly “wing it” and claim creative license. Yes, the Holy Spirit leads, but that’s not an excuse for procrastination or lack of preparation. In fact, I Corinthians 14:40 talks about doing things “decently and in order.” If you are striving for clarity and excellence, then 99% of the time – details should be discussed and worked through ahead of time.

Preparation provides a sense of calm throughout the team and during the service itself.

Musicians aren’t frantically trying to keep up from song to song – wondering about the key, tempo changes, entrances, or just how this whole thing is going to wrap up.
The tech person helping to run slides for announcements or the message can calmly make the upcoming transition and not be chasing the next slide all over the keyboard.
Ushers know where to be when and exactly what’s expected as they receive the offering, offer handouts to the congregation, or open and close auditorium doors.
When the worship leader or speaker does feel the need to “call an audible” everything else will continue to run smoothly and people can easily follow their lead. Since the rest of the service has been planned and not haphazard, they will easily be able to make this adjustment.

This is a great opportunity for the senior pastor / primary teacher to lead the way. If they turn in the outline, notes, ideas and also work on creative thoughts ahead of time, it not only helps for planning purposes and makes the overall service more effective and congruent, but they have now set the example for the rest of the team to plan and prepare.

One of the best tools for planning and preparing the weekend service details is an online tool called Planning Center. Not only are the monthly plans reasonable, they also offer a free 30 day trial and a free plan as well.

Some of the features include:

Interactive order of service for months in advance – it can be adjusted in seconds without retyping
Sheet music and mp3s of songs
Contact info for team members
A scheduling tool that invites people to “accept” or “decline” when they are asked to serve
Desktop and mobile access

These are all helpful elements of www.planningcenteronline.com

One significant step that makes all of the necessary preparations work together is to establish someone as the “owner” of the weekend services at your church.

Sometimes this is the senior leader or music director / worship leader. More important than this person’s position or title is the fact that they need to be good at the details.
It can be one of the people with “stage talents” of music or speaking, but more than a great platform presence, they truly need to love planning, thinking through all that needs done, developing systems, and ultimately keeping everyone on task.
Early on, as you are adding these stages to your culture, perhaps it does make sense for a pastoral staff member or a music person to lead this effort. But as you grow, you’ll definitely want platform people developing their platform skills, and administrative people flourishing in the areas of planning out the details.

Let me assume you’ve identified that person who “owns” the service, and speak for a few moments directly to them.

As your team embraces the preparation stage, you’ll eventually find yourselves working on several weekends during each work week. For example, you need to be focused on the upcoming weekend for sure, but you also need to be paying attention to:

Scheduling songs 4-6 weeks out to work-in new songs and to systematically repeat favorites
Developing videos that need purchased or created in-house
Building stage sets / recruiting a construction team
Talking through specific weekly sermon topics with the speaking pastor
Telling someone’s life change story live during a service (don’t wing these…)
Deciding what events to announce from the platform or in the handout / on the screens
Recruiting the teams to pull off several weeks of services

All of these are areas of focus for next week, next month, Christmas, Easter, baptism, communion, fall kickoff, and on and on.

See what I mean? It will take someone who loves planning out the details to succeed in this role!

Hopefully we are all seeing that these elements cannot be dreamed up, prepared for, rehearsed with the team, and then done well on stage if you start fresh every week with a blank canvas. You need to prepare way ahead of time and nail down the details so that everyone knows and can be ready.

You should have deadlines for everything.

Let me say it again.

You should have deadlines for everything.

This isn’t to say that deadlines cannot be adjusted for your team’s style, but consider:

Music teams should have advance warning – whether it’s Planning Center or a Word document – of what songs you’ll be doing at rehearsal. They should have access to sheet music, charts, and a demo to hear and work with before they arrive. To accomplish this, worship leaders or music producers need a deadline of when all their ideas need turned in. This allows you to document the details, communicate with the team, and if necessary – recruit specific team members to help carry this out.
The pastor that is speaking needs to understand what it takes to produce their sermon notes as a handout, how a slide presentation is developed that follows their live sermon, and how you plan to provide any creative elements they are planning to use. I’m not suggesting that they need taken through every point of your process, but if they expect to wait until Saturday evening to share any of their thoughts with you, then your team will be limited in what they can do from a quality standpoint.
Pastors want their sermon to reach people and be used by God to move hearts and bring about change. As you set deadlines and expectations, most pastors will adjust – mainly because they can see the positive result of having everything planned out and will want to do all they can to work with the team. Even if they take a while to come around, they probably will respect your efforts to hone in on the details and to make the services as effective and prepared as they possibly can be.
Remember, that pastors are usually pretty near the top of the “food chain” as in - they are your boss. So, as you approach them, you need to stand strong and have reasons for what you are asking them to conform to from a planning standpoint, but be careful in your approach. Talk it through by sharing examples of why “winging it” will produce varied results and frustrate team members, but planning, praying, and communicating the details actually increase the chances that people want to serve and that the message actually gets through.
Ideally, all service elements need to be rehearsed in a “run-through” style rehearsal with full music, sound, video and lights. This experience gives teams the opportunity to make tweaks before people are actually in the seats. If possible, include greetings, announcements, closings and even sermon elements. You’ll need to develop what style works for your ministry, but it is usually best to have a rehearsal during the week, and then come back together the day of the service to do your actual run-through.

If you have enjoyed the efforts of a high performing sports team, a well-done theater production, or an airline flight from one city to the next – there is a high probability that the elements were thought through, communicated and rehearsed. Then when you “watched” or participated in the actual event, most of it went smoothly and had a lasting effect.

The opposite could also be said. A team that is inconsistent in wins / losses, a musical that has several stops and starts, or a flight with frustrated passengers could be a result of the details not being planned for ahead of time.

Which impression do you want your services to consistently leave on those that attend – either regularly or as a guest?

Yes, mistakes happen, and occasionally it’s better to go “off” script. But most of the time – you will not be sorry that you made preparation a value on your team.

Your services will improve, your volunteers and staff will feel valued, your congregation will be more likely to invite guests, and the message will be presented in a way that truly allows people the space to respond. You can do it!

Steve RouseJuly 23, 2018