Seven Ideas You Can Use To Keep Your Worship Service Fresh

Imagine a situation in which everything you touch, smell, and see is brand new and fresh. Go ahead an take a few moments and experience this place in your mind. Now isn’t that refreshing? When you worship it should be fresh and exciting as possible. This article will explore several ideas you can use to make your worship service more fresh and exciting. Here is the first idea.

1) Tempo Variation

The tempo of songs relates to the speed in which they are performed. A song can be slow or it can be fast. The thing you want to avoid is playing all songs at the same tempo. The ears and the mind will get fatigued if every songs is at the same tempo. You must create variety from one song to the next. You may start out with a moderate tempo song and move toward a fast uplifting song then transition to a slower tempo song. The tempo variations can be either abrupt for emphasis or subtle. The key is to create a certain level of variety.

2) Dynamics

Dynamics is the volume or intensity in which the songs are performed. You can play one song really loud, strong and forceful then transition to a soft quiet song. You could do the verse of a song very softly and then do the chorus with greater volume. Changing the dynamics of the music give the listener and participant a chance to avoid boredom.

3) Song Flow

There are many ways in which you can transition from one song to the next.You can segue. This is where one song blends into the next song without any pauses in between. You can brings a song to a final ending, then pause fora moment then begin a new song. You may even take time to say something,pray or even recite a pertinent bible verse. Again the key is to apply variety in the transition from song to song.

4) Memorize (avoid the paper shuffle)

I would strongly suggest that everyone on your music team memorize their parts. One of the most distracting things is where music minister is shuffling papers between songs. When you stop to change pages you interrupt the flow of songs. You interrupt the connection between you and the people you serve.Your focus is diverted from God to changing the page. You become less effective as a worship leader. The added benefit is that you can stop focusing on the page and start focusing on the Spirit of God.

5) Being lead by the Holy Spirit

What I want to illustrate to you in the idea of being led by the Holy Spirit is this. During your service you feel a prompting to do a particular song at a particular time. Let me state that it is very important to plan and prepare for your music service. But there are times when as the leader you are called by God to do a song that is not on the song list. This can be a tricky situation especially if you are part of a group. But if everyone is in one accord God will be glorified. The thing to remember is to be ready willing and prepared to be lead by the Holy Spirit. After all it is God whom you desire to worship. He will definitely speak to you. One would hope that He would. anyway

6) Song Selection

One of the best way to avoid boredom in your worship service is though the selection of songs. Each song should build upon the next. If your songs are related to a specific topic try to build to that topic. God is mufti-faceted. His music to his people should reflect his will. God can show us about a particular topic in many different ways. The thing to avoid is to have every song with the same exact message as the previous song. Like a good story that leads you to a final destination so should the song you select for your congregation. Many song books and hymnals provide you with topical indexes.Use them to help build a repertoire of songs.

7) Changing Keys.

I once heard a story about a famous opera singer that was gifted with a five octave range. Absolutely incredible. She was working on a song in the studio when she asked the musician’s to try another key. She was uncomfortable in the key that the song was being done in. The musician were somewhat flabbergasted that this talented singer was having trouble with the key.Her response when something like this. “You can do a song in any key but not every song sound good in every key.” Please avoid doing to many songs in the same key. Don’t be a “Johnny One Note”. This is perhaps the epitome of the Chinese Water Torture at its best. It get very tiring to the ears.Again you must remember the goal of this section is to find ideas that create variety that creates freshness in the way and sound of the music. This will make your ministry much more effective. You should learn to transpose songs.You may find that a different key works better with the voice in your group.

Now remember to keep it fresh

The worse thing you can do is to not keep your worship fresh. When you think of fruit or vegetables you like to have them as fresh as possible. This is when they taste the best and give the greatest amount of nutrition. On the other hand fruit that is not fresh is usually spoiled. When you minister to the people you serve please keep it fresh. Use the ideas in this article to stimulate ideas on how you can keep the music and ministry fresh.

RESOURCE BOX

This article is an excerpt for the new book by John Pape, Jr titled “Building a House of Worship” For more information on how you can get your copy of this book go to…

http://www.buildingahouseofworship.com