My Weekly Worship Planning
Everyone has a different approach when organizing their Sunday worship services. Some aspects of the service may be the same from week to week, but it’s important for the worship leader to try to sculpt each Sunday to be a new and refreshing service. We should be looking to leading the congregation in discipleship through corporate worship. This is a personal breakdown of what a week may look like for me.
Monday:
This is usually known as a rest day. Usually after a Sunday of playing keys and leading vocals you can feel a little wiped out the following day. If you are a full-time ministry musician Monday could be your Saturday, but if you are a part-time worship leader Monday still feels pretty Monday-ish.
Tuesday:
On Tuesday if I haven’t already placed the songs on Planning Center, the songs, stems, and their appropriate keys will be posted. I’m personally a fan of making the set list all connect with the same general keys. I’m a big fan of worship medleys. I don’t really like when the congregation claps in between a song because, to me, that makes it feel like a performance. I would rather them stay engaged with the theme of the topic, so I will likely end the first two songs on the IV (4th note of the scale) so that there is a feeling or anticipation that something is it going to happen rather than end.
Also, on Tuesday I make sure any or all stems that I use for Ableton are posted. It’s important for the band to be able to practice with what they’ll be hearing on Sunday. Although we may use purchased pre-made backing tracks, I often make custom backing tracks because of the medleys that we like to sing. It’s more work making your own custom, but it helps to give a church a unique sound that belongs specifically to them.
Wednesday:
Wednesday is a rehearsal day. This is where I can really see if there are any minor tweaks or adjustments we need to make to the music before singing on Sunday. Wednesday is a good time to find out if we’re singing in the right key. When I say singing in the right key it’s not necessarily meaning for the worship leader, but are we singing in a good key for the church. Often times what causes lack of engagement is not our song selection, the quality of our music, or our energy, It’s usually the key being too high or too low.
Wednesday is also a great time to make sure you have your transitions from song the song sounding clean. It’s easy to play around on a keyboard singing a song thinking it sounds great…until you have everyone plugged in and the band sounds like a hot mess transitioning from song the song. I’ve learned to keep the transition simple but interesting. That keeps the congregation engaged and the band from getting bored of playing the same four chords.
Thursday:
This is where I really try to narrow down the scriptures, I’ve been studying to what will be read during the church service. I think it is important to have scripture reading during the time of musical worship, but you don’t want to over-saturate that time with something everyone can’t do at the same time; which is reading. It’s important to remember that in corporate worship our goal is to get everyone involved and participating. By no means am I saying try to read less scripture in a service, but to read a long chapter a scripture with no congregation participation may cause others to lose their focus and concentration on this time of corporate worship. It’s about placement.
Friday:
Make sure all the information on Planning Center is complete and ready to go for Sunday. I make sure I’ve given all the tracks full run-throughs and listen to make sure that everything is ready for Sunday. Lastly, I make sure everyone who is supposed to be on platform is aware what their role is on Sunday and what their role isn’t.
Saturday:
I will make sure I rest my ears and get away from the service and the music. At this point I realized it’s really easy to overthink it. So, I don’t. Don’t stress yourself out.
Sunday:
I plan the early morning run through with no elaborate changes but possibly slight tweaking. Overall, I make sure that the band and praise team are walking in with the right heart and understanding that through all this preparation our goal is to honor God not put on a show.
When 9 a.m. hits start the click and go bananas for Christ.
