Drive Thru Ashes
There are certain times of year when people — even those who rarely step foot inside a church — feel a spiritual longing for the…
Browsing: Worship
Articles
10 Best Practice Tips for Hospitality Teams
Fiona Haworth and Jim Ozier, authors of Clip-In: Risking Hospitality in Your Church, offer ten tips for improving the work of your hospitality team and…
Christmas Eve Opportunities for Newcomers
I have discovered over the last several years a surprising source of energy in the preparations for our church’s Christmas Eve worship service. Relative newcomers…
A Choir Director Shares Recruiting Tips that Any Ministry Group Can Use
Some people like to recite a phrase “it’s not the size of the choir, but the heart of the people participating” that matters. This sounds…
The Color of Your Advent Candles Doesn’t Matter
I have no patience for debates over the color of Advent candles and whether or not to sing Christmas songs in Advent. God became incarnate,…
Music — the Bellwether of Church Health
After air quality, music is the single greatest environmental factor for your community, because it determines how people feel in your church. It has the power…
Why Community Engagement Matters
This five-minute video by Lewis Center Director Lovett H. Weems, Jr., provides an overview of the importance of community engagement to the church. Download this…
Worship from the Eyes of a Child
To make worship more family friendly, you might look at it through the eyes of a child. Ask other ministers and church leaders what they…
A Love Letter to a Closed Church
You walk up the concrete steps between the tall white columns. You try the door. It doesn’t open. You try again. It is locked. It’s…
What’s Wrong With This Picture?
Last summer I joined a large group of extended family and friends at the beach. There were, on and off, about twenty-five to thirty of…
The First Two Minutes of Worship
For many years, my wife and I were regular viewers of “The Tonight Show” — first with Johnny Carson, then with Jay Leno. We have…
Doing a Christmas Eve Offering Well
In our culture, Christmas is a season of giving when church-goers and non-church-goers alike are inclined toward generosity. I witnessed a Christmas Eve service in which…
Add Off-Site Christmas Eve Services This Year
Rev. Mack Strange suggests conducting off-site Christmas Eve services at restaurants, nursing homes, prisons, and even bars to connect with the community. Many churches know…
Connect Community Events to Worship
For years, Harvest Church hosted a community-wide dodgeball event for teenagers. We advertised it well, and hundreds of kids participated. The winners got cool prizes…
The Ten Minute Rule
The first impression guests leave with determines whether they will be back. So what is it that goes into a good first impression? We interviewed…
Considering the Context of Worship
When I was appointed to pastor a new church start, I began to dream of what “my” new church would look like. By the time…
The Missing Person in Worship Planning
Every congregation begins as an outwardly-focused group of believers, intent on reaching out to those with whom they want to share the Gospel message. Without…
Worship as Mission
When congregations and their leaders think about worship or about mission, it often appears that they think of the two as compartmentalized and entirely separate…
Forging More Collaborative Relationships between Clergy and Musicians
In all of the churches where I have worshiped and worked, the core ministry team is the same — the pastor and the musicians —…
Worshiping at Two Vital Congregations
Readers of Leading Ideas are familiar with the Lewis Center’s focus on the church’s challenge to “reach more people, younger people, and more diverse people.”…
The Sunday Everything Went Wrong
Building credibility took time in my current congregation. I followed a well-respected pastor, and I had fewer years of experience than my predecessors. It is…
A Win-Win Worship Debate
A disconnect developed in the historic African Methodist Episcopal Church I serve between older and younger people around worship styles. While the median age in…
What about People Who Attend but Don’t Join?
In recent years, I have heard from many pastors who say that they are seeing an increase in the number of worshipers who attend their…
Why I go to Church
When I sit in church on Sunday mornings, I sometimes look around at the other congregants and ask myself, “Why are these people here? Why…
Opening Doors on Christmas Eve
When our two grandsons were seven and three years old, they would often race the thirty yards or so from their house to ours. The…
Leaders Learn the Art of Making Announcements
Making announcements? Whether it’s at your service, meeting, or event, there are things you should know about people if you want them to hear what…
How Do New People See Your Church?
With all the strengths of a church, the challenge is always to think of everything from arrival through departure from the perspective of someone who…
Don’t Go It Alone When Changing Worship
When I arrived two years ago at Redondo Beach, I was told that there were three very different worship services: one informal, one contemporary, and…
Planning for Attendance Seasons in the Church Year
We are used to thinking of the seasons of the Christian year such as Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, Lent. There are also attendance seasons that follow…
Key Questions When Starting a Live Stream of Worship Online
In North America, many denominations have declined in worship attendance and membership for decades. Some churches have closed; others have fewer people attending. Over these…
