Production Blog- Worship vs Concert

There has been a huge stink about this lately in the bloggosphere. Is it a concert or worship service. Are we there to Entertain people or connect with God? Apparently Sunday morning is either a worship service or a concert. From everything that I read there is no room for middle ground in some people minds. Look my pastor's heart is for us to be a church that is comfortable enough so that people who have never been to church or people who have been burned by church can come in and feel welcome and connected from the second they step into the door. I also know that he wants to see people who are seasoned followers able to worship their Lord in our services. I know that our Creative Arts Pastor wants to teach new Christ followers how to worship. We are not big enough yet to have more than one service a week, so how do you do all three of those things in one worship service? I think it all has to do with balance, presentation and communication. I pray with my production team before every service and every time I pray that we focus less on what we are doing and more on worshiping God (and hopefully we are good enough to not screw it up). There is nothing wrong (in my opinion) with playing a tasteful main stream song in a service (if it has a point). Even if that point is just to connect with someone. You just have to be sure that it is in the right place in your service. The way I see it you play a secular song or an up beat song first. Get people clapping, having a good time, feeling connected and then you ease them into the slower, more thought provoking songs. That is what I mean by balance. You start with a song that connects with a wide range of people and ease it down form there. So it is not a shock to the system or a complete turn off to those new to your crowd. Let me stop here and say that if everything leading up to that first song is not set up to make the person feel welcome and comfortable then you have already lost the battle, no matter what music you play.

Next week I will discuss what I think about communication and presentation.