As a Christian I find it very difficult to get all my spiritual food on one Sunday morning service each week. If I relied on one forty-minute message a week to grow and be all that God would have me be, I would more than likely fall far short! There is no way a pastor can help me get there once a week with forty minutes of food. How much truer is this of worship? We don't get the pulpit for forty minutes a week to teach worship. Sometimes we have thirty minutes, and during that time we are supposed to be worshiping as well. We need more venues and times to teach our people worship.
What can we do to teach our people worship outside of our weekly services? What resources are available to educate our people? Let's look at a few ways we can offer studies or seminars to help our people grow.
After years of leading and teaching worship in the churches I have served, I decided to do something totally revolutionary. I brought in someone who knew more about worship than I did. What a concept! I am kidding, of course, but it's something that we don't always think about. To be honest, it is a little humbling because we don't want our people thinking that we don't know everything there is to know about worship. I brought in a guy who was right on target with what I was trying to teach our people, and it helped. He came in for a training session with our worship leadership, and then preached to our people on Sunday morning. It was a huge win for the worship ministry. He was able to say everything I had been saying all along, the difference being that he brought a different style to his communication. Our people are now one step further along than before he came.
Secondly, I decided to write a study guide for our people that would help them understand true biblical worship, and also help them become better worshipers. It has been a great tool for those who have gone through it, but not everyone will take the time to complete the study. We are just finishing a CD to go along with our philosophy of worship for our people. It's more than just a worship CD, because it helps communicate what worship is as well. This will be a great tool for us as we continue to seek out new ways to enable others to learn more about worship. We are committed to developing a worship tool from every media venue to aid us in our efforts to teach worship.
Is your pastor willing to preach a series on worship? If he is, this can be one of your best tools because if your pastor is behind your vision for worship, the people will follow much quicker and easier. If your pastor is not behind it, you may be in for a very long haul. Be creative in how you teach worship. Use the gifts of your people to help in the efforts of communicating. We have a woman in our church who is a great writer and has developed a devotional for worship. It is an awesome tool to help others learn about worship.
Our hearts desire is that everyone will at least have the opportunity to learn more about worship and become better worshipers. We will continue to seek out new ways to help in this process. It would be most difficult to use only the short time we have each week to help our people along in this wonderful experience of worship. Continue to teach and then watch as they grow. It may be slow, but with God's help and moving, it will come. Pray, pray, pray.
Experiencing Worship, The Study