All Conversations Tagged 'cwtu' - Creative Worship Tour

Week 15: Conclusion

2009-06-03T01:59:25.535Z

Congratulations, you've just made history as part of the first graduating class at CWTU. Over the last 14 weeks I hope you've learned something about the foundations of creative worship. I hope this course got you thinking about the basics: about vision, team, process and evaluation. Most importantly, I hope you learned something you can now apply where you work and serve.

I am currently exploring a few different options for the second course at CWTU that will likely launch in late June or July. In the mean time, it would be really helpful if you would take a second and respond to our course evaluation survey by clicking this link. On the evaluation form you can also share your thoughts on the next course to be offered.

Josh
josh [dot] linman [at] augsburgfortress.org

Week 13: What Questions To Ask?

2009-05-20T02:49:14.760Z

Last week we finished talking about the Process in creative worship. If you missed one of the lessons, just head here to find the complete list.

This week we are starting our final section and for the last two lessons we will be talking about evaluations. Evaluations are critical if you want to take your worship experiences to the next level and continue to give your best to God. I wanted to start today by sharing 4 questions from Richard Webb that you might consider asking in your evaluation process.

To recap:
1) Do Guests/Members Experience An Active Welcome?
2) Do They Experience A Safe and Shame Free Environment?
3) Is The Truth and Love of Jesus Shared?
4) Is the experience transformative?

What questions do you ask?

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Week 10: Asking The Right Questions

2009-04-29T01:18:53.286Z

Last week we talked about keeping all our creative elements focused on the message, on the Word, and I gave you some initial questions to work with. This week I want to share another set of questions used for the same purpose at Summit Church down in Orlando. Andy Simonds, Summit's Creative Director explains:

Watch in the video library.

Knowing the right questions to ask, having a process and being intentional in your planning process is something I've blogged about before (here and here). It's actually one of the most consistent things I think I've seen from church to church.

Like I've said before, creativity doesn't happen on accident. You've got to ask the right questions or else you'll end up creating a video or singing a song that drives home a completely different message than the sermon and the exponential power that happens when creative elements align is lost.

Bring It Home
Take a second and think through a recent message series and try to identify the "What?", "So what?" and "Now what?" answers. If you're really cool, you would post your answers below when you are done ;-)

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Week 9: Remember Your Focus

2009-04-21T23:54:18.009Z

A while back I was reading Richard Webb's blog post and one thing he wrote stuck out to me me: "When the pieces of a worship service don’t hold well together the power of the overall worship experience is weakened."

Let me put this another way, have you ever tried to have a conversation with a friend at a concert or in a big crowd at a football game. It's pretty hard to concentrate on what your friend is saying with all the extra noise.

The same thing goes for worship. Every Sunday we are trying to have a conversation with people through the message. Creative elements (music, drama, media, etc.) can either drive home that message or they can just be another member of the crowd, distracting the very people you’re trying to communicate with.

So how do we make sure the pieces of our worship hold well together and support (not distract from) our overall message?

One place to start is by making sure you know what your pastor's message is going to be about. And I'm not just talking a title and scripture verse...we all know scripture can be interpreted in many different ways.

The following questions are from Heritage Church in Rock Island, Illinois. Each time they meet to plan worship, they have the teaching pastor answer these questions so the rest of the creative team can have a better understanding of the message and can plan music, media and other elements that will support and not distract from it.

1. Theme What is the subject of the sermon?
2. Who is your target audience? To what aspect of our lives are you speaking?
3. Insight Both biblical and extra-biblical proof of your argument.
4. Key Persuasion The one idea you want us to walk away with.
(download the whole Brainstorming Worksheet here: Service Brainstorming Worksheet.pdf)

For Discussion:
What other questions would you add to this list? Do you think you could get your pastor to answer these questions (before the weekend)?
For More:
Check out my previous post on Planning.

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Week 8: Structured Creativity

2009-04-15T05:19:44.685Z

Over the past two months we’ve been talking about two of the four main foundations for creative worship: vision and team. For the next five weeks we will be looking at the process surrounding creative worship.

Today we are going to start with a quote that I heard in one of my very first interviews for the Creative Worship Tour. My first stop was Jacob’s Well, a young church plant in Minneapolis. While I was there I captured this segment from Greg Meyer, their lead pastor:

Listen to this line one more time: “Creativity works best when it has both time and structure. Unstructured creativity is chaos.”

Creativity doesn't happen on accident. Yes, you may get lucky every now and again but the only way to sustain creativity week in and week out is to give yourself time and structure a.k.a give yourself a process to work through.

For Jacob’s Well, it was the Big Idea team feeding the Creative Arts team with some general information and this guideline: “Anything works as long as it feeds into this...” (i.e. this theme, verse, felt need, desired outcome)

What is your current process? Good or bad, write it down. Hold on to that and in the coming weeks we will evaluate your process and figure out how to improve and refine it.

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Week 7: Nurturing Relationships

2009-04-01T17:10:38.994Z

Nurturing strong relationships on your creative team is vital. Sure we usually get along with the people and volunteers we work with but what about taking that one step further. Watch this video from Heritage Church in Rock Island, IL:

How can you nurture the relationships with your creative team members? Take some time to eat together. Go out to a movie together. Do things that will help lower barriers and allow people to talk and share more freely.

What have you done in the last month to nurture relationships on your team? What conflicts and disagreements might be hindering the relationships on your team?

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Week 6: Fostering A Creative Environment

2009-03-24T23:30:06.180Z

So now that you have some ideas for what your team could look like, the next thing to figure out is how to grow and develop a creative environment.

Back in December I asked Andy Simonds of Summit Church these questions focused around fostering a creative environment: What is the greatest aide to creativity? What is the greatest hindrance to creativity? Here are his answers:

Suspending Judgement on a Idea
Andy Simond's answer to the question: What is the greatest aid to creativity?

We Don't Do it That Way
Andy Simond's answer to the question: What is the greatest hindrance to creativity?

What are your answers?

Does your creative process or group atmosphere allow for the free sharing of these kind of ideas? Have you developed relationships that will foster an environment free of judgement? Do you let the "What If?" questions run their course before cutting them simply because you've never done it that way?

Other Factors to consider when trying to foster a creative environment:
Meeting Location: get out of the office or place you normally work from
Time: Make it the first meeting of the day, long enough to develop ideas but not so long that the ADD people in the group start freaking out

What did I miss? What helps your creativity?

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Week 5: Team Make-Up (People and Purpose)

2009-03-16T18:06:33.608Z

Last week we talked about developing your game plan for creative worship and figuring out what major shifts you might have to take to overcome obstacles in your way.

This week we are going to look at the make-up of the planning teams at Ginghamsburg, Summit and Jacob’s Well.

Name: Ginghamsburg Church
Location: Tipp City, OH
Attendance: 4000
Team(s): 2 (Creative Design Team, Worship Design Team)
People Involved: 7-9
Roles: Preaching Pastor, Graphic Designer, Video Producer, Creative Director, Music Director, Worship Leader(s)
Description: The Creative Design Team meets each week to brainstorm ideas for upcoming events and worship gatherings. On Wednesday the Worship Design Team meets to listen to a rough outline of the message (with scripture and main points) and then brainstorm song, video,graphic and other creative ideas. There is a smaller meeting on Fridays to hear a more polished version of the message and review the weekends creative elements. Watch Mike Slaughter share his Wednesday message outline with the team.

Advantage: Hearing almost a complete message on Wednesday minimizes the likelihood that creative elements will not line up with the message.
Disadvantage: Only having 3 days with a clear understanding of the message topic doesn’t give you much time to get a volunteer crew together for a video shoot, find actors for a drama, finding the right music, etc.

Name: Summit Church
Location: Orlando, FL
Attendance: around 1000 (I think)
Team(s): 1 (Worship Planning Team)
People Involved: about 8
Roles: Communications, Small Groups, Lead Pastor, Executive Pastor, First Impressions, Video, Music, Creative Director
Description: Summit’s planning model is unique because they not only include worship, creative and preaching people but other ministry areas as well. The whole team meets on Tuesdays for a few hours to discuss the previous weekend, talk through the upcoming weekend and then spend some time brainstorming the following weekend, the next series or other upcoming special events.
Advantage/Disadvantage: Andy Simonds discusses them in this video.

Name: Jacob’s Well
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Attendance: around 250
Team(s): 2 (Big Idea Team, Creative Arts Team)
People Involved: about 8
Roles: Pastor, Worship Leader, Children’s Ministry, Intern, Church members
Description: Watch Greg Meyer explain the planning timeline, process and team in this video. Another unique part of Jacob’s Well’s process was the fact they brought new people into the planning process every once and a while.

Advantage: The process is well defined and everyone involved is given the two things necessary to succeed: time and focus (i.e. an idea of where the message is going). New faces add different perspectives and bring fresh ideas to the table.
Disadvantage: Planning 10-12 weeks in advance can be a huge shift for many pastors and may seem undoable at first, the increased time to be creative and plan will be a huge blessing for the rest of the planning team.

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Week 4: Developing Your Game Plan

2009-03-10T21:42:19.977Z

You can’t just magically start to be creative in worship. As I’m sure you’ve discovered, the game plan and process for making worship creative looks much different from what has been taught and done in years past.

Whether it is the planning timeline, the number of people involved in planning, the execution of the worship gathering or the time you take to evaluate things, creative worship takes a huge shift in mindset and culture to be pulled off effectively.

Today, we want to help you take the first step in developing your game plan and understand the need to shift your mindset and the mindset of your church so that creative worship can happen.

Let’s start by watching Scott Hodge talk his ideas of the pendulum of change:

Small changes in your process, planning or the like will not result in an effective and lasting shift to more creative worship.

Maybe you have a staff person who is not buying into the vision you are lifting up for being more creative in worship. The radical shift might be letting that person go.

Maybe you’re a pastor that has been planning worship alone for years and is hesitant to allow others to be involved in the process. The radical shift might mean making someone else the leader of the new planning team and only be at the meetings to share your vision for the message.

Maybe you are part of a church that has been worshipping the same way for 80 years and you have come to the realization that you are no longer reaching your community but comforting your membership. The radical shift might be closing your doors and relaunching with a new name, a different vision and a new set of leaders. (Check out how Scott Hodge got involved at Orchard Valley here.)

Brainstorm:
What are your greatest obstacles to being more creative in worship?
What major shifts might you need to make in order to overcome those obstacles?

I hope these first four weeks have helped you focus your “Why?” answers, solidify your vision for creative worship, understand the importance of team planning and realize that you might have to make some radical shifts in order to make creativity stick.

Next Week:
We are starting our section on teams and will be looking at the make-up (in terms of people and purpose) of the worship planning teams at Ginghamsburg, Summit and Jacob’s Well.

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Week 3: The Importance Of Team

2009-03-04T13:35:06.530Z

If you want to do creative worship, you've got to plan as a team. Think about this:

The boring church plans worship in silos. Each element is crafted separately with little guidance or collaboration from other worship staff or volunteers. The worship leader doesn't know what the video will look like, the pastor doesn't know the worship sets, etc.

The creative church plans worship in collaboration. Elements are crafted to compliment one another and individual team members look to each other for guidance and direction.

The boring church worship leader doesn't like to take song ideas from the media person.

The creative church worship leader appreciates the ideas and differing viewpoints of the media person.

The boring church pastor doesn't start thinking about their message until Saturday night.

The creative church pastor can share the theme, scripture and big idea atleast 2-3 weeks in advance.

Worship planning teams were being used at almost every church I have visited for the CWT. There were different team make-ups and timelines but each one understood the huge benefit of planning worship as a team.

In a team environment you can challenge each other, sharpen each others ideas, communicate more immediately with each other and most importantly have a lot more fun than you would on your own.

Action Questions:
What does your current planning set-up look like?
What is keeping you from planning as a team?
Who are 3-6 people you think would be a good fit for a worship planning team?

Starting in two weeks we will go more in-depth into this topic by looking at different team models, what kind of people need to be on your team and also learning some basic but essential practices for working as a team, building relationships and fostering creativity.

Next Week:
With a better understanding of what creative worship is, how to answer the "Why?" question and why team worship planning is important, next week we will take some time to help each of us develop a game plan for taking the next steps in doing creative worship. (click here to view the whole syllabus.)

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