Leadership Journal

Churches that worship well don't do so by accident. These pastors have found intentional ways to train people to give God what he is due.

In our worship folder, we have a section titled "Preparing for Worship." We give the text for the message the following week and the particular attribute of God that will be the theme for the service.

We hope people will read the text and begin to contemplate that particular attribute of God. We might give the page number in the pew Bible and say, "Look up this story and think about how God promised to deliver and how he came through."

And then almost every week we'll personalize it with a couple of reflection questions: "How have you experienced God's hope (or promise, or purity, or love? or … )?"

I preach five or so felt-need series each year, and a week or two in advance we put an insert in the worship folder that lays out the messages.

We do this so people can prepare in two ways: (1) they prepare themselves for worship, and (2) they can prepare by thinking of a neighbor or a work colleague they can invite.

Our approach to worship follows the model of Psalm 96, declaring God's praises among the nations. We want to worship God conscious of doing it in front of people who don't know Christ personally so that they can see our worship and be drawn to God.

Our mission statement says, "As God's family we want to worship him well in all we do, develop people by building disciples, and grow by reaching people outside his family."

So right in our mission statement we say that creative worship is a central part of our entire mission as a church. We say, "worship well in all we do" because our mission is far more than worship services. We want to help people so meet God on a Sunday that all week long they are inspired to live for him in the way they handle an out-of-control 13 year old, or how they handle a boss who is demeaning. We put that mission statement in every worship folder.

—John Casey

We planted this church about two years ago, targeting a multi-ethnic audience. Our people are generally young adults, and most are fairly well-versed in modern technology. One of our first investments was a video projector to help us develop a contemporary worship atmosphere. Often, we use a multimedia presentation at the beginning of the service that relates to the sermon topic.

We try to use technology to simplify and communicate. We believe that computers, projectors, etc. allow us the freedom to communicate truth in creative ways. Our visual aids during worship are usually simple, symbolic images to invite people to focus on God. That can be important in a setting like ours, a high school auditorium.

During the week we inform our people of the upcoming sermon topic and events via e-mail. Recently we've added an e-mail prayer chain so that our prayer team can promptly pray for prayer requests.

We teach people to come early to the worship service with a sense of reverence, to ...