Ideas For Planning A Worship Night At Your Small Church

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During the course of a regular Sunday gathering, the time of worship can sometimes be seen, even by the most faithful of Christians, as merely a preliminary portion of the service to be gotten through rather than a purposeful and impactful time of connection with The Lord to be deeply valued.

One great way we can help people to grow in their understanding of (and love for) this time in our gatherings is to create an evening of worship with the sole purpose of helping people to truly bask in the glory of God without any sense of ‘what’s next’ or anticipation of ‘moving on’. Now, that’s easier said than done when creating something from scratch so let’s look at the benefits of this effort and talk about some ideas for planning a worship night that will work for your congregation! 

Why You Should Consider Having An Evening Of Worship

When we think of worship events we might call to mind massive screens and lighting arrays with intricately planned media and huge thingamabobs hanging from the ceiling in a Cirque Du Soleil fashion that all took months of planning and a larger than we’d like to think about budget to accomplish, but whatever your style, size of church, or age of congregation – it doesn’t have to be elaborate or outlandish when you are ready to create your own.

Go as big as you’d like to, but know that the end results will be the same if you keep the Holy Spirit at the center of it all. You will bless the heart of God. You will facilitate communion between God and man through a night of lavishing love on the Lord. You will encourage growth in this area within your congregation. 

The Goal Of A Gathering Centered Around Worship

The goal of a gathering centered around worship is to encourage, and example, a pouring out of self before the Lord while allowing Him to fill us full and overflowing with His Spirit. On any given Sunday morning a worship leader and worship team have just a short time and a very limited number of songs to get people out of their internally focused headspace and into the presence of God Almighty, a tall order for anyone.

In a gathering that is completely focused on worshiping the Lord we have the liberty to truly take our time on that journey and see people gain a stronger grasp of what God can do in us and through us as we worship Him. 

A Few Tips For Planning A Worship Night In A Meaningful Way

1. Change Things Up…A Little

Whether your routine worship experiences are 20 minutes or 60 minutes, boisterous or mellow, super structured or go with the flow – it’s a good plan to change things up a little while still staying true to your culture as a church.

The slight change from the norm will help people stay away from the ‘what’s next’ mentality that easily sets in for the Sunday gathering, but keeping the same style of music overall, for instance, can help bring some sense of familiarity to what’s happening. A worship event can be a terrific opportunity to introduce a couple of new songs to your congregation, though, as they are going into the evening with little expectations in all likelihood.

Keeping your congregation enough in their comfort zone to encourage engagement is important, but changing the duration, set list, and even the physical environment a bit can invite people to enjoy what’s new over thinking about what’s next. Changing the physical environment doesn’t have to mean turning the church upside down for a shock factor. It can be as small as moving where the worship team sings from or dimming the lights in the room if they are always on high.

You can bring up people who aren’t usually involved in the worship time of your service to do a reading of God’s Word or share a relevant testimony that lines up with your musical focus of the evening. You can utilize your youth or children in the church who might not normally sing to participate in the worship. Whatever you feel is appropriate, with the blessing of your pastor, change things up a little and you may just find things that will also benefit your weekend worship experience on a regular basis! 

2. Make Worship, Not Performance, The Priority

Excellence is a good thing. We all know that bringing the Lord the best we have to offer Him matters. King David, in the Scriptures, said ‘I cannot offer that which costs me nothing’. We understand the value in not offering our God less than our all, so please don’t hear what I’m not saying. Practice, be prepared, pour over details, have a flow of organization for the worship event you put together, but remember that worship is the reason for the gathering.

It’s not pats on the back, public praise, the showing of talent, or getting to do things your way that brings us to hold an evening of worship. It’s a desire for growth in our worship as a church, a desire to glorify our Creator, a desire to connect people with their Savior in an intimate setting. We cannot allow a focus on self and how well we plan, execute, or perform to creep in and get in the way. We have to keep Jesus at the center. We have to love God and love people in what we do because Jesus said that everything else hangs on these two things.

When we do this, when we focus on lavishing love on the Lord and loving people into His presence then we will see people leave our church building having experienced God’s love in a way they may never have done so before. Isn’t that what we are all here for? To help people find Jesus and follow Him more fully? Let your worship event be that connect point and not a platform of self-promotion. 

3. Advertise, But Don’t Exploit

Ever had a club, team, or business try so hard to sell you on their own awesomeness that you were uncomfortable? Probably more than you would like to admit! Don’t work to oversell your assembly during the worship gathering. A worship event can be an amazing way for people who are looking for a home church to check out your church and congregation in a low-key setting. Let it be a low-key setting.

Advertise your event to your community and encourage your church members to invite their friends, family, and coworkers to attend. When the gathering takes place, though, don’t let there be an overwhelming sense of ‘We got you in the door, now you can’t leave until we convince you to regularly attend our church!’ Instead, just be the wonderful church that someone would desire to be a part of and offer a gentle opportunity to have them connect with a host or greeter if they would like more information about your regular gatherings.

Be who God has built your church to be and let people gain a sense of your identity as you put your focus on worshiping the Lord. You will accomplish far more in creating a great reputation in your community by being welcoming rather than pressuring, every single time. Advertise, but don’t exploit the opportunity. 

Don’t Forget Your Main Focus

Ultimately, all events you host as a church are trial and error. At every event you have, you will find some things you love and want to do again as well as some things that didn’t quite work as intended and could be left off of the agenda the next time around. Know this in advance and don’t stress about perfection. With a worship event, you have so much liberty to make it your own and love the Lord as a Body of Christ with one heart and one mind.

The beauty of a worship event is this – as long as you aren’t contradicting scripture, there is no wrong way to worship the Lord. Worship Him in the beauty of His holiness. Do it in song (old or new), do it in Word, do it in art, do it in sign, do it in different languages. Just do it! Worship isn’t just someone sitting on a stage singing a song. Worship is the pouring out of hearts in the presence of God. Lead people into heartfelt and genuine worship and your event will be a success! 

Anyone Can Have A Great Worship Event

The last thing I want to remind you of is this – having a great worship event is not dependent upon having a large budget, any previous experience in leading one, or even having more than five or ten people in attendance. Our God inhabits the praises of His people. It doesn’t cost a dime to worship the Lord, everyone starts somewhere, and where even two or three are gathered in His name – He is there in the midst of them. Create your event from your heart, as unto the Lord, and watch it bless both His heart and your church. 

Read More:

Different Ways To Worship God And Why They’re All Important 

Thoughts To Share With Your Worship Team 

Worship Leading In Small Churches: 4 Keys To Wake Up Your Worship