Planning meaningful and dynamic worship requires that worship leaders always be thinking both within their specific context as well as within the framework of Lutheran identity. Good worship always contextualizes the mission of God (Missio Dei).
Natural Church Development identifies inspiring worship as one of the necessary components of a healthy church. In order to understand what "inspiring" means in your community will require some dialogue and reflection. This quality characteristic is closely related to passionate spirituality, another vital component. The key is to think in terms of the experiential. That is, what will help the worshippers to enter into a place where they will encounter a meaningful and authentic experience of God in their midst?
Instead of looking for easy answers and quick fixes, ask the important questions and grow a vision for worship that is authentic to your community of faith:
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One thing learned in the research leading to Natural Church Development is that it's not about “the style.” It's about how well the worship is done: planned, lead and shared. Further, it's about whether or not the worship expresses genuine hunger for an experience of God's presence. If you are thinking along the lines of “if we just did a contemporary service, got some guitars, lost the liturgy, did more praise songs (fill in the if only of your choice here) then folks would be beating down our door,” you don't get it.
And remember this: no worship service, however well it's done will bring people in your door. People inviting other people is what brings people in the door! One of the most important planning questions you can ask is this, “How many times and in how many ways are your congregation members inviting those in the community to which you are called in mission?”
-Debra Loudin-McCann, 2006
The opinions expressed on this website are solely those of the authors
and do not necessarily reflect any opinions held by the NTNL Synod or the ELCA.