Many Churches are using this time to try out new worship styles. It may be as simple as not always using the Apostle’s Creed. (There are other historic creeds such as the Nicene Creed that also affirm our faith.) Or it may be a new time for worship. Or it may be a switch from traditional to contemporary style.

Worship at its best is creative and dynamic. So let your worship team try out new ideas. Some might just stick and become a regular part of your worship services. Ask the congregation for feedback, either via online comments or surveys. And evaluate the results to identify what works and what doesn’t. Worship is in many ways a retelling of the Christian story. It doesn’t have to be dull and boring. It can be exciting and new, applicable to modern life just as much as 2,000 years ago. The Holy Spirit is still at work, building up the Church.

Many Churches are “live streaming” their worship services these days during the pandemic. This is the next best thing to the congregation actually being there. The variety of methodologies and web services supporting this is encouraging to see. Some make it easy. Others provide all of the bells and whistles for the Technical Ministry team to use.

The goal of Streaming Live worship is to make it as close to “being there” as possible. The Service should start and stop on time, although the ending is flexible. You can go over 15 minutes and probably not incur any additional charge. But if you drag on for an hour, you will likely lose your audience. So keep the length of the service within the bounds of what people in the congregation normally expect.

What technology is your Church using to stream live worship services?

How do you worship at home? The early Church always worshipped at home. They didn’t have Church buildings. The great cathedrals would come much later. And some have organized new Churches around the concept of a small group meeting in a home. Maybe that’s a good idea.

With the Coronavirus pandemic still underway, many Churches are providing worship services online. That allows us to still worship together, but it is hard to feel like you’re in worship. One alternative is to provide a multi-window screen, consisting of lots of people in a matrix format. This gives a sense of the fact that the streaming worship service is touching many people.

With a pandemic in progress, it will be challenging for congregations to continue holding worship services. Perhaps it is time to consider some Worship Alternatives.

The obvious alternative to consider is Live Streaming. This is where you hold the worship service with no one in the sanctuary. However, you broadcast the live video over the internet. This allows people to participate from their homes, or for that matter anywhere on a mobile phone. All they need is an Internet connection. While not quite the same as being there in person, it is a valid alternative. You’ll need to provide links to resources such as hymns and liturgy, either through email or chat. The Good News is that you can participate in the worship service through the stream. You can sing the same hymns, listen to the same sermon. The only thing you can’t do is hug or shake hands with other worshipers in the sanctuary (which might spread the virus). I would recommend that you hug your family instead.

Another alternative is to have the preacher record the sermon and distribute it via the Church web site. Likely you already have the sermons online in some form, either as video or audio files. This would just abbreviate the process, maybe recording the sermon in their office instead of the sanctuary. That way, people will be able to listen to the sermon at home via the Church Web Site. All they need is an Internet connection.

Speaking as one who has listened at home during a long illness, I can attest to the importance of providing these alternatives. In my case, the Tech Team recorded the sermon on CD and brought me a copy every week. Although I could not go to Church, I could still worship. If you provide access to the whole service via streaming, then your remote worshipers will also hear the same announcements, see the people, etc. The Church is the body of Christ wherever and however it worships! (1 Cor 12:27)

Many Churches use a Wireless LAN for their staff. This allows the staff to roam with their laptops. If the physical plant is large, then this may require multiple transmitters and/or repeaters. The staff sign in via their laptop and have full access to the Internet, Network Printers, online files, etc. In many ways, this is a typical arrangement for IT installations.

What about Sunday mornings? Should the WiFi be enabled at all? There is at least one Church who is inviting their worshipers to use WiFi networking during the service. They provide worship enhancements that people can access on their laptops and/or cell phones. The idea is to add to the worship experience, not take away from it. What do you think?

Ours is a world filled with Technological Power. We see it everywhere, use it in our daily lives, and applaud the latest developments of Tech. However, we need to remember that the source of that power lies not within ourselves; all knowledge comes from God. So we don’t need to worship technology; we worship the living God who has given us all good things – including technology.

When we recognize that technology is another gift that God has given us, we put it in the right perspective. The technology presents us with new challenges, not an absence of God. The Church has encountered those challenges, sometimes with obstinance, sometimes with wisdom. At our best, we should be making use of the technology to spread the Gospel further, to reach more people, and to enhance the message so that more people listen. When we do that, we are using Technological Power to enhance ministry. And that is perhaps the best way to use it after all.

Everyone seems to be security conscious these days. And you even have to be concerned about security in the Church – of all places! Because our doors are open to the public, anyone can walk in. And that means the sinners and the criminals get to come in the door. With all of the news lately about incidents within the Church, you need a security policy. And the support staff needs a certain amount of training in handling security situations. Here is one article on designing such a policy:

Drawing the Line on Danger

The article shares some practical ideas about how to handle those with malevolent intentions who show up at Church.

Modern megachurches are dependent on technology. Any time you gather more than a hundred people together, you need some sort of technology to enhance worship. At the very least, you need an audio system, so that everyone can hear the sermon. Ideally, you should be able to hear the Word clearly in every seat – i.e. even in the back of the balcony. In addition to that, most megachurches offer video screens. Typically, this shows the lyrics for the songs, so no one needs a hymnal. But it can also show the preacher in a way that everyone can see clearly – i.e. IMAG. For those at the back of the room, this helps them follow the sermon. However, now we have moved into video technology; cameras, switchers, video projectors, and one or more video screens. And with the video, it becomes possible to show video clips as illustrations, announcements, and points of transition in the service. The technology allows the congregation to literally go anywhere; e.g. you could easily show Jerusalem’s wailing wall during a sermon about the Temple. And other types of technology lie on the horizon, awaiting development. The possibilities are limitless.

However, with the technology comes a dependence. What happens if the electricity goes out because of a storm at 3:00 AM on Sunday? If the service is held, the preacher may be preaching by candlelight. There needs to be a fall back position; e.g. a generator to run at least some lights and the sound system. And if you can’t show IMAG, can a battery powered camera at least record the sermon? You could then put the sermon on the Church’s web site for those who couldn’t come because of the storm’s damage. And a satellite congregation may have to resort to listening to an extemporaneous sermon by the local pastor.

We worship a big God, and we are blessed with technology to enhance that worship. But we need to make sure that we think through the issues of our dependence on that technology. That doesn’t mean we reject the technology and go back to smaller congregations. It does mean that we understand our priorities for using the technology should we encounter issues. Sunday worship will go on, but we may have to fall back to a different technical configuration on various occasions. We need to be prepared to do that, rather than panic at the circumstance.

What does it take to televise the worship service? One might think that all you need are a couple of video cameras and a link to the television station, but there is more to it than that. The standard for broadcast TV is so high that it is hard to match without a million dollar’s worth of equipment. And the quality has to be there for the service to be widely accepted.

One church that I was involved with had an ideal situation. They had captured the local access channel, ensuring them an audience. They could show their worship services live every Sunday. However, they also had to provide programming 10 hours a day – 7 days a week. So they got the equipment and ran a television studio out of the church! During the day they broadcast family oriented programming. On Sundays and Wednesdays, they broadcast their worship services. And this was largely run by volunteers – teenagers at that. It just goes to show the creativity and talent of the local church.

Scheduling staff is usually taken care of via internal calendars or event management systems (i.e. EMS). But how do you schedule volunteers? Why not devise a calendar system on the Church web site that would let volunteers schedule themselves for various tasks. You would assign each volunteer a set of roles, e.g. sound technician. They could then look at the calendar and pick the days that they are available to run sound in worship. The calendar system would then keep track of the fact that they had volunteered to run the sound desk on a particular date. If they needed to change, the system would allow them to drop that commitment of time and post the task back to the available tasks pool. Another volunteer trained in sound could then volunteer online to take their place. You might need a hot list of items that were coming up, so that volunteers accessing the calendar would see what was most needed. Overall, this would take care of scheduling volunteers for technical ministry tasks automatically.

Does such a system exist? Perhaps, but it would need to be flexible and role based. If you know of such a system, then please comment below so that others can discover it.

Every worship service utilizes lyrics – i.e. words that the congregation is expected to sing, speak or read silently. This is typically shown via a video projector on one or more screens. But who determines the content of these slides? And what is the process whereby that content is generated every week for worship? And how do you ensure high quality in this presentation?

Overall, the worship service is the responsibility of the minister, so the minister will certainly have input to the lyrics for the service. This may take the form of Bible verses and/or creeds. Slides containing the Bible verses that are read or referenced should always be shown. Slides containing the liturgy should always match the bulletin. Other slides may contain creeds or statements of faith. Some slides may be used to make points or provide illustrations to the sermon. The minister will determine the scriptures and the translations involved. The words may even be shown in multiple languages – e.g. Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, Latin, ….

Typically, the minister delegates the music to a music director or director of worship. The music director will then have input to the praise and singing in the service. This may take the form of congregational hymns, choir anthems, or solos. The music director also determines the music, but only the lyrics are typically projected. (Technology exists for showing sheet music, but this is usually only applicable to the musicians.) Slides for this part of the service should always include the lyrics that the congregation is expected to sing. If there is a screen setup so that only the choir can see it, then the lyrics to the anthem may also be viewed. This helps the choir look up from their music books and out towards the congregation.

The process of generating worship lyrics needs to be well defined. After all, the Church will use this process 52 weeks a year. One person on the technical ministry team – i.e. an editor – will be responsible for generating the worship lyric slides. They should receive input from the minister, music director, and anyone responsible for the bulletin. The style and content of the bulletin should match the worship slides, right down to using the same Bible translation for scriptures that are going to be read. There should be a defined sequence of steps involved in this process. Here is one example of that sequence:

• Minister plans the worship service in advance, setting the theme, scriptures, and points to support the sermon.
• Music director plans the music for the worship service, setting the songs and the specific variations to be played. For a hymn, you might have a selection of verses.
• Bulletin source is prepared, setting the content for the bulletin.
• Technical ministry team receives input from the minister, music director, and publisher of the bulletin. There should be a hard deadline for this – i.e. well before Sunday morning!
• Editor prepares the set of slides to be shown during the worship service. This takes time, but it can leverage the content from previous worship services.
• Editor publishes a draft of the slides for this coming Sunday.This should be in the final sequence, just as they would be projected on Sunday morning.
• Slides are reviewed by all parties concerned. Any exceptions are reported to the editor.
• Slides are delivered to the sanctuary control room on Friday at noon for presentation on Sunday morning.

The slides should always be reviewed by multiple eyes. One editor will tend to overlook certain issues; and you don’t want them showing up on Sunday morning, when they will be difficult to fix. The slide presentation software should catch typographical errors – i.e. be sure to run the spelling checker, for you can expect that somebody in the congregation will be an English teacher. The reviewers should look for quality issues – e.g. the transposition of slides in a music verse. The review process should seek to add polish to the finished presentation, not provide an opportunity to make lots of changes. IMHO, getting the whole process done by Friday noon is critical to having a slide presentation on Sunday that is high quality.

One could think of this process as a collaborative one. You could even agree to publish the prepared slides on the Church’s intranet so that they can be reviewed online. Given the weekly timeframe of preparing for worship this Sunday, this would avoid having to wait for eMail comments to circulate. Worship Presentation Software should support this process, not hinder it.

May worship always be focused on reverence and awe – Hebrews 12:28.

How do you light up the sanctuary for worship? If you have video cameras, then you need lots of light. If you have musicians, then they need light on their music. If you just have a congregation and a preacher, then any lighting will do.

Video cameras require a lot of lighting to get a great picture. If you’re using IMAG, then you need a great picture, so you probably have stage lighting installed. To get a great picture, you need consistent, white light on every spot of the stage. That can be difficult to achieve – i.e. getting the lighting even everywhere the preacher goes during a sermon. And you will find that controlling the lighting can also be a full time job for a volunteer or staff person. Worship is a very dynamic environment, so the lighting has to change to match the action. The lighting should set the focal point, whether it be the preacher or the soloist in the choir loft. This helps people to focus on the Word or praise.

No, I’m not referring to Paul’s dramatic conversion on the Road to Damascus Acts 22:6. Rather, I want to consider lighting in the sanctuary where there are video cameras. The cameras need a lot of light in order to generate a good picture. Typically, that means stage lighting is needed. Now stage lighting is an art in itself, and well covered elsewhere, but what does it do to worship to have all of that wattage? Does it make it harder for the legally blind to see? And does it affect the worship service?

I think it has an impact. Specifically, those who are on stage can easily feel like they have been blinded by the lights. This reduces the connection between people on the stage, e.g. the pastor, and the congregation. If the pastor can’t see them, because of the glare of the video lights, then the pastor can’t tell from their faces whether the Word is getting across or not. This can be a problem for a pastor. What do you think? Do you have stage lighting in your sanctuary? And how do you use it?