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Seven Reasons to Be Hopeful About Worship in 2010
The best is yet to come, but our recent past taught us what we needed to know…

Most of the pain for churches last year centered around not having enough money to meet budget expectations. This is a source of anxiety in almost any year, but 2009 was particularly stressful because 90% of our congregants were on the ropes financially. Some churches even found themselves down for the count. Is this boxing analogy appropriate. Well, if you were one of the churches left with a black eye last year, you know the answer.

Worship departments always feel the financial pinch in huge ways. Budget slashing often begins with Missions and Music. It's just like a school district caught by State cuts—the arts are often the first to go! But, there turns out to be some good news here as well!

My colleagues from around the country have been sharing their stories with me of profound discoveries in this calendar year just past. Here's a list of some of the things they have discovered.

We learned that…

People are always willing to help. "My point-of-view has always been that our parishioners would rather write a check than volunteer to help. I was wrong. In the face of hard economic times, people flocked to paint sets, run sound boards, join the choir, plant vegetables gardens in the dividers of our parking lot, and help each other by doing whatever it takes to make a difference." (This particular church win included over 50 men helping single moms by trading cars with them for a week, taking the ladies cars home, and fixing them up to be safer and prettier.)

It's good to sing the old songs. "When we were told we couldn't spend any money on new music in 2009, I was really bummed. Our culture demands new, New, NEW, but I couldn't provide my congregation with "new" without violating every IP law in the country. So, we decided to have a retrospective of our church's musical heritage. Every week we paraded beautiful songs from our history past a blissful congregation. They absolutely loved it!"

Less is more. "'My band is better that your band' has become a way of life in churches in my neighborhood. We compete for loud, more contemporary, and tricked out special effects in our worship services. The money to compete was gone all of a sudden. To make a bad economy even worse this past year, a fire took out our gym while our sanctuary was being re-built, so we ended up worshipping in a store front across the street. It held 150 people at a time, so we had 3 services every Sunday instead of just one. Not only that, there was absolutely no room for the band in this venue. But, we had the time of our lives! Every week during worship we passed out rhythm instruments to the congregation and the place rocked (and even rolled a couple of times) with party-ish excitement. What a great year and what a great celebration!"

Less than perfection is forgivable. "My teachers taught me that excellence in worship is vital. To this day, I still believe that. However, when our church "right-sized" our budget I found myself having to do the same job with a lot less help from professionals. I can't tell you how many people came to me and said that our services were sweeter, more accessible, and more beautiful than they had ever been. They were never quite able to figure out why, but I secretly knew. We stressed "sincere" above "perfect" and came up with heart. I learned a very valuable lesson which will forever change my leadership.

Nothing feels as wonderful as a good cry. "Have you ever watched a really good Christmas movie like It's a Wonderful Life and just had a really, really good cry? This past year, instead of hiring guest speakers for the pulpit and retreats, we had members of our church just tell their stories. Talk about a good, therapeutic cry—we had dozens of them!

Gratitude beats grumbling every time. "This past year there was some reluctance to keep asking for money from people who couldn't make their mortgage payments. So, we decided to have people talk about little and big things in their lives that made them grateful. The outpouring of genuine gratitude had a positive affect on our congregation. For the first time in five years, we came within $100 of our budget."

The needier we are, the easier it is to worship. "When I was in school I loved rainy days because they forced us to entertain ourselves during recess and most of my teachers were pretty clever entertainers. This year at our church it felt like one big financial rainy day. As it turns out, our worship seemed to be more sincere and emotional because we seemed more focused on the One we worship. It was great to stay in the classroom, because recess is sometimes very distracting.  :-)"

Good stuff!

Blessings

Doug 

—Doug Lawrence, internationally recognized speaker, author, and advisor, helps churches assess and improve their skillfulness in creating engaging worship experiences by utilizing his more than 35 years of "deep trench" worship leadership in prominent mainline churches. You may reach him at dlawrenceconsult@mac.com. Or, if you wish, call 1-650-207-8240 for assessment information and scheduling.