Let me contrast two church services I attended recently.
One was incredibly meaningful. The first part of the service clearly seemed headed in a certain direction. But, I wasn’t sure exactly where until the pastor gave his sermon. Then all the elements of the service came together in a remarkable way. When the sermon was over, there was still about 15 minutes of service time remaining. And, each of the closing parts fit what was going on like a glove. I was deeply touched and thought about the morning repeatedly until I felt I had processed everything in a most satisfying way, including making some life changes.
The other service was quite frustrating. To begin with, the sermon lacked direction. It’s not that the speaker hadn’t worked on his message. My wife commented that it was his text that killed him. In other words, he tried to say too much about too many things. After a while, I fear most of his listeners had given up on him. Because of this flow, the service itself lacked any kind of direction. It went on a number of different paths, and toward the end I was just hoping it would get over. In reflection, I can think of only one part that had lasting meaning, but only as a dangling idea. And, until now I hadn’t thought about anything from that morning a second time.
The point is that good service-planning requires a clear understanding about the subject of the minister’s sermon and the response that sermon calls for. I don’t care if it’s a contemporary service or one that’s traditional, free-floating or liturgical—not connecting the parts of a service so worshipers can follow what’s happening is ridiculous.
The impact of a good Sunday sermon is greatly amplified by the surrounding service-elements that complement what is being said. And, pity the poor individual in charge of planning a Sunday service who has no idea of what the sermon is about!
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