Tuesday, December 13, 2005
Intro to Christian Worship 2: Collaborative Worship Planning
On our second day of class, Howard Vanderwell led us in a discussion of collaborative worship planning. We began with historical perspective. Rev. Vanderwell recounted the 1960s, where the church he pastored repeated the same liturgy every week. Four hymns were inserted weekly with a new doxology changed once each year. Since then, worship planning involves many more people – preachers, musicians, artists, lay worship planners, and countless others. Reflecting on his work as a pastor, he made the case for collaborative worship planning.
“Collaboration is the deep investment of every person involved,” said Vanderwell. “What comes out is the genuine product of everybody.” Collaboration honors the gifts of members of the congregation and draws people in.
It also provides the congregation with a healthier variety in worship services. “A congregation is going to hurt if only one heart works on those worship services,” he said.
Collaboration also brings better balance. “The planning team should not be the place where worship wars are fought,” Vanderwell said. “There ought to be a continuity of understanding what worship is. There ought to be balance between what is expected and created, what is formal and what is spontaneous… and a group of people can far better accomplish this than one individual or pastor.” It also provides greater integration “between liturgy and the sermon, between word and music, between readings and song.”
Working collaboratively also stimulates learning and growth. “One plus one does not equal two; one plus one equals four, five, sometimes six.” This kind of exponential learning ought to characterize worship planning.
Vanderwell also acknowledged that worship planning doesn’t work that easily. Personality and work style differ. Some members of planning teams may hold incompatible views on a basic theology of worship or style of music. Destructive work habits can also stall the work of any team, and vibrant worship planning cannot happen in an environment of hostile relationships.
What are congregations to do? Vanderwell provides four models that might work better, depending on the congregation. For example, a smaller church might work better with a team comprised of only a pastor and a volunteer musician. A larger church might incorporate more staff members. Other churches adopt a worship planning team that is accountable to a worship committee. Still others might use a team comprised entirely of volunteers that meets weekly or monthly.
Whatever model churches use, Vanderwell stressed that the pastor ought to remain an integral part of the worship planning. “The pastor should never walk away from worship planning. That’s an abdication of responsibility.”
Additional Resources:
- Designing Worship Together by Howard Vanderwell and Norma deWaal Malefyt:
Info/Supplementary Resources/Sample Chapter/Feature Story
- More Worship Planning Resources from CICW
- Calvin Symposium on Worship 2006: Thursday seminar, “Renewing Worship: A Day for Those Who Plan and Lead Worship,” led by Tom Schwanda, with Thomas G. Long, keynote speaker, and Norma deWaal Malefyt, Jacqui Lewis, Martin Tel, and Howard Vanderwell. January 26, 2006. Registration
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