About Me
- Joe Garrison
- Fishers, IN, United States
Director of Contemporary Worship and Assistant Director of Student Ministries at Castleton United Methodist Church in Indianapols, IN. Husband,Guitarist,and Drummer
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
What Makes a Good Worship Service?
Over the last five or so months I have been helping to launch a Saturday Evening Contemporary Service called "Renovate". We started off to a strong reception right off the bat. Over the first few months we were averaging between 60 and 70 attendees with little to no advertising at all. We have consistently had at least one new person to the church attend this service each week. That alone has been impressive with no outside advertising being done.The past month or so attendance has really dropped and we have realized that we aren't retaining many of these new people. So the obvious question is...WHY?
I have been going over that in my head again and again. Is it the music (for which I have control over)? Is it the sermon? Is it the time and day? Is it the environment? So many questions and variables as to why things have slowed down.
So in the last couple of weeks we have begun our advertising campaign. We began by doing some facebook "pay per click" advertisements that have reached thousands of people, we have erected two large yard banners on 71st street and Shadeland avenue. We will be plastering posters all over local college campuses and different locations around the immediate area. We will also be doing some targeted mailings.
As we begin to do all of this advertising we also want to hear from you all. What draws you to a contemporary worship service? What things do you expect out of a contemporary worship service? Are there new things you'd love to see done at a service like this?
If you have attended Renovate go to our Facebook page (link on the right hand side of my blog) and click on the "Feedback" tab at the top. There you will find a few questions you can answer to help us improve on the service and get some new ideas.
Leave comments here or feel free to go over to the facebook page and post on the wall or on the feedback tab. Thanks!
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2 comments:
Joe, I'll bet every pastor would like to know that same answer. Was it something I said or did? Just keep doing what God calls you to do and it will all work out according to his plans.
Anonymous, Thanks for taking a minute to read and comment.
I'm sure you're right. It's almost an unanswerable question. Everyone has a different opinion and the only thing that matters is what God thinks of our worship.
At the same time, I think a lot of us would concede that we feel so strongly about the way WE are doing things that sometimes we misconstrue what God calls us to do for what WE want to do, or think will work.
Sometimes maybe it doesn't hurt to turn to the body of Christ and say, "hey, where do you feel God calling us?"
While ministry shouldn't hinge on the comments/complaints of others, sometimes it's good to "check" yourself by getting the views of fellow Christians, and of course taking it back to Scripture to make sure we are aligned with that first.
Thanks again for the comment and reminder that only one thing matters.
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