Leading Change and Transition in Worship

Worship is seeing a lot of change and transition. Most of this is from more traditional to more contemporary. Often these changes face a lot of resistance and sometimes all out war. Here are some ways to make the change and transitions from traditional to more contemporary worship smoother:

• First, pray and make sure you are considering the change for the right reason. Just because someone else has done it and has seen success, it doesn’t mean your church will. Study your situation and see if your church is receptive to making some changes.
• Study the demographics of your churches field and see if the changes you are considering will meet the needs of your community.
• Have a committee that is representative of the makeup of your church to study the needs of the church and community.
• Make changes gradually by inclusion not exclusion.
• Try a model service to demonstrate to the church how a contemporary service would look and feel. If you are going to start a contemporary service with a praise team, etc, make sure you have everything in place. The expectations of a contemporary service are very high in the eyes of those attending.
• Consider an alternate day, like Saturday evening.
• Be sure to promote it well. Remember, this is not like the movie, “Field of Dreams.” Just because you build it, it doesn’t guarantee they will come.