Yes, I know. Churches love their plans and worship series. They love everything following in sequence from one week to the next. People in general crave stability, with a hint of slight incremental changes.
Anyone that has been doing this for more than five minutes knows that in some situations, the appropriate move is to scrap the plan and improvise. You can have all these scenarios jotted down as much as you want, but there are some things you just can’t foresee.
Things such as:
- A member of your Worship Team/Choir dying
- A terrorist attack in your city
- A medical emergency in the congregation during worship
- Gunfire outside the building
- Sudden power outage
- The boiler going out in the middle of winter
- An inconvenient personal emergency
- EF4 Tornadoes
- KKK Rally
(I’ve been through all of these things.)
The point is that you can’t be so married to your plan that you divorce yourself from what is happening. If there is a terrorist attack in your city the night before, it may not be the best idea to open up your worship set with “O Happy Day.” (Yes, I know it is about Jesus washing away your sins, but still…) Sometimes the appropriate move is to respond to the (unspoken) needs of your congregation or even in the worship team.
Above all, remember the reason that you are there. Sometimes, you have to just dump the plan and go with a few regular standbys that everyone knows and don’t require a lot of work to put together.