One great weakness in church worship today is that pastors have entirely given up the planning of services to musicians. This wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing if the musicians worked with the pastors, and there is certainly benefit to the input of musicians regarding the hymns and other music within a service. But without pastoral direction and leadership in this area, worship services often have little observable order, especially when the music chosen has no direct relationship to other elements in the service – especially the sermon.
Some pastors, however, are actively involved in planning the worship services, or at least help their musicians plan the music to fit with the message.
One such pastor is Steve Thomas. Pastor Thomas pastors Huron Baptist Church in Flat Rock, MI. I offer here the documents he gave his musicians well before he began a preaching series through the book of James. This kind of thing certainly takes work and planning. But putting the time into these kinds of resources will help your worship be more unified and orderly.
Thomas – memo re James series (Word doc)
Thomas – James exegetical outline
Thomas – James homiletical summary
Thomas – James sermon schedule
About Scott Aniol
Scott Aniol is the founder and Executive Director of Religious Affections Ministries. He is director of doctoral worship studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, where he teaches courses in ministry, worship, hymnology, aesthetics, culture, and philosophy. He is the author of Worship in Song: A Biblical Approach to Music and Worship, Sound Worship: A Guide to Making Musical Choices in a Noisy World, and By the Waters of Babylon: Worship in a Post-Christian Culture, and speaks around the country in churches and conferences. He is an elder in his church in Fort Worth, TX where he resides with his wife and four children. Views posted here are his own and not necessarily those of his employer.
