6/20 Tour Update - Connie Stella

Hey everybody, Josh Linman coming to you from Leawood, Kansas home of the United Methodist Church of the Resurrection.

This weekend I am interviewing 8 people from the production, creative and musical ends of the worship spectrum at COR. For starters, I wanted to share the FlipVideo question I asked Connie Stella, "What do creative leaders need to be thinking about today?" See what she said.

I think her last point about the benefits of series based preaching is especially note worthy. She mentioned that Sunday comes at the same time each week whether we like it or not. I think that constant pressure to put out 52+ worship experiences a year can be a huge drain and a very daunting task that scares many people away from trying to be creative. Have you experienced this?

So if you begin to plan by series you can escape a little of that weekly pressure trap by focusing on developing creative elements around the big idea of a series and communicating that through a common element (music, video, stage design, etc.) each week of that series instead of re-inventing the wheel week after week.

Maybe that means making the stage look like a greek theater complete with Corinthian columns (like COR is doing for their series on 1 Corinthians). They put the time into setting up the stage just once for the whole 6 week series instead of decorating it differently each week.

Maybe it means going out and shooting "man on the street" style interviews for a series about important issues of the day like global warming and poverty. You would just have to go out and spend one day asking people their opinions on each of the issues you want to cover and then would have enough footage from their answers to create an intro to each weeks message. You wouldn't have to go out on a video shoot each week, you'd just do that once. You wouldn't have to develop a new format or style, they would be the same each week.

I'd be interested to know how you plan messages at your church. Is it lectionary based? Series based? A mix? How have you found ways to lessen the pressure of putting out new material and new creative ideas week after week?

Share your thoughts below and check back this weekend for an entry where I'll share what I've learned about the worship planning process after stopping at COR and Ginghamsburg. Don't miss it and tell your friends!