Planning for Flexibility in Your Worship Gatherings

Planning is a major part of any worship pastor, lead pastor, or tech director’s job. There are many tasks to complete, people to communicate with, and moments to orchestrate. Nevertheless, sometimes things change last minute, or the pieces don’t come together until the moment you’re all in the room together. In those moments, it’s important that your worship software is simple and flexible enough for a presenter or worship leader to walk up to the tech booth before service with a request to change something. You should be prepared enough to be able to quickly use the features of your church presentation software to accommodate that request. There are also times when a pastor or worship leader changes the plan from the stage in the middle of the service. You might have to be ready to insert lyrics on the fly. Your media team should be trained for these moments and ready to accommodate their teammates (the worship team and the tech team are one big team) at a moment’s notice.

CHOOSING THE BEST PRESENTATION SOFTWARE

In any case, you don’t want to be held up by the capabilities of your presentation software. Some of the things that hinder your ability to accommodate last-minute or on-the-fly requests could be that your software just doesn’t have the features. Imagine if you were running Powerpoint for your church presentations. How difficult would it be to find scripture online and then copy and paste it onto a slide and then pop it up to the screen without the presentation being interrupted? Nearly impossible. Much less getting it to look consistent with the rest of your presentation. But with MediaShout, it’s easy! Just leave the current slide up on the screen, and on MediaShout’s control screen, go to Insert Bible, find the scripture, and click to fire it to the screen. Formatted, background applied (with an included template or a custom design you’ve saved as a template). It will look to the congregation as if you knew the scripture was coming the whole time.

USER-FRIENDLY PRESENTATION SOFTWARE

Maybe you don’t use Powerpoint, but you are considering a competitor product of MediaShout. There are some great programs out there, but some may lead you to another common problem when it comes to being able to make quick changes in the moment. The software is TOO COMPLEX! These days, you can find software that will have options for nearly anything you could ever need. It’s so vast it could be difficult to teach your media team volunteers all the ins and outs of the program. And when they’re in the hot seat, how will they know exactly the right menu, function, or layer they need to use for the task at hand? Even if they manage to get the content like a scripture up to the screen, it might look poorly formatted compared to the rest of the content in the presentation. That’s why MediaShout is focused on the bread and butter– getting lyrics, scripture, text, and media on the screen, in a consistent but aesthetically beautiful way, FAST.

Part of planning is in the training of your worship and media team volunteers. Just like the musicians need to know the songs well enough to jump to any part at any moment, so does the media team. It’s important for your church volunteers to be extremely familiar with your church presentation software so that they can add a song, type a lyric, or insert a scripture quickly and correctly. Extra points if your media team is also familiar with the songs! If they know them well enough, then they will even be ready to jump back to the bridge before the worship leader starts singing it, for example. Everything is more enjoyable and a lot less stressful when everyone is prepared and ready for anything.

EASILY TRAIN NEW CHURCH VOLUNTEERS

When it comes to training team members, MediaShout has made it easy. One quick way to get more familiar with your worship software is to check out the free webinars MediaShout has made available for anyone to attend. These webinars are filled with great content your media team volunteers can watch at their convenience and even ask questions to a live church presentation expert. If you want to take your training to the next level, you can sign up for MediaShout’s Plus Membership. Plus Members have access to scheduled training calls with MediaShout’s incredible support team, on-demand video training resources, and much more. MediaShout’s team is made up of pastors, worship leaders, tech team leaders, and volunteers who serve in tech ministry just like their customers. They know firsthand what it takes to plan a church gathering and to train church volunteers to carry out the tasks. They pride themselves on great customer service and making sure you have everything you need to succeed. 

STAY FOCUSED ON THE GOAL

One of the greatest things about being prepared is that it gives you the ability to be flexible. When you have a great setlist, trained volunteers, and a supportive team, you can do anything. It takes time and effort, but it is always worth it. Especially because of why you are doing it. Everything you do is to lead people to Jesus and to glorify God. When we plan our gatherings we should always leave room for the Holy Spirit to move. That is why we are prepared. It’s so that we can have open hands to His leading. When we steward our time and responsibilities well, God gets the glory. When we serve Him in our local churches with submitted hearts and plans, He will lead people to Himself.

It may seem counterproductive to say you should plan well so that you have the ability to deviate from that plan, but that is exactly what you need to do. Throwing things together at the last minute will never allow you the ability to flow smoothly, and it will also cause stress and contention within your team. If Sunday mornings are chaotic and stressful, it may come down to the fact that no one was prepared. Planning well can quickly eliminate many problems. You will be able to enjoy serving your church and you will be able to give your best. Planning for flexibility is a must in church. People come in carrying all kinds of life experiences and burdens. They want authentic interactions with their pastors and church volunteers. They have come to worship and to enjoy the community that church provides. If you serve them well through planning but being open to where the Holy Spirit leads, it will make an eternal difference.

Want to take a first step? Sign up for a free MediaShout webinar today!