Creating Relevant Worship

Three Questions to Wrestle With:

Is worship relevant today?
What makes worship relevant?
And, relevant for who? Us? God? Or both?

Relevant for who?

PEOPLE GOD PEOPLE

GOD PEOPLE
GOD

God People:
o Worship that dismisses the peoples story results in disconnect.
o No place for people to engage the Story. Too preachy and condemning.
o God meets us where we are. The church could learn from this.
People God:
o Allows space for consumerism to drive purpose and message. Were
willing to meet God on our terms.
o The Soul and meaning of worship is lost our story and needs drown
out Gods Story and its impact on our lives. (note Seeker services)
God People:
o Woman at the Well Story
o God is the sole audience of our worship, but worship is a celebration a
joy-filled expression of gratitude and faith.

Relevant Balance
It is important we get this right otherwise we could end up proclaiming a false gospel.
Mark Labberton: The church that gives in to the wrong kind of relevance runs the danger of
losing its saltiness and finally having nothing to offer. (The Dangerous Act of Worship)
Some ask, Why doesnt the church look more like us? Others ask, Why doesnt the church
look more like Jesus?
Marva Dawn: To be in the world but not of it requires the Church both to understand the
surrounding culture and to resist its idolatries. Reaching Out without Dumbing Down
Mark Galli: Authentic worship of our God must, at some level, remain incomprehensible.
Worship that enables us to encounter the living God should leave worshipers a bit stupefied; they
should leave their pews, pump the ministers hand, and enthusiastically blurt out, I didnt

2015, Glenn Hecox; Abiding Hope Church 1

 understand large portions of the service. Thank you. (in Beyond Smells and Bells: The Wonder
and Power of Christian Liturgy)
Bottom line, as curators of worship we should always be asking, How do we engage people in
the Gospel so they experience it in ways that they can understand it and be transformed by it?

Culturally Relevant Worship

If the purpose of corporate worship is to unite, define, and inspire, than we need worship to be
engaging, connective, and inspiring.
Culturally relevant worship is worship grounded in Gods story with an understanding of cultural
setting. Enables the worshipper to relate Gods Story to his or her own story and context.

Culturally
Responsive Worship

Understanding
God, history,
and God in the
world.

Bringing Culturally Community

native
language Responsive culture into
Worship worship.
into worship.

Family/Comm.
participation

2015, Glenn Hecox; Abiding Hope Church 2

 Characteristics of Relevant Worship
Validating and Affirming Acknowledges Gods enduring faithfulness in which we put
our trust. Validates and affirms our identity as children of
God.
Comprehensive Uses cultural resources to engage worshipper in an ongoing
journey of discovering God, other and self.
Multidimensional Appreciating that we are all at different places in the
journey, applies variety of styles, tools, and liturgical
methods that can engage a variety of people and stories.
Liberating Embraces the message of death and resurrection we are
free to be people God created us to be and participate in
the liberation of others! Moves us into action.
Empowering Empowers worshipper to own the worship experience and
to actively live as a child of God incorporating Kingdom
living in the now.
Transformative Moves the worshipper to dispel personal agendas, defy old
tapes, challenge traditionalism, and refuse the status quo.
Leads to re-orientation of life.
Inspired by research done by Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings centered on the topic of Culturally Relevant Teaching

Principles of Relevant Worship

Identity Development
Equity and Excellence
Appropriate Soul
Development
Grounded in who we are as Gods children; simultaneously Imago Dei and
Adamah, both saint and sinner, we worship. We proclaim Gods justice
through the Risen Jesus in spite of our continued brokenness or current
circumstances. We rejoice in the face of the worlds destructiveness and
fear, trusting the God of new life.
Because we worship an excellent God who expects a lot from the Church,
we strive to excel in our endeavors to worship and to live as the body of
Christ, revealing that all people are created in the image of God created
to serve united in love. Gods mission of life for all (Missio Dei) is not what
we do, its who we are.
Relevant worship focuses on God as subject of our worship while
continually shaping the soul of the worshipper. Understanding the
cultural influences that have attributed to the development of the soul
(or lack thereof), worship follows the path of the Spirit to the heart of
God, constantly aware of the potential pitfalls and temptations along the
way. Appropriate worship always elevates Gods Story and intersects it in
a very real and authentic way with our stories.
Just as individuals are at different places in their journeys, congregations
as a whole find themselves on different parts of the path. The culturally
aware worship leader seeks to identify how a community will best hear
and receive the message of the Risen Jesus and strives to implement
worship practices that unleash people for Gods mission.

2015, Glenn Hecox; Abiding Hope Church 3

Forming Relationship Worship encourages community. I am an integral part of we. We are
called to be united in love. Through our worship we seek to strengthen
our relationship with God and with each other and not just with those
people we like, but with all people. We seek to hear and appreciate
others stories and join the journey together.
Connecting Emotionally Humans are emotional creatures and we recall and embrace experiences
in which weve made an emotional connection. Worship aids us in
emoting joy and sadness, fear and love, both individually and as a
community. Such emotional connections bond us with God and with one
another. Music, liturgy, art, video, preaching can all be tools for emotional
connection. At the same time, worship does not leave us in our emotional
response (catharsis = cleansing) but guides us to a place of new life. We
become free to enter into the lives of others, embracing their emotions
without judgment and leading them to new life. Worship equips us for
the journey to be the heart, hands, and feet of Jesus in the world.
Worship engages us where we are and leads us to a new place.

Indicators of Relevance
Relevant worship reveals story.
Relevant worship is engaging.
o Engagement is throughout worship its a constant, not just at the beginning of
worship.
Relevant worship resonates (connects).
o Moving beyond engagement, what is happening within worship that connects
emotionally?
o How is the soul being touched? When the soul is touched, the Spirit is at work.
Relevant worship inspires response.
o This response can happen within worship or, move people towards something beyond
the parameters of worship. Spiritual growth, outreach participation, deeper relational
connection, etc.
Relevant worship transforms.
o ..new creation. Everything old has passed away, everything has become new! (2 Cor.
5:17)
o Moved towards a re-orientation of life from death to life.
It all begins with embracing four simple acts of love:
o Radical Hospitality
o Fearless Conversation
o Genuine Humility
o Divine Anticipation

2015, Glenn Hecox; Abiding Hope Church 4

Challenges Facing Worship Today
Relevance Is worship relevant in peoples lives today?
Consumerism everything in worship is viewed through the lens of a consumer:
Worship has a reputation for being boring
Competition - Worship is just another activity to choose from
The demographic remapping of America
o As shared by Steve McSwain in his article, Why Nobody Wants to Go to Church
Anymore:
Whites are majority at 64%. In 30-40 years, they will be the minority. One in
every three people you meet on the street will be of Latino origin. If you are not
reaching the Latino population today, your churchs shelf life is already in
question.
America is aging. According to Pew Research, every day for the next 16 years,
10, 000 new baby boomers will enter retirement.
Technology
o In an ever-changing world of technology, churches are required to learn and adapt if
wanting to stay relevant and communicative to Millennials.
o Requires money, knowledge and creativity

Making Worship more Connective

EPIC
o Leonard Sweet introduced this acronym to lift up what is needed in post-modern
worship.
Experiential
o Sensory-rich
Participatory
o What do we DO when in worship?
o Younger generations have a desire to feel like theyre part of something, that theyre
making a difference by being at our gatherings. They want to be a part of the discovery
that were trying to bring them to. (Josh Reich, Creating Gatherings for the Emerging
Church, article)
Image rich
o We live in an image-rich culture, so we need to have image-rich worship.
Connected
o That resonates with me. I want to belong.
o We need to remember that our gatherings are longer than the actual program, they
include the time beforehand and afterward as well. We need to create opportunities for
relationships to be built and community to be enhanced at our gatherings. (Josh Reich)

2015, Glenn Hecox; Abiding Hope Church 5

Content and Implementation
The most important element when pursuing relevant worship is its content, followed quickly by
how that content is delivered and experienced.
To be relevant, your content needs to resonate with the voice and feel of your context. To
accomplish this, one needs to understand their community and the culture that impacts it.
o Find a balance of incorporating something new and something familiar.
Potential controversy
o When we create worship with our specific context in mind, most likely we will evolve
away from the traditional Lutheran flow of worship.
We need to be willing to move beyond and help expand the parameters of what
Lutheran worship can look like. Worship needs to resonate with the
worshippers otherwise disconnect exists.
Quality counts.
o Perfection has become a not-so-friendly word and excellence has become a synonym for
perfection. But fact of the matter is, we live in a culture that rewards excellence and has
little to no grace for poor quality.
o The more we strive for excellence, the more we succeed in removing barriers from
worship. As worship leaders, it is our responsibility to remove unnecessary barriers that
keep people from worshipping God.
o Worship that is riddled with unexpected pauses or interruptions distract from a worship
connection.
o Music led by untrained and poorly-prepared musicians remove the opportunity for one
to experience spirited and passionate worship.
o Poorly-written content (liturgy, textually, musically) has an impact on the message
people receive while worshipping.
o Personal tastes vary greatly. It is our job to find a common ground within our
community and elevate the collective level of acceptance and tolerance.

Use of Liturgical Content

Every Lutheran worship ought to be liturgical. The question is, what does the liturgy look and
feel like?
Why Liturgy? Quote by Mark Galli (Beyond Smells and Bells: The Wonder and Power of Christian
Liturgy)
o In an individualistic culture, the liturgy helps us live a communal life. In a culture that
values spontaneity, the liturgy grounds us in something enduring. In a culture that
assumes that truth is a product of the mind, the liturgy helps us experience truth in both
mind and body. In a world demanding instant relevance, the liturgy gives us the patience
to live into a relevance that the world does not know.
Keeping in mind that liturgy is the work of the people, as curators of worship, we continue to
ask the question, how are the people working, or serving (referring to the Greek new Testament
latreia, meaning to serve) within worship?
o Liturgy most often takes the shape of call and response litany and use of hymns, but we
can expand liturgy to mean movement and participating of the people.

2015, Glenn Hecox; Abiding Hope Church 6

 General guidelines
o Authentic to the Gospel.
o Transformative.
If true worship is a re-orientation of life, how are we using our words to help
move in that direction?
o Free of agenda
Follow the direction of the Spirit, not of our personal needs and/or desires.
o Relevant to time and space of your community.
Dont ignore the larger Church or global story because we all fit into both. But
do find the appropriate feel that invites the people into a larger story.
o Focused on community.
WE are the Church.
o Inclusive language
All means all.
Avoid gender bias.
o Contemporary language
Use language that resonates with the people, avoiding old usage whenever
possible.
Musical content
o Selecting music
Text: Make sure it is theologically solid and resonates with your context.
Be sure its sing-able. If it isnt, dont expect the congregation to sing it. Instead
allow your worship leaders to do so.
Avoid I/Me language as much as possible.
Incorporate a lot of energetic music but place slower, more subdued music in
appropriate spots.

2015, Glenn Hecox; Abiding Hope Church 7

Worship Resources
General
o www.textweek.com
Excellent first-stop when planning for worship. Loads of research articles. Many links to worship
resources.
o www.hotworship.com/
Huge variety of links to help find all kinds of worship resources.
o www.engageworship.org
Large variety of worship resources, from blogs to music to drama.
Most products are new and though relevant for emerging worship, many are applicable in other
worship settings as well.
o www.theworshipcommunity.com
Blog and suggested materials for worship
o www.nailscars.com/category/creative-worship
Creative worship ideas
o www.re-worship.blogspot.com
Blog with variety of articles, ideas, and material for worship
o www.rethinkworship.com
Blog and ideas for creative worship
o www.clayfiremedia.com
Blog and ideas for creative worship
o https://www.weareworship.com/
Worship blogs, new music
Liturgy
o www.sacredise.com
Recommended site for worship liturgy. Also includes recommendations for songs/hymns and
video.
Music
o www.worshipcurrent.com
Blog, new worship music, and on-line workshops about worship by Zach Taylor (worship curator
and on staff at Augsburg Fortress)
o PraiseCharts: www.praisecharts.com/
Best resource for new music and new arrangements and traditional music. Your one-stop shop to
find what you need.
Also includes materials for training worship leaders
o www.hymncharts.com
New arrangements on traditional hymns. Don Chapman, arranger.
Purchase subscription and have access to full library.
o www.resoundworship.org
Source for brand new worship music. Different feel than what you will find in mainline sites such
as Praisecharts and Wordmusic
o www.wordmusic.com/wordpraise
Download newer worship music (though most of this material can also be found on
praisecharts.com).
o www.lnwhymns.com
Variety of new hymns and arrangements
o www.carolynshymns.com
New hymns and new texts that can be put to familiar hymn melodies.
o FairHope Worship (formerly Integrity Music)
Newest contemporary worship music from miscellaneous churches around the world.
Subscriptions include monthly mailings of songbook and CD.
Available from FairHope Worship: 1-800-533-6912

Video/Image
o www.midnightoilproductions.com
Worship videos
o http://www.creationswap.com/gallery

2015, Glenn Hecox; Abiding Hope Church 8

 Creative images for worship
o www.resources.elevationchurch.org
Brainstorming ideas for worship series and graphics
o www.theworkofthepeople.com
Blog and video resources for worship
o www.skitguys.com
Video and skits.

Multi-cultural music
o Lead Me Guide Me
African American Catholic Hymnal
Words and music to over 500 songs, spirituals, hymns, psalms, and liturgies.
Available from GIA Publications (800-442-1358)
o Sent by the Lord: Songs of the World Church Volume II
Twenty-five songs from around the world, ranging from Argentina to South Africa to Russia to
Korea.
English translations
Available from GIA Publications (800-442-1358)
o Set Free: A Collection of African Hymns
Thirty hymns, mostly set to folk tunes from Tanzania
Available from Augsburg Fortress Publishing (800-328-4648)
o This Far By Faith
Hymnal for multi-culteral Lutheran worship (published 1999)
Includes African praise songs, traditional hymns, and new worship songs
Available from Augsburg Fortress Publishing (800-328-4648)

Reading/Research
o The Worship Sourcebook
Resource for liturgies and prayers for the entire year.
Available online (many sites)
o Chalice Worship
Resource for more contemporary liturgies and prayers for the entire year.
Available online (many sites)
o Prayers of the People, Richard Einerson
Prayers following lectionary. Written as Prayers of the Church, but can also be abbreviated and
used as Prayer of the Day.
Available on Amazon
o Engaging Worship
Twenty blueprints for experiential worship.
Available on Amazon
o Alternative Worship (compiled by Jonny Baker and Doug Gay)
Resources for emerging worship, though can be used in more traditional formats as well.
Includes ideas as well as liturgy formats.
o Emerging Worship, Dan Kimball
Resource to explore and understand emerging worship format.
Available on Amazon
o Experiential Worship, Bob Rognlien
Good resource to initiate conversation regarding more creative approach to worship.
Available on Amazon
o The Art of Curating Worship, Mark Pierson
Published in 2010, more current dialogue concerning new worship formats and how to create
them.
Available on Amazon or from Sparkhouse.
o Beyond Smells and Bells, Mark Galli
Well-written resource to understand purpose and use of liturgy
Available on Amazon
o Introduction to Christian Liturgy, Frank Senn

2015, Glenn Hecox; Abiding Hope Church 9

 Provides historical perspective on liturgy as well as speaks to purpose and validity to variety of
aspects involved with worship.
Available on Amazon
o Worship Architect, The: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services,
Constance Cherry
o More recent publication sharing dialogue and ideas for todays worship
o Available on Amazon
o Sundays and Seasons Worship Planning Guide
Follows lectionary.
Gives helpful information and suggestions for seasons and Sundays including hymns, anthems,
childrens songs and activities
Available from Augsburg Fortress Publishing (800-328-4648); also available, Sundays and Seasons
online subscription
o Choosing Contemporary Music: Seasonal, Topical, Lectionary Indexes
Lutheran guide to planning contemporary music in worship
Available from Augsburg Fortress Publishing (800-328-4648)
o Drama Ministry
Newsletter with helpful information for starting and maintaining a drama ministry.
Packet includes scripts of new dramas for the upcoming season.
Available from CRI (800)98-Drama; www.DramaMinistry.com
o Indexes for Worship Planning
Concise and easy to read
Available from Augsburg Fortress Publishing (800-328-4648)
o New Worship, The by Barry Liesch
Very informative book for those creating or expanding contemporary worship. With the aid of a
historical and biblical approach, Liesch addresses the potential problems of this style of worship.
(in most settings, this book is now outdated)
Available from Baker Book House: www.bakerbooks.com
o Reformed Worship: Resources for Music and Liturgy
Articles and ideas for worship; available online or subscription
www.reformedworship.org
o Worship Leader
Online and magazine recourse aimed at contemporary worship and its trends and challenges
Available from Worship Leader: www.worshipleader.com
o An Hour on Sunday, Nancy Beach
A resource to help inspire discussion on bringing creativity and freshness to worship life.
Available on Amazon
o Worship Leaders Handbook, The by Tom Kraeuter
Frequently asked questions regarding the contemporary service are answered by Kraeuter
Available on Amazon

2015, Glenn Hecox; Abiding Hope Church 10