worship ministry thought - flow

“flow” in worship is hard to define. it’s one of those things you don’t notice until it’s not there.

thematic flow

the guys at community christian church in illinois talk about the “big idea”. at the end of the service, what’s the one simple and practical thing that you want people to take with them when they leave? the “one thing”. worship and programming should start by relating to where people are, move them to a place where they’re ready to hear the one thing. ideally, the music, programming, message, etc. all work together to inspire and motivate someone to act on the one thing.

musical flow

is each song in a different key, or are you able to string two or more songs together in the same key for seamless musical transitions? how different is the tempo between the current song and the next one? do we have to downshift too abruptly? what’s the emotional impact of this song, and does the next song begin in a tone that honors that moment?

when thematic flow and musical flow clash

which is more important? the answer probably depends on the person. do you tend to engage more intellectually? then thematic flow is probably more important. do you tend to be more moved emotionally? maybe musical flow will produce more of an impact.

forutnately, the two are not always necessarily at odds. it’s best to consider both musical flow and thematic flow in ordering a service. balance is important. i was once in a service where the message was on joy. the worship leader chose all songs that had the word joy in it, but gave little to no thought to musical flow. the resulting service made sense intellectually, but was not very engaging. it was disjointed. no momentum. no flow.

i typically start out a service with more emphasis on musical flow. each song may stand more or less on its own thematically. but i try to get more thematic the closer we get to the message. and certainly anything that follows the message gives resolution to the message, or allows for reflection on it.

what about you? which tends to be more important for you - thematic flow or musical flow? are there other important elements to “flow” that i’ve neglected?

————————

earlier posts in the worship ministry thoughts series:
eyes wide shut?
prepared for rehearsal
sound engineer
to click or not to click?
www.songmeanings.net
evaluating worship songs