How To Craft A Dynamic Worship Night

Planning and leading a worship night is one of my favorite things to do as a Worship Pastor.  

In a recent article I shared some Common Mistakes For A Worship Night.  Today I want to give you a look at the most recent worship night we lead at Calvary Monterey and the creative elements we incorporated to make it a dynamic event.

Overarching Theme

The theme for the night was The Gospel Story.  We wanted people to hear, see, and feel the gravity and awe of the Gospel story.  Everything we did throughout the night had a direct connection to fulfill this vision.  

We shaped the night into three movements.  GLORY.  REBELLION.  RECONCILIATION.  Each movement began with a Scripture reading.    

Scripture Reading

If you haven’t included a lot of different elements into your worship night this is a simple place to start. To make this time as impactful and distraction less as possible we did a couple of things. 

One of our Pastors came up to do the readings.  The band played very lightly underneath. The lighting shifted to only a spotlight on the Pastor.  We displayed the Scripture on the screen with a photo behind that helped communicate the mood the Scripture carried.  

Original Songs

Worship nights are a great time to introduce or share original songs that you or your team has written.  We shared two of our most recent original songs that connect to the movements they were in.  

It can be hard to come out and say “This is a song we wrote” but in my experience the congregation loves to know when they’re singing a song birthed from their very own church.

Unique Band Setup

One way to make sure your worship night is not dynamic is to lead a whole night with the same band, sound, and style of music.  This is one of the common mistakes.  

We shifted form a full band (Acoustic, Electric, Keys, Percussion, Drums, Bass, 2 vox) to a smaller band in an arrangement we don’t normally use (Acoustic, Keys, Cello, Violin, 1 vox). 

Leading smaller, more intimate songs causes people to lean in and listen carefully.  We used this unique band setup for the REBELLION movement.  

Lyric Video

The creative element that took the most time, energy, planning, and rehearsing was a custom lyric video we produced to play as we lead So Will I (100 Billion x) by Hillsong United.  This song uses such descriptive lyrics it seemed perfect for accompanying visual support. 

We found video content.  Matched it to the song structure.  Edited the shots to fall in line with the beat of the music and lyrics.  Exported it with the click and cues.  Played along live while thy lyrics operated overlaid the lyrics.  

This was a wonderful way to bring music, lyrics, video, and lighting together to paint a powerful picture of the glory of God.  

We lead this song at the end of the RECONCILIATION movement.  

Here is a detailed look at our full service order.  

There are so many different creative elements we can employ for a Worship Night or any worship service for that matter.  We have the privilege and joy of using the breadth of our creativity, passions, and art to glorify God.  To “Magnify the Lord”.  To bring the wonder of God into large, vivid focus before the eyes and hearts of our church.  

Go for it!