I am sure many worship planners could resonate with your description of process. Thank you for sharing it where others can see it. The good relationship you share with your pastor is a good model for others serving in ministry through music. You make a great team, and your mutual respect translates into strong worship leadership among your church family. May your tribe increase.

Paul

We have also discussed an over-arching year-long emphasis for 2012, so that helps me especially with long-range anthem planning and selecting certain congregational hymns and songs that we will revisit often throughout the year. Anyway, back to planning.

1. On Monday, read the Scripture passage for the following Sunday message and pray.
2. Find out from the pastor if he has a particular emphasis he will be highlighting from the text. For instance, many passages of Scripture have multiple applications. Which one will he really be “driving home” in the sermon? I try to choose the hymn of response to fit well with his final application point.
3. On Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, start pouring over hymnals and songbooks while praying.
4. Simultaneously, I think of places where Scripture reading, responsive reading, corporate prayer, etc…will be appropriately and effectively incorporated into the service.
5. I’m not a fan of random novelty, so I typically follow a general template for the order of service.
6. On Tuesday by 4:00 p.m., the service is finished.
7. On Wednesday, I rehearse the congregational music with the choir before rehearsing any anthems. It is important for the choir to provide STRONG leadership for the congregation.
8. Thursday – Saturday: Pray more, and study the song texts to get them in my head and heart by Sunday morning.
9. Oh, and during all that, Sunday evening worship is getting the same process (though I confess I’m not always as diligent and detailed with my evening worship planning).

I don’t know how well you preach. But you are a good writer. Keep the faith. I really liked your statement, “profoundly, the Truth of God connects to the people of God.”

Sammy Rich