Reviewing a Sunday

Hmmm that's not that creative of a title, how about... Weekly Reflections? Nah already done. I suppose the most appropriate name for this post might be creating an environment Pt 2.

If anyone were to ask me about our Church being quote/unquote "Contemporary" I would probably (well taking in consideration the amount of caffeine in my system at that moment) respond that I think of Lifepoint to be more seeker sensitive, I suppose someone could argue semantics, but from my point a view a contemporary church is a church that aims to keep a younger generation from leaving the congregation, a seeker sensitive church is one that looks more to bring those who are far from God into a relationship with Jesus. (A point that Pastor Daniel nailed on Sunday).

Back to the topic here, as part of creative planning/programming team means we look for ways to help connect the message of Christ to people, (Or to borrow one of Lifepoint's catch-phrases, bring the message of Christ in a real relevant and relate-able way). I'll do a post later on some of the process of the creative planning, but for now let me focus on the part of the process includes looking back every week and analyzing how well the service worked. We categorize elements of the service into four categories, What was right, What was Wrong, What was confusing, and What was missing.

What was right:
What seemed to work out and really connect with people, did someone do an extra good job, making sure that the media (visual) fit the service. While the focus is usually on Service elements, we also look at Foyer environment, by foyer I mean everything that's going on before the service kicks off, like the greeter team helping to get everyone where they need be, etc... Like the title states it's what went right that week.

What was wrong:
Usually things that didn't flow smoothly in the service, were the lights late? Did the slides not match correctly? Was the sound to quiet? (I'm not saying that those are usual issues just as examples) Were the drums to loud? (now that is a re-occurring issue, our drummer just needs to learn how to player with a softer touch![for those wondering, I am said drummer]), we approach this section not as who/what's at fault but by how can we fix/improve on it.

What was missing:
As they say (and just who is "they" anyway?) Hindsight is 20-20 and we're no exception to this. We try to spot things that we missed, (could have done/normally do but didn't) occasionally things like special announcement for events go here, but really anything that's missing.

What was Confusing:
Sometimes things happen either audio, visual that just don't quite connect the way we mean them to. Like an illustration that somehow doesn't quite match the message, the end result? It's confusing and it ends up here.

Summing this up as part of our creative process we always review the results of the week, as a Seeker sensitive church our goal is to see people who are far from God experience His plan for their (and our) life, our weekly review is just a way to help ensure that we are moving in the direction of our goal and not away from it.

Hopefully this will help someone out there.
~Matt