Flow

I'd like to suggest that just as there is a "flow" to a successful book or music composition, so there is a flow to a Christian worship service. There are highs and lows, each contributing to appropriate crescendoes of Holy Spirit's movement among God's people. If we are careful in preparation, we can order the service to best compliment how we have observed Holy Spirit moving in the past. Therefore, we can, to some degree, help Holy Spirit in his task of reaching God's people and capturing their hearts (which brings about salvation and/or deeper commitment).

This makes sense. I don't believe it's rocket science either. In fact, Debbie and I have developed this practice to great effect in all our public worship activities. We know there are some things that welcome Holy Spirit's moving, we also know there are things that halt it immediately.

What this means, then, is that preparers and leaders of meetings are responsible for creating (as much as humanly possible) the best atmosphere for Holy Spirit to operate in.

Therefore, creating a service that flows smoothly, taking into account these understood highs and lows of worship, brings about a better opportunity for Holy Spirit to reach people and change their lives.

Conversely, if we schedule a service that is choppy, with poorly scripted lows right after highs, etc, we can expect we make it harder for Holy Spirit to effect change (because we don't take advantage of "pregnant" moments, cut him off when he starts moving, etc). NOTE: I am not even mentioning letting Holy Spirit re-write the order of service on the fly if he so chooses. That's another whole topic!

For example, here is a simple order of service, poorly scripted:

Welcome : Getting people's attention
Call to Worship : Calling people to order
Prayer : Invoking God's presence
Song : Building faith
Scripture : Allowing Spirit to speak, crescendo start
Vocal Solo : Holy Spirit speaks (often), crescendo builds
Offering : Here?!? Creates an abrupt halt to Spirit's move
Message : God speaks again, calling for response, cresc
Passing of the Peace (greeting people) : Here?!? Abrupt
Altar Call : By now, Spirit has left! Attention broken
Song : Furthering response or wrap up
Prayer : Sending the people out

Here is a better way to script this order:

Welcome : Call people to attention
Announcements : Basic housekeeping
Prayer : Invoke God
Passing of the Peace : Sharing fellowship
Offering : Continue fellowship
Call to Worship : "Worship" starts here
Song : Builds faith
Scripture : Allow Spirit to speak, cresc starts
Vocal Solo : Cresc continues
Message : Cresc continues
Altar Call : Spirit reaches climax
Song : Further response, wrap up
Prayer : Sending the people out

This is a simple example, I know, but I hope it gets my point across.

I believe flow is even more important as the "level" of service goes up (eg: divisional event, territorial event, etc), because there are more people affected and leadership should be teaching and modeling good flow to our people.

So why do I see such poor scripting and choppy flow in so many important Army meetings? God's heart must ache as we say: "Come. Stop. Come now. No, wait. Ooo, now!"

I believe we could be so much more successful in reaching seekers if we just paid more attention to flow. Please, Lord, get this message out to your people.