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Purpose
It is recognized that worship is for God.
The purpose of a Worship Committee is two-fold:
- to ensure that the whole of the corporate worship in which the congregation engages when it meets together is a worthy, creative offering to him.
- to help the worship to be an appropriate offering from each member of the congregation, bearing in mind that every congregation is made up of people of all ages, and in many cases, from a variety of cultural backgrounds .
Membership
The membership should be made up of people who are committed to working together as a team to achieve the committee's purpose, and include a broad representation of the congregation, including:
- the corps officers
- leaders of all music and other creative arts groups
- representatives of all ages
- representatives of all ethnicities
- audio-visual technicians
It is recommended that representatives other than corps officers and leaders should be invited to join the committee for a fixed time, such as one year.
Frequency of meetings
The committee should not meet more frequently than once a month. It could meet less frequently provided that the scripture bases for upcoming meetings have been chosen well in advance.
Functions
To plan Sunday meetings
The basis for each meeting to be planned should be the chosen Biblical text
Members of the committee should discuss together how the order of the meeting, and its various components, can help to ensure that the biblical truth is creatively supported in such a way that it relates to all the worshippers.
Items for discussion could include:
- Advance announcement of the sermon topic
- Presentation of the Scripture passage
- Congregational songs/choruses (including songs in more than one language where necessary)
- The choice of music for sections
- Special features:
- Testimony
- Vocal or instrumental solo
- Use of other creative arts
- Participation of children
- Enhancement of environment (Décor)
- Provision of a memento
To plan the celebration of Christian festivals
Items for discussion when planning regular meetings could form the basis for these.
To evaluate the effectiveness of meetings
Assess how well meetings recently held achieved the goals of:
- worshipping God in a worthy manner
- relating the Scriptural truth to all present
- allowing all members of the congregation to worship in appropriate ways
To assess the creative talents within the congregation
By means of a questionnaire, or in some other way, compile a list of people and related talents including such talents as:
- Acting
- Scriptwriting
- Mime
- Humour
- Poetry writing
- Story telling
- Puppetry
- Banner making
- Graphic art
- Decorating (e.g. floral arrangements)
- Art (e.g. painting a picture during the service)
- Sculpting
- Multi-media
- Dance
- Choreography
- Singing
- Instrument playing
- Lyric writing
- Music Composition
- Signing
- Puppetry
To encourage the development of songwriters
It is likely that there is at least one song writer in every congregation.
Their development can be encouraged in the following ways:
- inviting the submission of songs to the committee for editing by the corps officer or a designated member in terms of such things as theological accuracy and grammar
- inviting song writers to write new songs to support the theme of upcoming meetings
The General's Representatives for the Development of Worship and Evangelism through Music and Other Creative Arts are available to provide advice and recommended resources to those territories wishing to provide more specific guidelines for Worship Committees.
Issued December 2004
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