Well planned worship leads to worship done well. Worship planning is more than just choosing hymns. It also involves consideration of the worship, color and art, making choices invited by the rubrics, and deciding about various liturgical texts.
Evangelical Lutheran Worship purposely offers many options for the texts of the liturgy, and the tools below assume the use of ELW. They may be applied to LBW, WOV, or any other liturgy that is being used locally.
What follows are tools that a local Worship Committee might use in planning a liturgy.
How might these tools be used?
First, begin your planning at least two months in advance. This gives choir directors and organists time to find music that relates to the themes and images of the day. Give each person a Sunday (or feast day) to research and study.
The first tool – called THEME BASED PLANNING – helps them work through the readings and the liturgy so that they may come to full committee meeting prepared to make contributions.
The second tool – called LITURGY NOTES – may be filled out by the Committee when it gathers, based on the work done ahead of time and the conversation that takes place.
Planning tools: