Several months ago, I attended a large gathering of worship leaders, and during one of the sessions, someone introduced themself by saying, “Hi, I’m __________ and I’m a recovering thematic worship planner.” I didn’t realize that thematic worship planning had become taboo, and lots of questions began to flood my mind.
Why in the world would he say that? And what did he mean? Have worship leaders really begun to abandon the potentially beautiful connection between the music and the message? Doesn’t that do a disservice to the people we lead?
After gathering my thoughts again (and pondering the value of thematic planning for weeks afterward), I began to realize that there are still compelling reasons why I continue to plan worship thematically. Each week, I prayerfully, assiduously and deliberately choose songs that will help reinforce the message that our church community will hear from the Word of God. And I do it unapologetically. I still believe that thematic worship planning has remarkable benefits, and while some are the obvious ones you might expect, not all of my reasons are simply for the congregation at large.
Thematic Planning Reinforces the Message
This one is most obvious. Particularly in America, where it seems biblical literacy is at an all-time low, anything I can do as a worship leader to help underscore any piece of truth from our weekend teaching is worth it to me. Music and the spoken word have the ability to dance together in perfect form, and when one of our songs complements a teaching pastor’s message perfectly, our people connect to God’s truth on a different level—one that I believe is helpful.
Thematic Planning Helps Our Teams
More than actually having Truth reinforced, many times our intentionality helps our teams understand the purposeful nature of our leadership and planning. When my band rehearses one of the featured songs that we’ll use immediately following the message, they know that it’s been selected with care and we talk about how it’s connected to the teaching. And when we have a greater sense of purpose moving into our weekend services, we have a higher level of unity across all of our teams. We know that there’s a particular theme that we’re trying to help our attendees understand, and we’re working together to accomplish that goal.
Thematic Planning Helps Us Grow as Artists and Creative Leaders
It would be really easy for me to quit planning thematically. I wouldn’t have to go to the trouble of working with my teaching team to learn about their messages. I wouldn’t have to pour over music for hours on end looking for the perfect song for a particular subject matter. And I wouldn’t have to have extra meetings for the purpose of creative and thematic planning. But I feel like it makes me a better leader. I feel like we honor God in the process. I believe that my teaching pastors are going to great lengths to understand God’s desires for their weekend messages, and that knowledge demands the same investment from me as a creative leader.
