Was It Worship?
April 1, 1999
Though church leaders spend extraordinary energy preparing for worship, many do not evaluate whether the energy was well spent.
Part of this reluctance comes from the (correct) belief that worship is a spiritual activity and that God's role in it ultimately is a mystery. Who can say, after all, whether people "really worshiped," whether God was really encountered, or whether God was truly glorified?
Yet if we've been given the ability to plan worship, we can evaluate at some level what we've done. The following tool, prepared by Leadership's editors and advisers, can help. It does not cover all the bases (for example, sermon evaluation is left out), and not all questions fit every congregation. Feel free to customize it for your congregation.
The Essentials
These elements have historically been part of worship. These are objective questions: Did our service include this element? If so, in what way? If not, why?
Preparation and prayer
- Did we help people prepare for worship?
- Were people prayed for before and during the service?
- Did prayer in the service include:
Adoration?
Thanksgiving?
Confession (with assurance of pardon)?
Supplication for personal and church needs?
Intercession for others outside the church?
- Was God invoked as a Trinity?
- Were people in the congregation given an opportunity to pray aloud? Silently? Together in small groups?
Praise and song
- Were people given opportunity to sing?
- Were there other opportunities for the congregation to participate: kneeling, reading, reciting, clapping, etc.?
Word and theology
- Of the major parts of Scripture (as traditionally categorized), which were read aloud: Old Testament? Psalms? Epistles? Gospels?
- Did the service in some way retell the saving deeds of biblical history?
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