Podcast Episode #329
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Distractions are a real part of worship services. Mike Harland joins us today to talk about how to eliminate—or at least minimize—distractions in your worship service.
Some highlights from today’s episode include:
- Music leaders should see themselves as the enemies of distraction in worship services.
- Churches that aren’t extremely careful with their slides can be disruptive to their worship service.
- Presentation software can be a positive or a negative when you’re using it in worship services.
- Powerpoint typos are avoidable but churches still make those mistakes.
- With the tools churches have access to, worship teams should never be unprepared.
- “Sunday morning is not rehearsal time for the worship team. Sunday morning soundcheck time.”
- You’ll never get complex right if you can’t get simple right.
The five distractions in worship we cover are:
- The curse of power point…
- “We’re singing that?”
- Bubba’s on the soundboard, Homer’s on the lights…
- Hi-tech or No-tech
- Quality over aesthetics
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Feedback
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You know, people with special needs are also often distractions in worship services. Distractions that parishioners sometimes try to silence. For shame! However your point about being well prepared is well taken.
Good point, Christina.
Distractions in worship are too common. I’ve had people pass out and suffer seizures, and of course technical difficulties. Two of the funniest is similar one shared in the podcast. Preaching for a little church 12 miles from civilization without air, one summer Sunday a dog comes walking up the aisle. Another was when I preached a sermon called the FAT sermon. FAT is an acrostic for Faithful, Available, and Teachable. I began the sermon by saying every Christian should be fat. Before I could explain, a lady in the back turned to her husband and said loudly, “What did he say? I almost lost it.
The dog got saved!
I appreciate minimizing distractions, and I think we should do that. But when did we in the body of Christ become so petty that we have to be entertained? That we can’t handle distractions or little failures?
When did the singing part of the service (note the WHOLE SUNDAY MORNING SERVICE IS WORSHIP, not just the singing), become a “production” with sets, sound engineers, and multi-media presentations?
Is this whole thing we are doing now really a good thing?
I think that it is very important to bring our very best to this time. Just because we stress excellence in presentation does not mean that our main idea is to entertain. As a pastor I prepare and do my very best to bring a well prepared and biblical message with the intent of leading people closer to Jesus. The same should be true for the song portion and every portion of the service as well. If lights, video etc are going to be a part of this time we should make sure it is free of distraction so the overall purpose of our time together can be accomplished. Great Article
While the body of Christ should be able to tolerate a few typos and an occasional ring of feedback, do we demand or require our non-believing guests to do the same?
As both Dr. Rainer and his guest stated, you’ve got about 30 seconds to engage the listener or they will tune out the message. A typo in the Pastor’s message or a misspelled word to a non-believing guest may have them miss an important thought about Christ and cause them to continue to believe that churches on do things half-way and on the cheap!
Churches should be known for doing things the best they can possibly do. Not the most expensive but with care and excellence. I hate that word, but it describes why we try to do.
A person sitting in your pew that only gives you 30 seconds to “wow them” into attention can leave! Why do I say that? Because they will find every excuse in the book to tune me out.
You missed a major disruption, which is rude audience members. I have had children screaming while parents look on and smile. In one service a toddler got loose while I was preaching, climbed up on the piano, and as everyone watched made even more noise. I have several times stopped in the middle of a sermon and politely asked a parent to address the situation. Recently I cut a sermon short to talk with the parents, after service privately asking them when their child gets too loud to please take him out. They stomped off saying “We’ll find us another Church”. Good luck. We live in a terribly disrespectful and disruptive world where common courtesy is no longer recognized nor practiced.
Yep.
This seems to be the taboo topic. What can you do with screaming, crying or even cute kids playing peek-a-boo with everyone behind them in the pews? Like Exhausted Pastor said, they leave in a huff. One of the members of a church I pastored said this is my time with my grandson. He ran back and forth on a pew all through the service. (Every week). I have read blogs that say leave it alone.
I mention we have nursery, children’s church, etc. but the families that have their children in the pew will keep them in the pew. I know your show today was about what the church can do so maybe there is a need to address this and others.
The real distractions often are not quite so obvious. Most visitors don’t really care about typos or feedback or make judgments about trivial things. Those happen to all of us at work. Christians might judge but rarely have I heard that from a new person seeking a church for the first time or a Christian curious person.
What they do care about is hearing and seeing bad attitudes from anyone they encounter from usher greeters to preachers to worship leaders. Things like sideways political statements- jokes about presidents Obama or Trump- making clear that there are 2 groups of people in the world- us and everyone else, Making clear what the appropriate cultural and church positions are in everything from dress to politics to Black Lives Matter to LGBT to schools to how women are viewed. Poor childcare- number one reason why families do not return. Big distraction if you feel your children are not safe.
Major in the essentials. Not diminishing by doing our best for God but that Best should first be defined by our attitudes.
Had a seeker Christian curious co-worker who walked into a church in November and was greeted with” we are rejoicing over the election here today”. Couldn’t stop being angry through the whole service- not because of the election but the assumption that the church has a norm about politics which was clearly communicated in the first 5 minutes of his visit.
I agree, Patty.
When I was growing up childcare was what the parents provided, and the Church provided the space
Yes that’s right
Ultimately, the issue is quality/dilligence versus mediocrity/halfway effort. According to one ministry, the difference between mega-churches and others is their emphasis on quality and high standards. I personally believe that much of this started when para-church organizations, led by lay people who were business professionals, brought what they know into the church sphere. This raised the standards for the church as a whole. The mediocrity of the average church service was no longer acceptable – and it should never have been acceptable. As someone who has been a worship leader and a pastor, I am offended by ill-prepared services. In the business world, such low standards would get taken to task, but are shrugged off and accepted by churches. We serve the King of kings – does He not deserve your best? IMO it is not the mechanical means that are a problem. It is the low standards usually accepted by church leaders.
Well said, Jon.
I may be getting too old to be going to these high production churches. When I was a child we dressed in our Sunday best because Jesus deserved our best, inside and out. One or two Sundays a year our youth group did the whole service, from ushers, to music, to preaching. Nothing fancy or professional just giving some ownership to young but active members in the worship experience.
We didn’t have a worship leader other than the organist who played through the hymn once so we could get a feel for it. The better singers scattered throughout the congregation kept us all singing on key. And there are always a few that didn’t sing on key but that was okay too because they were giving God their best. It was sometimes painful to listen to, but then they were singing to God, I bet God was pleased to hear them. My focus should of been on God too.
When I go back and visit that church I grew up in someone is still playing on the organ, there isn’t a choir anymore but the words to the songs are projected up on the white walls in front. No pictures of the organist in the background, just the words that guide us in our worship. Worship is simple, and good. Sometimes there is a bit of crackle from the PA as the pastor speaks, life happens, its okay.
I miss the unprofessionalness of worshipping God, miss not seeing the children come in to sing the new songs they’ve learned, or the children presenting the Christmas Story.
I may just be getting too old for all these perfect services. When did worship become a production where only the best should be heard rather than the whole congregation?
I love the old ways, but any way that promotes the Word of God is good
I probably should listen to the pod cast but what I’ve seen in the comments is puzzling.
Have we forgotten God orders the service, God draws the lost to be saved, God speaks though the preacher, and the music, God has no distractions?
I’m no Calvinist by any stretch, and believe in order in the service and doing things right however I also believe that everyone in attendance is there by free will, nothing we do or don’t do outside of preaching the word can change His divine will for any and all services. Those so called distractions in my opinion have always been and always will be the devil trying to hindee God’s divine will (spiritual warfare) and you can not stop that. When things start going wrong I get excited because I know if I’m obedient and push though God’s gonna move in the service. Do all we can for a pleasant service leave the rest up to the God.
I can’t remember how Adrian Rogers said it but it was something like this ” God is the audience, the preacher is the Director, the congregation are the performers.
Is God in control? Sure He is. Do we have free will? Sure we do. Part of God being in control is our obedience to do what He has said to do. If “God is not the God of confusion, but of peace” (1 Corinthians 14:33) then we address distractions just as the Apostle did in that same chapter. As a body of believers we are to work with God to insure that the Word of God is clearly and coherently presented while distractions are minimized.
I think it is important to hear the podcast to have a point of reference. The other important point of reference is the difference in perspective of church staff versus person in the pew. This podcast is meant for church staff. The things that are mentioned are not freak accidents (like a dog coming in, or someone having a heart attack) but things the church staff has responsibility for, and if they don’t show due diligence, makes for a poor worship service. Sure, typos happen sometimes. But if they happen week after week after week, someone is not proof-reading, which is a requirement for their job. It is the church staff’s responsibility that the sound is proper – not Bubba at the soundboard. I totally get the speaker’s message, and have been saying similar things for years. Whether we like the idea or not, the pastor and staff are like the director and stagehands in a theater. Would you return to a theater that never started on time, never had the right program, and you could never hear the players? Of course not. So why should we think the church will not get held to this same standard by the lost? What we have to offer is so much more than what is offered in the theater, and as such should be treated with much more care than we do.
Thank you, Jon. You get it. And thanks for listening to the podcast before making judgements on it.
This is an excellent article–if we are talking about larger churches or mega churches. When we travel we visit those and glean some good ideas on how to do church better. Paid staff should certainly be held to an excellent standard.
But most churches are not megas or even large. Many of us are in small towns or on rural crossroads. We are pleased as punch to have our hymnals and on a really good Sunday, someone who plays an instrument. We are not picky which one, just something to accompany us. We may or may not have a bulletin, won’t have to worry about powerpoint typos, and are still operating without a sound system.
And folks are still getting saved.
We are not used car salesmen. We are a voluntary association for the propagation of the gospel. We ARE “gittin’ er done!”
Mega churches and large churches are what they are because they are good at what they do. The rest of us are doing our best.
Should we close down because we aren’t up to professional standards?
Linda –
Did you listen to the podcast or just jump on the bandwagon of comments?
No one said a church, any church, had to be like professionals. The major thesis is that if we are doing anything for God, we should do it with excellence for His glory.
Also, your comments are an insult to me and the congregation my husband serves as pastor. On a typical Sunday, we will have 50 to 60 in worship. We don’t have any “professionals,” and we sure aren’t a megachurch. But we do things with excellence. You insult our members when you suggest they have to settle for mediocrity just because we aren’t a big congregation. With all the inexpensive tools available to churches, any size church can do so much, and do it well. Don’t condescend to us in smaller churches who are doing things well. Don’t call us used car salesmen.
You may be “pleased as punch” with your mediocrity. I think a better name for it is laziness. And I admit I am seething at your condescending words and tone.
I would like to say that while I didn’t particularly enjoy the podcast, I’m grateful for your desire to help people in their worship of the triune God. I’m coming from a context where distractions in worship are numerous and we try to see them as opportunities from the Lord. We hold weekly worship services where many of our worshippers are homeless and mentally ill. We prepare to present the Word of God faithfully and clearly, yet things rarely go without distractions. I realize that this podcast focused not on people in the pew, but on church staff doing their job well, to which I agree, and it probably would’ve sat better with me had the title been more reflective of that instead of distractions.
I would also like to encourage brothers and sisters in Christ to be alert to the fact that pursuing excellence for God’s glory can sometimes be a coverup for pursuing gimmickry for my glory. In the area that I live, it seems that talk of pursuing excellence in worship services often drowns out talk of pursuing “righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, and gentleness.” Perhaps this is why the biblical analogy of pastors shepherding the flock of God is far more helpful than our modern analogy of directors directing a play. But enough of my preaching. Thank you for the opportunity to share these things. God bless.
I believe a practical long term solution to “distractions” is still in educations, and we still have a long way to go.
let me start by saying “people are creatures of habits”.
when people received Jesus in their hearts, yes they have a changed of heart. but most of us are still stuck with our old brain old ways old habits of doing things. if we had been rebellious to God, how much more will we be rebellious to people around us?
it is in our fallen nature NOT to co-operate, surprised?
therefore we have programs like “people management”, “counseling”, “discipleship” to help people adapt to their new life for Jesus.
Jesus had spoken among the most important mandate after His resurrection and before His ascension “Go and make DISCIPLES of all nations”.
so .. education, and still education, a very important key to Christian discipleship which can help us learn to be considerate people of Christ-likeness
and looking on the bright side of things, when we see persistent consistent “distractions” we know we are lacking in discipleship, training and equipping!
As someone who worked in television production, I find certain types of mistakes distracting but I don’t fool myself into thinking that the issue in that moment isn’t in my heart. I agree that we should avoid the distractions that were addressed in the podcast and I have worked to help churches eliminate those. I believe that we should strive for excellence in all we do but we also cannot cater to a self centered culture of instant gratification. Our churches should be better than that. Our churches should be more Christ like than the culture.
I couldn’t help but think as I was listening about those with special needs (physical, developmental or mental). I work with families who have children on the autism spectrum. Where are they going to fit into our ideas of how a church service should be executed. When they are adults and are no longer adorable little kids how will they be included in worship.
I fear we show the real darkness of our hearts when we design our services for the benefit of a certain demographic. The hypocrisy of showing preference to those who take less effort and have more to offer as stated in James 2 is a very dangerous place to be. Providing programs isn’t enough because it sets those with disabilities “over there” while we have our services over here. We pat ourselves on the back for helping people while excluding them from body life and worship. If we aren’t inclusive the way Christ was inclusive then we show how the culture, and not God, has infected our hearts.