Service Flow & Order Are the Same Thing

What is service Flow?

Service Flow for me is more than it is for most people. Details are important to bring a team together in unity. Achieve the same goal. Bring the vision together. That's why Service flow is so important.

Service Flow prep starts with the pastor as early as possible

I am going to go through the 13ish things/ steps ever you want to call them and how they should look and what kind of information you need.

Most everything has a touch of tech to it. From the live stream to the content online (thumbnails, titles, descriptions, podcasts, announcements, etc.

Before we dive too deep I would suggest that you have a person or persons who are the service director. They are the funnel for everything. Not necessarily in charge but the one who needs to know or it's not going to happen. If Shirley wants to announce the women's tea last min they need to know so the mic is on and a graphic is up etc.

Step 1: Cast the vision

What do I mean by casting the vision? What is the goal of a service? What do we want to accomplish in the upcoming service? I would assume outside of the obvious bring people to know Jesus that there is a specific goal or vision for each service/message what is the end goal for this service? We need to know this to help set an atmosphere for it in all of the said ways for lighting the worship songs and flow of the title image etc. Basically, Pastor or whoever is in charge needs to communicate.

Step 2: who is speaking and on what?

1. Worship song select

2. Worship band selection

3. Thumbnails, descriptions, titles invitations, etc

Why is this important?

What would more likely get people to 1. be excited about what is going on in their church and invite people and 2. help people invite people?

1. You should come Sunday. What is the pastor speaking about? I don’t know but you should come.

2. You should come Sunday. What is the sermon about? It’s about how when you accept christ you are crucified with him and resurrected like he was and when he sees you he says what sin? It's going to be great to hear the pastor talk about how God sees a spotless clean person, not a dirty sinner you should come.

Step 3: Now that we have this information we get to go to work as a team.

Worship gets set and communicated to the band and tech team.

It’s important that the AV team listen to the songs ahead of time too. Know how the writers of the songs intend for them to be mixed (of course add your own touches) and what kind of lighting the bands use when performing well for inspiration. Know where solos are lead instruments for mixing and video shots etc.

Social teams have time to invited on Facebook, Instagram youtube community pages. Youtube and Facebook have events created that notify people about what the sermon title and description are to want to come and watch or share etc. The website is updated with this same information in the central hub. Is this a sermon that we need to push something for? Sign up for baptism or prayer channel or salvation card etc have them prepped and ready to go. Do we need to have some short vertical videos recorded to encourage people to come and invite people during the week? Most people make weekend plans by Thursday so you want them to have you in their plans

Step 4: Enter Everything into the planning center or whatever service flow software you use.

My Church has a rotating list of people who do the announcements tithe and communion. So it's important that as many details are in there as possible so they can be prepped

Step 5: It's Sunday morning!!!!

I would encourage a full worship and creative arts team meeting. This meeting will be led by the worship leader, service leader, or tech leader. I think it should rotate to show unity for all teams. A full-service order should be given here so everyone knows what the plan is. Important to pray together as a team here.

Side Note

The story of 2 different planners let the spirit flow VS. nothing but what is in planning center

Step 6: let's start the sound check

Ok, sound check can be very frustrating if now done right. Who should be there at the sound check? Worship team, FOH mixer, lyrics. Video is a if you want them to be. Lighting I think will depend on your level of lighting

Step 6 A: Everything is set up. Band help Audio but make sure you ask how they want you to do things. It just shows respect to them even if you know what needs to be done and what to use. We are really one large team.

Step 6 B: Let's do a line check

Line check can seem frustrating to do every week but hear me out. Line check is for the band as well as FOH.

Why check every line

1. FOH Audio

2. Ears/monitor volumes

3. Broadcast audio

4. Find broken or failing equipment (things do fail)

Line check is done band can hear everything and knows where it all is and songs don't have to stop because the base player can’t hear the click. Yes, you should be using a click.

Step 6 C: Lyrics are there during rehearsal so that they can make sure slides are formatted to the flow of the song. Propper blanks for pauses lyrics are split up on lines correctly etc.

Explain justin

Step 7: Pray as a team again. YOU CAN NEVER PRAY TOO MUCH

Step 8: Check the paster mic and slides to make sure they all work and look good for live and on stream

Step 8B: Check all videos where the volume needs to be when played.

Step 8C: check all slides make sure they are all set and look and work.

Step 8D: Check all graphics and videos for live stream all keys and macros are working

Step 9: Do a full team meeting including everyone.

Worship, Tech, Greeters, ushers, etc. Get everyone on the same page and working in unity. PRAY AGAIN

Step 10: Leads (worship, tech, etc) PRAY WITH PASTOR OVER HIM/HER pray for service

I Would suggest then praying with your smaller team as well before the service goes.

I know this is a lot of prayers but trust me it will change the way everything in your service will go and the unity your team will have will be insane.

Step 11: Be Prepared for the spirit to move.

The Spirit sometimes moves and take you away from the plan. But the good thing is the plan can always go back too

Step 12: Worship, while you work.

This is so important, don’t tune out and be involved in what is going on

Step 13: You have set a place where the spirit was able to move and people can encounter our savior.