Before becoming the President of Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, I spent 20 years in the trenches of pastoral ministry on a university campus. Some of my friends have accused me of leaving holy work for the dark side of university administration. To the contrary, my love of the local church has deepened. I still believe that the local church is the hope of a broken world.

One of the things I wish we could do better is creating worship gatherings that are formative. Believing that we are story-formed people, I have written extensively on worship as an enacted story, plotted in tandem with the biblical story to be preached on a given Sunday morning. As a pastor, the creative connection between the preaching pastor and the planner of the worship event was often disjointed.

Now I’m taking it one step further.

Trevecca has created a fully online master’s degree in worship and leadership which launches this January. I have written and filmed the lectures for the first class. It is an in-depth review of a way to form sermons and services side-by-side.

Get a taste for the first class by watching this video.

After watching the video, you may want to consider enrolling in the program. Here’s a brief description of what you can expect:

• The curriculum integrates a study of worship with coursework from our respected master’s program in organizational leadership. Students will deepen their understanding of theology while also improving their leadership capabilities.
• Examples of topics covered include worship ministry dynamics and relationships; worship in the Old and New Testament; spiritual formation; church leadership and contemporary issues in worship; personal leadership and development; organizational culture and change; strategic thinking; conflict management; and leading and building teams.
• The program is 100 percent online, with books and materials delivered to your front door. You’ll never step foot on campus! Finish the program in 18 months with a master’s degree in hand.
• Graduates will develop an e-portfolio curated throughout the program that can be used when applying for a new ministry position.
• The degree also equips students with the academic credentials needed to teach worship and/or leadership at the undergraduate level. Or, students can become qualified to serve in an executive pastor role.

As a pastor-at-heart, I will always be looking for ways to improve the worship experiences of our people. I believe this program will help you lead such an endeavor. Learn more about the Master of Arts in worship and leadership.

This week, Trevecca Nazarene University launched a new master’s degree program in worship and leadership. I’m passionate about this degree and the ways it will help churches and their worship to deepen their worship. In light of the announcement about this new program, I’m sharing a few excerpts from my book on worship, The Worship Plot.

I love spontaneous moments in response to the Spirit of God. But I also think it is important for us to listen to the story of our creative God. In the Beginning, the Spirit hovered over a dark, formless chaos. Then God went to work. The Result was order, structure, and story. The order did not confine God; it unleashed God. The structure did not inhibit God; it revealed God. The story did not limit God; it narrated God.

In worship, the creating Spirit of God is as work sustaining the life of a people. The structure of worship is conducive to life in the Spirit. The story of God and humans is being told and acted out, much like a play combines words and actions to produce compelling drama. 

In my book, The Worship Plot, I suggest five acts for the drama of worship. 

1. Entrance. A play starts with an exposition that sets the time and place of the story. The Entrance does something similar for worship. The opening act of the worship plot locates us. We gather at a certain time—on Sundays—because God has called us together. We enter a certain space—God’s presence. Gathering remind us who we are and whose we are. This Sabbath pattern is our distinguishing habit. 
2. The Bad News. Just as a first act in a play raises a conflict that intensifies during the second, so goes the unfolding of the worship plot. If it really sinks in that we are gathered in the presence of the Holy God, we instantly identify with Isaiah: “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LordAlmighty” (Isa. 6:5, NIV). That’s another way of saying, “What’s a person like me doing in a place like this?” This leads to Act II of our drama, confession of the Bad News, the admission that our lives aren’t all we hope they would be, or all that God has desired for us. 
3. The Good News. This is the climax of our drama, the turning point for the better—the Good News. The Bible is full of good news. “I have heard your cry.” “And the father ran out to meet him.” “Get up. Take your mat. Go home” (see Exod. 3; Luke 15; Matt. 9). Every one of these statements is made to people living with bad news. Good news can be delivered as scripture, sermon or song. It is the moment in the service when we declare to troubled people that God is with us doing something redemptive. It is the story of Father, Son, and Spirit acting in loving aggressiveness toward troubled humans. We grow numb under worship that drones on and one about sin in a dark world. The worship plot must get for Bad News to Good News, from sin to grace, from death to life. 
4. Response of the People. The Good News opens us and makes us capable of response. Like the falling action in the fourth act of a play, our response to the Good News should draw us to an outcome where we are better off than we were before. The Good News even suggests what our response might be. The possibilities are many: repent of sin, be baptized, sing a song, give money, volunteer to serve, dedicate an infant, share the Lord’s Supper, testify, offer words of encouragement to fellow worshipers, be silent, break bread. These are real, bodily responses to the Good News. We believe that hearing is not enough; we must do something. 
5. Blessing. Another world for blessing is benediction, which means “to say good words.” This act of the worship plot takes only a minute or two, but it is the needed conclusion. It’s the denouement of the drama, where we heart that we are better off than we were. A pastor lifts his or her hands and pronounces blessings on the people who have gathered in God’s presence, been honest about their Bad News, received the Good News, and responded to grace. These people are now ready to be sent into the world where Jesus has already gone. They will serve the people of the world, empowered by the grace they have received This closing blessing is a gift. It gives boldness to the beaten-down. It whispers grace to the weak. It invades our damaged self-esteem with words that say God values us. The grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit go with us all. 

Style divides. Story makes us one. 

The Worship Plot

Learn more about the book or get your own copy.

Master’s of Worship and Leadership

Trevecca Nazarene University is launching a new master’s program in January 2020 for worship leaders. The Master of Arts in Worship and Leadership will allow worship leaders to deepen their theological and historical understanding of worship while also honing leadership skills that will deepen their ministries and open new opportunities. Read more.