Better Sundays Begin on Monday - Print

Better Sundays Begin on Monday: 52 Exercises for Evaluating Weekly Worship

By David W. Manner

Soft cover, 190pp
ISBN 9781791004736
Abingdon (2020)

[Allow 4 weeks]

If sports teams can improve their future performance by analysing the video of the match, can ministers and worship leaders also benefit from using this technique to improve the quality of their future services?

Reviewing match videos is a discipline that sports teams often incorporate after each game. Teams watch game videos to identify mistakes, make adjustments, consider radical changes, and highlight successes. The goal of this analysis is to make individual and team improvements that will positively affect subsequent games. The fundamental reason why a team needs adjustments is not always evident in the middle of the game. But evaluating important elements after a game gives coaches and players the opportunity to review individual plays and players in a more relaxed setting away from the time constraints and pressures of the game.

So why aren't pastors and worship teams incorporating similar evaluative practices? Implementing a collaborative process of analysing worship services or planning for upcoming services requires a deep level of humility, trust, and shared accountability. It also requires selfless leaders who are willing to sacrifice their own ideas and interests for the greater worshiping good of the congregation.

Better Sundays Begin on Mondays offers foundational worship considerations to help leadership teams ask questions evaluatively rather than defensively. These weekly reflections encourage worship leaders and their teams to think beyond style to biblical and theological worship content.