I got to wondering whether there were any helpful or useful web resources for informing processes of reflecting on and evaluating acts of corporate worship. If you do a search, there seems to be a lot but not all of it is helpful in the kind of way that I’m thinking of. One issue is that ‘worship’ often means a rather restricting thing: ‘sung -and led by a band’. The sites that have that in mind seem to produce checklists that have a big focus on the musical and relational dimensions of a band. Interestingly, not much ‘audience’ research (either of the congregants or God! 😉 ).

The other thing to think about in looking for aid in evaluating is a realistic (or is that cynical?) appraisal of our appetite for it. Many of us find regular evaluative practice quite hard to be motivated about: it is another job, there are other things calling for our attention, it’s done and we think we have an idea of how it went. Occasionally we’ll think a bit about an aspect that got our attention or keeps bothering us or has bothered someone else enough to have them get onto you about it. This tends to mean that most of us have somewhat negative associations with the process and don’t think about the quiet moments of our individual reflections where it might have been more useful and positive.

So, what do I think is worth visiting again? well ….

Why is worship evaluation essential

Worship evalutation form from Calvin seminary which is very thorough -which is also to say long.

And to mix things up a bit on the basis that a different angle can be creative or insightful; a set of questions for evaluating collective worship in schools. Now there is a different ‘theology’ involved here; does that help?

I’m also wondering what people might come up with if they designed their own? That could be an interesting exercise. Think about what we have found helpful and unhelpful in worship we’ve attended or led and see if we can find evaluative questions which would capture the issues and potential learning.

Search for evaluating worship on Everyclick – the online fundraising website.