Re-Casting In Worship

I was in a meeting yesterday with a good friend of mine and we were discussing the need for visioncasting in worship. In other words, we were feeling that often in a typical worship service you don't really have an opporutnity for a team leader/pastor to just shift his weight to one elbow, look over the pulpit and cast the vision, again.

I'm re-reading "IT" by Craig Groeschel and I completely resonate with his concepts of casting vision. Simply, he states that churches with "it" state, re-state, cast, re-cast, package, and re-package their vision. I found myself as a leader casting vision expecting my people to function out of the casted vision. Irregardless if I'm waking up excitied everyday to fulfill the vision, my people probably aren't...unless I cast and re-cast. How can I continue to say the same thing over and over again differently, how can I continue to recast vision, to whom do I need to continue to cast and once I feel they've caught the vision, what kind of re-casting is necessary?

Then it hit me. Worship. Well, really worship service. When do we provide the time to cast and re-cast the vision? Does this take place inside an announcement? Is it happening in a song? Is it an application point in a sermon? I guess so. But shouldn't it be so much more?

As a student pastor, I find myself laboring over a sermon or over a program time. Thinking through every detail and every facet. Thinking things like, "this game will help students find new friends and make stronger connections", or "during this announcement I'll remind them to invite friends and exemplify the great commission", or even "on this point, I'll pause and restate one of our purpose statements and that will reinforce our vision..." Inasmuch as those things maybe happening, I think to most a game is just a game and an announcement is just an announcement.

We have got to provide occasionally, yet consistent times, in our worship services to intentionally cast and re-cast the vision to our people. That's right worship times. We can't rely on small group leaders, letters, websites, nifty print peices to adequately share the fabric of our vision. It has to happen in a venue where we have the most impact, the most attention, and the most return - weekly worship services.

I think this looks like video testimonies, an on-stage interview, and video loop of the vision statement, and so many other possibilities. Should worship leaders stop talking about a song and how it matches our vision or should preachers stop referring to vision during a "sermon" - absolutely not. But I think we as church leaders think our people aren't recieving our message of vision when we camoflouge it in our worship bulletins.