If practice makes perfect, then perfection makes discontent. Service reviews are an excellent way to both encourage those involved in services and to refine our services to remove distraction. There are probably many areas in our churches that we are aware of that need improvement. And it is good to desire that improvement. However, that can easily become an idol. It is absolutely imperative that we keep that in mind when conducting reviews.

Satan doesn’t need our help

It’s no secret that preaching often comes with a dose of discouragement. So the last thing we want to do with our review time is discourage the man who has spent a large amount of the previous week studying, praying, and writing in preparation for the sermon. Satan is already trying his hardest to do that and we don’t need to aid him in his task. Some simple practical advice can help to keep us from making that mistake.

Avoid the temptation to become a worship connoisseur

It can be tempting to come up with the most interesting or thought provoking criticism. Or perhaps someone already said what it was we wanted to say, so we feel left to come up with something else to say. These are temptations towards our own pride that can easily disguise themselves as a desire to be helpful (Jer 17:9). We can tell ourselves that these things are coming from our desire for the preacher to become a better preacher, but they may be coming from our desire to appear wise. So let’s check our egos and consider Proverbs 17:27-28. Are we more concerned with our appearance or the preacher’s growth?

Preachers have feelings too

No one likes to be told they’ve done something wrong. We don’t thrive on criticism. Even the most helpful and loving criticism will sting (Heb 12:11). This goes for musicians and leaders just as much as preachers. There may be several things that could be said, but remember that you are not going to effect the change that may need to take place by your words alone. And God in His infinite wisdom has placed more than you in this person’s life. Limit your criticism to the most important things and trust that in time God will provide all the correction necessary in this person. Let us carefully consider what we have to say and let the clarity of the gospel be our primary aim. There is time to work on the rest.

Let us also make sure that what we have to say starts with a healthy dose of encouragement. Try telling your wife you think her earrings are awful but you like her dress. It doesn’t take a married man to know that the comment on the dress never even registered. It’s not just your wife that functions that way, we all do. If we tell the preacher all about what we think needs work and follow up with a few positives, we have not encouraged him. His discouragement tomorrow will be even worse than if we had said nothing at all. Remember that the devil is already waiting to pounce with discouragement wherever he can. We must be careful not to create a foothold for him to aid his attack.

Perfection is our destination, not our job

We look forward to the perfection we will experience in Heaven in the presence of our God and King. But we are impatient and easily distracted. We want perfection now. Love for our churches is a good thing, and inevitable result of that love is a desire for growth and change. However, that longing for perfection and that desire for change can blur together and become an unhealthy obsession. At the forefront of our desire for our churches should be the remembrance that we are sinners saved by grace (Eph 2:8). God made that change in us. He is the perfecter. We need to remember that He is doing that work in our churches. You may be an instrument of His work to transform hearts, but you are not the instrument. It may be tempting to think that because we are aware of something His plan hinges on us. But don’t neglect to spend time in prayer before the throne of God who has the power and authority to change. If perfection becomes our goal, it will only lead to bitterness because perfection is reserved for Heaven. And as we voice our concerns at review after review we may breed discontent and division in our churches. Christ glorified and His saving work must be the goal that our churches point towards. He will bring perfection in His time.

We probably don’t need to go to every review session at our church. Remember that Christ loves the church even more than we do. He will care for the church better than any husband has ever cared for his wife. Take the time to engage in a service without thinking about what you will say to anyone afterwards. If you find something distracting, silently forgive the cause of the distraction and then carry on. If attending every review is a priority for you, the review itself can become a distraction for you personally during the service. When that happens we are undermining every blessing that can come from our reviews.

Let God be glorified in the way we seek growth. And by the way that we remember that the power to change is His.

Swerv starts with a few simple goals. I want to share those with you in this post to help you understand where it is going. Hopefully they are not only the goals of Swerv, but also the goals of your church.

It should also serve as a form of public accountability. As new features are considered and added they will be weighed against these goals. Hopefully you will find that with each update and change we get closer and closer to them.

1. Provide consistency

Trying to track songs in one Excel/Numbers/Google Spreadsheet, service info in another, CCLI usage in yet another, and musicians on a separate calendar is bound to have problems. There are too many points of failure and inevitably we make mistakes. The distractions that come from the mistakes we make are a disservice to our congregations. The disrupted flow, the unprepared people — these things add up and grab our attention instead of helping us to focus on Christ. Swerv aims to remove failure points by centralizing everything and taking care of the details for you.

No more forgetting to add something in every appropriate file — add it once and it’s saved everywhere it needs to be. When a song is added to a service, its usage is recorded for CCLI records, its notes from past reviews are readily available, and all the musicians involved in the service can clearly see what to expect. When a musician is added to a service no one needs to go and update calendars, it’s all handled automatically.

2. Get more out of reviews

If your church doesn’t currently have a formal review process, I would encourage you to start (we’ll have more posts on that in the future). Reviews are supposed to help us grow and make changes where necessary. However, they are often recorded in yet another document or on loose sheets of paper that are not easily recalled when looking back on past services. This makes it easy for important comments to get lost and changes that should take place never happen. Swerv aims to provide a unified review process where reviews can effect the changes they are meant to.

Swerv makes all service data available to you during a review. And because all the information is already in one location you can easily add notes directly to songs or other items to serve as reminders for future use. You can never misplace a review either because they are directly attached to services.

3. Greater transparency

The planning that we do for our services is not only useful for those directly involved in leading and preaching. It also serves to prepare our congregations to come together to worship God. When everyone knows what to expect in upcoming services they can pray more effectively for the preaching of God’s word and the gathering of his people. They can also read and study more effectively and prepare themselves to listen to the preaching of God’s word. It enables them to learn new songs before a service. Swerv aims to make it easier to provide details of upcoming services with your congregations.

Through an API Swerv allows you to integrate your service planning into your church’s website automatically. You will be able to publish details of upcoming services and series as soon as you have entered them in Swerv. Swerv will also make it easy to generate playlists of all songs used in a service to make it easier to share new songs with your congregation.

4. Reduce administrative time

Not all of our churches can afford to have administrators on staff. And those that can often have more work for them than they can accomplish. Compiling CCLI reports, emailing reminders, and updating service information on other sites could all be automated. It adds unnecessary strain to our administrators — or deacons, or whatever volunteer it falls to. Swerv aims to automate common tasks so that people can use their time more effectively.

Since Swerv already tracks all of your service data, CCLI reports can be compiled in seconds just by entering a date. Email reminders will be automatically generated and sent to people involved in upcoming services so they are ready for practice, or leading, or whatever their role is. And as mentioned above, the API will enable easy integration into your church’s website.

5. Refine our services

When we come together to worship, our focus should be on Christ. Anything that inhibits that is dross. I don’t intend for us to view services as a performance on a stage where each laser flash should be perfectly timed to the music and the sermon is exactly twenty minutes long. But I do want our churches to grow in how we glorify the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Swerv’s ultimate aim is to aid our churches in the worship of God — through better planning, through more effective reviews, through better communication, and through effective use of our time.