Claiming that the four-fold pattern is scriptural, seen repeatedly in Scripture’s acts of worship, he calls for intentional collaboration between all those who lead worship and the rest of the worshipers. So, preachers are not only charged with choosing texts and themes but also with engaging in planning worship around the word. Several preachers have formalized working with small groups in the planning of their sermons (such as John McClure and David Schlafer),⁸ but Mitman calls for a wider process that shapes the whole worship event.

Recently I witnessed an epiphany moment while planning a worship series with a group of worship leaders at Calvary Memorial Church, Chicago. I prepared details of six sermons and, alongside Scripture texts and titles, I provided what I call a “main impact” sentence for each.

In my book 360-Degree Preaching, I advise preachers to crystallize each sermon’s content and purpose by expressing its “main impact.” A sermon should say and do what the scripture passage says and does. Preachers should be able to fill in a sentence like this: “By God’s grace this sermon will say ______ and will do ______.” Of course, sermon outcomes have very wide range. They may rebuke, teach ethics, increase praise, drop you to your knees, raise you with wings as eagles, call you to repentance and faith, motivate you to service or press you into mission. And, because each sermon’s impact anticipates particular purposes, similarly each service of worship should be sensitive to God’s saying and doing word too.

Then one of the key leaders spoke up excitedly. “Would you believe it? That’s exactly how I believe music in worship works. Exactly! It’s not just the words that matter, but it’s how the music functions and how the congregation will be led. Everything I choose, I ask what the music is saying and doing, and how it helps shape the direction and flow of worship.” Yes, God’s word in Scripture should shape both sermon and worship service.

Maintain Trinitarian Balance

Throughout worship planning all of God’s three persons should be kept in view. Earlier I mentioned a survey that identified four categories of Trinitarian songs: three person, two person, one person and “You Lord” songs. However, the survey found that three person songs and songs focusing on the Holy Spirit were largely missing. Music in worship reflects Trinitarian grammar by maintaining balance between all four categories.

Similarly, preachers can assess their sermons by the same criteria. How often are God’s three persons in the content and language of our preaching? If we analyzed recent preaching, what would be the percentages of three person sermons, or sermons on the Holy Spirit? No worship should happen without explicit reference to the Trinity somewhere – in the call to worship, prayers, creed, Scriptures, sermon, Lord’s Supper or benediction.

All worship planning needs to be intentional about this foundational doctrine for Christian life. As John Baillie said, “The Trinitarian approach to God must always be important for Christian worship, as a safeguard against our worshiping an idol of our imaginations instead of the true God.”⁹

So much more could be written on preaching and Trinitarian worship. As a “work in progress,” this series raises issues that demand much more reflection on my part. But, having begun with the warning: “Beware tuneless preaching,” I hope that you can now, at least, appreciate: “Welcome to tuneful preaching!” ❖

1 James B. Torrance,Worship, Community & the Triune God of Grace (Downers Grove: IVP,1996), 59.
2 Robin Parry,Worshipping Trinity (Paternoster, 2005), 131.
3 Michael J. Quicke, 360degree leadership: preaching to transform congregations (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2006).
4 Aubrey Malphurs, Values-Driven Leadership (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1996), 34.
5 See Russell Mitman,Worship in the Shape of Scripture (Cleveland: Pilgrim Press, 2001), 34.
6 Ibid., ix.
7 Ibid., 27.
8 John McClure, The Roundtable Pulpit: Where preaching and leadership meet (Nashville: Abingdon, 1995); David J. Schlafer, Surviving the Sermon (Cambridge: Cowley, 1992).
9 John Baillie, quoted in Cornelius Plantinga & Sue A. Rozeboom, Discerning the Spirits (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003), 105.