For Your Planning Team

Planning for This Service

The primary task of week 2 in any series is to take the energy from the opening and move it in the direction it needs to go next. And this week that direction is up (in terms of power) and down (in terms of depth).

This week’s entrance includes an act of healing for all who desire it for themselves or others. For this to work powerfully, it needs to flow smoothly and not create long lines. This means you will need multiple stations. Expect each healing encounter to take and average of 20-30 seconds, so two per minute. If you plan for 5 minutes for this action, each station can receive 10-15 people. Determine the number of people you believe may respond, then create the number of stations (and persons to host those stations) needed.

Once you have the number of stations you need, recruit station hosts (lay or clergy), and train them for their work. Then work with the head usher to coordinate where the stations should be to facilitate the best flow of people to stations. The head usher will then work with the usher team to determine their plan for guiding people to the nearest convenient station.

Before Sunday, preferably Saturday evening, rehearse this entire action, in two parts. With the attendants for the healing stations, rehearse how they will get to their stations, then how they will offer prayer, laying on of hands, and anointing until they are all confident in their actions. Then, have the station hosts function as the congregation, and rehearse with the usher team how the congregation will get to and from the nearest convenient station until the ushers are confident in what they’re doing.

The rest of the service flows in much the same ways, with the same kinds of requirements for voicing, as last week’s service. See last week’s planning notes for details of ways to prepare leaders for each element.