The service leader plays a key role in ensuring a Sunday gathering fulfills its goals!  Here is a mixture of practical tips and principles to inform your thinking.   2024 updates in bold.

Preparing the run sheet

1. You'll be sent a run sheet template early in the week with various components already added.  You need to put these in a sensible order and add extra elements as appropriate
2. Read the Bible passages carefully and think how they might inform your planning of the service
3. For the first 10 minutes we have all ages together in the service  We want these first 10 minutes to be as multi-age-engaging as possible.  
   1. The first song will either be a kid-targeted song that is also adult-accessible, or vice versa.  Either way it's designed for all ages to engage with.
   2. There will usually be an "all-age segment" - either a bible learning spot, or book review etc, that consciously engages all ages and involves kids.
   3. Because this whole segment is for "everyone together", we won't generally call kids down the front at all - we want them to be doing church with their families during this segment.
4. Saying words together is valuable, so a service should normally include something from the liturgy library  Try to consider what we've done in recent weeks - if we've said the Lord's Prayer for the last 3 weeks, maybe it can have a rest.  If we haven't said a confession together for 2 weeks, it'd be good to include a confession, etc.  Note that the Lord's Supper has a confession built in.
5. Think carefully about which song fits best at different points of the service. 
6. Not everything in the service has to relate to the sermon - the whole service should reveal the gospel
7. As you plan the service, work out how long you expect it to run for. 65-70 minutes is a good target. 
8. By Friday morning, please send your final run sheet to Tom who will forward it on to everyone involved

Preparing your leading

1. At the beginning: 
   1. Speak like there are newcomers in the room.  This means:
      1. Introduce yourself: eg  "I'm John Smith, I'm a member of All Saints and I'll be leading our time together today"
      2. Welcome those who are new (even if you're not sure if there are any). This is valuable both for newcomers themselves and for our church culture. 
   2. There's no need to welcome livestream viewers - our focus is on what's going on in the room.
   3. Set the vision for why we are here, what we are here to do.   Perhaps read an appropriate sentence of scripture, or consider options 1.4 - 1.6 here. Help people transition to the "in church" headspace.
   4. It's not necessary to talk about the sermon topic at the start.  The rest of the service has significance and value of its own.  Possibly you could subtly introduce some of the concepts that the Bible passage will deal with, but it's not the main goal as we start. Definitely don't pre-empt the sermon's main point.
   5. Introduce the first song meaningfully, or liaise with the songleaders for them to do a meaningful intro.
2. Do lead in a prayer for God to be at work through the service - either right at the beginning, or after the first song, or before the readings. 
3. Consider how you will introduce the songs (or whether you will ask the song leaders to do so).  The title of the song isn't very important, but it's extremely helpful to give us a reason to sing, and to lead us into what we do in this song - eg praise God for X, remember how Jesus did Y, declare that we are Z.  We can always do better than "please stand for our next song".
4. Consider how to engage the kids with all the things we do in the first 10 minutes
5. When it's time for the the kids&youth to leave:
   1. Explain that it's time for kids and high schoolers to join our Cornerstone and Sunday Fresh
   2. Point out the leader with lanyard stationed near the side door, ready to meet any new families etc
   3. We are currently NOT having a greeting break at this point because the downside for seniors (noise, distraction) outweighs other benefits at the moment. Try to move on fairly directly to the next thing.
6. After a confession, make sure you include an assurance of God's forgiveness. This is the gospel!  There are some ideas here or you could read one of these Bible passages.
7. At the end:
   1. Invite people to stay for morning tea
   2. Mention that kids programs finish at 10.45
   3. Please don't publicly thank or compliment the music team. We musos are trying to point to Jesus, and away from ourselves; drawing extra attention to us makes that harder to achieve.  Also, there are many other less-visible ministries that are just as worthy of congratulations. Feel free to encourage us privately afterwards!
   4. Plan for the final thing you say to be something of spiritual substance.  Read a key verse from the Bible passage, or repeat a key sentence from the sermon, or a biblical blessing, or a sending-out prayer from the liturgy library, or lead in your own prayer.  Don't be afraid to say "amen", smile, and sit down.

On the day

1. Please arrive at least 15 minutes before start time
2. Please bring about 8 printed copies of the run sheet with you and hand them to the music team, bible readers, tech operators etc.
3. Make sure you check in with the Bible readers and ensure they are ready
4. Pray with the music and tech teams 5 minutes before starting time
5. Make eye contact with the sound operator before you start, to make sure they are ready.
6. Be prepared for the crowd to take some time to quieten down. Speak loud. Pause after your first sentence. Be assertive!

Announcements

Normally one of the ministers will do the announcements, but here is info that applies.

We want to mention Connect Cards during the announcements each week.

• The idea is not that people will fill them in on the spot, but to raise awareness so that when we invite people individually, they know what we're talking about. 
• Even if there are no actual newcomers in the room, this communicates to everyone that we are a church that expects and looks after newcomers. 
• The small handful of online viewers are prompted on-screen to fill a form, so there is no need to address them directly.

Sample wording:

1. [Slide] "If you're new to All Saints, we're really glad you're here. To help you connect in with church life, we'd love you to fill in our Connect Card.  If you didn't receive a card on your way in, you can find them down the back, or fill it in online.   [Gesture at screen] These details will be on the screen again after church."
2. [Slide]  "If you're new or newish, we'd love to help you get more connected into church life here at All Saints.  Our Connect Card [hold one up] is a way for you to give us your details so we can be in touch. There are boxes you can tick about joining the mailing list, or getting a printed nametag.  You might have received a card on your way in; otherwise you can find them down the back, or use the online version [gesture at screen]. These details will be on the screen again after the service today.