:: how to turn your first worship hour into a dry run

One of my pet peeves for the first hour of worship is that it sometimes gets the bad rap as being the "guinea pig" run. You know what? Worshipers come to 1st hour expecting the same thing they would get in the 2nd hour. Yes, there's glitches that escaped rehearsal and crept into 1st hour...but if you really wanted to turn your first hour of worship into a dry run, here are sure fire ways to make it happen:

1. Make Sunday your first time rehearsing together.
2. Keep the sheet music away from the musicians until rehearsal.
3. Make sure your musicians don't have any chance to listen to the songs ahead of time on a rehearsal recording.
4. Keep your lyric operator home during rehearsals.
5. Make sure your front of house audio operator doesn't show up, listen to the recordings, or take notes.
6. Make sure Sunday AM you don't begin with sound checks...seriously, this saves time, doesn't it?!
7. Show up unprepared as the leader.
8. Allow your musicians to show up late.
9. Use the phrase, "Oh it's OK...it's just 1st hour," back stage and in staff meetings.
10. Never, ever, pray before the 1st gathering of worship.