Spontaneity vs. planning

I've been thinking lately about spontaneity versus planning in worship. The tension that arises when considering that the two lies in the seemingly irreconcilable difference between the two. Planning seems to eliminate the possibility of anything spontaneous happening. Planning stifles spontaneity.

The problem that I see is this. Lack of planning looks more like chaos than spontaneity. When we don't plan there is no flow. It meanders here and there. Ebbing this way, and flowing that way. It lurches this way then that. There is no discernable beginning and the ending seems anticlimactic.

Planning gives us focus and direction. Within that framework we can allow for spontaneity. We need to know where we are going, or we will never get anywhere.

On our recent vacation (see previous post), we had a plan about what direction we were going. Within that plan, we did some spontaneous things.

Worship is no different. Direction gives us destination, while allowing for the spontaneous.