I have been the Worship Leader at our church for the past 6 years. Initially we too used the organ for hymns and the keyboard for praise songs. This meant that I would schedule a keyboard player and have an "on call" organist to be ready if the music led itself to organ. Three years ago we had a fire in our sanctuary and the organ was destroyed. This allowed for the - replace the organ or not discussion. Many in the congregation felt the organ was not used enough to replace it, however since the insurance money was a "use it or loose it" we purchased a new organ with a Midi. Once the new organ was installed we strongly encouraged our keyboard players to learn to use the Midi and within 6 months the keyboard was packed up and moved to storage. The organ is used every week and for every song either with organ sounds or Midi sounds. Worship band stays primarily the same each week: guitar, brass, flute, piano, vocalists, organ and bass. There are some of the organists who use the foot pedals and some who do not, and it's ok either way. Weeks the organ player is not strong on bass sounds we have a strong bass player. Even our die hard "worship band" players realize that the sound quality of the organ and the Midi is far better than the keyboard ever did. A normal worship service includes 3-4 hymns and 5-6 praise songs. Even our most senior organist will play "fill" on the praise songs as long as there are a few hymns that the organ can really be used. Replacing an older organ is too costly for most churches, but checking to see if your current organ can be retro-fitted with a Midi would be a good investment.
Our church has used Skype with our missionary families for some time. We began with Skype during Outreach team meetings and fundraisers for mission trips to help specific families. We have grown to using Skype several times a year - live with the missionary families and now have added recorded Skype conversations on monthly basis. We project the missionaries on the screens we normally use for song lyrics and run the sound through the church system. Our favorite Skype calls are with Missionary families with small children and we have the children of our congregation sing to them. This was difficult using a small web cam, but once we discovered we could use the church camcorder to allow the missionaries to see the children's faces and allow zoom and wide congregational views it became more of a blessing to the missionary families. I highly recommend it!
Posted in: Organ and Praise Band - Have you had success with a blended worship style?
I have been the Worship Leader at our church for the past 6 years. Initially we too used the organ for hymns and the keyboard for praise songs. This meant that I would schedule a keyboard player and have an "on call" organist to be ready if the music led itself to organ. Three years ago we had a fire in our sanctuary and the organ was destroyed. This allowed for the - replace the organ or not discussion. Many in the congregation felt the organ was not used enough to replace it, however since the insurance money was a "use it or loose it" we purchased a new organ with a Midi. Once the new organ was installed we strongly encouraged our keyboard players to learn to use the Midi and within 6 months the keyboard was packed up and moved to storage. The organ is used every week and for every song either with organ sounds or Midi sounds. Worship band stays primarily the same each week: guitar, brass, flute, piano, vocalists, organ and bass. There are some of the organists who use the foot pedals and some who do not, and it's ok either way. Weeks the organ player is not strong on bass sounds we have a strong bass player. Even our die hard "worship band" players realize that the sound quality of the organ and the Midi is far better than the keyboard ever did. A normal worship service includes 3-4 hymns and 5-6 praise songs. Even our most senior organist will play "fill" on the praise songs as long as there are a few hymns that the organ can really be used. Replacing an older organ is too costly for most churches, but checking to see if your current organ can be retro-fitted with a Midi would be a good investment.
Posted in: Connecting via Skype
Our church has used Skype with our missionary families for some time. We began with Skype during Outreach team meetings and fundraisers for mission trips to help specific families. We have grown to using Skype several times a year - live with the missionary families and now have added recorded Skype conversations on monthly basis. We project the missionaries on the screens we normally use for song lyrics and run the sound through the church system. Our favorite Skype calls are with Missionary families with small children and we have the children of our congregation sing to them. This was difficult using a small web cam, but once we discovered we could use the church camcorder to allow the missionaries to see the children's faces and allow zoom and wide congregational views it became more of a blessing to the missionary families. I highly recommend it!