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Picking Songs for Church: Staying Current With New Music

Picking songs for church can be a tricky task. There’s a ton of factors that play into finding the right set of songs, from the average age of attenders to worship culture, past songs, type of sound system and building, and so many more. The task gets especially difficult when it comes to new songs. They may be playing on the radio, but that doesn’t mean you can assume everyone knows them (or even wants to hear them at church). If you are trying to figure out a process for selecting new s... Read More

4 Ways to Livestream Your Church Services

This is certainly a difficult time for many churches. The coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak is forcing many churches to keep their doors closed until the pandemic is calmed, but amidst the chaos, we still hold a responsibility as believers to continue sharing the good news of Christ and assuring the world that God is in control. Unfortunately, that’s difficult to do if your church doesn’t know how to livestream services.

The good news is, livestreaming your church service doesn’t n... Read More

Where to Focus My Time as a Part-Time Worship Pastor

If you’re working a part-time worship pastor role at your church, you almost certainly feel like you never have enough time to get everything done. Or, at the very least, you feel as though your time is aimed at getting tasks done, while no time is available for planning the creative direction of the ministry. If you are ever wondering how to more effectively manage your schedule as a worship pastor, or are simply looking for tips on where to put your focus as a part-time employee, we have ... Read More

How to Keep Volunteers Excited About Church Goals

In leadership roles, it can seem like you spend equal amounts of time directing or guiding the church’s mission as you do getting everyone on board. But that’s the essence of being a leader – if you’re going to craft the mission and goals of the church, you’re going to be the one responsible for building a supportive culture around it.

That might be easy to a certain degree when working with employees. After all, before they were hired there was (hopefully) a level of trust a... Read More

Scheduling Volunteers for Their Strengths

Having a strong volunteer team can dramatically improve the experience for visitors at your church. A well-operated volunteer team means everyone is present, educated, and ready to go for their respective areas. But volunteers are needed for a diverse set of roles within the church – some dealing with kids, music, relations, guests, leadership, and so many more. For example, just because someone is a musician doesn’t necessarily mean worship ministry is the most appropriate role for them.... Read More

Making Church Drum Mics Sound Good: The Ultimate Guide

Drums are a doozie for tech directors and sound engineers. So many mics, so many cables… so much sound. And don’t even get us started on drummers (an article for a later point in time.)

Micing a drum kit can get a bit confusing if you’re not completely informed on what you should be doing. Here are just a few frequently asked questions we’ve gotten from church tech directors:

“Do I close mic everything?”

“Are overheads alone enough?”

“How far apar... Read More

Where to Invest Money for Church Music Gear

Church sound systems are never cheap. And when you dive into all the necessary additional instruments, DI’s, speakers, wedges or in-ear systems, cables, and sound boards that are needed, costs stack up really fast. Generally speaking, most churches can figure out where to start – getting a simple sound board and speaker system up and running. But ones a worship ministry has its bearings and gets a budget, where should be the first place you invest that money? What gear is most important t... Read More

Dealing with Untalented Worship Ministry Volunteers

Worship ministry is truly a team effort. The quality of music, the attitude of the volunteers, and the culture of worship in your church are all dependent on the collective behaviors and standards of your team. And usually, those team members are all relatively similar in ability, commitment, and reliability. But what do you do about the few situations where you are dealing with a very… very untalented worship ministry volunteer?

Dealing with Untalented Worship Ministry Volunteers Read More

What is the Fundamental Pitch of a Snare Drum?

Snare drums receive the most amount of attention out of any piece of a standard drum kit when it comes to mixing – and for good reason. Snare drums are the backbone of the groove in any song, and in church worship music they are especially important. Not only does the snare serve as a “timing landmark” for a song or groove – giving structure to the pocket and rhythm section – it also provides a TON of energy to the music.

All that being said, the “pleasantness” and energy... Read More

Media Production: Getting Sermon Notes and Lyrics on Time

Everyone has a different responsibility at church, and the general philosophy is that “as long as I get my work done when I need it done, Sunday will go fine.” And most the time, that’s kind of a true statement. In a sense, the thought is that it doesn’t matter if you practice the songs 2 weeks before rehearsal or 2 hours before rehearsal – as long as you know them by the rehearsal or Sunday morning, you’re fine. Same with sermon notes – as a pastor, if you have them finished by... Read More

How To Have Beneficial Church Volunteer Meetings

Volunteers are truthfully the backbone of success in a church. Volunteers cover more ground than any church plant leadership team can imagine, from worship to children’s ministry, ushering, first impressions teams, managing social media, tech, and so many other ministry operations. So it’s no wonder why meeting with volunteers is such an incredibly important practice as a pastor.

The issue that comes up with volunteer meetings isn’t whether or not to have them, but rather how to ... Read More

How to Find Volunteer Worship Leaders

We all know of the “church shopping” phenomenon. It’s usually the bane of any church planter. When a church is just starting out, getting everything sorted and finding its “home base”, so to speak, takes time. In other words, congregation patience would be incredibly helpful for church plants, but the truth still stands that first impressions often have a greater weight in choosing a church than the long-term strategy. We wish it wasn’t that way, but unfortunately that’s... Read More

Lead Pastors: Preparing to Take a Sunday Off

Everyone in the church takes days off – whether for vacation or just to rest for a Sunday. That’s simply part of living a healthy lifestyle. You need time to yourself to recuperate and come back refreshed for your job. And while weekdays are often a good time to take work off, it’s important to have a couple Sunday’s away.

However, while everyone else has no problem taking a few Sundays to themselves each year, it’s rare that lead pastors of churches take of enough Sunday... Read More

Part-Time Church Tech Directors: Organization Tips

Church tech directors carry a ton of responsibility. Any time someone has tech related issues or questions, the ability to get it fixed and keep moving all hinges on the expertise and involvement of the church director and/or tech team.

But having that much responsibility comes with an unfortunate caveat – you have to keep it all organized. Whether it be lights, worship backgrounds, worship lyrics slides, sound, sermon slides – you name it. It’s a ton to keep organized. So, if yo... Read More

Volunteer Church Musicians: Quantity vs. Reliability

Churches need volunteers to operate, and building a strong volunteer culture at your church can help drastically with improving the efficiency of Sunday morning preparation, smoothing out rough edges in production, and lastly (and most importantly) advancing the gospel to unbelievers.

Volunteer management is one of the most crucial responsibilities of being a worship leader. Not only do you need to recruit people – you need to recruit talented musicians who can create an engaging wor... Read More

Recruiting Volunteers as a Church Planter

If there’s one thing that church planters never need, it’s quality, committed, and invested volunteers…

Thanks, we practiced that one all weekend.

To state the obvious, finding volunteers that are capable and talented, as well as invested in the church’s mission is incredibly difficult. Talk to any church planter (or any church for that matter) and you’re sure to hear about the difficulty of finding and maintaining quality volunteers. It’s rare that any church ever f... Read More

Tips for Recruiting a Church Planting Team

Having a strong church planting team isn’t about numbers – it’s entirely about the quality of everyone who’s involved. Church planting is an intense, long, and sometimes strenuous process, and having the right people behind the effort can make or break the endeavor as a whole. Keep in mind also that the average turnover for church planting teams is around 80% 2-years after the launch date, so you need a team that is committed to building a healthy and sustainable leadership enviro... Read More

Finding a Children’s Ministry Director for Your Church

Almost every church needs a children’s ministry. Whether you’re an established church or a fresh new church planter – there will, without a doubt, be children in your congregation. Unfortunately, a lot of church planters and new ministries don’t view it as a top priority when starting out, so before we dive into the how, we’d like to quickly highlight why it’s important to have a children’s ministry in your church right off the get-go for the overall health and growth of the con... Read More