What are /r/worshipleaders' favorite Products & Services?

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I'm going to be the oddball out here... last year I switched to <strong>Airtable</strong> for this task.

I'd been using Planning Center for years, but I didn't like my data being locked in to one place, and there were things I wanted to keep track of that PCS didn't offer. Like quickly being able to rank songs by the number of times used in the last year, for instance.

<strong>Here's a screenshot of what my song database looks like now.</strong> But that's just the first view of many!. One of the main benefits of a tool like Airtable is the ability to create multiple views, that you can filter, group, and sort to your heart's content... as you can see I've done on the left side!

And at the top, you can see the different tables I'm using. It's become my knowledge base for everything related to our worship gatherings. It's taken a while to get everything right (I just tweaked some stuff last week), but it's seriously an amazing tool, and I couldn't imagine going back.

If anyone's interested, I'd be happy to share a template from my Airtable base that you could use to create your own and try it out. And back when I made the switch, I also wrote a couple scripts that will pull your data from the Planning Center API and import it to Airtable.

I use an ipad 5th gen refurbished (which you can get for like $300 on amazon) and I have it attached to my mic stand with one of these

I use the planing center Music Stand app, and run the ipad in landscape mode. I was using a higher end android tablet, but recently got the iPad - I've been using this setup for about 2 years now, and it works great.

We don't have lyrics projected on the back wall for singers and the band, so I also got a few cheap amazon fire tablets and the band and vocalists use them with Planning center music stand as well. I think it looks a lot better on stage than a much larger music stand with paper, and we save paper and printing costs as well.

I'm a big fan of Pure Praise by Dwayne Moore.

It is a nine week bible study. AS you can tell from the amazon reviews, he's a touch on the conservative side according to some reviews. When I did it nothing jumped out at me, but that's just me.

There's a fantastic book called How to Worship a King by Zach Neese, one of the worship pastors at Gateway Church in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. He examines the significance of the tabernacle, its implications for worship, and how Jesus filled every single component through his life, death, and resurrection. Interestingly, the tabernacle was where God gave the most extensive instructions how how to worship him. The detail included is overwhelming, and not a single item was meaningless.

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Of course we can talk about the difference between meaning and application. The meaning behind the tabernacle's systems remains relevant, whereas the application of those meanings manifest differently in our time, specifically because of Jesus. Honestly, the book is a must-read for anyone interested in worship theology. Though Neese conducted scholarly research, the book is written for the average reader.

Amazon has refurbished iPad Pros with the 12.9" screen for under $500. I upgraded to this because I found it too hard to read scanned PDFs on smaller screens. This totally solved the problem.

That's good topic, I'll listen too :) Here is a good article with many suggestions, might come in handy: How to begin streaming live church services.

I have a Bluetooth adapter that connects to the board via XLR. My phone connects wirelessly to the adapter, which sits a few feet behind me.

Galaxy Audio JIB/BT4R XLR Bluetooth Receiver https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B07V3FVZ61/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_NQQZ9W2CWKP5VWBV8H46

So more like this?

https://www.amazon.com/Kufox-Foldable-Telescopic-Tripod-Holder/dp/B071WS4N71/ref=sr_1_40?dchild=1&amp;keywords=phone+holder+stand&amp;qid=1630075463&amp;sr=8-40

Like this?
https://www.amazon.com/AccessoryBasics-Microphone-Smartphone-Swivel-Samsung/dp/B01M7RE39O/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&amp;keywords=phone+holder+for+microphone+stand&amp;qid=1630073894&amp;sr=8-3

You can get a mic stand, unscrew the mic clip and put on a mount. Something like this: (ios Mic stand mount)[https://www.amazon.com/LyxPro-Smartphone-Microphone-Android-Devices/dp/B078WD2GRD/ref=sr_1_18?dchild=1&amp;keywords=phone+holder+for+microphone+stand&amp;qid=1630086779&amp;sr=8-18] I used something like this for a long time with an iPad. It's convenient and you can get a cheap mic stand for a little money. (Amazon Basic Mic Stand)[https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Tripod-Boom-Microphone-Stand/dp/B019NY2PKG/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&amp;keywords=mic+stand&amp;qid=1630086892&amp;sr=8-1-spons&amp;psc=1&amp;spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEyNjhTU1UxTk03VVdOJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwM...]

I wrote about this in my undergrad about 15+ years ago. It was hard to find any proper analysis back then, but I started searching for stuff about “the worship wars.” That mainly refers to the transition from hymn-based (or “traditional”) worship to modern worship. This was one of the more helpful resources from that study: https://www.amazon.com/dp/156563490X/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_Y56FXQDWFQD88304596A

The so-called “worship wars” are kinda over, though… or at least have shifted focus. I have a pet theory that many of the criticisms of the music from Elevation Church or Hillsong Church are hidden attempts to “rekindle” the worship wars. But, the problem is that modern worship really doesn’t have one structure… really, you just have a bunch of churches that copy each other, until someone comes up with something interesting, then everyone else follows. Technology would also probably play a big role in any “modern liturgical analysis.”

What do you need this for? Research paper? Or just your own curiosity?

I actually have this one on my bookshelf! I think it was recommended by one of the two books I mentioned in the original post. Or it may have been from a southern Californian worship leader that I know. I completely forgot about it until I looked it up and Amazon reminded me. I'll have to dig it up tonight!

What was it about this book that makes it your favorite?

Pick up a few old hymnals on Amazon. I recently got a copy of Hymns of Faith which covered a lot of hymns that we were having trouble finding music for. It has music for over 500 hymns.

If you are trying to find music for something in particular, hymnary.org is also a good source for telling you where it is published. I will usually then just order whichever hymnal it referenced. Used copies are cheap and it never hurts to have more on the shelf.

If it's the actual chords you're having trouble with, you probably need to learn how to infer the chords from the music. Do you know how to read the music and see what the chords are? If so you can just write them in.

Hey everyone

Not sure if it helps but I just did a search for a worship pads app and downloaded it. Here's an example of one, but with all these great ideas I'm sure one of them will work.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=io.makeroid.eddie_rar.SamplePadsFree

You might try an app that lets you memorize the chords shapes in all keys. That way you can start to rely less on chord sheets, also you can spend less time arranging things. Maybe try and app like this: Piano Chord Trainer.

Bob Kauflin is the man! If you're looking for a more "general" study of worship that extends beyond music, leading, etc his other book, &quot;True Worshipers&quot; is a great read.

I use mine every time I lead. There are several apps available for free or one time purchase. Before my current church I was manually scanning music as an image and using MobileSheets I believe.

The best book I've read of late, and this is different from a lot of the typical books of this type, is <strong>Worshiping with the Anaheim Vineyard: The Emergence of Contemporary Worship (The Church at Worship: Case Studies from Christian History)</strong>.

To understand how groundbreaking the contemporary worship scene is, is to get into the mind of the worship leaders at this particular church, which met in a gymnasium, in this brief time from 1977 to 1982, and the church ballooned from a dozen folks to about 3000 members. They even attracted the likes of some notable musicians better than them, including Keith Green, T. Bone Burnett, and some folkie legend named Robert Zimmerman.

Oh yeah, um... they had no lyrics. No hymnals, no songsheets, no overheads. They had to come up with a worship repertoire which was simple enough for the congregation to embrace, without this simple luxury.

Some of the songs that grew out of that time we still sing today: Change My Heart O God, Spirit Song, Hosanna.

If you want to ground yourself into some history about where praise and worship came from, I cannot emphasize enough how great this book is.

I'll definitely check out that book.

A Tale Of Three Kings

I guess as I think about it the two things you mention are intertwined. Leadership skill development books can be found in abundance, as can "how to play guitar better" books, videos, etc. But it's the application of those in the arena of worship that is what I'm looking for, I guess.

I would say personal development as a worship leader, and skills as a worship leader if those are separate things.

As far as skills on my instrument I'm good as far as practice material, lessons, musicianship, etc.

edit: link to Face Down - Matt Redman

I'll echo several comments on this thread. Take some time to learn theory yourself. Learn to read music. If all you knew how to do was speak English but never read English you would be missing out on so much beauty. I'm not saying become a proficient sight reader but at least learn about the written language of music.

Some ways to do that are to audit a music theory class at a local college, go through the lessons at musictheory.net, or pick up an easy adult piano course book like the one below which is how I got my start learning to read music before heading to college. The piano is the best instrument to learn how theory fits together on and learning theory on the piano has made me a phenomenally better guitarist. http://www.amazon.com/Adult-All---One-Course-Lesson-Theory-Technic/dp/0882848186/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1452649895&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=adult+piano wh

A great place to start with these musicians is to begin using lead sheets. I've done this with several churches I've consulted with. (I'm work with a few church consulting firms helping churches transition music styles if they need to go more contemporary or blended to be more relevant to their community.) Taking an older church lady who is used to reading the block chords in hymns and using lead sheets to transition them to chord charts has worked 100% of the time. Lead sheets help them follow the count, which is what they're used too, but only gives them the melody to read. Songselect.com and praisecharts.com has all the lead sheets you'll ever need.

As a worship leader it's your responsibility not to grow complacent and learn, learn, learn as much as you can about music. Disciple these junior-high students into great church musicians. Meet them in the middle and share a common ground with them. You learn some theory and they learn some improv. Win-Win. Also, be patient.

Honestly (for cheapest route) you could just do this and route the audio through the camera, all into Media Express.

As far as I know Producer does not let you do it unless you're streaming. You mentioned Quicktime will let you select different sources-- I believe the above adapter will let QT recognize your camera for the video source. (Believe in ** because I have not done this personally, and I'm not sure about thunderbolt capture devices and Quicktime. Should not be an issue, but maybe someone else can chime in)