Mister Nifty

If you need a quick way to put together a worship plan for your services, check out Lifeway’s free online tool. It has a nifty search feature if you’re looking for just the right song. You can also add notes and other elements such as prayer, announcements, etc… They offer a premium plan which allows you to schedule individuals and send notifications via email. Their premium plan also offers a communications portal to manage all of your teams.  Another great thing is you have music resources at your fingertips. Depending on the songs you choose, you can download soundtracks, lead sheets, and much more.

Go to Lifeway Worship

(via @kjhouk)

Have you ever been to a service that wasn’t planned well.  In fact, right before the service, the leaders are running around trying to find people to fill all the spots.  The service is not organized from the beginning and ultimately the congregation becomes frustrated and even embarassed.   Lack of planning for services tell visitors you don’t have your act together, and if you can’t take a few minutes during the week to care about the service, how are you going to take time to care for them?  It’s a bad cycle.  But, there’s good news…Planning Center.

This tool allows you to plan your services to the T.   You add all of your ministry staff (musicians, audio/visual staff etc) then you create your service.  You can define how many of each position you need and then select people from the list to fill those positions.  Amazingly, you can email the schedule directly to them and assign a reminder that will tell them the day before that they are scheduled for that job.   Music directors can schedule rehearsals and send it specifically to their group.  The free account lets you create one ministry with ten people.  I have one ministry called “Service Schedule” and then I add all my times for the week plan.   It’s simply amazing and free.  If you want to expand, you will have to pay a small montly fee.

If your music department is small and you wish you could get the punch out of your worship services that larger churches have, then try this tool. It is not free, but it is very high tech! Basically, Interactive Worship Live allows you to add your choice of musical instruments, background singers, etc. for preprogrammed songs. Their library is limited now, but their collection is growing larger every week. After reviewing their site and demoing their products, I feel this would be a great way to let your church feel part of something cutting-edge. It will enhance your worship services and give you greater peace of mind without having to shell out loads of cash for new instruments and musicians.