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A Worship Plan for Vegas
Living and working in Las Vegas has many similarities to living and working as a music pastor. Being a music pastor is not a job that can easily be turned off at the end of the day; it can be the job that never sleeps. You can’t really tell your creativity what your hours are, and your volunteers don’t usually stick to your schedule either. In addition, just like the lights of Las Vegas, there is a barrage of distractions coming at you from every angle. With so many things competing for your attention, it can be difficult to remain focused.
One of the biggest solutions for our team has been PlanningCenterOnline.com. It is an Internet-based program that organizes every aspect of our worship services, and it never sleeps. Even last night I remembered that I needed to schedule some band members for next month, so from my living room, I logged on to Planning Center and scheduled my band. Planning Center sent them scheduling request e-mails, and when I woke up this morning, half of them had confirmed. Not only had they confirmed, some of them had already downloaded the music to begin rehearsing. What I love is that I don’t have to login to the site to check their status; Planning Center sends me e-mails when my volunteers confirm or decline, and when they do decline, it sends me a list of any possible replacements.
Paring Your List
One of the areas that it is critical to remain focused is in choosing our music. We really want it to invite people into God’s presence and tie into the message whenever possible. With such a large, ever-expanding list of choruses, it can be difficult to find the best fit. Since Planning Center is customizable in almost every way, we are able to make our own list of custom properties to classify all of our songs. We have made properties for type of song, speed, God-focused or man-focused, and male or female worship leader. In addition, Planning Center lets you filter based on the key of the song, the tempo marking, the date you last did the song, what ministry in your church uses that song, and it even lets you search for themes. With a couple of clicks I can narrow my list of over 200 songs down to fast worship choruses in the key of G that we haven’t done in 3 months and that have the word Easter in the themes box. With so many songs fighting for my attention, Planning Center quickly helps me focus down to a small list of songs that are viable options for my specific worship services.
Las Vegas is the fastest growing city in the United States, with our population increasing about 30 percent since 2000. My church, Central Christian, is experiencing the same kind of growth. The last couple of years our attendance has increased by about 2,000 a year, and in 2007, 1415 people were baptized. It is such a blessing to be a part of so many changed lives. We all want to to see our churches grow and reach people for Christ. No matter what the size of your church, Planning Center can dramatically increase your productivity and help both you and your volunteers continue to be a light to the world.
This is an excerpt from Worship Leader magazine. To read more articles like this - click here to subscribe.
