Three Worship Experience Tools for Small Churches
As a church planter, I know the struggle of being a one man band. I lead the singing, my wife manages the slides, my 12 year old daughter operates the live stream camera and we all chip in to get the building ready for services.
When we started Grace Valley Church, it was important to me that we did our best to have an experience that didn’t make people think, “oh, this is awkward.” I wanted it to feel bigger than it was, but still appropriate for where we were in our journey.
It was important for me to find tools that were easy to operate with minimal volunteer help and a lack of experience.
Here are three tools that have helped our church and made life easier for me as a bi-vocational pastor.
LOOPCOMMUNITY.COM
I was a worship leader for many years before I became a pastor. I LOVE leading people in worship and want to have the best tools available to help me do that. Unfortunately, my church doesn’t have musicians at this time. I play guitar and sing, but when I did that it felt awkward because it didn’t really fill the room. Enter — loopcommunity.com
If you aren’t familiar with sound tracks, they are super helpful for us. What’s great about them is that you can control the volume of each instrument separately. The reason this is so helpful is that as your church grows, your track system can shrink. Get a guitar player? Cut the guitar track. Add a drummer? Cut the drum tracks. It’s incredibly easy to use and helps our worship music immensely.
TWELVETHIRTY.MEDIA
Just to be clear, this was unsolicited. I don’t get anything by adding them to the list. I was a user before I was a writer for the blog. I pay for my subscription — and it’s TOTALLY worth it.
The “Series in a Box” available on the website are a game changer in that I get promotional material, social media content, slides and more with every series that I use. It has helped me convey my message and manage the branding of a sermon series so much better.
With a huge swath of topics covered in their ready-made content, I am always finding something I can use. After selecting the series, I pull the content out, prepare sermons, and then more effectively communicate Scripture with their assistance.
Looking for something more custom? Yeah… they crush that too. They have so much stuff already made that is amazing that I haven’t had to get much custom content, but what I have gotten from them has been incredible! Oh… and their customer service is second to none.
MYSLINGSTUDIO.COM
Almost everyone that attends our church as a new guest looks at us online first. So I wanted our online experience to match the quality and care of our in person experience. I needed a tool that would allow me to live stream without complicated equipment or switchers. Sling studio was the perfect tool for that.
It’s so easy to operate, that I have even managed multiple camera angles from an iPad by myself while preaching. While that is possible, I’m thankful that it is simple enough that I was able to just hand it off to a volunteer and they picked up on it so easily.
In my opinion, the sling studio system is the ideal live streaming system for a small church and for church plants. It gives you a lot of tools without giving you a headache trying to figure it out.
Just because your church is small doesn’t mean it can’t create an awesome experience. Use these simple and affordable tools and it will take your services to another level!
