CoolCalvary

[CCGDGreenwood]

Hi, this is Randy Petty. I help lead worship at Calvary Chapel on the Georgetown Divide in Greenwood California. It's a wide spot in the road near another wide spot in the road -- Cool, California. Located in the foothills an hour northeast of Sacramento. Our church website is at CoolCalvary.com

I've already noticed an interesting thread on getting men to attend church. Some other topics that I find fascinating are blended worship versus distinct services, improving sound in smaller churches and any music-oriented technical subject ( especially regarding guitars :-) ).

Randy

[Korbain12]

Hi Randy Im also New to this fourm . Pretty interesting topics !

[Klampert]

Welcome randy. I am huge into blended worship so if you have any questions let me know. I would be happy to explain how I go about it

[Korbain12]

Um What is "Blended worship" ?

[Klampert]

mixing ancient worship (hymns, liturgy) with modern worship. To me it's the fulfillment of what the bible calls psalms hymns and spiritual songs.

[CCGDGreenwood]

This thread probably belongs somewhere else now. Anyway, my understanding of blended is where you have old and new songs mixed in one service. Hymns mixed with contemporary etc. Or even old worship/praise songs mixed with newer ones I suppose. Or perhaps a blend of quiet, worshipful songs mixed with louder, more rock-oriented songs. The alternative is to either have all old, all new or separate services -- e.g. an early service of old songs or hymns for those who love those and a later service with all newer music for a younger crowd.

Separate services can lead to a fractured congregation and may be more appropriate for large churches where you can't know everybody anyway. Blended holds the possibility of pleasing nobody unless people are flexible enough to tolerate what may please others.

Hope that helps
Randy

[Korbain12]

yea ok Still a little lost on what your talkling about or better yet , what that would sound like . Got any websites with xsamples ? I would like to look into it . I just play modern I guess you would say . But ,Ive study classical music and I am very interested in older music with a twist .

[CCGDGreenwood]

Well when I'm leading I choose a few new songs such as those by Third Day, Chris Tomlin, Paul Baloche, MercyMe. Then towards the end we might do a slower, quieter song by one of those contemporary groups along with a hymn. We're doing an old hymn tomorrow called Fairest Lord Jesus.

You can find guitar chords for the older songs. http://www.guitarhymns.com/ is one site.

Transitioning from fast to slow is usually handled by having prayer between the two. I'm sure larger churches get very professional in how they handle transitions from one song to the next. I've thought of asking our keyboard player to come up with something to take us into the next song -- I might be moving a capo or something at that time. Normally our worship team is 2 or 3 singers, keyboard, bass and my guitar/voice. No drummer at the moment.

Randy

[Klampert]

i think what you have is a good start in the mindset of blended worship but i think it really depends on what you consider to be "worship" I will try to do a seperate thread on this in a few days. sorry to hijack the thread. lol