Intro - Joe Ritter from Barto, PA

[Joe Ritter]

I lead two contemporary worship music groups in two very different churches. One is Roman Catholic and the other is United Church of Christ. Two very different churches but both with pastors that are in love with God's people. I am a volunteer at one and ... er... sort of... paid at the other...

Anyway it's a lot of fun helping both! I do guitar, vocals and the basic sound tech stuff.

[fmckinnon]

Hey Joe -

Welcome to TWC! I think that's awesome - you could really give us some great insights into leading in different places, etc.

[El Ben]

Ditto with Fred, Joe.

Welcome to the forums. Kudos on the multi-venue leading. That's not easy stuff. With that kind of diverse venues, what do your worship sets look like?

[Joe Ritter]

The RC service has an even mix of the traditional Catholic music to a very contemporary selection. Like Awesome God, If We Are The Body, He Reigns, Wherever We Go and anything I can possibly get away with , which so far has been anything I can play and encourage the people to sing!

The UCC has a once a month service labelled "Contemporary Worship Service" It is usually a more subdued selection (Open the Eyes Of My Heart, Lord Reign In Me, Breathe, etc.) with at least one or two pieces pulled from from the 60's/70's folk music (ie. Morning has broken, Pass It On, etc.)

The Catholic church sings their psalms each week, the music is different every time and is already written out(usually a very simple and boring melody). Since fall of last year, I've been ignoring that and using simple chord patterns like 1-5-6m-4 back to 1 with a 7b thrown in the verses and just singing a more contemporary-feel melody line with the words. I'm sure somebody will eventually call me on it but for now it's a blast.