Need a creative out-of-box approach or idea

[Moosicman]

Well, looks like this week about 60-70% of my go-to players and my FOH engineer are unavailable/out of town.

Quick brief background: 1000 on Sunday between 3 services, contemporary and somewhat typical of what you'd expect of a current contemporary service in today's churches. Songs usually consist of modern popular stuff - Hillsong, Tomlin, Baloche, 3rd Day, Stanfill, Crowder, etc...

Usually in these instances we'll strip it down and go acoustical, maybe add some atmosphere with candles, djembe or cajon. I'd really like to do something different but after some thought, I'm feeling a creative block and can't come up with something.

Little help?

Any ideas???

Open to all considerations.

Thanks in advance!

[kepmek]

Well, looks like this week about 60-70% of my go-to players and my FOH engineer are unavailable/out of town.

Quick brief background: 1000 on Sunday between 3 services, contemporary and somewhat typical of what you'd expect of a current contemporary service in today's churches. Songs usually consist of modern popular stuff - Hillsong, Tomlin, Baloche, 3rd Day, Stanfill, Crowder, etc...

Usually in these instances we'll strip it down and go acoustical, maybe add some atmosphere with candles, djembe or cajon. I'd really like to do something different but after some thought, I'm feeling a creative block and can't come up with something.

Little help?

Any ideas???

Open to all considerations.

Thanks in advance!

OPTION 1: Use your back-up folks; bring in some youth if that is an option. Consider their skill/comfort level and go with either a "re-run" of something you've done before, or bits and pieces. Keep it at their level (even if it isn't where you want to be normally) and let them get experience. This way your planning is easy, and you can put the effort into development. This group doesn't have to sound like the normal group, and they don't have to be perfect.

OPTION 2: Go in a different direction than you normally go style-wise. That could be old school (for you that's probably like 2007 or 2008 ) or update some stuff that has stood the test of time (I'm really liking "Cornerstone" by Hillsong right now as an update of "The Solid Rock").

OPTION 3: Call your back-up guy and tell him it's his problem. You're leaving town, too! (Just kidding about that one!)

[NickAlexander]

Pick up an ancient hymnal, perhaps one still in Latin and square notes, and lead the entire congregation in medieval chant, a cappella.

Hey, you wanted out of the box thinking...

[kepmek]

Pick up an ancient hymnal, perhaps one still in Latin and square notes, and lead the entire congregation in medieval chant, a cappella.

Hey, you wanted out of the box thinking...

That is out of the box.

I thought about, but didn't suggest, going with piano only and singing the first verse of several "old timey" hymns. "Amazing Grace", "Standing on the Promises", etc....

Moosicman is so cutting edge that he might not know where to find a hymnal .....
But I bet he could download it to his i-pad. Now I can just see it -- an older lady playing the piano looking at a monitor linked to Moosicman's i-Pad -- never knowing what the next song will be until it pops up.

[Moosicman]

grandma.jpg

No what I'm looking for is quite a bit different than what you're suggesting. But thanks! Made me think of this ol' cartoon above!

[Mike on Bass]

I love that picture!!

After the week I had, this made me laugh hard.

We had one of those last week. Our piano player / leader was out sick last-minute and it was acoustic guitar, me on bass anda drummer.

It was nice. Made people realize they can worship in unusual situations...

For out of the box, how about Gaither or Gospel style worship? Bust out some "I'll Fly Away', 'The Old Rugged Cross', 'Blessed Assurance', 'Washed in the Blood', you could have a revival with that stuff.

[Moosicman]

No, that wouldn't be necessarily out-of-the-box. I'm really trying to find something atypical yet effective. What I mean isn't necessarily a change of musical style but different ways of presenting the songs. Things that would catch people totally off guard but in a good way, not a bad one.

Do any of you know of any worship planning sites with good ideas???

I feel like we're creatively spent in the church it seems (even though I know we're not). If our normal is contemporary, then we change it up by going acoustical, or quasi-traditional, or bluegrassy/contryesque, or gospel. And if we run through those, then we've pretty much exhausted our options. There's got to be some different alternatives and ideas beyond just changing the style. I just can't think of any. *wimper*

[NickAlexander]

Go to your prayer closet and ask some very basic questions:

1) Are there any needs within this community that are prominent, but have not been addressed as strongly thru our normal worship routines... that can be addressed on this particular off-week?

2) Are there songs/hymns/choruses that people know, maybe have been overplayed, that can be due for a new mashup, or stripped down approach?

3) Are there lesser-known, old, poetically rich hymns/psalms that address the issues in #1, that can be due for a creative mashup with the songs of #2? (Creative mashup = matching tempo, key, time signature; complementary direction, complementary themes).

Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

[Mike on Bass]

Ok, out of the box...

Worship Polka Mashup- Hey, if Weird Al can do it...

Sorry, not to make fun of your predicament, just having a little fun

So who are you left with?

[kepmek]

Well, looks like this week about 60-70% of my go-to players and my FOH engineer are unavailable/out of town.

Quick brief background: 1000 on Sunday between 3 services, contemporary and somewhat typical of what you'd expect of a current contemporary service in today's churches. Songs usually consist of modern popular stuff - Hillsong, Tomlin, Baloche, 3rd Day, Stanfill, Crowder, etc...

Usually in these instances we'll strip it down and go acoustical, maybe add some atmosphere with candles, djembe or cajon. I'd really like to do something different but after some thought, I'm feeling a creative block and can't come up with something.

Little help?

Any ideas???

Open to all considerations.

Thanks in advance!

What did you come up with, and how did it go?
(I'm always looking to steal (umm, I mean "appropriate" -- uh, let's make that "get") ideas from others.