Taylor-Playing Worship Leaders

[Mike G]

Scott:

Forgot to answer your question on the Calvary Satellite Network. Yes we get it. Great teachings, many blessings from the CSN. We have about 7-8 Calvary's in about a 30 mile radius and the largest one has a radio station that carries all the Calvary Pastors as well. We could use some more Contemporaty Christian music stations though. Can you, or anyone, recommend some good Internet based Christian music stations? My tastes are along the Passion, style worship approaching third day "ish".

Thanks,
Mike

[ScottyMac]

Mike,

Good to hear you can get CSN where you live. We listen all the time via satellite, with our favorites being Jon Courson, Chuck Smith, etc

As for radio stations, I really like what we're getting on the satellite. It's Sky Angel, and costs about $9 a month. We live in the mountains, and get no radio up here. Even satellite can be difficult if the dish has to point too low on the horizon.

But Sky Angel, which is about 16 radio and 16 TV stations...all Christian, has some very good radio stuff. The TV is next to useless, as I don't care for most televangelists. But the radio has about 4 contemporary offereings, plus many others. And a great one for kids. You might look into that.

I'll think about other stuff on the internet. Our connection speed is so slow up here, that listening to anything beyond just voice is difficult.

Scott

[beatlenut]

Not a leader, but a guitarist in our Worship band at a United Methodist church in ILLINOIS (1,000+ members). We have 2 traditional services and 1 Contemporary on Sundays. Our band, Common Threads leads the music at the Contemporary. We have the 2nd most in attendance at our service. We have 2 guitarists (my Taylor 414ce and my buddys new Taylor 410ce), I also play my electric guitars for 50%+ of the songs. We have 2 synths, drums (15 year old awesome musician), bass and about 8 singers. I get to sing lead on a song or 2 each week. I just joined up this past April after not playing for the past 10 years. It has been such a blessing. We recently were the worship band for a local womens retreat that was such a success that they are planning on doing it next year conference wide with 2 sites, one in the Peoria area and the other in the St. Louis area and we get to be the worship band. We have really been blessed with an open church and an extremely talented worship band leader.

[cotten]

Our contemporary service is led by our praise team: keyboard, bass, drums/percussion, and me on my 914c, plus 6 of our 14 vocalists who rotate. Since we changed one of our traditional/blended services to a contemporary service 3 years ago, our attendance has nearly tripled, without drawing away from our other morning service. The quality of our music is one of the reasons, though perhaps not the most important.

Since I'm getting such a better sound from my Taylor than what I used to play, we're featuring it more and more. It seems to be equally adept at finger styles and rhythmic strumming, and sounds great through my Roland KC500 keyboard amp and house system.

cotten

[John712]

I play in the praise band at New Covenant United Methodist Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. We have 2 bands with percussion, bass, electric lead and two rythym acoustics (my Taylor and the leaders Takamine). The other players are super musicians and I'm learning a lot by playing with them. Its hard work! In the end its all about praise and worship! What a wonderful ministry to do something in service to God that I enjoy so much. Did I mention that it's hard work?

[Mike G]

Hey John, Cotton and Beatlenut...

Thanks for sharing. Sure sounds like the Lord is doing some awesome things with your teams...His faithful servants.

I've only been walking with the Lord for 6 years now and therefore missed much of the earlier Christian music. Especially the hymms. While I am still a teenager at 42, and gravitate more towards the contemporary music, I've heard some "kicked up" hymms lately that I really enjoyed. That is hymms that were put to contemporary music, rhythms etc.

Does anyone know where I might be able to obtain some of them. I know they may be artist specific but might there be a collection series...or something like that.

Thanks and blessings to all the Saints...

[ScottyMac]

Mike,

I'm sure there are lots of revved up hymns that I've not heard, but here are a few sources:

1. Check in the Promise Keepers archives
2. Maranatha music had some nice hymn arrangements a few years back.
3. Brentwood music has 2 or 3 CD's out called Acoustic Hymns...they are somewhat contemporized.

There also were some Christian jazz albums from in the 90s...probably also from Brentwood. While they were instrumental, they had some refreshing takes on old songs. They've given me ideas over the years.

Integrity also arranges a few hymns here and there, as does Vineyard.

Hope that helps.

Scott

[Raj414ce]

Mike,

there's a series of Worship CD's that I think are from the UK (Kingsway music if I'm not mistaken) called Worship Experience. There's one in the series called "Event Hymns". It's all live recordings of the hymns. Hope you can get it.

Raj.

[Mike G]

Scott and Raj:

Thank you very much...PTL. I'm looking forward to checking them out.

YBIC,

[beatlenut]

We shy away from Hymns in our service. I agree that Promise Keepers is a good resource. They usually have one or two "updated" hymns on a CD. They did a killer Doxology at last years PK event. Started Hendrix like with a wild distorted strat solo! We do a lot of Hillsongs, Delirious, Jars of Clay, Matt Redman, Paul Baloche, etc. Current congregation favs: I walk by Faith (distorted guitar), He is Yahweh (really cool - world beat almost Peter Gabriel like), Above all, Breathe and With Every Breath. Also God of Wonders is a winner.

[Lonesome Picker]

Hey ALL,

Someone asked about other Worhip 0n-line stations. Here is one I listen to often, http://www.lifelineradio.com/. Sunday mornings and Saturday night are especially good. During the day you will find a mix of sermons from pastors all over NC. The term Praise & Worship music connotates a certain style of Worhship Music for many. I personally play and enjoy a mix inlcuding a lot of beautiful Southern Gospel tunes. I'm not talking Mahalia Jackosn, I'm referring to older traditional songs that are a lot of fun to play and are as equally heartfelt and moving as some of the newer stuff. Ricky Skaggs, Doyle Lawson, the McKameys, all play some great Worhsip music, some in the vein of Gospel Bluegrass, some just good old Souther Gospel. I have found that mixing in Southern Gospel type music with some "newer" praise & worhip music, is the best recipe for a "mixed age" group of listeners. There is also some good "Celtic style" worship stuff I can really appreciate, like Wonderful, Merciful, Savior by Susan Ashton. Anyway, I thought I would add something to the thread here. God Bless.

<><
Ron
Lonesome Picker (NC)

[Mike G]

Ron:

Great resource link...thanks

Beatlenut... Ya, God of Wonders is one I really like too. I am also in the current contemporary "mode" but have really been convicted of broadening my repetoire lately. It wouild be cool to have the Lord touch many hearts through us, young and old, traditional and contemporary alike. Hey do you think we should post MP3's on the "How many Christians are here" thread??? Yes that's a little joke...very little.

Seriously though. My personal testimony starts with being touched by a Christian band and I remember thinking, "maybe the is more to this Jesus freak stuff than meets the eye" From that point I secretly started reading the Bible and 8 months later the Lord indwelt my heart...the rest is history...or should I say eternity.

Music/worship is such a valuable service to the Lord...I'm living proof.

YBIC

[revkev]

You guys are making me envious. I haven't played in a praise band for a couple of years. I sure miss it.

[beatlenut]

Contemporary music. Means so many different things. I got into Christian music when I was probably 11 or 12 when Petra first came out in the early- mid 1970s. Then discovered Resurrection Band, Daniel Amos, 77's and many more. A lot of what we play is pretty tame to me, but many think it is really wild stuff! There was a Christian punk band called Undercover in the early 80's that did a version of Holy, Holy, Holy that I would love to do! Maybe I need to join our Youth Band at the tender age of 38+

[kenliu]

Originally posted by Mike G
Especially the hymms. While I am still a teenager at 42, and gravitate more towards the contemporary music, I've heard some "kicked up" hymms lately that I really enjoyed. That is hymms that were put to contemporary music, rhythms etc.

There is an excellent CD by Vineyard called "Hymns In The Vineyard." This CD has some contemporary arrangements of classic hymns - very tasteful. Some of the hymn rearrangements I've heard border on cheesy, but these are really good. My favorite is a version of "Be Thou My Vision" played in DADGAD tuning (very Celtic).

Another good series is the "Indelible Grace" CDs, but these arrangements throw out the music entirely and replace them with new music and keep the same lyrics from the hymns. Some of the hymns they pick are really really old (like 200+ years I think) and not that well known, but they do have some better known ones like "And Can It Be" and "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God". This CD rocks, but it's a little disconcerting to hear some of the old hymns with completely new tunes.

You can purchase both of these at worshipmusic.com, and I think they also have RealAudio clips of them as well.

Ken