8 Must-Haves for a Worship Leader. Part 1

 If I was stranded on a deserted island and needed to lead worship, what would I need? Hmm, probably nothing. I would lead others in a worshipful swim around the island and drink coconut juice and sing acapella by the fire as we boiled some fresh lobster. But, I digress. It’s cold here in Indiana and a little beach dreaming never hurt anyone!

So, on with the show. Here are my must haves, in no particular order:

  1. A good guitar, pickup, and sound reinforcement. Unless you are from the non- instrumental background, you are gonna need an instrument.
  2. itunes. ITunes is the best way to manage your song library. I would be lost without it. When I purchase a new song or CD (thru the music store at iTunes), I file it under “worship preview. This is done by changing the label in the “genre” field. Once we pick the song up and use it as a tune in a worship gathering, I change the gene label to worship. When I need to create a CD for band members to listen to prior to rehearsal, I create a playlist from iTunes, burn a CD and send to the band. I’m all about making it organized and efficient.
  3. iPod. I am always previewing songs and with the iPod I can make the most of the time in the car, Doctor’s office, whatever. I also subscribe to podcasts so that I constantly have some type of training going through my brain (although some would wonder if it is really helping)
  4. Worship Assistant. Not a real live person; although, that would be nice. Worship Assistant is a software program specifically designed for guitar playing worship leaders. The downside is that you have to manually enter the songs into the program, but once you do, you are golden. Worship Assistant has useful features like searching, key changing, and fret diagrams.

Stop by next time and we will explore my final four must-haves.

[tags]iPod, iTunes, Worship Assistant, guitar, worship leading, worship consulting, church[/tags]

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This post has 5 comments

  1. Hey Scot,

    I\’m gonna give the worship assistant a try. My \”database\” now consists of a crumpled stack of tab sheets & chord chart books stained with Mountain Dew & yellow fingerprints (Cheetos Cheese Puffs) from my kids. Looks like it may take some work, but so does scrambling through this mess every week! Thanks again for your experience & info.

    Jason Hall
    First Christian Church, Borden, IN

  2. Jason,
    I think you will like it and they have a trial version. Let me know what you think.

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