Praise and worship music has the power to calm and teach, transforming even the hardest of hearts. But most importantly, it can connect a church congregation to the heart of God.
As powerful as worship can be, those engaged in directing music, playing instruments, and singing also know it can be time-consuming and complicated to plan, especially if you coordinate multiple services and volunteers.
According to Lifeway Research, 15% of pastors say the most significant challenge they face with praise and worship is pleasing all the different style preferences of their congregants. Some want traditional music, and others want contemporary sounds. Some desire hymns and others prefer modern worship songs.
That’s where digital worship planning software solutions save the day. For instance, Worship Planning, a leading worship service planner included with FellowshipOne church management software, is a tool that streamlines the worship planning experience. Cloud-based software like Worship Planning simplifies processes, saves time, encourages collaboration, and makes worship planning easier than ever.
Here are four powerful ways worship planning software can organize your service.
Schedule Volunteers
Volunteers are vital to any ministry and provide members with an opportunity to use their gifts. But, sadly, Lifeway Research found that 21% of pastors struggle to find musicians and vocalists for worship services.
Coordinating and scheduling worship team volunteers can take hours of behind-the-scenes effort each week. Good worship planning software cuts that time down dramatically by keeping your entire team on the same page.
Features of a robust worship planning software include the ability to:
- Schedule individuals, teams, and sub-teams for one or multiple services
- Schedule volunteers for multiple services simultaneously
- Allow volunteers to block out unavailable dates
- Allow volunteers to “accept” or “decline” an invitation to serve through email, text, or Facebook
- Allow volunteers to sign up for available slots
- Find the most qualified candidate for any role
- Permit volunteers to access specific worship flow details
- Allow for communications such as sign-ups and responses
- Automatically remind scheduled volunteers of upcoming services via email, text, and Facebook
- Receive alerts when there’s a scheduling conflict or someone accepts an assignment, and
- Create custom roles.
Plan Your Worship Service
Worship should flow naturally, encourage participation, and help usher church members into the presence of God. Since distractions take away from this experience, worship leaders strive to eliminate as many disruptions as possible. Worship planning software can help you plan the elements and flow of the worship service to best eliminate distractions and create an atmosphere of worship.
Your worship set may include various elements, including songs, Scripture, video, and prayer. Worship planning software helps you move seamlessly from one item to the next without breaking the flow of the service. With it, you’re able to:
- Create an order of service
- Create a flow for the service
- View song details before adding to a flow
- Provide notes for teams or individuals
- View performance histories
- Drag and drop worship flow
- Use inline editing and pop-up windows
- Use a template or create your flow from scratch
- Create a visual presentation of the service for everyone involved.
Keep in mind that worship planning software isn’t only for worship—it also works for choir practice, youth groups, and the musical portion of children’s services.
Organize Songs
No matter the size of your team, being organized and prepared will reduce the stress of running a music ministry. Worship planning software helps with this by planning the fine details of your worship service or organizing a general setlist. You can also find the perfect songs and determine trends by viewing song performance histories by date ranges and location.
Song selection plays a critical role in your church service. With proper planning, you can select an overall theme that compliments the sermon, reinforcing the message by giving the service a sense of unity, which allows the song selection to be driven objectively (by the message) rather than subjectively (by style preferences).
Good worship planning software lets you add songs as you build your flow or upload files directly from your CCLI SongSelect™ account or a CSV file. You can transpose keys for MP3 and text chord charts and annotate, rehearse, and perform music after importing your songs. In addition, you can link to popular music services, including Spotify and YouTube, so that leaders can practice. You can even manage and share key, tempo, capo, duration, lyrics, and more.
With worship planning software, files related to songs, services, and teams are secured and stored in a central location. You never have to worry about security because permissions can be set to allow only authorized volunteers to access files and prepare for the service.
Use It While Live
Once you’ve used your worship planning software to schedule your volunteers, plan your service, and organize your songs, you’ll want to rehearse with your team to make sure everyone is prepared for the live service.
With worship planning software, you can give team members access to the setlist early each week to practice and learn their parts before rehearsal. Then during rehearsal, everyone will have what they need for the worship service to go smoothly.
You can use your worship planning software not only during rehearsal but also during live services. You’ll be able to record timing, chat, and show your team what’s happening during the service. FellowshipOne’s worship planning software, for instance, includes OnSong, the gold standard in digital sheet music apps. So you can use it as a virtual music stand during rehearsals or live performances–and by adding an AirTurn Bluetooth foot pedal, the system conveniently flips the virtual pages for you.
Worship services provide spiritual nourishment and glorify God. With the robust features built into a quality worship planning software, you can focus on the message rather than the mechanics of running the service.
Join us for an upcoming webinar on September 28 at 12 pm CT called “Manage Your Church Worship Services Simply and Effectively” to learn more about worship planning software.
Contact us for a test drive of FellowshipOne Worship Planning today to see how it can work for your ministry!
