Three Ministry Tools for the Modern Worship Leader
There are so many amazing resources for us as worship leaders nowadays. They range from different websites, apps, books, subscriptions and many other avenues. Through my experience there are so many ways that we can create a great worship service and it is important to utilize the resources that are available to us. Here are just a few that I have found to be very useful for me and my teams to create a worship journey for the congregations that we are leading.
MULTITRACKS.COM
The first website that I want to speak on is Multitracks. This is an incredible resource that can be utilized for anyones worship service to enhance the quality of it. I love that when we worship we are able to bring our best fruits in glorifying our father. Multitracks gives us the opportunity to have backing tracks and instrument stems from the actual recordings of thousands of worship albums and singles. These tracks are ways that can add to your worship sets as they give more body and energy to the live music. They give you the option to search a song and purchase the full .wav or .mp3 packs for around $20–40 and include the song in the key of your choice that is available for download for 48 hours. The pack includes the full stems of each instrument individually, and an Ableton Live file that is able to be put straight into Ableton.
The other ways to purchase the song is through a Custom mix that you are able to mix yourself on their website. This is a much cheaper option as it only costs $12–15. It is very limited and once you buy the custom mix, you are unable to edit it. But it is an affordable way for a church that does not have a large budget for their worship team.
Multitracks also has a rental service for their tracks called Playback. Playback gives you the opportunity to pay a monthly subscription price to rent a certain number of tracks per month. This is another more affordable way to obtain these tracks and it comes with a very easy to use app by the same name that can be put on any iOS device or Android device. I really love how easy and user friendly this app is for anyone to use. You can mix each track on the app so that you can customize it to fit your worship context.
Lastly, Multitracks also has Chord charts as well as instructional videos that help you and your team learn the correct parts. This is another paid subscription, but it is very helpful for those to enhance the way the worship service is put on. I love the many things that Multitracks gives as ways to help our worship services.
IN-EAR MONITORS
An amazing physical tool that I recommend for all worship leaders are in-ear monitors. They come in many different shapes and sizes. In previous years churches and other performers would use wedges, but through the years it was found that people were more susceptible to hearing loss. These in-ear monitors have now made a way for people to hear themselves and the rest of the band in a way that does not damage their hearing if used properly.
The best way to use in-ears is with molds. As seen above, the Ultimate Ears shown are specifically molded to a persons ear. This make them completely custom to that person. The molds give a perfect seal to the persons ear and seal in all sound and ignores the sound outside of it. These are however the most expensive version of in-ears. They range from low end prices of $200–300, to high end prices of $2000–2500. This makes molds less accessible to the average consumer. Most companies also require an ear impression to be made which can cost around $100. Ultimate Ears is the only company that takes a scan of the person’s ear and 3D prints their molds. Some companies that do molds are Ultimate Ears, Westone, JH Audio, 1964 Ears, and Alclair.
Other in-ears that are less expensive are universal in-ears. As shown below, Shure in ears are the most popular of the universal monitors. They range from $99-$399. These are much less expensive than the molds and their usage is much more diverse because they are not made for one specific person and multiple people are able to use them.
In-ear monitors are such an important part of church music now because of the fact that most churches use tracks that need click and the only way to have that is with in-ears. These have revolutionized the way that church music is done and it helps us as worship leaders bring our best to the Lord.
SUNDAYSOUNDS.COM
Sunday Sounds is an awesome website and team that have created MainStage patches for midi keyboards that are song specific. They have been created by people to make it easy for keys players to emulate sounds from the albums. These come with a zipped file of the patch that can be loaded up into the MainStage software. It consists of several sounds that can be used throughout the midi keyboard for different parts of the songs. I love this website because it is easy for students to learn parts quickly and easily and still lead with excellence. This is a great tool for worship leaders to help the band and the sound of the musical worship. I love using this as a way to also teach those who are not the best at keys. They range in price from $10 per song, to $20 for packs of sounds. I really enjoy using this resource.
These are just a few in the vast amount of resources that are for Worship leaders, I hope that you get a chance to use a few of these awesome ways to make your service the best for the glory of the Lord!
