Categories
Worship

CCLI’s SongSelect – Why Every Church Should Pay $179 and Get It

Here are seven reasons why every pastor should make sure their church coughs up $179 to get a 1-year subscription to SongSelect Premium from CCLI.  Ccli_logo_1  

CCLI are the people that give you the copyright to sing the songs and this is an extra service they offer.   

1. Because you can instantly get perfectly spelled and formatted lyrics for projecting songs on the screen or printing words in the bulletin.  No errors and consistent copyright information – can you imagine that?    Concert

2. Because your musicians will love you for it.  This is a godsend for musicians.  They can get chord sheets, lead sheets (those things with notes – yes they have them for contemporary music), and hymn sheets for virtually every worship chorus and hymn.  Not only that but the musicians can simply choose what key to put the song in and the chord/lead/hymn sheet automatically changes.  Incredible.  Can you say "better music with less headaches?"  Can you say "organized musicians" without feeling faint? Ccli_2   

3. All your worship leaders, the pastoral staff, the secretary, (even all your musicians if you trust them and I suggest you do), can have access to this awesome resource online anytime.  In the old days, churches kept file cabinets of choir music and in the 90’s we all kept three-ring-binders of worship chorus chord sheets.  It was a big pain to access and it did not foster good communication among people!  So use this resource and let everyone have access to it.  The only limitation is that you can only print 200 lead sheets per year.  As long as you make it clear that only a few designated leaders can print out lead sheets, you can make a "regular musician account" for the rest of your musicians.  Do it.  Let everyone share the wealth and have access to this tool.  If you let just the "worship pastor" have access to it, you are killing the spirit and potential of other musicians.  Give as many people access to the music as possible.  Don’t you want to develop other musicians?      

4. It is a good financial investment.  In the old days, churches spent lots of money on choir music, robes, and hymnals.  Today they spend it on technology.  $179 is not bad considering the potential for better communication, better quality, increased creativity, and less stress. 

5. You can make song books.  For home groups or a retreat outdoors, you can make lyric sheets.  You are allowed to do that.  I think you are supposed to collect them at the end though but you would have to read the fine print.  You are not supposed to allow people to use your SongSelect for anything unrelated to the church where the license is from I think.

6. Lots of people on your staff will use it if you allow them to (and since you bought it and that is what it is for, let them use it!)  Let the youth pastor use it.  Let the people who plan worship use it.  The pastor will use it to look for songs that might go with the sermon.  It will be well used.  Stop using google and illegally posted song lyrics to find "that song you were thinking of."  Use SongSelect. 

7. It may help bring unity.  Having worship choruses with notes (lead sheets) and not just chord sheets will make your musicians better and will bridge connections between the young and old.  Having worship choruses arranged as hymns with four parts will also draw young and old together.  Having chord sheets for hymns will allow your guitar playing musicians to play hymns more easily. 

Conclusion:  Church musicians, worship leaders and secretaries have it hard enough and pastors have enough trouble getting along with them.  Don’t deprive them of this resource.  It will make their lives easier.

Here is the CCLI’s price list for SongSelect.  Their demo is here.  (As for me, I am impatient watching demos and just want the facts).   

See my suggestions for coordinating worship at my post entitled "How to plan and lead worship."

Categories
Bible Study

Biblegateway.com – Why every pastor should demonstrate it to their congregation

Biblegateway1 All pastors should put a blurb about Biblegateway.com in the bulletin or show their congregations on the screen how to use it.  It is a basic 21st century discipleship tool. 

  • There should be no excuse why worship leaders cannot find Scripture verses that go with the song they are singing any longer.  They can use Biblegateway. 
  • PowerPoint slides should never have typing errors in the Scripture verses.  Just cut and paste from Biblegateway.com
  • Bible Study leaders need not use only one version in their preparation.  They can easily paste two versions in a table so that people can compare them.Bible_1

I have taught my Biblical Literature II and Program and Curriculum Development students how to use Biblegateway.com this week.   

See also my post: The Best Bible Study Tools on the Web

What everyone needs to know about Biblegateway.com. 

  1. It is free.  No registration.  No login.  Free.   
  2. Go to http://www.biblegateway.com/
  3. You can search for a word or a passage on the home page.  In other words, if you put in salvation, it will know to look for that keyword.  If you put in 1 Corinthians 13, it will take you to that chapter of the Bible.  It is smart.   
  4. You can also change which version you are searching.  You can also look up a passage in five versions at a time on the Passage Lookup page.  I recommend TNIV, ESV, NLT, The Message (paraphrase), and NIRV (for kids).  See more about Bible Versions at my post The Best Bible Study Tools on the Web.   
  5. You can also go to Keyword Search and look up how often words occur.  Yes, this is a basic concordance.   
  6. You can also listen to chapters that are read aloud online.  Look up a verse in the TNIV and then click “Listen to this passage” or the icon.  You can listen to it in RealPlayer.  I tell my students to listen to one chapter while getting dressed in the morning.  (Sorry you can’t download it or listen to more than a chapter at a time).   There are a number of audio versions available on the Audio Bible page. 
  7. You can change your default bible in Preferences on the home page

I have pasted below my handout in class which has page views. 

Download Biblegateway.doc 

Categories
Blogging

Why to Try Blogging and How to Start

I am teaching my Christian Educational Ministries "Program and Curriculum Development" students how to blog tomorrow.  (I talked more about the books for this course here).  Wordpress

They have already had to make comments on two different blogs because that is a good way to familiarize yourself with blogs.  (For inspiration, see my list of the Best 70 Church Leadership Blogs). 

Tomorrow we are meeting in a computer lab and they will all be setting up a blog on WordPress.  I have told them that they can set up a fake ministry blog or a personal blog. 

Here are three reasons I am teaching them to blog. 

1. Churches and ministries need websites and the blog is the easiest way to get a basic website going.  Even for one event they may want to be able to do this.   

2. I want these students to get over their fear of doing web design.  You don’t know if you are good at it and like it until you try. 

3. Even if they don’t do it the future, they need to be able to work well with designers and they will do that better if they have done it a bit themselves. 

Here are the basic instructions for them.

If you are new to blogging, this sequence of tasks may be a good quick way to try your hand at it.    

The screen photos are on the attached Microsoft Word handout here if you are interested.  Download WordPress_Blogging.doc 

My sample blog which I practiced with tonight is: http://ced352.wordpress.com/

  1. Go to http://wordpress.com/
  2. Click: Start a blog in seconds »
  3. You need to figure out a Username and Email Address and click the legal box and then click gimme a blog. 
  4. Then you need to come up with the url for your blog and the name of the blog and whether you want it to appear publicly or not.  The url will not be able to be changed but the blog name can be changed later.
  5. Check your email for the confirmation email. 
  6. Write a post.  Then click Publish.
  7. Upload a post with a photo.   
  8. Update your profile.  Change your password to something you will remember. 
  9. Presentation.  Pick a new theme.
  10. Presentation.  Do a Custom Image Header by uploading a photo.  You can only do this for some themes. 
  11. Go to Manage . . . Pages . . . Edit your About page. 
  12. Under Manage . . . Pages . . . Create a New Page

It literally took my students less than 10 minutes to get blogging.

Lots of people in the blogosphere are recommending the new book The Blogging Church by Brian Bailey (who has a blog here) and Terry Storch.  That is the best place to begin probably.