Question:
Often times as I read thru these posts, I find myself wondering how the church sizes, congregation age range, worship styles, etc. where you guys lead compare to mine. I'll go first:
I lead at a small Southern Baptist Church, with a membership of a little over 200. On any given Sunday, we have around 140 or so attending our morning service. We also have Sunday evening and Wednesday evening services, but the attendance for those services is only about 1/3rd of Sunday mornings. I'd say that the median age for this congregation is in their 40's, but we have a significant number of folks much older than that. As I've mentioned in previous posts, we've implemented a 'blended' style of worship, with roughly 50/50 traditional hymns to more contemporary music.
Our praise band consists of me leading on acoustic guitar, backed up by other musicians on electric guitar, electric bass, piano and drums. We also have a small choir (more like a praise team) to help out on the vocals and do the occasional 'choir special'. We don't do a lot of 'special music'. Not that I have anything against it, but I don't necessarily encourage it either.
What about you guys? What does the field where you've been called to serve look like?
Rick
Answer:
We're in a church of about 300 between 2 services. Our sanctuary is small, only seats about 200, and we'll have from 125-180 each service. Both services are blended to some degree. The first service is piano and organ only with about 90% hymns and 10% current choruses. The second service is the full band with 2 guitars, bass, drums, synth, piano, and 3-4 vocalists. I'd say there's about 10% hymns and 90% 'contemporary' on the second service. I put contemporary in quotes because it seems the WL and I disagree on the definition ;-)
Answer:
We are currently a church of around 200 average attending per Sunday. We started in January 2005 with about 40 people. We are in our 5th location now (a 450 seat high school auditorium) while our building is being built. We have been seriously constrained by seating up to this point and since we are mobile (everything gets setup and taken down each week) we have not ventured off into multiple services. Just from looking at the stats, I expect a steady climb into Easter.
We are 100% contemporary. I came from a church where we tried blended and all we did was cheese off everyone. The band is Electric Guitar, Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Keys and Drums + a couple Vocalists. Most of the band also sings as needed. We are fairly high energy in the music department. We do slow it down but that is a rare thing.
More info can be had at our site: www.faithfellowshiponline.org for those keeping score at home.
Answer:
We are a small Baptist Church in NC. http://www.livingfaithbc.net Our membership is around 200 or so We average around 180 on Sunday mornings, about half that on Sunday evenings, and a little less on the mid week Wednesday evening prayer service.
Our Sunday morning service is "Blended". We open with a hymn done in very traditional style with me leading vocals, a choir behind me, a piano, and an organ. The praise band simply stands in waiting. After the hymn, I cut loose with the praise band. We'l do 4-5 contemporary songs, followed by a special music solo by someone during the offering. Next comes the sermon. After the sermon, I go back on stage by myself and lead another very traditional hymn for the closing with just me leading vocals along with a piano and organ accompaniment. We have a large "Seniors" demographic in our church as well as the younger crowd, so out of respect for them tolerating all the modern praise music, we dedicate one Sunday a month as "Traditional Sunday". During this service, we do all traditional hymns along with a Lord's Supper ceremony. This makes them more tolerant and accepting of the new music, and also gives the younger people familarity with the old classic hymns. It has been a good crossover experience for everyone. During our blended services I also like to match up some of the contemporary songs with the hymns they are based on, such as "When I survey the wondrous cross"/"The Wonderful Cross", "I am not skilled to understand"/My Savior, My God" and "And Can It Be"/"Amazing Love", "Open Our Eyes Lord"/"Open the eyes of my heart" etc...
For the Sunday evening servces, it's much more laid back. Everyone including us is in total casual attire and we cut loose with whatever music we feel like doing. A single set might include a traditional hymn, a modern praise and worship rocker, and a bluegrass flatpicking oldie like "I'll fly away" or "There's a land fairer than day". I have been learning to flatpick and the seniors really enjoy it when I do a break out for an old southern gospel song.
Our band consists of me leading while doing lead vocals and acoustic guitar. We have a bass player, a drummer, a pianist and a keyboardist with occassional shaker percussion thrown in. Sunday mornings, we use a choir of about 18 people ranging in age from 16 to 64, which can be a real challenge for introducing new contemporary songs. For Sunday evenings, I will either do vocals alone, or arrange for a couple of choir members to join me when we have songs with split parts like "You are Holy/Prince of Peace" or "I will worship".
It is most rewarding job I have ever had, even though it's not my day job and I count myself blessed more than I deserve to have the position.
Answer:
My church is a non-denom (Evangelical might fit us) and our attendance is about 425 and growing for 1 Sunday morning service.
We're in our new location and have been for only 6 months so the word is still getting out about the "new" church in town (even though we've been "in town" for 15 years but at a different location).
Our congregation is a nice representation across several generations and the music style is probably best described as electric-guitar-driven-blended with a rough guestamite of 75% contemporary and 25% hymns.
The band typically consists of: electric guitar, 2 keys, bass, drums, 2 horns, and somewhere between 4 to 8 singers including myself. On occasion we'll have an acoustic guitar join us or we might do a full acoustic service minus drums and horns.
Answer:
I go to a small southern baptist church in Arlington TX.
We have around 100 people. Probably 50 older people (senior adults) and the other 50 are pretty evenly spread out from kids to people around fifty years old. We do a blended style. Its generally well recieved. As a special this week we did Crowder's "My Hope". I really kicked the distortion (I play lead guitar)...it was not well recieved to put it mildly...
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We are a young RCA (Reformed Church of America) church, planted in summer 2003 in Papillion, Nebraska (growing town south of Omaha).
http://www.papiocreek.org
I'd venture that there's usually about 100 - 120 people worshipping on a given Sunday, with a fairly wide range of ages. The biggest demographic group would be in the age 25-34 bracket, I would guess. Our building is a rented concert hall/converted old movie theater. It seats about 150 as currently set up (probably could pack in about 250 if we went wall-to-wall seats, but we set up tables and have some space open where there could be chairs). The building is old, dark, uninviting, and has a way-overpowered and too-noisy - AM radio noise - P.A. system, but other than that, it's fine We're currently in lease re-negotiations, but my secret hope (well, not so secret anymore) is that we get the heck out of there and find a school or a pole barn or a bowling alley or...something else...to meet in.
We do more modern songs mainly, but we will sing a hymn (or two, sometimes) if it works well with the passage being preached on and the connection is explained. The band varies from week to week because we rely on a number of military people (who deploy or need training or ....) in key positions. Generally, we'll have a guitar (acoustic, electric, one or both), bass guitar, keyboards, drums, and 2-4 vocalists, including a few of the band members from time to time.
Nate
Answer:
I go a decent size evangelical lutheran church; in all there are probably 500-600 members. There are three services; the first two are traditional and the 3rd is all contemporary. This is the service we go to and participate in. There are usually 50 -75 people who come to Celebrate! (that's what it's called) but it's been growing little by little. The band is led by Bob who plays acoustic guitar and we have piano, drums, bass, electric (me) and occasionally keyboard. We do mostly current tunes, but sometimes we'll go *way* back to the 80's for some classic contemporary
Answer:
I play electric guitar at a Seventh Day Adventist church of about 1200 or so members. There are three services, the first and third are more mellow, but basically everything but electric guitars are used and the songs are generally older Hillsongs songs or mellower Chris Tomlin and Matt Redman songs. About 200 are there are the first service and about 400-500+ at third.
Second service is where I play guitar, it's called YG Church (younger generation) although many, many older members (50+) go. Attendance varies. We generally have at least 200 but most of the time we have about 400 or so in attendance. The band is usually two electric guitars, acoustic guitar, two keyboards, bass, and drums. We play pretty much any of the modern P&W songs here, although we do do some older songs as well. This service isn't an alternative to first and third. Most of us go to YG and third service. We organize a lot of activities sponsered by this service, lunches, afternoons on the lake, etc. Our church even sent some of us that lead out in that service to Passion on their bill. I love my church.
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Our church generally has between 80-100 Sunday mornings. We have a pretty equal mix of elders/young adults, but almost no baby boomers. We do a blended style, but within the last year or so we have transitioned from a Senior Pastor in his late 70's to a SP in his late 30's! So we are sort of moving away, little by little, from the traditional style of services. Mostly do fairly modern worship with one or two hymns.
Answer:
right now im going to a Non-denominational church called "the Centerpointe" in west hollywood florida. It used to be First Baptist church of west hollywood. right now the attendance is about 500 to 600 or so on sunday morning, but God is at work and this year we plan on moving to 2 service on a sunday, with the worship band alternating. It'll be cool. the age group is definitely older and baby boomers, but the youth are slowly growing more and more adn more. Im happy.
also i lead at the youth group, which is around 150 to 200 or maybe 300 is we're really lucky. it's all contemporary, hillsong, chris tomlin, matt redman, david crowder, michael gungor, etc...
on sunday mornings we'll usually do 2 hymns and mainly modern praise and worship music.
Answer:
I lead worship at a non-denomination church that averages around 400 people in two services on a Sunday morning. We meet at the local YMCA, which means we setup on Saturday night and have rehearsal.
As for band members - I used to have four full worship teams that led once a month, but my worship team has been decimated due to conflicts within the church, and the exit of two staff members. So now, generally on stage there is me playing acoustic and singing, another acoustic guitarist who sings backup, an electric guitarist, a bassist, a drummer, and another vocalist.
Our style is definitely modern worship. We are a Tomlin/Crowder/Redman/Hillsong United style of worship. We'll throw in a secular song every once in awhile if it fits the theme of the service.
Once a month I lead an "emergent" style of worship service on a Sunday night. This is where I get the most joy - the service is called Element, and is interactive and participatory. Every month has been different, and we average around 75 people for that service. You can see pictures at www.southwestchurch.org/element.html
Answer:
I play guitar for a 60-80 person Alliance church. We started in summer of 2005 with barely 25 people. It is an english ministry church for under a Vietnamese church near Vancouver Canada. There was a need for the second generation who didn't speak enough vietnamese to understand anything and were leaving the church. It has slowy turned into a multiculture church since the youth have started bringing in their friends
The average age is 18 but approximately 2/3rds of the church are in the youth group. We have a small group of yuppies (myself included) that are basically the seniors of the church though we do have some older couples that act as a liason between our church and the mother church.
There are two teams that alternate every week. The team I play consist of rythmn, electric, bass guitar, drums and keys and 2 vocalist. We have a contemporary style of worship but I've tried to incorporate some hymns just cause I have a renewed sense of appreciation for them.
Answer:
my church is a non-denom, 40-90 people church in mexico. it is an english speaking church, and happens to be the only one in our city. our attendance depends on the season, as most people live on boats and leave when it gets hot in the summer. we do a sort of blended worship, lately we've been doing lots of slow songs but with our new guitarist i think things will speed up some. not very many hymns, just slower songs.
praise band consists of:
electric guitar(me)
acoustic drums(my brother)
Ewie
Piano
acoustic guitar(for the moment at least, the guy lives ona boat and will leave eventually)
vocals
i also go to a non-denom spanish speaking church in town where all my friends go to. they have around 250 people. they do alot of cool fast songs and afew slow ones. their praise band consists of:
acoustic guitar
piano
singer
(and inconsistantly)
bass
electric guitar
drums
Answer:
Our might be considered a mid sized Southern Baptist church. I don't know what the enrollment is, but we average about 400-450 (I think) on Sunday.
To go over what we've done in the past few years as far as numbers of services and such since I've been part of the worship team would give me a headache. Right now we have one Sunday school then one service. It's basically contemporary with a hymn or country sounding song thrown in ever few weeks.
No evening or Wednesday night services. If my wife and I ever go someplace else I'd like to go back to a church with a midweek and Sunday evening service. It's just what I like.
Our normal setup is 2 electrics, upwards to 2 acoustics, bass, drums, hopefully a piano player each week, keyboard once in a while, some wind instruments every couple of weeks and too blasted many singers nearly every week.
Our demographic seems to have a lot of couples in their 20's to late 30's with children from the crib up to middle school. From what I can tell (or honestly care), it seems to be about even with the couples who are in their mid/late 30's to late 40's who have the kids in late middle school to college age. The family's that are in their 50's on up with kids who are in college or out of college are in the minority in our church.
I hope money demographics isn't part of the question. All I can tell you is that my wife and I are probably on the lower end of that spectrum. (rim shot)
Like most church's our attendance (or lack of) if affected by the season of the year, what's going on in school, what sport is in season and what holiday is coming up or what holiday we're recovering from.