This week WorshipIdeas.com is 12 years old! The first email newsletter went out to about 400 people on February 11, 2002. At the time I was the music director of a church plant of around 200 people who met in an elementary school cafeteria (we eventually purchased a building.)
We set up a complete sound system every week. I played a Yamaha S80 keyboard, we had an electric guitar, bass and Roland V-Club drums (a smaller version of the V-Drums.) Our praise team consisted of 3-6 singers. We’d project song lyrics on a solid color background using PowerPoint (I couldn’t get our projectionist to use images for a year or two, and motion backgrounds were still a novelty.) I’d often beef up our sound with drum loops and tracks using a laptop that was probably half as powerful as my Galaxy Note phone, and ran Cakewalk Pro Audio (the precursor to Sonar.)
Here’s my set list from Sunday, February 17, 2002:
Stir Up A Hunger (Baloche)
Open the Eyes of My Heart (Baloche)
Every Day (Chapman) download a free MP3 and lead sheet (sign up to get the login.)
Amazing Love (Foote)
Scripture on screen
Amazing Love (reprise)
Holy Holy Holy (hymncharts.com)
Read the first WorshipIdeas article: Jumpstart Your Worship Planning Creativity.