Making Worship Great (resources)

The last seven posts have been about "why" our worship gatherings have been great. Thanks so much for your comments, both on the blog and on Facebook. They've been great.

But now let's move to the practical end of the spectrum. Time to move from "why" to "how." Here are five categories of "stuff" to serve your quest to make worship great at your church. A word about my choices--these are not what I'd consider "cutting edge" resources. These are for the normal, innovative, perhaps blended-toward-contemporary minded church. I'd imagine many of you reading my blog are already very familiar with these.

Let me encourage you to click on the hyperlinks to get more info.

Music for Congregational Songs
PraiseCharts - you can find just about everything you can imagine needing for the most popular "praise and worship" music. One of my favorite things about this music is that if you find a really great recording of a worship song, there's a strong chance PraiseCharts will have it--Piano w/ 3 or 4 part harmony only, click track, full orchestration, etc.

SongSelect - this service from CCLI is much less developed than the resources from PraiseCharts, but if you have instrumentalists who play from a lead sheet or chord sheet, this is incredibly cost-effective. The number of songs available from SongSelect is mind-boggling.

Music for Choir
This is so difficult, because your church choir's music style. Some of my favorite publishers are: Prism, PraiseGathering, and on the traditional end, Beckenhorst Press.

A few specific contemporary choir songs that have risen above the rest in recent years are:
"Fill This Temple with Your Glory"
"I Then Shall Live" from Tell the Story collection
"This Is Our God" (part of a Christmas musical)
"Come As You Are" (with DVD/click track)
"A Mighty Fortress"

Video
"Grace" by the Skit Guys
"Alive" (The Story) featuring Natalie Grant

Podcasts
All About Worship
Andy Stanley Leadership

Books
Worship Matters by Bob Kauflin
An Hour on Sunday by Nancy Beach

The Heart of the Artist by Rory Noland

Vertical Church by James MacDonald
Worship Is a Verb by Robert Webber

Blogs
Worship Coach (my only shameless, self-promoting plug!)
Worship Matters

Ok, readers, if you could add one essential resource, what would it be?