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God can use whatever musical potential you and your church already have. These tips will help you make the most of your musical gifts.
Elizabeth “Beth” Broschart is the pastor at First Presbyterian Church, a small congregation in Boyne City, Michigan. She has also led music and choirs in small churches in Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Broschart says, “Many publishers feature choral music, but the one I often find most helpful is . Its music definitely focuses on worship and is helpful in a pinch. writes some easy stuff. For impact with piano accompaniment I love and . also tends to write arrangements that are accessible for small choirs.”
You can search for thousands of choral anthems, instrumental arrangements, and transposable scores from several Christian music publishers at the online . It lets you search for music based on a hymn, scripture reference, topic, or musical arranger. You can filter by type, difficulty, format, instrumentation, and liturgical season.
produces choral and organ music for churches that lead music from an organ or piano. , “I can steer you to pieces in our catalog that work well for smaller choirs.”
91 (CICW) and the Alban Institute cooperate on books in the . Two books—Where 20 or 30 Are Gathered and From a Mustard Seed—offer special help for planning worship and music in small churches. In cooperation with the Lilly Endowment, CICW has also awarded several worship renewal grants focused on music leadership in small churches.
was written by Peter Bush and Christine O’Reilly, based on their experience pastoring Presbyterian congregations in rural Ontario. This book can help pastors and music leaders through the culture shock of coming from large urban churches and seminaries to small country congregations.
In , church musician Daryl Hollinger and theologian Bruce Epperly explain how to improve pastor-church musician relationships so small church worship can flourish.
Read descriptions of CICW worship renewal grants geared toward . Click on “Project Details” to learn more about each grant. At the bottom of each Project Details page, click on “View Poster” to see grant results, photos, and the names of grant project leaders.
91 offered free workshops during its June 2012 meeting of worship renewal grant recipients. , who specializes in congregational song, presented techniques and resources useful for pianists and organists in small churches. While reading her isn’t the same as hearing her in person, it summarizes good advice and includes a stellar resource list, including online help for beginning organists. In the handout, PFAS refers to and SNC refers to the contemporary hymnal .
