New “Sounds” for music at the Connect Service

For the last couple of months, several leaders have been working to “upgrade” our sound for music at our Connect service (9:30 am each Sunday morning in the school’s Cafeteria). As with most new things, there have been many successes and a couple of “glitches” along the way.

The new sounds involve the use of worship “tracks,” recordings that provide a mix of live and recorded musicians. At present the tracks provide especially the percussion and some other instruments to make our use on Sunday a bit more like the “original.” 

Progress has not been without its challenges. 

• New use of technology always brings a few challenges. But for the last two months, we’ve gotten a bit more adept at the use of these tracks. 
• The “live” musicians are still getting used to staying in tempo and working with the recorded tracks. Each week an adjustment has helped bring a bit more success.
• The biggest challenge is one of balance between the various tracks, the live instruments, and the singers. Each week is getting better, but we don’t have a professional sound engineer … so we’re taking baby steps.

THE COST

The Board of Elders asked the Governing Board to approve an annual budget of up to $16,000. However, through the end of December, we will spend only $2,500. Once we build a library of songs, the annual investment should drop considerably. 

Additionally, church volunteers will be installing a bit more “infrastructure” (mostly cables and patch panels) to make connectivity much easier. If you would like to help with this work, just say the word and we’ll make sure to get you involved.

We would also love to get more musicians involved regularly (guitars, drums, etc). One member has stepped up to play her guitar, and a couple of the “usual suspects” are helping to lead the songs.  If you want to be involved or know of people who might be, please let Tracy Fronk and Pastor Albers know.