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Using iOS Devices in Worship – YouVersion

April 20, 2012 in Contest, Faith, God, iPad, iPhone, Ministry, Prayer, Technology, Worship with 5 Comments


Today I want to look at a very obvious, but very practical application for use in worship.

I don’t know about you, but I know that, as embarrassing as it is to admit, I sometimes arrive at church without my bible. My Sunday mornings are so hectic, and there is so much to load into my car, that its very easy to forget things, in fact, I’ve even had times when I’ve forgotten my guitar, and had to go back home after arriving at church.

When I got my first iPhone, I can honestly say one of the first applications I searched for, was a good bible. At that time, there really weren’t any good ones. There were great concepts, but they didn’t execute very well. If it was an NIV bible, you had to be online to view it (due to copyright issues).. and with our church meetig in a highschool gym, data connection was always an issue. Bibles that worked “offline” were never the translations I wanted.. it was usually a paraphrase, which, when sharing the word with a congregation, I don’t think a paraphrase is the way to do it.

Cue YouVersion. YouVersion is an amazing bible application that far exceeds the expectation of any bible application on your iOS Device. YouVersion carries (according to their description) 80+ translations of the bible, and many of these are available for offline reading. Even the NIV can be viewed offline. From time to time YouVersion does a 2-3 day promo where you can download the full NIV bible, for offline reading.

The thing I love about YouVersion is the fact that they have hundreds of reading plans and devotions. I don’t know about you, but I SUCK at reading my bible, but when I have a plan in front of me, I am much more inclined to read. Along with reading plans they have commentaries, some by major contributors, but also people are allowed to add their own comments as well, which causes for some great discussion.

The added bonus as a worship leader is search functions. Many times when I’m planning a service, I try to find bible verses to share during the worship time, but (again sadly) I don’t know my bible as well as I should, and I can’t just think of a bible verse to go with our theme. With YouVersion, I’m able to search for themes and topics, and will get great bible verses to go along with it.

A feature I haven’t used, but want to try out, is the Live function. You can create events and people can log into those events and share verses and notes during that event.

All in all, if you have an iPhone, or really any smartphone, and you have a need for a bible app (which any Christian should really) YouVersion should be the app you are using! Oh.. and the best part about YouVersion.. it’s totally FREE!

As an added bonus of this series, PageFlip has given me a bluetooth pedal to give away! There are a number of ways to enter, and you can enter daily. Scroll down and check out the rafflecopter box for ways to enter. If you are looking to start using an iOS device (be it an iPad, and iPod Touch or an iPhone) you are going to want a foot pedal, so why not get one for free! If you use an Android tablet, or a laptop for your worship setting, it will work too!

Today is the final day for this contest, it will be over at midnight tonight, and I will then go through to verify all the entries in the morning, and then will announce the winner tomorrow!

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Using iOS Devices in Worship – SongSuggest

April 19, 2012 in blogging, Contest, iPad, iPhone, Mac, Music, Worship with 4 Comments


If you are taking part in our pageflip cicada contest, please take the time to read this

As we continue our look at using iOS devices in worship, today I want to talk about a very practical app that I found about 2 years ago, that has really helped me!

You read the title right.. today I’m talking about SongSuggest, no, it’s not a typo, I didn’t mean to write SongSelect.

SongSuggest is one of those apps that I think a lot of worship leaders use, they just don’t like to admit they use, because they want people to think that they planned that awesome worship set! SongSuggest is an app that allows you to pick a theme, and there is a long list of themes, and then it will give you a list of songs that go with that theme. You can pick songs by tempo if you want. Say you’re doing a theme on Grace, and you’ve got 6 perfect songs, but you really need 1 more to complete the setlist, and you need a slower song, but you just can’t think of one. All you do is open SongSuggest, pick “grace” and then pick “slow” and boom, instantly piles of song suggestions come up. You even have the choice to hear the song.. it’ll give you a youtube link, an iTunes download link, or many other music store links!

SongSuggest is an app that is available for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch.. and even your Mac! They’ve done a great job with this app, and made some changes here and there, but really no major updates, because it already does exactly what it needs to do.

I don’t mind admitting that I use this app. I wouldn’t say on a weekly basis, but it does come out from time to time, be it that I’m trying to get that last 1 or 2 songs, or maybe I’m just having an off day and really can’t think of anything to go along with a theme. Back when I first started leading worship, I used SongSuggest all the time, sometimes to pick whole sets of music.. but now it’s just for the times when I can’t finalize that set.

As an added bonus of this series, PageFlip has given me a bluetooth pedal to give away! There are a number of ways to enter, and you can enter daily. Scroll down and check out the rafflecopter box for ways to enter. If you are looking to start using an iOS device (be it an iPad, and iPod Touch or an iPhone) you are going to want a foot pedal, so why not get one for free! If you use an Android tablet, or a laptop for your worship setting, it will work too!

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Using iOS Devices in Worship – Ambient Pads

April 18, 2012 in Apple, blogging, Contest, iPad, iPhone, Music, Worship with 4 Comments


As we continue our look at using iOS devices in worship, today I want to discuss a way I’ve started using my iPhone along side our worship time at Madoc Baptist.

I have to give credit where credit is due, because I got this idea from Rob Rash and a post he wrote back in August called “Creating Ambience with an MP3 Player”

Something I’ve always liked in bigger worship bands, is the use of synths. While having a piano or keyboard player, a lot of them also have someone on synths, creating some really cool sounds. One of my keyboard players bought herself a microkorg a while back, but hasn’t brought it out.. as she doesn’t feel confident with it, even though shes a fantastic player. Then one day, I was reading through my Feed Reader, and I found the post by Rob, about creating the same ambience I wanted my keyboard player to create, but by using an MP3 player.

Rob pointed me to Karl Verkade who is an amazing guitarist, who creates ambient pads, and he even gives them away for free to churches!

The intent of these pads (at least for me) is to cut down on dead space in between songs. I’ve had times when for one reason or another, there was just too much dead space in between a song.. either a guitar went way out of tune and needed fixing, or a piano was intended to start the song, and piano player forgot. There are a number of things that can cause dead space between songs. The pads also create some great sounds to have during a song if you want to just play it through the whole song. Continue Reading…

Using iOS Devices in Worship – PageFlip

April 17, 2012 in Apple, blogging, Contest, iPad, iPhone, Music, Worship with 11 Comments


Continuing our look at using iOS Devices in Worship, it only seems natural that we talk about controlling that device. If you are going to run an application like OnSong, how are you going to turn those pages if you play a guitar, or the piano.. sure it’s simple if you are a singer, you’ve got free hands, but what about those of us who have our hands occupied during worship?

Cue the PageFlip Cicada. This is a bluetooth pedal that you can use to wirelessly control your digital sheet music. When I was on the hunt for a bluetooth pedal, I came across all the usuals that come up during a google search, but, I just wasn’t ready to drop $150 on a pedal that would turn pages for me, it just seemed like to much.

Then I found it.. the pageflip.. a wireless pedal for the.. budget minded. For just $79.95 you got an the same functionality that all those expensive pedals brought.. but at a fraction of the cost. I was sold. I made my purchase, and literally within a few days, my pedal arrived. To be honest, my pedal actually arrived before my iPad! They were really quick on the shipping!

So when you buy a pedal for $80, does it just turn your pages? No! In OnSong you can control a number of functions with your pedal. Yes you can set it up to just turn the pages, but, if you are practicing, and would like to play along with a metronome, you can set it up right in OnSong. A single click on the pedal, and a metronome will start playing. Maybe you have a click track that you play along with? Well you no long have to run your clicks from a seperate device, you can put cue your click track to play on the step of a pedal (more on that tomorrow)! You can use the footpedal to automatically tanspose a song within OnSong, or maybe you want to turn the volume up on that click track, it’s all there.
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Using iOS Devices in Worship – OnSong

April 16, 2012 in Apple, Contest, iPad, Ministry, Music, Technology with 25 Comments


I’ve always been a techie. For as long as I can remember, I’ve been taking things apart, seeing how they work, and then trying to make them better. I started playing music at a very young age, though I didn’t really start to take it seriously until I was maybe 9. At that time, my love for tech was still very much in play. As I would play music, I would play around with amps, take them apart and try to make the built in effects better.

Cue the year 1995. I was 11, my family got our first computer. For a kid who loves to take apart and tweak electronics, this was awesome! I was always taking apart the computer, looking at the insides, and adding things to make it work better. At that time, we didn’t have USB audio interfaces to plug our guitars into computers, heck, we didn’t even have USB! So I remember devising different tactics to allow me to plug my guitars into the computer, so I could play with the sounds. I remember in the early 2000′s playing in a celtic band, and finding a way to plug my guitar through a laptop, and then manipulate the sounds, as they were better than the cheap effects pedals I had at that time.

Tech has always been important to me, and anytime I’ve done a task, I’ve often tried to find a way to have tech involved in some way. Any time I am at a conference, I’m always the tech guy, be it running sound, running the presentations, or both. Back when I was in college, I couldn’t walk through the mall without some store clerk approaching me, and asking me to come fix their computer system.

My love for tech naturally moved into my love of worship and leading people in worship. Over the last 7 years as a worship leader, I’ve tried lots of weird things so I could involved my love of tech into worship services. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it blew up (literally). Continue Reading…

Using iOS Devices in a Worship Setting

April 13, 2012 in Apple, blogging, Gear, iPad, iPhone, Ministry, Music, Worship with 1 Comment


For the past few months I’ve been thinking about doing a week long series here on my blog, but I could never really think of a topic that I would have 5 sub topics to write about.  Today I was thinking about the things that get lots of hits on my blog, and lately a lot of people have been visiting my short post about using a particular app on my iPad, as a worship leader.  Then I started to realize that there are a number of things I can discuss when it comes to using the iPad, or any iOS device really, as a worship leader.

So please tune in next week, starting on Monday, as I start a series on how to use an iPad in a worship setting. I will be discussing apps, accessories, and techniques I use as a worship leader, that involve my iPad.  This is a topic that is starting to get a lot of discussion on forums, so, I decided it would be a good one to do a whole series on.

Please subscribe so you can be notified when the posts are made, and please feel free to join the discussion by commenting on each post.  I would love to hear your personal thoughts on the topic, and maybe apps or accessories and techniques you use as a worship leader.

I’m also working on the possibility of a pretty cool contest, but I can’t say anything about it yet, as it hasn’t been confirmed yet, but stay tuned for that!

UPDATE: I got confirmation this morning that the gang over at PageFlip are giving me a pageflip cicada Bluetooth pedal to give away on Friday to 1 lucky winner! There will be an entry form every day, and multiple ways to enter every day. Make sure you subscribe to the blog so you can have a chance to win!

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