Recently my friend Don Chapman wrote an article on his blog about church worship flow and sound mix. I would like to expand on this topic and offer my own “two cents”. The original article can be found here: http://worshipideas.com/whats-wrong-with-your-worship-music/
I totally agree with Don’s comments about worship flow. One thing I notice in so many contemporary churches is that every song starts out with an acoustic guitar or keyboard, slowly builds with the band, and eventually peaks with everyone rocking hard, their volumes on 11, before dying down to just an acoustic guitar at the end. The tempo of every song seems to also be in direct proportion of the amount of instruments playing. After three songs like this I am tired of the roller coaster.
Something we started doing at Brookwood last year was to dramatically reduce the time between songs. So much so that sometimes they run together and morph from one song to the next using a well arranged chord progression and some band hits. Think of it as if your are listening to a CD. If you need to talk between songs, do it during the intro of the song. You can even lengthen the intro by playing it twice if you need.
The basic frame we work with right now is three to four songs, then Perry comes out to welcome everyone and setup his sermon for the day, then the special, otherwise known as the offertory. It’s during Perry’s welcome where the pad or “noodling” comes into play (usually in the key of the special). This welcome time is a critical junction in the worship service. You have worked hard to create a mood and don’t want to loose it. In this instance silence is NOT golden.