General Guidelines for Leading a Worship Service

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Guidelines for Operating the Sound System

The purposes of the sound system are:

  • provide PA-quality amplification of church services so that the sound reaches all the areas of the sanctuary. and can be directed to the vestibule and the nursery if desired.

  • broadcast the service to the hearing-assistance devices for those who have trouble hearing.

  • record the service for the various uses described below.

Recordings of the services are made to:

  • provide the Sharing portion of the service to the church office administrator each week.

  • provide recordings to shut-ins each week.

  • have a recording available to lend out for one month following the service.

  • archive the service recordings for a period of at least two years.

  • provide recordings of wedding and funeral services to the families.

Digital recordings are saved as an MP3 file. A volunteer excerpts “Prayers of the People” and gives it to the church office. For worship services, one CD-RW disk is made to be available for lending for six months following the service, after which it may be re-used. The ‘lending’ disk is loaned out for short intervals only, no more than two weeks. More CD-RW copies may be made of worship services upon request (such as for shut-ins). These disks are not to be kept permanently but should be returned for reuse. Requests for excerpts of services should be handled case-by-case.

Pre-service Sound Check: Sound checks must be concluded by 9:15. Contact the worship leader, song leader and musician in advance so that the check can be completed by this time.

Weddings and funerals should be recorded and copied on two CDs. One copy goes to the church office for future requests. The other copy goes to the married couple or family of the deceased.

Once a month, all services should be copied onto a CD and kept in the church office for two years.

Information from “Prayers of the People” should be kept confidential. There may also be copyright issues with other materials. Recordings of services that are loaned out must include a spoken notice on the recording and a printed notice in the disk case with a request something like this: “This CD is a recording of a Columbus Mennonite Church service. Please respect the confidentiality of all who participate in CMC services, and whose participation is recorded on this CD. Please do not distribute any part of this recording without permission from the Worship Commission. Thank you.” This confidentiality notice is not required on wedding and funeral recordings.

Summary

This description uses the following terms:

  • Sound Operator - the person who operates the sound system during the services and generates the raw cassette and digital recordings

  • Recording Admin - the person who prepares the digital recordings for distribution and copying

  • Recording Engineer - the person who generates CD copies of recordings (the Recording Admin and the Recording Engineer may be the same volunteer)

 

Worship service:

  1. Sound Operator makes a digital recording and saves it to an MP3 file

  2. Recording Admin pulls out the sharing and gives it to the church office administrator

  3. CDs can be made by special request of the recording engineer.

  4. Recording Engineer makes additional CD-RW copies as needed for those unable to be at the service; the disks are eventually returned to the Recording Engineer for re-use

 

Wedding or funeral service:

  1. Sound Operator makes a cassette recording, which is given to the family

  2. Sound Operator makes a digital recording and saves it to an MP3 file

  3. Recording Admin sends the service to the Recording Engineer

  4. Recording Engineer makes a CD-ROM copy, which is given to the family