Essential Tools for Organized Worship Leadership

by Zac James

2. Notes App

I rely on the default Notes app for many purposes in my daily life. It serves as my go-to platform for various tasks, whether jotting down sermon notes, delivering live sermons, organizing team members’ attendance for conferences, taking detailed notes during meetings or simply creating to-do lists. The versatility of this app knows no bounds. Although your choice of the note-taking app may vary, I personally prefer Apple’s Notes in iCloud. Its seamless synchronization across my phone and laptop ensures I have access to my essential information whenever and wherever I need it.

3. Whiteboard

I initially wasn’t gungho about having a whiteboard in my office, but my former lead pastor insisted, and I’m glad he did. When you need to collaborate in worship planning with a team, you need a way to display the group’s progress visually. You could also use a TV with your laptop Airplay function (or HDMI cable). (Also, it’s great for my family – my kids color on it between services and my wife leaves notes for me!)

4. Weekly Process List

Remember the whole “change your process” line from before? One of the important things that helps me stay organized is having a visual list of all repetitive weekly tasks. I also include things that are hard to remember, such as updating a website for special service times.

5. Planning Center Online (PCO)

I believe this should be mandatory for every worship ministry. It is an unbelievable time-saver when you have it set up correctly. It allows me to store all my song files by key & arrangement, so if I pick a song and key, it automatically loads them for the team when they log in to see the set. It’s elegant and efficient. Changing keys is easy peasy. It allows you to email team members in the app, so no need to add people to an email each week. Click a button, and write a message, send. Easy.

It allows me to review past song schedules and track how long it’s been since each song was used. I sort my songs by the Last Date Used, and this is INCREDIBLE for song planning. When you schedule team members, it will show them as confirmed, unconfirmed, or declined. This clarifies whether they are actually planning to serve or whether they missed the memo or are out of town. That can save you a panic moment of realizing a key musician wasn’t available like you thought, simply because they missed an email.

I also use it to schedule three-month rotations using the Matrix function. It functions like an Excel spreadsheet, allowing you to move people around and see a bird’s eye view of the schedule.

Long story short, if you aren’t using it, why not? It’s unbelievably high-value and high-impact for you to stay organized in worship ministry.

6. Scanner Pro

When I started my first full-time position, I struggled to track receipts. What solved the issue? “Change your process,” – the Scanner Pro app. If you remember to scan the receipt immediately, it doesn’t matter if you lose the physical receipt because you have a backup. It’s fast, reliable, and easy to use.

With the right tools, you can stay organized, accomplish the mission, and glorify God through your worship team administration.

Zac James