Kyle O'Neal

A buddy of mine is helping start a church and asked me some questions about getting the creative arts side of church going.  I figured I’d post his questions and my answers just in case there is anyone out there who could also find the info helpful:

What planning and data management systems are you using?
We use Planning Center for all our service planning, programing and for all our scheduling.  There is really not a system out there like it.  It’s perfect for service planning.  Once you get the initial setup, making a flow from week to week and scheduling is so simple.  It even sends out reminder emails to everyone scheduled.  If you look at their pricing page (https://www.planningcenteronline.com/signup), I would recommend the Basic plan.  The Lite plan won’t get you very far.  You’ll plug in 35 people and be out of space for mp3s and charts before you know it.  We use the Basic plan and I have YET to run out of space and I have ALOT of songs and charts on there.  However, I would NOT recommend uploading videos under the media section though.  They clog your memory space up really fast.  But for $29 a month…you for sure can’t beat it!

How far in advance do you plan for services?
We plan really far out in advance.  As far as the basic ideas, graphics, and purpose of a series, we do those in 6 month increments.  We already know every series we have planned through July next year.  But as far as the service flows, we go by the series and we are typically anywhere from 1-2 series out at a time.  For example, in 2 weeks we are starting our Christmas series.  Last week we planned out our flow, which songs, which transitions, and what lasting impact people will leave with for our January series.  Sometimes we’re as far out as our February series with this.  2 important things to remember when planning tho: 1) God honors preparation!  We take what we do very seriously because we are called by God to reach people so they may know Him and called to lead His church.  We spend a lot of time in prayer and seeking God’s direction.  We don’t want to do certain series or certain songs because they are cool.  We seek God to lead every aspect of our church and ask Him to show us where He is taking the church.  2) Always be willing to make a change! God always knows what is best.  Even if you planned something 3-6 months ago, if God is telling you to do something different…and it’s the week before…or the night before, DO IT!  The key thing is to always follow God’s direction no matter what.  Let His Spirit guide your every move and ask Him to help you lead His church where He wants His church to be and go.

What do you wish you would have done different starting out?
This is the 3rd church plant I’ve helped start so I’ve been fortunate enough to make PLENTY of mistakes.  The important thing to remember is never be afraid of making mistakes.  If you try something and fail, oh well.  You tried!  If you hadn’t had tried it, you wouldn’t have ever know what NOT to do. If it works, it works.  But always evaluate and re-evaluate to always be getting better.  Never be stuck on “your” way of doing things.  Like I said before, always be listening to God and seeking Him for direction!

It’s funny to me how the things you want and desire for you birthday change as you get older.  When you’re a baby, like my daughter Madison, you don’t know or care what you get for your birthday but the love that you are shown from others overwhelms you.  As you get to be a little kid, you HAVE to have that certain toy and it must be specifically what you want.  If they’re not,  you WILL cry.  But when you do get exactly what you wanted, your life is “complete”…well…for a minute…until the excitement of playing with the box it came in becomes more fun.  When you become a teenager, all you want to do is hang out with your friends and NOT your parents.  The only time you want to even see your parents around your birthday is when they are giving you your presents.  As you graduate high school and go off to college, you hope and pray that your parents and grandparents send you money…because let’s face it, you’re broke!  Then you get married to the love of your life and your birthday comes around and all you want is…money…because you’re STILL broke.

On Monday I will be 26 and I am INCREDIBLY blessed.  I have God who loves me and provides for me.  I have a wife who is the best thing that’s ever happened to me and continues to be the best part about me.  I now have a beautiful 8 month old daughter who lights up our world and completes our family.  We have tons of family and friends that love us unconditionally.  I have a job that I get to do what I love to do each and every week and bring others to the throne room of heaven.  We’ve moved into a beautiful house and it’s already beginning to feel like home.

Melissa keeps asking me over and over (because our family keeps asking her), “What do you want for your birthday?”  I have yet to be able to give an answer.  It sounds silly to say but I feel like I’ve reverted back to the mindset of a little baby.  I don’t really know or care what I get for my birthday.  I just want to be overwhelmed by the love of God, my family, and my friends.  What more could I EVER need or ask for?

So this past Sunday I struggled with playing a couple of songs that…just aren’t my favorite songs in the world.  I mean, they were great songs at one point…they were just overdone or overplayed or just not my thing.  We are in the middle of a series called “Just Ask” and the messages are based on questions people asked within the church.  Well, 80% of the songs were also requested by people.  Most of the requests were songs already in our rotation and I had no problem adding them.

However, 2 came up and I wanted nothing to do with them.  It just so happened that these 2 songs were the absolute most requested songs, with both of them having over 20 requests.  These epic songs were “I’ll Fly Away” and “I Can Only Imagine” by MercyMe.  After fighting it for a while, and knowing other staff members already saw a few of the requests, I decided to go ahead and use them.  This past Sunday’s main question was “Is there more than one way to heaven?” so naturally…they both fit.  Yay!  I’d be lying to you if I said I still wasn’t struggling about playing them on the morning of.  I decided on a Jars of Clay rendition of “I’ll Fly Away” I felt I could live with.  And in rehearsal, we actually had a lot of fun with it making it sound super country.  Clay Goswick even threw a country solo on the end of it.

To say the very least, God used these 2 songs in huge ways.  We opened up the service with “I’ll Fly Away” and people went crazy when they heard the first line, “Some glad morning…”  This was a song that a lot of people connected with.  A large portion of our church was  un-churched or de-churched prior to The Well, but connected to “I’ll Fly Away” and brought back a connection to God when they heard it.  With “I Can Only Imagine”, I’ve NEVER seen our church react in the way they did when we started that song!  The main lady I remember requesting it, just lost her father 3 weeks before and watched her be brought to tears as I was singing.  God moved in a HUGE way in that room and I felt His Spirit move SO much during that song.

Worship Leaders,
Don’t be afraid to play the songs YOU don’t want to play.  After all, it’s not about YOU.  And I’m speaking to myself more than anyone right now.  Every worship leader or musician has those songs they see on a set list and think, “Why do we have to play this? I hate this song!”  I KNOW it’s happened to you before.  Coming from a worship leader who picks the sets, I can promise you that at The Well we ONLY play a song that will enhance the worship service or bring home the point of the message.  So #1, there IS a reason for it.  And #2, GOD CAN AND WILL USE IT SO THAT PEOPLE CAN CONNECT TO HIM!

So I’ve had a few facebook messages and emails about what gear I use.  So, I’ll repeat the typical blog that most guitar players are posting these days…but hey, what guitar player is not a gear head?  So here’s the list:

ACOUSTIC

Acoustic Guitars/Preamp:

• Larrivee OM-09E
• Larrivee D-09ESB

Preamp/Tuner:

• Avalon U5
• Boss TU-2 Tuner

ELECTRIC

Electric Guitars:

• Fender Telecaster

Amp:

• Vox AC15

Pedals (in order of chain):

• (all mounted on a Pedaltrain 2 pedalboard)
• Boss Tuner (tuner)
• Voodoo Lab Sparkle Drive (overdrive)
• Fulltone OCD (overdrive)
• Line 6 Echo Park (delay)
• Line 6 DL4 (delay)
• Line 6 Verbzilla (reverb)
• (All powered by Voodoo Lab Pedal Power 2+ mounted under the board)

Relevant Lives

(by Tom Lane)

Musicians and artists provide a backdrop for living and help shape the church and culture. With this influence we have an even greater responsibility to steward the talents we’re given by God for a purpose! Where we may miss it is, understanding who we are and what we’re called to in the first place. Instead of leading the way we’re often following the paths of others proven successes – and what band, artist, or musician doesn’t want success or affirmation? We are, indeed, supposed to be leading.

To know where we need to go, we must know from were we come. If we believe what we say we do about the hope and glory of our God through faith in Christ, then we have to first accept and acknowledge that the call is to Him and His will. In the days of chivalry, knights rode and fought in the name of their king. They carried his permission, authority, power and backing. Our King – “The King of Kings” – has clearly commissioned us to carry this hope filled good news gospel to the dying world we live in. Love has to be the underlying motivation! We are living modern-day priests, servants and examples, endowed with the Spirit of Almighty God. We’re not simply looking to replicate movements of the past or camp out on history; we are moving towards an end. Our King will return and again has forewarned us to watch, wait, and be prepared for His coming.

“Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” Matthew 13:52

As creatively gifted Christians, we have a mandate to live, a story to tell, a role to play, a responsibility to steward and a future to look forward to and prepare for!

Our context is the community of believers of which we are a part: each serving a distinctively different purpose, according to the gifts and talents we have. Drawing out treasures from the storeroom of faith and not an empty well. The Call is not to hold up away from the world in seclusion, as creative hermits. We are to be very much involved and present within it- just not of it! We don’t worship its way or do life its way. We don’t copy; we create! Resident within us is the beauty of the One True God who made the earth and stars and the same power that raised Him from the grave.

We do have a new song to sing!

We also have a choice to aim for targets that are of human design or to fulfill a divine destiny we were made for. For many talented people this is a huge challenge, as their dreams are in contrast to what they’re called to do and often win out over God’s plan A. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with our works and expressions being promulgated to places of renown or importance. What matters is WHO does the promoting.

Chasing success at any cost will surely cost more than we ever imagined!

History proves God can make us famous in an instant if He decides to – and that He can take it all away as fast is it comes. We want to be about His business: faithful in the little, which is the fastest track to being ready for success His way.

The first question we have to answer rightly is: Who’s glory are we doing it for? Laying down our burdens and dreams at the cross of Jesus is daunting, because it usually requires having our fingers pried off of things dearest to our hearts. I’ve always loved the analogy of a wild horse being bridled. Once tamed and harnessed all of its innate strength and powers at the control and direction of the skilled rider. In our case God is the most merciful Master we could ever hope to be fully surrendered to. Once harnessed, our talents, gifts, our entire being; are now in the hands of the Supreme Archer. He can and will fire at will all of the arrows in the quiver that are ready to be fired.

Where do you want to be? What do you want to do? There’s freedom, yet immense responsibility with the Lord. We can ask what we will, but we must ask in His name. We can go wherever, but He directs the steps ultimately. We can do anything, but not all things are profitable and worthy in His eyes.

The other side of free will is consequence!

We will reap what we sow and it comes down to choosing Christ first in all things. No one can make us read and understand the road map we’ve been given in His word, but if we do seek the Wisdom of God that it contains He will miraculously open our spiritual eyes and give understanding. Because He gives gifts and doesn’t take them back, He will also allow you to “go your own way” and many do.

We live in a time when there are more resources than ever available to us, in order to improve the quality and excellence in worship, but technology and skill are not adequate substitutes for the posture of our hearts. As good as we may sound or prepared as we may be, the point of our worship is to honor the Lord with our lives, then our music and art will have a greater impact on the world we live in. If all doesn’t point and lead people to the cross of Christ then it’s in vain.

Let’s guard our hearts and minds from being lured away by our own ambitions and lead the way by serving God first with our worship.

More than the best guitar we could buy, more than the top of the drumkit, more than the most boutique amp…..as a musician playing worship music, there are FAR more important things to have in order to be the best musician and the best worshipper you can be.  I would focus hard on these things and never lose sight of what you are doing, why you are doing it, and who you doing it for.  So here’s another “strive” list in order to gear up to be great worship musicians.

• Worship with all of your heart. You are a  musician who plays for God!  Just that statement alone should empower you to
• Always be in prayer. Make it a personal goal to always be in a sense of prayer…all day long…every single day.  Too many people forget about God all day, but still ask Him to remember them at night.  Make God part of the little stuff.  “Father, as I type this, please show me what to type so that other musicians can focus more on You and lift You up!”  Never put that conversation with God on hold.  Talk to Him as your driving.  Talk to Him while your watching TV.  Talk to Him while your surfing the internet.  I bet you’ll find it harder to be tempted to cut someone off driving, or watch something on TV that you shouldn’t be, or looking at websites you shouldn’t be if you’re in constant communication with our Creator.
• Listen to God. Make sure that you are not only talking to God, but listening to Him.  Make time to sit in silence and just listen to God.  You have a direct connection to the Creator of the universe, the Savior of the world.  And He loves you, and wants to talk to you.  Listen to Him.
• Read your bible like crazy. Or like Lee McDerment says it, “Read your bible like it’s your job.”  The Bible is our direct connection to God, our love letter from Him to us.  Live the word of God in and through everything you do.
• It’s NOT about you. When you are standing on the stage leading worship, the best thing you can do is to know and remind  yourself often that it has NOTHING to do with you.  It’s not about how great of a player you are or how cool you look in your clothes from Heritage or H&M.  It’s all about worshiping the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the Almighty!
• It’s NOT about money. Nothing irritates me more than a musician who won’t play unless they are getting paid for it.  Especially the musicians out there calling playing worship music their “job” while they are in college.  There’s no way possible for it to be your “job” once you are married and have kids.  It’s not about money.  Offer what God has given you up to HIM!  Not your wallet.
• Stretch someone. You have a gift.  God has blessed you with that gift.  Share it with someone.  Teach them.  Find someone younger than you to pour into and teach them the ropes.  Mentor them.  Be a Paul to a Timothy.
• Be stretched by someone. Learn from someone better than you.  Whether your swollen ego musician head will admit it or not, you are NOT the best at what you do.  Find someone better than you and learn from them.  Be mentored by them.  Be a Timothy.
• Go to concerts. See what others are doing.  Listen to how they mix in with the band.  Find out what gear they are using.  See how they act and move on stage.
• Listen to a lot of music. Be inspired by others.  Listen to a lot of music and in different styles.  Music is such a wide and unending range of creativity.  Listen to as much as you can.
• Practice as often as possible. You can never stop getting better.  Most people stop at some point and feel like they are fine where they are.  As a musician for the King, it IS your job to always be getting better.  Offer your best to Him.  Practice.  And practice often.
• Play live as often as possible. Even with practicing hours and hours in your bedroom you can only get to a certain point.  There is nothing like playing live and the experience that gives you.  It gives you confidence and allows you to be more comfortable not worrying about playing but worshiping!
• Give it your all. Everything you have!  Every time you play!  Everything inside of you!  Give it all you’ve got and give it to God!

With leading worship at churches and events, I get to meet and know younger middle school to high school musicians who are already honing their craft of their instrument.  I also use to manage a music store in Cedartown, GA and I worked in Guitars at Ken Stanton Music for a while.  So I get asked about what kind of gear should be strived for.  I say strived for because most young musicians are still in school and barely have a part time job or maybe even just an allowance.  So I wanted to create a gear list of what to strive for in order to create great instruments and excellent sounds out of your instrument.  Please note that what I list would be what I consider to be the best of the best, but also what you should eventually strive for.

FOR EVERY MUSICIAN

• A great set of in-ear monitors. There are many brands out there, and obviously people have their preferences, but I would recommend some Westone or some Fidelity Customs. Westone UM2s or Westone UM3s are widely used and sound phenomenal.  However, unlike most musicians, I would actually steer away from custom molds from Westone.  They are way overpriced when you get basically the same in-ear with the UM2s.  I am currently using Fidelity Triples.  They are significantly cheaper than Westone and I think they sound just as good if not better than my UM2s.  Either way, at least get Dual Drivers.  That way you’ll hear the highs and lows.  There are alot of mid in electric guitar tones so I would recommend dual drivers for electric players.  For anyone else, if you can swing triple drivers, go for it!

FOR ACOUSTIC GUITAR PLAYERS

• Acoustic guitar. The most important aspect of having a great acoustic is getting a all solid wood instrument.  Lesser guitars use laminates to construct their backs and sides, but make sure you get an all solids guitar.  Rosewood is the absolute best wood for the backs and sides of an acoustic guitar.  The top piece of wood is the tonal wood in your instrument and will vary the sound slighty.  I actually did a video with Ken Stanton on this very subject.  But for the short version, spruce (or anything close to it, like sapele) is going to be a warm and balanced tone, cedar will give you a darker tone, and maple will give you the brightest tone.  I may be a little biased because I have an artist endorsement through them, but I think that Larrivees are the best acoustic guitars out there.  I play a Larrivee OM-09E and a D03RE.  But really any Larrivee 03 (Rosewood), 09, or 10 series would be great.  Taylor acoustic guitars are also great and very popular guitars.  On the Taylor side of things, anything in their 500, 600, 700, or 800 series are great guitars.  Just try out a few top tonal woods and see what you prefer.
• Direct Box. Most acoustic players just show up to a gig and plug into whatever direct box is there and is marked “acoustic”.  The direct box you use actually helps or hinders your tone in a sound system drastically.  The main things to look for in a direct box is that it should be active and/or preamped with a tube.  I used to use a Stewert ADB-1 active direct box and it not only made my tone transparent but boosted the output level I sent to the sound guy.  I’ve recently upgraded to an Avalon U5 to give me a warmer tube tone.  I fully believe the U5 is the best direct box out there for an acoustic guitar.
• Tuner. Whether you rack mount any gear or just use floor pedals, a tuner is very essential.  Acoustic guitars go out of tune more than any other instrument in a worship band.  Tune often!  And use a great tuner.  There is none more road worthy and solid than the Boss TU-2.  You simply cannot go wrong with one.  If you rack mount gear, there are great tuners out there.  Just make sure you have a tuner!
• No effects pedals. There is nothing worse to a sound guy or experienced player than to see an acoustic player show up with a pedalboard full of pedals.  The acoustic should be the purest instrument.  An acoustic guitar through effects pedals muddies up the sound that eventually gets to the soundboard.  If a song calls for effects, then let the effects be added at the soundboard after your signal.  Keep your line as clear and transparent as possible.

FOR ELECTRIC GUITAR PLAYERS

• Electric Guitar. A great quality and great playing electric guitar is essential to your tone.  Also the style of pickups within the guitar.  There are a few trends in worship music that have stuck, but for good reason.  The Fender Telecaster is probably the most commonly seen electric guitar in a worship setting.  There is great reason for that.  No other electric guitar can bite quite like the Telecaster can.  They bite and cut through better than any other guitar out there so the leads can be heard clearly.  They have also become popular in the country scene so that the fast “chicken-picken” leads cut through everything else.  Fender Stratocasters are also a very cutting through clean sounding electric and can accomplish the same ideas.  No matter what Fender you may get, buy an American model.  It is completely worth the craftsmanship that is put into the guitar and the tone is significantly richer.  For the more rhythm player, maybe a Gibson Les Paul would suite you better.  They have a thicker tone and can fill in chords better.  If you are more versatile player, I would recommend having one of each; a more lead styled guitar and a more rhythm styled guitar.
• Amp. One word…tubes!  Out of everything you’ll need out of an amp, you mainly just need a tube amp.  Solid state amps just don’t get the tone needed for worship.   You can mimic tube sounds when recording, but they always still sound a little digital.  Go tube!  There are different arguments about what brand of amp is best, but I believe that’s all personal preference.  As long as you have tubes warming up the tone you’ll be fine.  A recently growing trend is to get a head and cabinet setup instead of a combo amp.  I use a combo amp because it’s easy to transport, but I can understand the advantages of having a head on stage to adjust your tone while your cabinet remains backstage.  Either way and I’ll say it again, go tube.  I would recommend Vox AC Amps, Dr. Z Amps, Orange Amps, Goodsell Amps, or really anything else boutique.
• Pedalboard. You need a pedalboard that will keep your pedals protected while still keeping them neat and organized.  In my opinion, the Pedaltrain Pedalboards.  Being made of welded aluminum alloy tubing, these boards are strong and lightweight.  They also come with a hard flight case that is one of the most tough out there.  They also are slotted to run all your cableing underneath your board to keep everything neat and clean.
• Pedal Power Supply. Some pedalboards (like the Furman Pedalboard) come equipped with power supplies.  I actually don’t prefer that because it limits where your cables must go and makes your board bulkier.  But to each his own.  I use and prefer the VooDoo Lab PedalPower 2.  The Pedaltrain boards actually come with a kit to mount this power supply underneath without any cutting or modifications.  But whatever you end up using, keep it neat.  Loads of power supplies and cables all over the place looks messy and unprofessional.
• Tuner. As with an acoustic guitar, a tuner is very essential.  Changing capo positions may cause your guitar to go out of tune slightly so tune often.  And again I would recommend the Boss TU-2.  It’s the most solid and accurate tuner pedals out there.
• Volume Pedal. With a volume pedal, you have extra control over the volume knob on your guitar.  With a delay running in the background, you can use a volume pedal to produce ambient swells.  I use and recommend the Ernie Ball Volume Jr.  It’s completely passive so it doesn’t require a power supply and it has a tuner input for having the ability to leave your tuner out of your effects chain and always leaving it on.
• Delay Pedal. A delay pedal is essential to a worship electric player.  Almost every lead part in worship songs require a delay.  And even if they don’t, you can use delays to thicken up your overall sound to round out the band’s sound (especially when there is not a keys player).  I recommend a Line 6 DL4 because it has an onboard tap tempo and 3 presets.  The presets really come in handy.  I use and recommend a digital delay preset for the dotted eighth note sounding stuff (“All Because of Jesus” by Fee), a tube echo with slight modulation preset for just dirtying and thickening your sound, and a heavy auto volume preset for slower worship songs for the volume swells and droning sounds.  Also try adding a 2nd delay pedal.  Double delays are a lot of fun and you can get really cool sounds.  For “From the Inside Out” by Hillsong United, I use 1 delay on a dotted eigth delay and another on a quarter delay with heavy modulation.
• Overdrive Pedal. Not every worship song is a rock song.  You need a overdrive pedal that will just slightly dirty up your gain while still remaining transparent in tone.  I recommend a VooDoo Lab Sparkle Drive.  The Sparkle Drive gives you a gain amp and clean amp to blend together creating a really transparent and great sound.  Many guitar players also use a Boss Blues Driver for this sound.
• Distortion Pedal. Some worship songs basically ARE rock songs and sometime your overdrive pedal just isn’t raunchy enough for what a song may call for.  For this tone, and others, I recommend a  Fulltone Fulldrive 2.  These are great pedals!
• Wah Pedal. Where I wouldn’t say a wah pedal is completely necessary, I would say that if you have one on your board they do come in handy from time.  I typically use mine on slower songs when I have a thick delay that’s heavily modded and I just want to warp the tone.  The original Jimmy Hendrix wah effect is harly used in worship.  Different styles.  I use and recommend the Vox wah or a Budda wah.
• Other Effects Pedals. I would just call all these the basics.  However, there are plenty of other effects pedals that are really useful in a worship setting.  For example, a tremolo is really useful in some songs to give it a different tonality.  Also Digitech Whammy pedals are also becoming very popular for the sounds on songs like “Alive and Running” by Kristian Stanfill.  Another is the Electro Harmonix POG which will give you an organ sound and is a really neat effect.  The main thing I can suggest is to just experiment and see what fits you the best.  Every guitar player is a little different.
• Cables. Use good cables!  With a full pedalboard of pedals, your signal can be interrupted very easily.  There is nothing worse than being in the middle of rehearsal and you know that you have a bad patch cable but can’t find it.  Use good cables!

FOR BASS GUITAR PLAYERS

• Bass Guitar. The better your bass, the better you will sound.  And with basses more often than other instruments, the more you spend, the better your tone and sound.  You want to find a bass that is well rounded.  With Fender basses, most worship bassists use jazz basses because of their darker tonality and more pronounced mids to fill out the mix. P-basses handle the deeper low end sounds better but aren’t as versatile.  Recommended more than any other bass, Ernie Ball MusicMan basses are a favorite.  Being an active bass it puts out a lot of output and gives you great tone.  Another favorite of mine in the worship circles I fly in are Reverend basses.  Not only do they look unique but they sound amazing.
• Tuner. As with any other stringed instrument, a tuner is very essential.  And again I would recommend the Boss TU-2.
• Preamp or Direct Box. Like acoustic players, most bass players just show up to a gig and plug into whatever direct box is there and is marked “bass”.  The direct box you use actually creates your tone, reduces buzz and hum, shapes your sound, and increases your output drastically.  The main things to look for in a direct box is that it should be active and/or preamped with a tube.  For a bass, I would recommend an Avalon U5, a Reddi, an Ampeg SVT, or a Tech 21 Bass Driver SansAmp.

FOR KEYBOARD PLAYERS

• Keyboard. There are many ways to use keyboards in worship settings.  The simplest set up would be to get a keyboard that will cover all the bases.  You mainly want a great piano sounds, a synth sounds, pad sounds, and organ sounds.  With an all purpose keyboard you can just show up and plug up and you’re set.  The downsides is having to switch from sound to sound, but newer keyboards have made this much easier to do.  The most important thing in looking for a keyboard is to look for something lightweight that you can transport as easy as possible.  For all purpose keyboards, I recommend a Yamaha S90 or a Yamaha Motif.
• Piano. If you are wanting to just get a great piano sound and that’s all you need, I think Yamaha is making the best piano sounds out there.  I’ve been told that the hammer action and tone for the piano sounds were sampled from a $250,000 Yamaha grand piano.  They sound and play great.  Most of the sounds are found on any multiple purpose keyboard.
• Organ. An organ is probably the 2nd piece of gear you will need or want after an all purpose keyboard.  Although, I’ve heard some great organ sounds on the all purpose keyboards.  If you want a great organ sound, I would recommend a Nord C1, Nord Electro 3, Hammond XK1, or any vintage Hammond B3 or Rhodes organ.
• Synth. Your all purpose keyboard would have a alot of the synth sounds you may be looking for.  But if you wanted to have another axe and wanted to get just a synth, I would recommend a Nord Wave.
• Or all midi based. Another option for keys is to use a midi based programs to run all of your sounds.  Doing this gives you a wide range sounds and different effects because you can use virtually any plug-in you want to.  Some of the programs out there that I’ve seen being used are Ableton Live, Logic, or Reason.

FOR DRUMMERS

• Drumkit. You want the best quality set you can get so that the tone is phenomenal, it’s easy to tune, and stays in tune.  Much like an acoustic guitar, drums are made with tonal woods.  You will want to try out a bunch of different kits with different tonal woods to see what best suits your preferences.  I recommend DW drums or Pacific drums.
• Computer. Although I’m not in the cult or think they are all that great, a Mac is definitely the way to go with anything to do with music or production.  I recommend a Mac with at least 2 gigs of RAM.
• Loop/Click Program. Drummers set the clicks and run the loops and they need to be able to do it quickly and flawlessly in transitions between songs.  There are many programs out there, but I recommend either Ableton Live or Reason.  Once you have the program of your choice, learn it like the back of your hand.  Worship leaders, myself included, ask for changes on the fly and you’ll need to know how to do what is asked and quickly.  If a worship leader feels that the click needs to be doubled or maybe slowed down 2 or 3 clicks, you need to be ready and able to make the changes necessary.

// Credits //
For thoughts on Bass Guitar: Jeff Brewer, Matt Brundage, Chris Brink
For thoughts on Keyboards: Jason Foust, Todd Locke
For thoughts on Drums: Kyle Schumacher