Today's worship leader faces increasing issues of merging technology, music management, and communication with the pastor, worship team, and A/V team.  According to more than 1,100 worship leaders surveyed, filing, replacing, repairing, selecting, transposing, copying, organizing, and assembling music for worship teams is consuming considerable time, and it does not include the time spent in worship team practice sessions.

With technology playing an even larger role in the worship service, additional time is spent coordinating everything with those outside of the worship team. The plaintive cry from the vast majority of those surveyed was "there has to be a better way" to manage and integrate all of this technology.   

As a worship leader, Krystal Owens of Grace Christian Center in Georgetown, Kentucky, found that she was spending more time doing "unproductive" tasks in her ministry. 

"Everything was so repetitive and monotonous," said Owens. "I was spending far too much time copying music, making replacement books for those that were lost – always redoing charts. I was very frustrated." 

The weekly time she spent managing music for Sunday services was taking well over two days per week, and coordinating the music with the A/V team for sound levels and software presentation was taking even more of her time. By the time she got to practice, she was frazzled.

When it came to Sunday services, Owens said, "I don't have lots of songs memorized, and if I didn't have it memorized and the pastor came up to request a song during worship, I would sing it a cappella. Sometimes I'd try to play the song and wouldn't get it right. It was embarrassing."  

To say the least, she was frustrated. 

"We were limiting ourselves, and I knew that we needed to change things, but I really didn't know how," she said.

What Owens didn't realize was that the solutions to her problems were literally in the same town…from Georgetown, Kentucky's Corevalus Systems, LLC.  Their new SamePage Music System, www.samepagemusic.com, not only solved her paper management issues, but offered her so many more benefits and features. At first, she felt overwhelmed. 

"I am not good with computers and wasn't sure I could learn it, but I soon found out that this is a very easy and forgiving system," she said. "Importing songs is a snap, and I can even do my playlist remotely from my office. I can put songs directly into the system, which means no more printing, copying and assembling a book that might not even make it back to church on Sunday. All the music is right here, all the time."

Owens soon found out that not only were her paper management days coming to an abrupt end, but that the many features of SamePage were solving even more problems.  Transposing music for each song and each musician was eating up considerable time.  With SamePage's one touch chord sheet transposition and capo features, songs that used to take hours to transpose and capo now take seconds. 

"My practices are going so much smoother. I am not constantly going to the copy machine to redo music. We can make changes to songs during practices, and they are saved until the next time we play them," she said. "And, I'm amazed at the flexibility I have during worship services. I can add songs on the fly during the service. With our entire music library in the system, I can add and delete songs with just a touch of the button. Now, when the pastor wants to change a song during the service, all I have to do is load it and go." 

SamePage provides additional time saving benefits, as well. In addition to the comprehensive music management system and transposition features, SamePage offers capo instructions, metronome, teleprompting, and instant messaging to all worship and A/V team members and pastor. 

After a year of working with a system that seamlessly integrates all of these areas, Owens says that she is better prepared than ever before. 

"My job has been made so much easier," she said. "I now have everything ready and organized by Monday, and, no matter what curve ball we're thrown during Sunday services, we're up to it. The best part is, everyone knows where we're going. We are truly on the same page."

Owens summarizes her SamePage experience this way: "We are spontaneous again in our worship. Now that our preparation is so well organized, we have time to prayerfully seek the Holy Spirit's guidance for a service that will respond to the Sunday message. We have the time to pray that our music will touch hearts. That alone is the one of the best benefits going: time for our team to prepare themselves without having to worry whether everyone remembered their music, if everything is in the proper order, or if we have to change directions." 

Judging from the responses received from worship leaders using SamePage, Owens' enthusiastic endorsement is typical of the ones heard in the Corevalus Systems offices.  SamePage was designed by worship leaders with considerable input from worship leaders across the country. With the features and benefits that are a part of this system, it is clear that Corevalus listened well. It is little wonder that they proudly proclaim that "they've put spontaneity back into worship."