Rick Muchow is the Pastor of Worship at
SaddlebackChurch. He has been serving faithfully at
Saddleback for 21 years and oversees the Worship Arts ministry which consists of
the Creative Arts, Technical Arts and Worship Leadership Teams at
SaddlebackChurch. Rick also serves as one of 7 Elders
which serve the ministry at Saddleback. Rick has recorded 11 albums and has 84
songs registered with CCLI. Encouraging Music publishes all of Rick’s music
including sheet music and companion resources for the Worship Leader and
congregations worldwide (http://www.encouragingmusic.com). Rick is the author of The
Worship Answer Book published in 2006 by Thomas Nelson and is a Contributing
Editor for Christianity Today’s Leadership Journal. Rick also writes a monthly
column called “Ask Rick” which is published by several magazines including
Worship Musician. His latest CD “More Than Music” is to be released
June 23 2008. Rick founded the music and tech team with the Slogan
“More Than Music- We’re a Family” and is tremendously proud of Saddleback’s
Worship Arts staff and volunteers for their sincere dedication to Christ, love
for each other, humble service and the fantastic results of their labor. Rick
has been married to his beautiful wife Laura for 24 for years and they have 5
wonderful children: Brandon, Logan, Jordan, Megan and Nolan. QUESTION: We
are looking at starting a second service. Is there a resource that you
would recommend? Do you have suggestions that would help prepare to
start this service?
RICK MUCHOW: Absolutely, go to a worship conference! I’m not aware of a stand alone resource that would serve to answer this question. Three to five paragraphs wouldn’t even begin to start to answer it, but there are excellent worship conferences around the country where you can attend several workshops that would help address this.
At Saddleback, we currently have six service times each weekend: two on Saturday evening, two Sunday morning and two more on Sunday evening. During those main worship services, we also run a total of 6 more venues spread out during those times. A venue has the same preaching message but its own music style. Venues include El Encuentro (hispanic,) Overdrive (rock,) Elevation (pop music,) Ohana (island music,) Praise (gospel,) Family (parents and young children, mixed music styles) and Traditions (hymns.) There are 3 additional age specific services that run at various times for a total of 18 encounters on site each weekend, each with different music involved. We have also added a regional campus, are launching 2 more Easter services in 2008 and plan 8 additional campuses over the next three and a half years. I’m just now getting used to starting additional services.
In addition to suggesting that you Google the many great conferences offered around the country, Saddleback’s Worship Conference and Festival will offer plenty of workshops on the topics of venues and regional campuses. See www.saddleback.com/worship