You may have noticed, we are doing some things differently around WorshipPlanning.com these days. Of course, new features continue roll out (faster than ever, in fact). But we have begun an initiative to connect with people a little more. To help us with this, we have hired an expert at social media communication. If you have followed us on Twitter of Facebook, I'm sure you have seen the increase in posts. We also are working to increase the frequency and relevancy of blog posts.

Our goal with this monthly "Worship Wire" newsletter is to give you succinct updates on new features, training opportunities, and other resource information. As always, if you have any feedback, we'd love to hear it.

Thanks for reading!

Tom Metz
Worship Sense President

Tommy Walker

We are honored to have Tommy Walker as our first guest for a new webinar series we are starting. On October 27 at 9pm ET, Tommy will discuss a topic encountered by all worship leaders that are in it for the long-haul: burn out. As someone who has led worship for over 20 year, he certainly knows what it takes to stick to his calling. All attendees will have the option to download an MP3 of one of Tommy's great songs. To learn more about attending this free event go to: http://www.worshipplanning.com/webinars.

For those that don't know, Tommy is a wonderful worship leader, Christian artist, and man of God. He has been leading worship at Christian Assembly in Los Angeles since 1990, and has worked alongside Franklin Graham, Greg Laurie, Jack Hayford, Bill Hybels, Rick Warren and at Promise Keepers events. So be sure to join us and Tommy for this free training event! And to learn more about Tommy, check out his website: http://www.tommywalker.net.

WorshipPlanning.com 101

WP101 is a free weekly webinar we present for churches new to worshipplanning.com (or perhaps those wanting a review of the basics). We spend an hour covering the fundamentals, including creating and editing worship services, managing your songs library, and scheduling people. We try to personally invite every new church to attend the webinar, but if you missed that invitation, or want to see the webinar again, you certainly are welcome to join us. Just point your browser to http://www.worshipplanning.com/webinars to sign up.

We have added several pretty exciting features over the past few weeks. We look forward to hearing your thoughts on them!

MP3 Transposer

For quite some time we've given you the ability to transpose the key of chords embedded in the lyrics section of your song details. Now, you can transpose the key of an MP3 so that it sounds like what your musicians should play and vocalist should sing.

Sheet Music Combiner

If you have an iPad, you can use this new feature to create a single PDF of all your sheet music for a particular service. Apple allows you to easily sync the PDF file into iBooks, which you can then use as a sheet music display for rehearsals or even during the service. And with a USB foot pedal device (like the AirTurn BT-105), you can page through your music hands-free!

Songbooks Sharing

Last month we introduced the ability to create virtual "song books" and share them with other WorshipPlanning.com teams at your church. With the new Songbook Sharing feature, you can now easily share a songbook list with anyone on the Internet. We've even added links to let you easily share via Twitter and Facebook.

Worship Flow Sharing

Much like Songbooks, this feature lets you share the basic details of your worship flow to anyone on the Internet. Twitter and Facebook can help you here as well.

Text Notifications

We often get calls that start out something like this: "I can't get my youthful volunteers to ever check their email. Is there some way they can be notified via text message?" The answer is: absolutely. Each user can add "communication methods" to their account, which currently include alternate email addresses and text message phone numbers. They can even specify the types of communication they'd like to go to each method (i.e. send assignment notifications to the text number, and message board updates to an alternate email address). To modify communication methods, the user must log in, click on "my account", then the "Communications" tab.

WorshipPlanning.com has the honor of winning two Editor's Choice awards this year from Worship Leader Magazine: Best App (iPhone app) and Worship Planning (Songbooks). We're so very honored...thanks Worship Leader Magazine!