Every church should have an organ (be it pipe or electronic)and a piano (acoustic or digital). Beyond that, whatever else that can be used to make a joyful noise should be considered with respect for the congregation and the types of music played and sung.

I must have stumbled on the wrong forum. The obvious answer is an Arranger keyboard!

That's what we use, and we reverently and joyfully praise the lord!

Graham

A few weeks ago I was playing a wedding reception which was booked as such......when I got there I was informed and a request put in that they wanted me to ALSO play the Ceremony & processional...surprise to me but no problem plus more money ....anyway I was so glad I use a Ketron Sd1+ because the organs are wonderful and without a hitch I played the ceremony and the Full Organ sound was incredible sounding like a huge Church Pipe Organ........the flexibility of an Arranger in the right hands if second to none & can be construed to be used in almost any situation!

You praise Him with whatever you got...

The Lord doesn't care whether it's a 30 rank pipe organ or a melodica. Just praise Him.

Arranger keyboard, especially the high end models such as PSR3000, Tyros, etc are very much suited for the worshipping church.

They offer lots of possibilities from the hymnal type songs with lots of organs to the contemporary popular worship songs.

The contemporary worship songs nowadays use a wide range of rythms and arranger keyboard handles those very well. With my currently upgraded skills, the results sounded like a full band and nobody will notice the differences at all. I used manual bass for added realism. Without the left hand manual bass, the feeling of a live band and the neccesary accents will be missing greatly.

arranger every time !!! i see no genuine reason to buy any other keyboard instrument for worship.

To accompany a soloist you can use the arranger in piano/electric piano mode or even substitute the piano for an accoustic guitar played through the keyboard ! Or become the string section with cellos, violins and horns trigured by velocity switching.

For traditional worship you have just about every type of organ in the preset sounds of the instrument.

For contemporary worship you can get into some very energetic and lively praise worship and dance just by using the drum and bass elements of the arranger .

For group worship with other musicians you can play the instrument just as a stand alone keyboard or fill in the essential parts that might be missing say , you dont have a drummer , organist, brass section bass player , strings section etc

In group worship when there are no other musicians you can still get the full sound of a live band and can trim that down to just drum, bass, and keys and retain that intimate sound without a full orchestrated arrangement

For small venues and small groups who might worship from house to house or hire a room in a local school ( i know many who worship like this ) what could be better than an arranger ?????

And in the work that i do as a writer and arranger for my local church youth choir , remixing songs and injecting new enthusiasm and energy by simply trying out new styles is just something that has to be experienced to believe. i simply could not do what i do with any other type of instrument !!!!

I would never buy any other form of keyboard instrument ever.

No substitute for the original instrument, (Organ) (with portable ones available if required) and which Arranger Keyboards developed from.
Enjoy whatever you play

Bill