At our church we have guitar, keys, drums. Used to have a base. I play guitar. Mostly a rhythm instrument with occasional lead riffs. Use lead riffs for ambience during certain parts of the service. Gear:

2008 MIM Tele with mods. Little 59 in the bridge w/split coil and Vintage mini humbucker in the neck
Occasionally an Epi Emperor Swingster
Vox AC-15 BL (keep the Blues Jr at home for practice
Pedal Train pro with voodoo labs power supply
TU-2, Vox wah, Dynacomp, Fulltone Fat Boost, TS-9, SD-1, DS-1, Big Muff, Volume Pedal, MXR Phase 90, Visual Sound H2O (delay+chorus), Carbon Copy and DD-7

We play black Gospel, contemporary praise and worship occasional old school stuff.

well, this turned into a very interesting thread... and I have read all the posts.
A couple of years ago I accepted the position of the contemporary worship band leader at my church. The first time we played I was honored as being the first person ever to dare to play electric guitar in the building. Space is limited both where we set up, as well as the house PA which only has 3 available inputs.
I usually have to bring a small mixer and run it into one of those inputs so everyone is plugged in.
We're in New England, so the congregation isn't all that big. Many are elderly and I do my best to arrange the songs in such a way that everyone can enjoy the music... and sometimes a little crunch may surprise some, but so far, so good, no complaints.
For percussion, we have a cajon, and a tambourine.
4 guitarists, bass, violin, many female vocalists, and myself and one other male vocalist. There are about 12-15 participants, but I can only manage 3 or 4 at a time (sometimes it turns into 5 or 6)... and because it's a "new thing" we're only doing 2 songs per month.
I run everything thru the house PA because the service is recorded and broadcast over local TV. If it doesn't go throught the PA, it can't be heard on the broadcast.
Lucky for me, there are a lot of blues fans in the congregation, so my Dobro is going over remarkably well, along with my blues/rock renditions of some traditional hymns.
I'm going to forward the link to this thread to my Pastor. We're in the process of re-working our worship service to include music other than, but not excluding, the traditional hymns. While considering a different form of worship, the subject came up of two services, but we're trying to keep everyone together at one. New England congregations are small enough as it is and dividing one of them up into two will, more than likely, do more harm than good. I'm looking forward to more on this one.
FTK

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Frankie try some arrangements from "Cutting Edge Worship".
http://www.prismmusic.com/collection_detail.php?cid=200980

We use them in our blended services. They're great fun to play and still have some decent guitar parts. You can substitute a synth or keys for some of the horn and string parts. We have an orchestra in our traditional service so its easy to incorporate these arrangements.

As far as the original question goes I play various guitars through a Line6 PODX3 live direct to PA with in ear monitors through an Avion. (Which I hate) The worship leaders at our Church are all about keeping control of the stage and house volume.

As far as the original question goes I play various guitars through a Line6 PODX3 live direct to PA with in ear monitors through an Avion. (Which I hate) The worship leaders at our Church are all about keeping control of the stage and house volume.

Addressing the in ear monitors and control. I've had the same thing, didn't care for it much either. in the very near future I'll be playing in services again, hopefully we can come to an agreement where the'll allow me to use my amp on stage. I'll use either my Precision or Jazz through a SansAmp Tech-21 Bassdriver into a Kustom KB100 with a direct out to the board. All the amp will do is, be my monitor while I can stiill hear what I'm playing.

Wish me luck.

Since my last post on this topic, I started using a Tech 21 Sans amp as a pre amp for my Boss Me-70 direct to the board. Our Worship leader tried in the past to get us to use in ear monitors with the Aviom. Most of us hated the in ears, I however like the Aviom with a floor monitor so I can get my own individual mix.

I try to keep my stage volume down, but the bass player next to me must be going deaf. He runs his monitor so loud he almost wakes the dead . I'm either going to try an earplug on the side my bass player is on, or I might bite the bullet and try the in ears again.

I use basically the same rig in church as I do for blues and every other gig I play. (Which can lead to some unpleasant, smokey bar smells emanating from my gear since I usually gig on Saturday night...) The main difference is that I keep my volume lower and mic my amp. That way people can still hear me, but I don't call too much attention to myself onstage so I'm not harassed by the singers. The other main difference it that the leads are much more restrained, if I get any at all. This used to drive me crazy a few years ago, but now I have other outlets for that so I basically just sit back and play rhythm in church. My church is pretty traditional, so I'm just happy and grateful to be able to play electric guitar there with a full band that includes an acoustic drum set. And yes, I get to use distortion. I don't overdo it, like full tilt metal or anything, but I don't do that anywhere anyway. I use basically the same overdriven rhythm tone that I use in my alt rock band.

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