I too play in church every Sunday! Our praise band also met with resistance about having amps and such on stage. What has worked for us is to have just the singers on stage and the band on a 5 foot wide area behind the choir loft that runs the length of the choir loft. The chairs in the choir loft block the congregation's view of the amps and monitors and all they can see are the tops of mic stands and music stands (and a big ol' drum set, lol!).

Anyway, since all churches are designed differently, this may not apply to your situation at all. I started a thread a couple of days ago on a different subject and in it are pictures of my Sunday morning rig. My amp is pointed parallel to the back wall so the sound is not bouncing off the wall nor is it pointed towards the congregation (just in my left ear ).

Here's the link:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=52076

I dont think there is a more organic sounding multi effects pedal than The Nova system or G system.

Won't let you use amps...
Stop going to church. Play at the bar.

Been there / done that

I picked up a Lind 6 Pod XT Live for $100 from a local guy off Craigs List.

I've been messing around with the settings and have a pretty decent clean with some reverb setting and a couple settings with some mild distortion.

So far, the thing seems to work well for me. If I decide to upgrade to a more recent model later or just chunk the whold idea, I'm not out too much.

A couple of the presets are pretty good but a lot of them are just too high gain and too much distortion for in church playing although they sound pretty good playing some Allman Bros stuff. One of the presets works pretty well for a couple Pink Floyd things I mess around with.

As of today, I'm pleased with it. I'll be using it in church for the first time tomorrow (actually today as it's after midnight here now).

Jeff

Nice. Good luck to ya!
A buddy of mine used one of those for quite a while. Nice solid floor processor. Keep messin with it. It's got a ton of stuff in there...
Good deal on the price too.

So Jeff, please tell us, how did it all work out mate?

I thought the XT was a difficult unit to use. Well not so much difficult as too laden with choices. I really don't need to worry about mic' placement and type on a effects unit.
But did it work for you? Thats the important thing.

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No no and no

boss me-70's got it all it's affordable for the quality has loads of useful effects the expression pedal is pretty versitile and it's pretty easy to use... it's all i use on gigs until i get my ds-1 and my supercomp fixed lol...

The Marshall BluesBreaker II is a awesome effects pedal, its got everything. If thats no enough for you i'd also get the dunlop way huge fat sandwich.

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Fender Standard Stratocaster
Maton ER90C