A Shared Ministry

The Protestant Christian worship service in the United States today is a shared ministry between the pastor and the worship (music) leader.
According to a recent study by Lifeway Research (photo) hymnals are still in use in the majority (69%) of Protestant worship services in America, but the piano (79%) remains the primary musical instrument employed.
Today a little less than half (47%) of American Protestant churches regularly feature organ music, around the same number (46%) feature praise bands, and, among Protestant clergy, Lutheran pastors (88%) are the most likely to say that their worship services regularly have organ music.
A fair number of Protestant churches in America today do have organs in playable or mostly playable condition but no one to play them.
Bottom line: organists are getting hard to find -- all the more reason to encourage those with an interest in a keyboard instrument to seriously consider organ playing and to take advantage of the many educational helps and support offered by online resources, including this web site.