One of the interesting things to figure out when it came to multi-site music ministry was what to do with our large ensembles such as our drum ensemble, orchestra and Jazz Band. We definitely can not duplicate groups of this size to be able to have them play at every campus. How do we program for them?
The first thing we did was give each group a home campus. At that campus, they play on a regular rotation with the other bands. After we program that week for every site, we go back and retrofit that campus' service flow to suit the ensemble. But the trick is that we NEVER change the content so as it jeopardizes the Big Idea we designed for that week.
For example, our Jazz Band is playing at the Yellow Box this weekend (it's home site.) While programming this week's service for all sites, I suggested three of our praise choruses that I already knew I had brass charts for, but also fit the topic of the Big Idea. Those PCs were selected by everyone involved. Then we went and changed the prelude (which is just an instrumental of choice at every site this week) to allow for two Jazz Band feature songs. The last change was that we dropped the presentational "special" number ("Unwritten" by Natasha Bettingfield) that the other campuses were doing because we found an equally fitting song by Denver and the Mile High Orchestra called "Act the Scat" that also nailed the Big Idea. It worked great and conveyed the content of the Big Idea equally as well as the original song picks, but featured the Jazz Band.
One approach that works really well for using large ensembles in the multi-site world is to have them "tour" the campuses. You can really make the most of these players and their special sound by lining them up to play two or even three different campuses in one month. It is easy for them, because we allow them to play most of the same music at all places (that they have already prepared), but it is new and exciting to every new place they play. The hitch here is that getting the availability from a group that size for more than two weeks in a month is very hard to do. Because those ensembles rely on key players, we can usually make two weeks (and campuses) happen, but beyond that can be very difficult.
But what I love most about the large ensembles is that they involve VERY LARGE numbers of artists that would not otherwise be utilized. These ensembles can also be a huge help to a schedule. When these groups play, they knock an entire week of the month on that campus' schedule. They bring their own players with them and save that campus another week to fill.
A lot of multi-site churches get stuck on one worship style because they have to reproduce everything and hence fall back to the most common 5 piece rhythm section. A large ensemble can bring a different flavor and excitement to a service and attract a different kind of person with different musical tastes in the audience.