When the congregation at Christ the Servant Lutheran Church in Henderson, Nevada moved into their magnificent new worship center early in 2008, there was much celebration and music making! The congregation is lead by Reverend David Drach-Meinel, Senior Pastor and his wife, Reverend Diane Drach-Meinel, Associate Pastor. Pastor David is a fine guitarist and leads the service in song and shares the spoken worth with Pastor Diane. The relaxed worship style is adorned with music coming from guitars, percussion, piano, harp, keyboards, voice and organ. Yes, organ! A new Rodgers 3-manual Allegiant 778 was installed in the new sanctuary. Not only does the organ serve as a musical instrument, the speakers, which have been strategically placed inside the sanctuary walls, also serve as the system for the spoken word and ALL musical instruments. A Roland RSS Digital V-Mixer accommodates 32 channels and runs the audio back through the organ speaker systems. The quadraphonic surround sound system draws the listener directly into the sound field. It is magic!

Most all the equipment in the musician's corner is either Roland or Rodgers. Plans are to also install Roland V-Drums in the near future. Lisa Fiorenza, an exceptional pianist, organist and harpist, is Music Minister. In addition to her service duties, she has been given the opportunity to help expand and run the Christ the Servant Music Academy. The Music Academy currently offers beginning, intermediate and advanced music instruction in Piano, Organ, Guitar, Harp, and Accordion. Now with more building space, plans are to expand to offer lessons in Voice, Percussion, Brass, Strings, Mandolin and soon a special Music Instrument Sampler course. Students are featured in recitals and given the opportunity, when prepared, to play or sing in a worship service.

Saint Joseph, Husband of Mary, Roman Catholic Church was started by a small group of parishioners who gathered together to worship at a local mortuary chapel in 1989. Within two years, the diocese purchased property at the corner of W. Sahara and Tenaya and by 1991, a sufficient number of parishioners had enrolled to undertake the first Parish building program. Through the generosity of these parishioners, funds were raised for construction of the multi-purpose building that included a temporary church hall and kitchen facility.

By 1994, with over 3,000 registered families attending the church, it became evident that the time had come to build a permanent church. Official ground breaking ceremonies were held on Good Friday, April 16, 1995 and building construction began in August 1995. Fortunately, weather conditions were favorable for construction and no delays were experienced. On August 14, 1996, the parish of St. Joseph, Husband of Mary, dedicated their magnificent new 1400 seat edifice.

In October 2007, a new custom 4-manual Rodgers Trillium Masterpiece was installed. Representing Robert Tall & Associates, Inc., Howard McCullough from San Diego, worked directly with Father Bob Stoeckig in completing all contractual matters. Dan Miller, Rodgers Product Manager and Dr. Robert Tall created a stoplist and console layout specifically designed for the needs and musical tastes of the church and the church musicians, under the leadership of Barbara Finn, Director of Music and Liturgy. In February 2008, Father Bob's longtime friend and organist, William Vaughn, played a dedication recital.

The organ has seven divisions; Great, Swell, Choir, Solo, Pedal, Antiphonal and Trumpeteria. The Main Organ is installed in the front center of the church. There is a Choir monitor system linked to the Main Organ that is installed above and behind the Choir. Both the Antiphonal and Trumpeteria play from the rear of the church. The audio system is spread through 24 independent 100-Watt channels, totaling an impressive 2400-Watts of power. It is powerful without being loud. In its quiet moments, it is reverently celestial.

Community Lutheran Church was officially organized on June 10, 1973, to meet the spiritual needs of the residents of Paradise Valley in Las Vegas, NV. Pastor Raymond D. Christenson was called from Burlingame, California to begin this ministry and continued to lead this congregation for the next 32 years. In August of 2005, Dr. Mark Wickstrom was named Pastor Christenson's successor and assumed the duties of Senior Pastor.

The very first worship service was attended by 35 people. The congregation has since grown to a membership of over 3300. The first religious center was built in 1974 and dedicated in October of that year. During the subsequent growth years, the facility was remodeled many times and finally torn down in preparation of the new and present sanctuary, which was completed and dedicated in October of 2004. The large and well-equipped sanctuary seats 748 congregants.

A new Rodgers organ complete with 8-ranks of pipes was installed in time for Easter services this year, 2007. The Rodgers pipes are from the former organ, with the addition of 12 new pipes installed to complete the Choir division. There is a total of 439 pipes!

Digitally recorded samples from some of the world's finest pipe organs, play from a very sophisticated computer system through 22 amplified audio channels, 100 Watts per channel, totaling 2,200 watts of power. There are 8 divisions, Great (Pipe and Digital), Swell, Choir (Pipe and Digital), Solo, Trumpeteria and Pedal.

The console is a custom Rodgers 4-manual Trillium Masterpiece Series organ. There are 76 sound controls governing 158 independent sounds. The combined total, pipes and digital, is an impressive 224 ranks!

Hector Olivera, Dr. Robert Tall and Dan Miller, Product Manager for Rodgers Instruments designed the stoplist, in consultation with Doug Wilson. Since this instrument is the best of Hector's touring organ, "The King" and Robert Tall's residence organ, "Big Mama", they lovingly refer to this instrument as, "The Grande Dame!"

Doug Wilson has served as organist for Community Lutheran Church since 1985. He is a gifted musician, having received degrees from Michigan State University and Arizona State University. An elementary music specialist for over 20 years, Doug serves as principal of Hollingsworth Elementary School in downtown Las Vegas.

In a recent email message, Doug writes, "I cannot tell you how happy I am with the organ. My first wedding on the new instrument was fun. Of course, I had to re-register everything, although what we had set worked for many things. The grandmother of the bride had heard the dedication service music and asked that I play Bob Tall's version of The Lord's Prayer. It is beautiful to use at weddings. All is very good. I could not be more pleased."