I have just begun experimenting with recording our choir during services this year, and will tell you what I've done and what my impressions are, FWIW.
Our choir has a sound system for services consisting of:
3 overhead condenser mics, one in the front row, one in the middle, and one in the back row
1 condenser mic for the cantor
1 mic inside the (baby grand) piano (short stick)
all going into a Mackie 1402 Vlz Pro mixer, which feeds into the PA system. The PA has Bose speakers which work really well. My guitar (a Takamine accoustic/electric) is also plugged into the Mackie.
At Christmas, I recorded the choir using a two-channel Teac analog tape machine and two mics in X-Y config on a tall pole. Cheap mics, and the sound was okay, but not great. We made a CD out of it for private distribution to the choir members, as a keepsake.
For Easter, I decided to take it to the next level. I rented a Fostex VF160 digital multitracker, and connected 6 channels to the direct-outs on the first 6 channels from the Mackie. This allowed me to record the various parts of the sound with some degree of separation, and no tape hiss or other defects.
I then transferred the recordings to my computer (after the fact) using Cubase System 4 (Cubase SL2 and Steinberg MI4 interface). The transfer was a LOT of work... two channels at a time, and sync'ing manually. Also, I recorded 5 services... Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil and Easter Sunday. 60 individual recordings in all. What a LOT of work. But now, I can mix and master it at my leisure, and I'm confident that the quality will be good enough that we can sell CD's to the congregation.
Maybe next year I'll learn enough to make it all a bit less work, or maybe scale it down a bit...
Oh, and BTW, the rental of the Fostex was only about $80 (Canadian) for 10 days...