Choosing New Songs

Growing up, my mom had a subscription to a worship resource that regularly mailed physical CDs which included a variety of different worship songs. For many worship leaders, this was the primary way they learned of new songs for the corporate gathering. How things have changed over the past twenty years! Social media, radio, YouTube, conferences, and an industry consisting of writers, publishers, promoters and worship leaders who are seeking to put more and more songs into the hands of the local church - we are not lacking in resources.

But access and quantity does not always me quality. I am convinced with the many resources we have easily available, we should not settle for good songs but introduce only the best songs for our people. Best is relative, and I mean it as such. Introducing new songs to your local congregation has much less to do with the best songs rising to the top of CCLI or radio charts, but what needs to be on the hearts, minds and in the mouths of your people. These are the best songs of which I write.

A handful of questions I ask myself or others when considering new songs to introduce in the corporate gathering:

Does this align with our church theologically? Is this bringing clarity or confusion to who God is, what He has done, and who we are as His people? Can I trace the lyrics and concepts of the songs Scripturally?

Could I hear our people singing this? Each local church is made up a unique mix of people, will this particular song - in style, melody, and lyrical content - be the right fit for those I serve?

Is this what we need to be singing right now? Some songs need to be earmarked for future use, but maybe not in a particular season of the Church. Being aware of the larger story, and movement of the Spirit in your church will help you to be Spirit-led in discerning the right time to introduce a song to the congregation.

Is this song filling a gap in our inventory? Will this song provide a new facet to consider the heart and character of God? What other content and topics do we need to consider for whole life discipleship through our song choice?

Could I hear our team leading this song? No matter how talented the team, or high-end your production, if you are not the band on the recording, you will not sound like the band on the recording. Often, when you strip away the original production and the crowds of people singing in a stadium, many songs can struggle to stand on their own with just a voice and a single instrument.

Choose wisely, choose well, choose the best songs for your people.

Building A Set List

There is a temptation in leading corporate sung worship to imitate form and flow without understanding intention. Too often we can believe that choosing the correct combination of songs, dynamics, and production will create the desired result. Although I do believe there are best practice principles to leading worship regardless of your particular context, these things do not follow a static formula. If your worship setlists feel more like a string of songs than intentionally shaping the morning to form the people, here are some things to consider:

Start with the Text. What is the primary text in the teaching for the weekend? What does it tell us about God? What does it tell us about mankind? How may God be calling your people to respond this weekend? What themes can you pull from the text in not only your song choice, but in the way you pray, choose Scripture, and plan musical dynamics?

Prayer. Before, during, and after - I am convinced and convicted by how easily I can default to intuition, and experience to determine elements for the gathering. In an earlier post, I wrote about three prayers of preparation, you can read that here.

Follow a framework. This is why I like the Gospel Song Liturgy, intention laid in the foundation of your liturgy when you use a framework, rather than reinventing the wheel every time you plan a service.

Consider the team. Who are the musicians and vocalists serving this weekend? How can you accentuate the strengths of those individuals and the team as a whole, and minimize weakness? Do you need to begin communicating parts or specific pieces further in advance?

This week, this month, this year. Our weekend services stand-alone, but build one on another week after week, month after month, year after year. Are you holding the bigger picture of where your people are, and where you’re leading as you plan the service this weekend?

Find the gaps. Songs don’t always communicate or give the language needed for every aspect of our time. What other aspects are needed to fully connect and ground your time? Scripture, liturgical elements like readings, prayers, confessions, silence, and response, as well as verbal transitions, can all be used to direct and focus the flow of the morning.

When your elements for the service are gathered, consider the flow of the story you are telling in your lead through the liturgy. We can inadvertently create a disconnected story when we do things like sing about the resurrection and then sing about our sin and need for a Savior. Songs, rhythm, and keys should move in a structure flowing naturally one to the next as you move the people through your setlist, the morning, and the vision of where you are headed.

Creating A Song Inventory

In 2020, we have access to songs of a higher caliber than ever before. It can be easy to feel like you are behind if you are not introducing the latest and greatest song choice at the same rate as other churches and worship leaders. But in a world where we have almost instantaneous access to new music, we have a responsibility to be wise and discerning in the songs we choose for our congregations.

One of the most helpful ways to consider choosing songs - whether to introduce to the congregation or in creating setlists is to think about serving a meal. You are looking for both balance and variety, things that sustain us, and things to savor. Our songs contribute to the spiritual diet of the people we lead and serve.

Finding balance in your songs begins with having an understanding of the entire ‘menu.’ To begin the process of taking a song inventory, you need a Master Song List - all of the songs that are in regular rotation within your congregation. Not only song titles but the lyrics as well.

Second, you need to read through the lyrics of your songs making notes about the themes. I have found using a larger framework - like the Gospel Song Liturgy - to be a helpful tool in navigating, naming, and categorizing those themes, rather than just listing all of the potential themes - this keeps it to a few small, clearly defined categories. For the Gospel Song Liturgy, those themes are Creation, Fall, Redemption, Restoration, Glorification. If you don’t use the Gospel Song Liturgy, you could use categories like God, Man, Response, or Sin, Love, Faithfulness, Surrender, Brokenness, Glory.

Third, organize songs by category and observe. I like to include these categories on my chord charts, or in the Planning Center descriptions, to be searchable and easily accessible as I am planning my setlists. Some questions to ask as you have created categories: Where are the holes? Where are the diet imbalances? What categories resonate with you personally? What categories resonate consistently with your congregation? What do we need to sing about more?

Finally, use your song inventory to help you weigh new song introductions, and creating setlists. Song choice is an important part of leading worship, and leading worship is about discipleship, so we do not want to create lopsided disciples in the way we choose songs to introduce or to lead. Keeping a song inventory helps our choices not to be dictated by the whims of the latest and greatest songs, and helps us to keep a larger perspective on the work of song choice in our leadership.