Worship Q&A - Song Selection Strategy

[twc_admin]

(from a posting on my blog here)

Today is “Worship Q&A #2” … a series I started a while back where I’d like to offer my thoughts on specific questions that I get asked from all of you folks out there who are faithfully reading this blog. If you missed the initial post “Choosing Songs (http://www.fredmckinnon.com/myblog/category/worship-leadership/worship-qa/)” you may want to go back and check it out as well, as this could be considered a continuation of that discussion.


Today’s question comes from India .. yep, you read that right .. not Indiana .. but India:hey, i am zaseto from nagaland, india..i have a question regarding leading of praise and worship…is it important that all the song that is sung in a worship service flow on a particular theme or subject?
Well, first - let me say “Zaseto, welcome to the blog and thanks for your questions” … and I’m completely excited to have some Godly Worship Leaders over in India who are plugged in and asking great questions.

I’ve called this “Song Selection Strategy” and it’s a great question that is asked by worship leaders on a frequent basis. I do think that whenever possible, it’s a great idea to try and compliment the overall theme and “vibe” of a planned worship service. The songs and expressions of praise and worship [notice, I said “songs and expressions” … keep in mind, our worship can and should incorporate more than just “singing songs”] should help to not only facilitate an authentic, spirit-led worship time with God, but also further communicate and clarify the theme or “word” that is being expressed.

What about the “un-planned” worship service, though? Some of you are already smiling as you read that, thinking to yourself “I never have a clue what Pastor is preaching on until he starts his sermon”. Sadly, this is the case in too many congregations but is a realistic evaluation of how things can be. This is especially true in situations where staff is limited, where the Pastor/Teacher may have another job and prepares his messages after hours, or when the Worship Leader is a volunteer and has seldom opportunity to brainstorm, pray or communicate with the Pastor/Teacher. You also have some situations where what was planned is changed at the last minute on Sunday morning.

Worship Leaders must be flexible in these situations and flow with what they have. When all else fails, there is a central theme that should be present in all of our corporate gatherings … the reality that Christ is Lord, that He is awesome, and that He rules and reigns forevermore. The reality that we must surrender to Him, embrace His love and destiny for us, and draw near to Him. Folks - that’s enough reality to craft a powerful song list any day!

On the other hand, there are those of us (like myself) who are blessed with pre-planning, prayer, and communication about what our services and themes will look like. Although I believe God can (and sometimes does) “change things up” from time to time, I also believe that God knows who is coming to what service, when, and knows the very thing that needs to happen far in advance. I believe that the Holy Spirit can equip us for a service 2 months out as easily as He can speak to us about tomorrow night’s service … if we allow Him. Far too often we’ve used “we don’t plan that far out because it limits God and gives Him no room to move spontaneously” as an excuse for the simple lack of discipline to pray, seek the Lord, and execute the plans that He gives. Uh oh … that’s a separate topic altogether though, isn’t it!

Back to the point … I’m blessed to know our Sermon Series as much as 2 weeks to 2-3 months in advance. I meet with the Pastor and a few other leaders each Monday morning to quickly recap the previous service, but more importantly, to plan and discuss what we feel God is leading for the upcoming week. This is when we massage my setlist and brainstorm on ideas.

There are a number of tools and resources available to help you choose songs by “theme”. SongSelect (http://www.songselect.com/) (from CCLI) is a great tool and I even categorize all of my songs in our database (we use PlanningCenterOnline (http://www.planningcenteronline.com/referer/TheWorshipCommunity)) and I use this often. My primary focus is on that last song - the response time where we “respond” in worship, singing, altar ministry, or whatever … to the word or message that was delivered. If believe that if I can find a song that will tie that main point together and express it as worship back to God that this time will be more powerful and will have greater impact.

Finally, I’d like to encourage you to not feel “obligated” or “forced” to make this happen. Far too often, we “force” the songlist to work or flow with something that just doesn’t work, or just isn’t as effective. When it’s all said and done, I’d rather have a smooth flow of material with easy transitions, nice key changes, and active corporate participation than to have a “songlist” that echoes the sermon or theme perfectly. Keep in mind … the people God has entrusted to you are counting on you to lead and assist them into a time where they can encounter God and worship Him in Spirit and truth.

So in summary, whenever possible we should try to creatively use our song selection to enhance the overall theme and message of a given corporate gathering. At the same time, this shouldn’t be forced at the expense of using songs that aren’t as corporate-friendly or that don’t give themselves to a smooth flow. Keep in mind that regardless of what the “teaching” may be about, there is still an overall theme that we can always echo - God’s sovereign power, rule, and power in all the earth, and the response which that evokes in our hearts.

For the Kingdom,
Fred McKinnon

[MarkSooy]

Fred,

Due to the nature of our ministry, we have opportunities to plan worship for settings which have both well-documented themes, and others which have very little guidance on themes.

One point you reference, that I would like to also echo and emphasize, is the importance of prayer. I am not just referring to prayer about the particular service we're planning, or group of people we are planning for, I'm thinking more broadly in our personal daily connection with Christ.

I recently finished The Power of Prayer by E.M. Bounds. This little book reminds us that being in tune with God's Spirit will give us more insight into the needs of our ministry than any direct observation that we could ever do. The book focuses on pastors and preaching, but in our day does and should apply to worship leaders as well.

That being said, once each of us realize that God's Spirit is in control of every service (planned or unplanned), we will be much more comfortable doing what we can and allowing God to be God...

[twc_admin]

Thanks, Mark -

I totally agree - prayer and direct communion with God goes so much further, and without it ... I fear our planning is in vain.

[MarkSooy]

Oops!!

The title of EM Bounds book is Power Through Prayer, rather than what I quoted above.

By the way, this can be downloaded for FREE in mp3 at www.christianaudio.com. A great resource for those of us who spend a lot of time in the car commuting. A free book every month!!

[El Ben]

Leonard Ravehill leans heavily on Bounds' book in his own book, Revival Praying, one of my all-time favorites. I've been meaning to get ahold of that Bounds book for awhile now.

And with that, on to the topic at hand:

Here's how I choose worship songs. I'm not saying it's the right way, but it's just my way:

1.) I usually begin by just chilling and collecting my thoughts, mainly just letting all the excess crap filter away until I'm pretty clear.

2.) I pray about the destination of worship, specifically, where does God want this particular worship encounter to end up? What does it look like, what does it feel like? What is God wanting to do in the hearts of his people?

3.) With that specific destination in mind, I use worship songs to build sort of a worship interstate, a natural lyrical/musical/emotional flow that will get us to that place. For instance, if I feel that the worship encounter is going to end up with the Holy Spirit ministering to the congregation specifically in the area of peace, I'll pick a song like the chorus of Jason Upton's In Your Presence and work backwards from there.

4.) Granted, I usually pick the last song first because it's the destination, but I also know that the journey is just as important as the destination, so I start thinking in terms of "how do we get to a place of peace?" To me, an obvious answer is by first getting to a place of joy, so I'll pick a fast song to start with that I know people can really get into, maybe jump around a little bit, basically just be able to forget about whatever's going on around them and really celebrate who Jesus is. I might pick a song like You, You Are God by Walker Beach or a peppy United number like Salvation is Here.

5.) Most of my worship sets end up being three-song sets because that's just how it is where I'm at, but whatever the case is, in everyone's worship set, you come to a place of the transition song or the "2" song (since it's the middle song of a three-song-set). The transition is a VERY important part because (pragmatically) it's the song that you usually get the tempo ready to change in the last song and (spiritually) you've reached the middle of the roadtrip and it's time to shift gears. I like mid-tempo songs or either fast songs that have choruses or hooks that you can really pull out and slow down. Say, a song like Tomlin's "Holy is the Lord" or a toned-down version of "Everlasting God." I really like Hillsong's "For Who You Are" for a 2-song, just because it lends itself and is really vertical.

6.) Something that I absolutely insist on (that sometimes drives my band-members crazy) is spontenaety. My system of leading is to set up a loose structure for how a song will flow (verse, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus, ect.) and to just feel out where we are in the song and with the people worshipping and go from there. I use a system of hand signals (since I try to lead from a mic without an instrument) to illustrate to my band where I want to go.

-If I throw up a "1" it's verse, "2" it's chorus, "3" it's bridge.
-Fist means end the song normally.
-Double fist means cut out immediately (usually for a drum solo or just plain crash-out).
-A grabbing motion behind the back means bring it up.
-A flat hand means bring it down.
-A circular motion means do the current section again.


I know all of this seems very complex, but boiled down, it's all very instinctual and simple, and it depends a lot on feeling out both the practical and spiritual atmosphere of the people you're with, and also on what, if any specifics the Holy Spirit has for the mix.

I'm not saying this is the only way or even the right way. It's just my way.

[russhutto]

That's cool, Ben.

In our environment we plan all our message series out about a year in advance. We add the music element about a month in advance. Each month we gather and pray and really brainstorm about which songs work with each message theme. We typically add 2 new songs every other month. Our overall song repertoire ends up being about 20-30 songs, that we rotate in and out. We only do 3 songs per set.

On top of that we'll add in ministry oriented songs. Songs that have more of a commitment/dedication vibe. We'll typically add those in week to week.

It's been a weird yet enlightening change from where I was about a year ago for the last 12 years or so. At that place, we typically chose songs week to week, and used more of a prayer/theme/flow/key method. So far, each method is totally different, but what I'm seeing is that the result is the same: creating an environment in which we are able to connect with God and with others.

One thing that we're trying to promote in our themes is that our worship/relationship with Jesus is not only a personal/private deal, but it should be a shared relationship...i.e. We relate to God AND to our neighbors...

[MarkSooy]

One thing that we're trying to promote in our themes is that our worship/relationship with Jesus is not only a personal/private deal, but it should be a shared relationship...i.e. We relate to God AND to our neighbors...

I would concur with this thought. We must be mindful of, and plan to balance, that the worship perspective must be one of understanding God, understanding ourselves and understanding others. It's these relationships that form the worship atmosphere and focus.

[AD(J)]

My church meets in a coffee house, and right now we have two services on Sunday evening. We plan our services about 6 weeks out, which is amazing for such a small, mostly volunteer staffed church!

I agree that prayer and time alone with God are huge in choosing songs. That has to be first, of course.

The second factor in song choice is: Will this sound good acoustic? I have to be practical in choosing songs when some nights it's just me on a guitar for worship.


After those things, however, my biggest filter for choosing songs is: What is the learning curve for each song? Or, maybe: Can the average person learn and worship to this song after singing it once or twice? Sure, not every song has to be simple, but I feel most should be.

Here's why: My experience at previous churches in various roles has been that a church can handle only a certain number of songs that are either very wordy, or that are very complicated. They must be in a 'worshippable' key, not a 'performance' key. And no more than one new song a week, please. ;) (And yes, I made that worshippable word up, but feel free to use it. I think it'll catch on.)

At one previous church where I was involved, we simply did too many songs. There was always a new one every Sunday, and half of the stuff we did was too high or too difficult, melodically, for the average person.

Trouble was, pretty much the entire pastoral staff wanted all the new, cool, musically interesting songs. The band sounded great, don't get me wrong, we had a ton of talent on that stage, but it was more like going to a concert than intimate or meaningful worship.

Typical song: Three verses, each with a pre-chorus, usually a first and second chorus, then a bridge followed immediately by a standard AG key change with an instrumental solo, and then the chorus about four more times. Okay, I'm being facetious, but you get the idea.



Anyway, for my planning each week I say Keep It Simple, Steve. (Mainly because I don't like to call people stupid, and Steve is a nice name.)

If we do a new tune, we open with it and sometimes do the chorus again at the end. We'll do it two weeks in a row, then give it a rest for a week. I find I have plenty of freedom to do new songs, so long as most of them are simple and/or easy to sing.

The last thing I want is to have people reading the words the entire time instead of singing and getting into worship. And if people are getting light-headed or feeling faint during a service, I want it to be the Holy Spirit, not a lack of oxygen because the key is too high.

I've totally retired songs like 'Blessed Be'... cause come on, if even I can't ever remember all the words, what is everyone else supposed to do?

Anyway, that's my two cents.

[twc_admin]

hey - your $.02 is worth a whole lot more - there were several nuggets of GOLD in there!

[AD(J)]

Well, thank you...

[worshiptrench]

We always begin theologically within the dialogue of worship asking what will God being saying in our midst through the biblical text and look for anchor points either with theological themes that are carried, restatements of the text within a song, or liturgical pieces (example sr. graduate recognition day, etc.).

We are anti-top 40 worship jockeys meaning we don't slot by thinking, "They really like this one and this one."

Here are more things we consider from a practical standpoint... http://www.worshiptrench.com/?p=124

[BillyChia]

We are anti-top 40 worship jockeys

I love it.