[This post is part of a series on Your Guide to Selecting and Leading Songs for Worship. Check out the rest here.]
Choosing songs for worship is hard. It’s an acquired skill, akin to riding a bike in that you can eventually learn to do it well every time. Over the years I have made some mistakes in choosing a setlist and I hope to spare you the pain.
1. Your songs are in a bad range
This is the peril of many modern worship songs: In the verse, they are too low for people to sing, and in the chorus they are too high. I’m not saying to abandon songs with an octave jump, but be aware of what is comfortable for people to sing. The goal is engagement and if they are struggling to sing your songs, it will be a frustrating experience for them.
2. Your songs are unfamiliar
New songs are great and can breathe fresh life into a church, but if too many songs are unfamiliar, people will be lost. Good worship leaders have learned to marry the new with the old. They skillfully blend hymns and older songs that people know and love with new songs that are good for them. New songs need to be skillfully placed between the familiar so people can “ease” into them. This can be difficult for a young worship leader (like myself) who gets tired of the same songs over and over. It just takes discipline to “feel” where people are really at and ministering to them there.
3. Your songs don’t flow together
Beyond key and familiarity, your songs need to flow together. Doing “I Love You Lord” into “One Way” into “How Great Thou Art” into “Let it Rain” reflects poor planning. Work to reinforce theological themes with your songs. Take your people on a journey. That’s not to say you can’t change direction in the moment if the Holy Spirit is moving. Just don’t throw together a hodge podge of top worship hits. Connect your songs by KEY, by THEME, and STYLE.
4. Your songs don’t connect with your congregation
Imagine you planned to lead your congregation this weekend…in Spanish. But nobody spoke Spanish. Epic fail, my friend. No matter how great the songs were, how tight the band was, how the great the keys were for singing, nobody would “get it”. Connecting with your congregation starts with asking the question, “what is the predominant person in my congregation?” Are they senior citizens, youth, young adults, children? Each of those age groups will certainly gravitate to a certain song and style. That doesn’t mean you can’t lead youth in hymns or introduce seniors to modern music, particularly if you lead worship in a multi-generation church. Just be intentional about connecting with your congregation through your song choice.
5. Your songs are too rushed
This is more of a focus on “how” you lead your songs. Don’t just barrel through your setlist. Be sensitive to the Holy Spirit within your songs and between your songs. Getting through your songlist without a train wreck is only a small measure of success. Engaging the hearts and minds of your congregation with God is what we’re after. That doesn’t mean each songs needs to be 15 minutes, preceded by a mini-sermon. Just be sure your truly worshiping and not simply ‘getting it done’.
Question: What other mistakes have you made when choosing your songlists?
Great post! A common thing I run into when I choose the songs is that others (just people in the band) don’t like them because they are hard to learn.
Not that they are necessarily hard, they just need a little practice to do it. I run into this a lot! Any advice?
Challenge your team to listen to the songs and practice at home. Without personal practice, rehearsals can be awful! It will take some time for everyone to get accustomed to this, but it will pay off. Trust me!
Yeah…I have been doing this, but sometimes people get frustrated with learning new songs. Everything else is fine but in this area… What would you say to do to get people motivated to learning new things? There are so many great songs out there…
Communicate your vision behind what you do. That’s a lot more motivating than “learn these songs!” Know what I mean?