How To Find New Songs For Leading Worship

[This post is part of a series on Your Guide to Selecting and Leading Songs for Worship. Check out the rest here.]

One thing that worship leaders can never rest from is searching for new songs. Most of us are leading every weekend of the year and, though we may have tried, we can’t do Everlasting God and How Great is Our God every weekend. We’re always looking for the latest hit song that our congregation will respond to. We long for a freshness to permeate our worship experiences. And we want our people to be engaged at the same time.

So where do we look? How do we create a system where we’re constantly inspired by the best songs? Because let me tell you: there is no shortage of worship songs. The hard part is finding the best ones.

Before I give you some practical suggestions, make sure you pray through and ask the question, “God, what do our people need to be singing? What phase of life are they in and what truth do they need to apply?” That will definitely determine which songs you should choose.

As for finding new songs, here’s what I would suggest:

• Get a CCLI account. CCLI tracks the most popular songs churches are doing.
• Subscribe to Worship Leader’s Song Discovery or Integrity’s Worship Tools.
• Buy albums from Paul Baloche, Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Hillsong, & Chris Tomlin (or someone else you admire).
• Write your own songs – I’m a huge fan of this. Write to the core of what God is doing in your church. More on this later.
• Check out what Bethel in Redding is up to – fresh original songs and creative covers. Some great stuff on Here Is Love.
• Follow other worship leaders on Twitter and read their blogs. I always get song ideas this way.

Also, word of mouth is good. In the comments, share some new songs you have been leading and your process for finding them.