WorshipLeadingSongSelectionMethodology
Worship Leading Song Selection Methodology
If you're new to leading worship, you're probably wondering, "what songs should I pick", and "what order should we play them in"?
Often times worship song list orders go fast to slow but I prefer not to put God in a box. I've had many methodologies over the past and heard many more on song order. Orders like:
- Songs sung about God, then to Songs sung to God
- Correct key signature progression
- Slow to Fast
- Familiar, unfamiliar, to congregation favorite
- Fast to "Worshipful" (what does that really mean, right?)
- Theme based (on the message)
- Instrument based (for a particular instrument or progression of sounds)
The methodology that I use now is:
- pray
- list out what I feel God is telling me
I have also had an experience leading jail ministry one week with an amazing God experience. Wrongfully assuming it had something to do with the song line-ups (like I had the perfect line-ups), I did the same set the very next week and it bombed horribly. I learned that it is my duty to do the best I can, practice my craft, use the talents and abilities that God has given me, but ultimately depend on Him in all things. So I won't pretend to know everything. I just know that we need to be ready for whatever God has in store.
Song selection (not just the order of songs, but the song itself) is also very important. The criteria that I use to determine if we will use a song in our worship service or not is:
- Do I like the song?
- Does it draw people closer to God?
- Can we do the song (the way we play it will probably be different than the original)?
- Is it appropriate (in the setting)?
- Does it fit on one page?
For the group that I lead, the whole band analyzes each song that we are thinking about doing. We have found that some songs may be great, but are not appropriate for our worship setting. We also found that some songs may be appropriate according to the setting; for example, a more difficult 'performance' style song may work if we're the only ones singing it (i.e. the congregation is just listening to it). Only songs that meet our criteria are used in the appropriate setting.
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