Worship Podcast
[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.
[This post is part of a series on Your Guide to Selecting and Leading Songs for Worship. Check out the rest here.]
You may not consider yourself a “talented songwriter”. You may even feel that you just get by picking out songs and leading a band on Sunday morning. That’s OK. This post is still for you. Writing songs for your local church may seem like an daunting task.
I hope to convince you otherwise.
First off, why should you write songs for your local church?
[This post is part of a series on Your Guide to Selecting and Leading Songs for Worship. Check out the rest here.]
We all know that certain songs stand out above the rest. But what makes them so unique? As a worship leader who picks songs each weekend and a songwriter who wants to write engaging songs, what are the qualities I should look for?
What should you be looking for?
Here’s my take, which I call the SEAT method:
Sometimes it’s really hard to worship corporately.
I don’t like the songs.
The band is awful.
The people around me are annoying and can’t sing.
“Make a joyful noise” = “Make a noisy mess”.
[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.