A few other tips that we use at my church.

* The worship leaders usually introduce a new song at the Wednesday night service. Then when the song is repeated on Sunday, there are at least a few more folks (than just the worship team) who are familiar with the song. This also helps build confidence of those around the ones who are more familiar with the song, so that they start trying to sing out loud sooner.
* At the risk of offending the 7/11 crowd, always repeat the first verse (or at whatever other natural break there is before the melody changes drastically — usually at the bridge or chorus). Otherwise, you’ll have people just catching on to the verse melody when everything changes and they’re back at square one.
* On the slower songs, sometimes we start out with sparse instrumentation and only one vocal. Not only does this work aesthetically, but on a new song, it also lets the congregation know, “Hey, it’s OK not to sing yet. The BGV folks are not even singing yet.”

However, I must confess that I’m tempted to do the opposite of what was conveyed in the question - I shy away from the more popular songs because I don’t want to be seen as a “bandwagon” worship leader in a city where everyone’s looking for the next big song. Shame on me! Ignoring popular songs because they’re popular is the same thing as doing them only for the sake of popularity. So, when I focus on what is being said in the songs and where we are going in a service theme-wise, rather than guaging it’s value in the service by how popular or familiar it might be, choosing songs becomes more simple and less man-pleasing.

You asked about the legality of giving away copies of lyrics and/or music. If your church is a member of CCLI, you’re permitted to do that. Their website states that you can “Print songs, hymns and lyrics in bulletins, programs, liturgies and songsheets for use in congregational singing.”

Thanks for asking.

I’m a 22 year old lead worshipper at Toronto Jaffray Chinese Alliance Church in Toronto, ON, Canada. I shared this entire blogpost with my team tonite as a devotional & we were able to conclude that we should not shy away from those “new” songs that are filled with Biblical truth…enabling us to engage in true worship of our triune God.

For this Sunday’s worship service my team is leading, I sent them a listing 4 of the 6 songs last Friday. I finalized the set Wednesday night, but it was not until last night (Thursday) that I got notice of some *worries* about our set this week by 2 of my team members, that we kind of have too many new songs. The concern brought up was for the parents in our youth/young adults -filled English language congregation; their knowledge of the modern songs is lacking and have a harder time following the rhythms.

We were introducing 1 brand new song to the congregation, teaching a less familiar hymn for the 2nd time, 1 song that most know but don’t fully understand the metaphors in the verse lyrics, and 1 song that I felt the congregation knew well but apparently most of our team didn’t know. I wrestled all of last night of what to do–I had a well-planned out set that flowed well musically and theologically, and yet it seemed that everything boiled down to “familiarity”.

After reading and meditating on what God’s voice through the lyrics of the music set, & upon contemplating all that you’ve written…I was thankfully able to strike a balance between the new+engaging and the familiar+engaging songs. I switched one song with an upbeat praise song that had not been sung during service in a while, and I think God was pleased with what I decided. And of course, the team agreed we had decided on the right path.

In short, thank your enlightening words of wisdom!

For His renown,
Alex

Is my wife letting you know what’s going on in my life? Just kidding!

We have been wrestling with some of these very questions over the last 6 months. We are in a re-church plant situation where very few people have been exposed to SGM music and were choosing not to sing a lot of theologically rich hymns.

I was strongly suggesting that we not feel bad about introducing new music for many of the reasons you have stated. (That’s encouraging) What we have seen is that our people’s love and passion for the theology of the “new” music motivates them to learn more quickly because it resonates so profoundly with their soul’s desire to find words to express their joy and delight in the glory of God in the gospel.

My “shepherdly” thinking is that most people from our church family will be singing something in their heads at work, something out loud in their showers, something along with a CD in their cars. And what I long for as a Shepherd is for what they sing, what they are memorizing to be rich and clear expressions of the gospel. We can fuel this in our corporate gatherings if we are willing to teach them the music that “best” assists in accomplishing this goal.

If there are brothers out there who are struggling with changing the direction of your music selection, let your struggle keep you begging the Spirit for wisdom and humility to do something about it! It is so worth it. Hebrews 13 reminds me that it is worth it—we are watching for souls.

There is a vast theological difference between:

“Oh when He rolls up his sleeves He ain’t just puttin’ on the ritz . . .There is thunder in his footsteps and lightning in his fists . . And the Lord wasn’t joking when He kicked ‘em out of Eden; It wasn’t for no reason that He shed his blood His return is very soon and so you’d better be believin’ that Our God is an awesome God”

and

“Dead in transgressions and sin, without God, without hope in this world, then the glorious light of your gospel broke in; The Father stood up from His throne opened His arms as He called out my name; Grace irresistible drew me, opened by eyes to see—You are the Way, You are the truth, You are the life Jesus . . .”

We have a choice and it is so worth it.

I hope this does not come across the wrong way, I trust my comments come across kind and caring for the sake of the gospel.

Micah

1) I attended a seminar recently where the leader pointed out that as musicians we have a tendency to get bored of songs more quickly because we play them so often. We can sometimes underestimate how long it takes a congregation to feel comfortable enough with the music of a song to really engage with its lyrics.

2) Sometimes I think we focus too much on a combination of the newest songs and the older classics, neglecting those that we learnt a few years ago. Recognising how much you’ve got to choose from is important. I’m currently working on a spreadsheet for our church that lists all our songs by themes, and details when we last sung them. Service leaders will be able to search the sheet to find songs that we know and are suitable but will also be able to assess if it has been sung (too) much of late. Overall I’m hoping it will keep our song choice fresh without needing to constantly teach new songs. No doubt other churches perhaps do something similar.

Enjoy the rest of the conference!

Great point, Bob. It can be tempting to be distracted by peripheral issues when deciding what songs to and not to do. Thanks for keeping us theocentric.

You’re a gift of God to His church.