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» Do the fundamental things well
Number 8: A well-balanced song list
Choosing songs for church is a always balancing act. There are a lot of factors to keep in mind! Here are the five attributes of a well-balanced song list:
» 1. Faithful
» 2. Emotive
» 3. Fresh and varied
» 4. Relevant
» 5. Singable (and playable)
1. Faithful
Stay faithful to God’s purpose for music. It’s absolutely crucial that the songs we select for church contain lyrics that match God’s purpose for music at church - that is, lyrics that proclaim God’s works, give him thanks and praise, and encourage us to give our lives to him. (Although not every song has to do all those things at once!) Pray about your song selection and keep measuring up your songs against the scriptures.
2. Emotive
The congregation should actually be affected by the singing at church. Songs should move people! That is, good songs have lyrics that touch us deeply - great poetry that speaks to who we are as humans under God. And the music should lift those lyrics off the song sheet and into our hearts!
Yet there’s a large spectrum of personalities across every church who are affected in different ways by different music, and it can often be hard to strike a balance. This is never more evident than when the song selection at church is clearly biased towards the tastes of the one or two people running the music team. I’ve even heard of one church where there was an audible groan as a particular song came up on the overhead!
How do you know if a song is generally “working” at your church? One indication is if you lift the roof off the church when you sing. Another is if people come up and tell you they really liked or disliked a song. Another is if you ask for feedback. (See the section on the Church Song Survey below.)
3. Fresh and varied
Have you noticed how people always talk about new songs? Fresh songs engage people far more readily than “favourites” that are slowly but surely going stale from over-use (or worse, starting to aggravate people).
New songs - and old songs with new melodies - are a great gift as we continue to connect the word of God with people’s hearts and minds. Keeping the song selection fresh involves teaching new songs regularly, and teaching them well.
It also involves teaching a variety of different styles of song, and acknowledging that God has blessed us with different genres of music that people can enjoy. Part of expressing our unity as a church is to participate in singing songs that may come from traditions outside those we are most familiar with. For this reason I think it's helpful if young people are encouraged to sing hymns from time to time, and older people encouraged to participate in contemporary praise songs. It's testimony to the power of the Spirit when we put aside superficial differences in musical taste and join in praise of the Lord Jesus!
4. Relevant
Keep the rest of the service in mind. As much as it is possible to enhance the message of a Bible talk by following it with a well-chosen song, it’s possible to completely wreck the impact of an excellent sermon by following it with an inappropriate song. There was one time at church we heard a message on the wrath of God which left us all fairly sombre and thoughtful by the end. It happened to be December, so our final song was “Joy to the World”. It jarred quite badly.
a) Speak with the preacher and the leader of the service about the weekly song selection.
b) The most important song of the service is the final one - it's the one people will be humming on their way out to morning tea. Make sure it fits with the overall message and direction of the service.
c)
Many church services start with an upbeat song which is a way to get a positive vibe in the room.
5. Singable (and playable)
Remember your congregation and your musicians! The song should be able to be sung by "ordinary" non-musical people. If your song leaders are having trouble holding the melody, alarm bells should be ringing - don't even bother trying to teach it to the congregation.
Songs should also be chosen with the people you have in mind to play them ... at any given service. That’s why it’s best if the person who chooses the songs each week also organises the music roster. Certain genres of music will be suited to certain combinations of instruments. If you only have a flute it will be very hard to rock out! And some songs are harder to play - you need to save those for when the more capable musicians are playing. There are also some musicians whose gifts are suited to particular styles and songs, so make the most of them.
Teach at least 10 new songs a year
Why 10? It's slightly less than one new song per month, and people seem to be able to handle that without any trouble, assuming the songs are taught well. (Most people learn many more than 10 secular songs a year.) If you’re looking for new songs, here are some places to start:
1. Investigate suggestions from a song survey.
2. Attend Christian conferences. Most conferences make a point of teaching several new songs and provide the source of all their music in the conference booklet.
3. Church Copyright Licensing International's (CCLI) website www.ccli.com publishes the top 25 Christian songs used in churches in Australia and worldwide every six months.
4. Your church’s normal CCLI license will give you access to log onto the Copy Report page where you can search for songs and authors of songs. Do a search for the authors of your favourite songs and see what else they’ve written. If you upgrade your CCLI membership to “SongSelect Plus” you will also be able to hear audio and download sheet music from the CCLI site.
5. There are a number of links on the CCLI site to various Christian music administrators and publishers. Many of them contain free downloads for you to check out their music.
6. Any major international worship song you hear will be available at iTunes music store (you need to download iTunes first from the Apple website). The store allows you to sample 30 seconds of any song.
7. Once you’ve found your favourite Christian music publishers, subscribe to their website to receive regular updates about what they’re releasing.
Teach new songs well
It’s one thing to find new songs - it’s another thing to teach them well. An excellent song taught poorly is a poor song as far as the congregation is concerned. When there’s ambiguity about the way a melody goes, it’s hard for the congregation to have confidence joining in.
1. Use your best musicians or a CD when you teach new songs.
2. Give the musicians plenty of notice so they can take the sheet music home and practice.
3. If the song leaders are struggling with the song during rehearsal, don’t risk teaching it! Just leave it for another week. And if the song leaders still have trouble singing it then, don't bother teaching it to the church - it's way too hard for congregational singing. (Maybe do it as a once-off performance item instead.)
4. It’s sometimes helpful, although not always necessary, to “perform” a new song the first time you do it at church, so people can sit and listen before joining in.
5. Repeat new songs often. Consider doing a new song twice the first time you sing it at church - perhaps once at the start, and again at the end of the service. Repeat it at least two more times over the next month, and then again a month later.
6. Play the CD before and after the service. Subliminal teaching works wonders.
» The church song survey
It wasn't until we did a short survey at church that we discovered there were several songs we sang regularly that almost everyone disliked! Although they were faithful biblical songs, for a variety of very subjective reasons they simply weren’t "working" as congregational songs. If anything, they distracted from the message they were trying to convey.
Choice of songs for church should never be a popularity contest, and as we've discussed, there are a number of factors that go into choosing good songs. However a survey is a helpful way to get a general idea about what's working for the congregation "on the ground".
A customizable survey template is available for download here. The program allows you to list every song you currently sing at church (include the title and first line) and print it off to hand out at church one week. It asks everyone to rate each song on the following scale:
2 This is one of my favourite songs!
1 I like this song
0 I neither like nor dislike / don't know this song
-1 I don't really like this song
-2 I would prefer we didn't sing this song at church
It also leaves room for people to suggest new songs. You’ll find many great new songs this way.
After you’ve tallied up the scores, you’ll get a list of all your songs in order of most to least popular. This is a very helpful asset in selecting songs from week to week. It helps you avoid the songs that clearly aren't working (or address some of the reasons they might not be working), make good use of your solid songs and not overdo the really well-loved ones.
Download the survey template here.