A New Song For Your Congregation

Now that you and your team have done all the hard work learning this new song, you have to introduce it to the congregation. Here is the primary caution: since you and your team have been almost breathing this song for at least a couple of weeks, you know it inside and out, and more than likely love it and are excited about introducing it, yet most of the congregation will not know the song and therefore, since it is new, will be averse to learning it. Why? Change is awkward. New is awkward. And they’ll have to think when they sing it (which is not a bad thing…).

But new songs (which contribute to the thoeological health of your congregation) are essentiall. So you’ve gotta have ‘em – how do you make the people as comfortable as possible with them? Familiarity is the key. If the song sounds familiar, they are less likely to reject it blindly. If I know several weeks ahead of time about a song I will introduce soon, I will add it to the playlist of songs which are a ‘background’ of sorts before and after the service. That just gets the song into people’s heads.

I always try to play the song for the congregation at least once before I ask them to sing along. It works great if it fits as an offertory or opener the week before. Also, you can use the song as an opener (in this instance I’m assuming that the congregation doesn’t really sing along with the opener), and then use the song again as your first song of the worship set. Sometimes this latter technique can work pretty well.

The worse case scenario is having to introduce a new song during a worship set. If you have to do that, I would suggest sandwiching it between two songs which are very familiar (and loved) by the congregation. Also, make sure that you sing the first verse twice, whether or not that will be the normal way of singing the song later on – it just gives them an extra chance to get into the groove of the song.

In the end, the real goal when introducing a new song is to make it easy to understand and sing for your congregation. The more quickly they are comfortable with the song  the more readily they will embrace it.

A friend recommended this online video of a skit to me. Watch it, and then I will run through some thoughts on it.

First off, you can check out my post on my blog for some initial thoughts.Would this be appropriate for a church service? If so, when, how would you use it?

The first response is, “Man that’s powerful! Of course I’d use it! Right before the message! Or maybe at the end of the message before my altar call!” And I say, hold up yer hourses!!!!

Before you do anything else, realize that the skit is not related to the song at all – they are using the music to create an emotional atmosphere to accentuate the drama. Really. Read the lyrics. The lyrics are actually clean and good – nothing wrong there. Almost tempting to use as an offertory…but that’s another post…

Understanding that the skit could be done to any song, might there be a more appropriate song to use? I myself am slightly nervous about using a song for an illustration by a non-Christian group. It’s similar to the reservations I have about using a scene from a questionable movie for an illustration (even if the scene is ‘clean’).

That’s one issue. The other is, would using it before a message overshadow that message? And using it at the end, before an altar call, would it move the focus from where it should be at that moment?

In the end, though I enjoy the skit, I would have some reservations about using it in church. But maybe if I can find another song the skit would fit with….hmmmm….just maybe….

Yeh, this is a fun issue for all worship leaders. Do you go with the original key a song was recorded/written in, or do you adjust it as you see fit? There’s actually a number of really awesome musicians who believe that each key has what they call a “color”, and they believe a songs ‘color’ must match the ‘color’ of the key for it to be played/performed correctly. Needless to say, I am not necessarily one of those. I do note, though, that some songs just “feel” better in specific keys.

In college I had a professor remark that the average vocal range of men and women has dropped about a third or fourth in the last 40-50 years. This, of course, was by a vocal instructor emphasizing the effects carbonated drinks, polution and various other elements can have on ones voice. But I was struck by the implications of that fact to worship (leading). Many older hymns were originally written in very high keys – some of which would be ridiculous to request of the average congregant. You don’t want to sing songs too high for your people.

Unfortunately, there is no perfect range you can land a song’s notes into (by adjusting its key) so that everyone can sing it. Some just go a tad to high, here or there, or even a touch too low in one point or another. This is one reason I think it is imperative for every worship leader to surround himself with strong vocalists, covering most of the vocal range, if at all possible. That way, as a leader, you can attempt to have each vocalist lead at least one song each service – not to be nice to them, but so that their natural variety of range will ensure that there are at least a couple of songs in each service which each congregant can handle the range. And sometimes you might have to adjust the key of a particular song to have it fit into a particular singers range – that’s great!

That said, it is my personal opinion that you should always start with the original key a song was written/recorded in, and then adjust from that point. There are many considerations, all of which impact whether or not the key should be changed and, if so, to what. Here are a few I’ve noted:

Range of lead vocalist: This is imperative – the person vocally leading the congregation in the song must be able to sing it (or if it’s two or more people – they must all be able to hit the notes they need to!). This is a must – you HAVE to change the key if a singer can’t do the notes, or you need a different singer to lead it.

Range of congregation: Listen to your people. If you are consistently getting feedback that a particular song is too high (or low) from a variety of people, you might consider that the key should be lowered for their sake as well – if the key of a song is hindering people’s worship, then that key should probably be adjusted.

Key of surrounding songs: This is a maybe. Sometimes you want to flow straigh from one song into the next, and “friendly” keys make that easier. Moving a key up or down a half a step or so into a more “neighborly” key can sometimes really contribute to the flow of the service.

Guitar Friendly: Unless you’ve got an incredibly able guitar player, you want to avoid keys like Ab and F#, they are just irritating to guitar players. Of course there is the ever handy capo which can solve most of those key problems. And keyboard players, though usually a bit more friendly with the lesser used keys, always prefer to the key the sharps and flats to a minimum in a key. This is definitely not a must, but something to keep in mind.

As a final note, never feel bound to a recorded key. Chris Tomlin’s songs have progressively gotten higher and higher in key over the past five years. David Crowder really can barely hit some of the high notes in some of his songs, but they’re singing so loud and playing so loud you can almost scream ‘em out and they sound great. It’s best if you figure out what works best for you, your team, and your congregation, primarily so that people pay as little attention as possible to the key of a song and as much as possible to the one to whom they are singing.

I hesitate to write on the subject of the Cross and Worship, not because I am daunted by it (though I am to some degree), but because it would take an entire book to begin to scratch the surface of this subject – and one book would barely do it justice. Why? The cross and Christ’s sacrifice there, as well as his subsequent resurrection, are central to worship. It is the ‘why’ of worship. It is the heart and soul of what worship pastors and leaders across the nation and the world must engage continually and embrace fully to adequately worship God.

The Cross is important because it is by Christ’s sacrifice on that cross that we are able to come to God. One of the primary reasons we worship God is that He, in his great grace and mercy, has reconciled us sinners to himself.

Why is this important to the Worship Leader/Pastor? As we develop and shape services, especially the thematic element of what songs we sing and in what order, as well as the scriptures being read, it is essential to be mindful of places or points in the service where the Cross can be highlighted or emphasized. Some songs do this, other times a few well-chosen words between songs or before or after a scripture reading can do the trick.

This is doubly important if the passage or theme of the service is not overtly salvific. If you, as a worship leader, can connect that theme/passage to the Cross (or our salvation in Christ), then you are enabling the congregation to develop a mindset early in the service which is approaching that theme/passage in the perspective of the Cross.

This is also essential as a leader in the church, in general. You must live and example a mindset which is continually coming back to the Cross. Shaping and developing the worship services to at least highlight a connection to the cross will “condition” (in a sense) your people to continually make that connection. This is a connection found over and over again in the letters of the New Testament – the Apostles definitely had a mindset which could never dissasociate from the Cross.

So let em challenge you, as you develop your worship services, to always be mindful of where the Cross is in respect to what is being taught and sung. And let it be a major warning sign if you can find no trace of it there!

This is something so simple and foundational that I would have thought it would have been covered in one of my church music classes in college. Oh well, lucky me I was mentored by the incredible edible Daniel Creswell (okay, not so edible, but definitely an awesome worship pastor). It’s actually very simple. Each song is classified in one of two categories both orientation-wise and focus-wise.

A song’s orientation can be either horizontal (towards other men) or vertical (towards God). And it can be either God-focused or man-focused.

Here’s an example: How Great is Our God, by Chris Tomlin. It’s horizontal in orientation because it is sung to other men (it is a declaration of God’s glory), but it is God-focused because the song is about God.

Another example, a goldie-oldie (at least in my mind): Draw Me Close to You, not really sure who wrote it… But this one is vertical in orientation because it is sung to God, but man-focused because it is focused on man. Note the lyrics in the chorus: “You’re all I want, You’re all I ever needed…”

Why is understanding how songs stand in these two categories essential to developing your worship list for a service? Balance and development. If all of your songs are vertical man-focused songs, though you are getting your congregation to communicate and look to God, you’re encouraging a priority of self in that communication…as well as neglecting to encourage the declaration of God before men.

As you choose songs, it’s great to keep mindful of these as look for songs relevant to your service theme/passage. If possible, you want to have at least one song which falls into each category somewhere throughout the service (preferrably not counting the offertory/special). That way, after picking out a few songs, you can think, “Okay, I’ve got a horizontal God-focused song and a vertical God-focused song, so is there maybe a man-focused song I can use to balance out this service?”

Also, understanding these categories can help in choosing songs for specific portions of the service or special events. An excellent call to worship might be a horizontal man-focused song calling men to worship the Lord. A more appropriate song for communion might be a God-focused vertical song.

Just start looking at the songs you’ve picked out for this week or next and see how the worship songs fall into these categories.