Choosing the right worship songs is probably 50% of all what good worship leading is all about—if not more!

When we talk about worship inside the church, songs are the primary language of the soul to express worship.

So you see, one of the easiest mistakes we can make is to choose the wrong set of songs.

In this guide, we’ll look at how to choose songs for worship. This guide will serve as a practical blueprint to construct effective worship set-lists that facilitate engaged congregational worship in your church.

Follow this guide and you’ll get it right—consistently.

You can also download this guide for free—trust me, the PDF has lots of valuable bonus content that you'd love to check out!

What is a Worship Set-List?

A worship set-list or set is the planned list of songs in a definite sequence that a worship team intends to use in a worship session. – The Worship Kenbook

Let’s think about that for a moment.

• A set-list is carefully planned before the session (yes, planning on stage is not a smart option, no matter what you think the Holy Spirit is telling you) 
• Based on musical and logical parameters (more on these later), it needs to be in a specific sequence that supports our worship

This means we have to think like an artist bringing together different colors on a canvas to create a beautiful picture; or a story-teller narrating a story in a manner that draws the listener into it and brings it to life.

A good set-list engages the congregation, encourages participation, places appropriate prayers in the hearts of the people, moves them to intimacy with God and invokes a love response towards Him.

How to choose songs for worship that actually engage your congregation 

Developing a Song-Base that provides quick song ideas when you need them

A powerful set-list doesn’t materialize out of thin air just when we sit down to plan for an upcoming worship session.

It requires a regular habit of collecting usable songs whenever we come across them, and storing them in an easy-to-access manner.

My preference is to put them into an Excel spreadsheet cataloguing them with these fields: song title, song theme, key, tempo and rhythm.

Here’s a quick sample for better understanding:

You could also include more fields if you wish like a related scripture verse, name of the songwriter etc.

The habit required it this: whenever a song inspires you and something in your spirit tells you it’s a usable one, add it to the list.

This becomes the song-base: a master list of possible songs for congregational worship.

The hallmark of a good song-base is the variety of songs in it; fast songs, slow songs, medium tempo songs, songs with different time signatures and so on.

Thematically also, an ideal song-base would have something for every occasion with diverse themes like the Cross, redemption, spiritual warfare, repentance, healing, deliverance, evangelism, communion, fellowship, creation, mercy, love, forgiveness, thanksgiving, power,  surrender, faith, hope, resurrection, judgment, second coming, mission, justice etc.

And btw, don't just stick to contemporary songs. Choosing hymns for worship is a great idea too—have something for everyone and serve your entire church—not just a particular age group.

If you haven’t done so, kick-start your song-base today, it’s the first step to building effective worship set-lists. If you already have, read on.

Choosing songs for worship – the best practices to construct anointed set lists

Choosing worship songs by theme

Learning how to choose songs for worship should begin with the question “What is the subject of the session?” This is important because without a theme, we lack direction and without direction we lack focus. A lack of focus is… well… a surefire route to making a mess of the worship!

The point is that a set-list for Good Friday should be different from a set-list for Easter.

So make choosing worship songs by theme a priority.

With the theme in mind, start praying to the Holy Spirit and find out what’s in His heart. A useful question to ask here would be, “Lord, what should our Church be praying during this worship session?”

Now, start writing down what you believe the Lord is placing in your heart. Sometimes, we may come up with a few focus words; other times, titles of songs. This is more of a ‘brainstorming session with the Lord’—so just jot down everything without evaluating it too much—this is just a preliminary draft.

Let’s assume the theme is ‘the Passion of the Lord’. While praying, the Holy Spirit may inspire us with specific themes, which will guide us to choose certain songs. If we get a focus-word like ‘thanksgiving’ for instance, we may want to go with a song like “Thank You for the Cross”.

Here are a few more examples:

This method also prevents us from picking worship songs just because we happen to like them or they happen to be the current favorites with the congregation.

We will instead consider what our Church needs to be singing as opposed to what we want to sing. Too often, we simply pick a song because it’s known, popular, and people like to sing it. While it’s okay to consider the congregation’s comfort, need outweighs want any day.

The best songs are songs that speak directly to what your congregation is experiencing. – David Santistevan

If the theme happens to be something like, “the armor of God”, it would be difficult to fill an entire set-list with songs around it. In such cases, we could pick at least one song that highlights the theme. For example, for a theme like “the armor of God” we could look at something like “O Church Arise” (Stuart Townend, Keith Getty) as the highlight-song in the set.

We are called to be enablers of truth-filled worship. Constructing a session only filled with people’s favorite Christian tunes is entertainment, and not worship. So start with the theme, consider what we should be praying and build the habit of picking worship songs, which are lyrically close matches to it.

Coming back to the theme of ‘the Passion of the Lord’, the list of possible songs could look something like this (song title, key, tempo, rhythm):

Let’s say we’ll be leading worship for about 30 minutes. It’s a no brainer that 16 songs are way too many; choosing 4-5 praise and worship songs would be more apt.

The process of pruning this draft list down to 4 or 5 songs requires us to consider these two important concepts:

1. Worship progressions
2. Song keys

Speed up your set-list creation using worship progressions

A progression can be defined as the sequence or order of songs in a worship set list based on their tempo. – The Worship Kenbook

Knowing progressions is the key to decide which songs can be used at the beginning, middle or at the end of a worship session.

In his wonderful book “To Know You More”, veteran Vineyard worship leader, Andy Park illustrates progressions or curves or shapes using line charts. I am going to do something similar here.

Bear in mind that the Y-Axis (vertical side) measures tempo and the X-Axis (horizontal side) measures time in minutes.

The Standard Progression

We’ll continue with the theme “the passion of the Lord” and plot sample set-lists using the standard progression.

In this progression, we start with up-tempo songs, move to medium-tempo songs and then close with slower, more intimate songs.

This is the most common worship progression out there and works in most situations such as regular prayer meetings, Sunday worship, morning sessions in a retreat etc.

Standard Progression: Fast – Medium – Slow.

• The Same Love
• You Alone Can Rescue
• Oh to See the Dawn
• Once Again
• Amazing Love (You Are My King)

When choosing praise and worship songs using the Standard progression, what works well for me is a 3-stage approach:

Stage-1: Invitation
Stage-2: Story
Stage-3: Response

When we say ‘Invitational’, we only tend to think of songs like “Come Now is The Time to Worship”. But check out these lyrics from “The Same Love” by Paul Baloche:

The same love that set the captives free
The same love that opened eyes to see
Is calling us all by name
You are calling us all by name
The same God that spread the heavens wide
The same God that was crucified
Is calling us all by name
You are calling us all by name
You're calling You're calling
You're calling us to the cross

See how it’s got ‘invitation’ written all over it? Moreover, it also serves as a great launch pad to worship around the theme of “the passion of the Christ”.

The second song “You Alone Can Rescue” starts telling the story of saving grace and leads us to reflect on our own helplessness and how much we need Jesus.

“Oh to See the Dawn” completes the story with precise details of what Christ accomplished on the Cross.

“Once Again” calls for a personal, grateful reflection of the Passion and the set ends with another personal response, “You are my King.”

While this only completes the Standard Progression, it’s not the only progression available for worship. The Standard Shape itself has 3 variations and there are two more extremely important progressions that you need to know. All of these are covered in detail with examples in the PDF guide. Download it for free!

Produce continuity and flow by considering song keys when choosing praise and worship Songs

Once you’ve chosen the appropriate  progression for your session and zoned in on the songs, another very useful practice in choosing praise and worship songs is to group the songs by their keys.

To understand this better, let’s refer couple of set lists by Alastair Vance, worship leader at Story Church, Durham, NC—the keys are mentioned in parenthesis:

Set-list for 21-Feb-2016

• Fierce – Jesus Culture (B)
• Your Promises – Elevation Worship (B)
• Grace On Top Of Grace – Fellowship Creative (B)
• Beautiful Things – Gungor (D)

Set-list for 21-Sep-2014

• Never Gonna Let Me Go – Kristian Stanfill (B)
• This Is Amazing Grace – Jeremy Riddle (B)
• I Am – Crowder (B)
• Hope’s Anthem – Bethel (B)
• My Guardian – Ben Cantelon (F#)

See what he’s done? You can visit his blog for more set-lists and you’ll keep noticing this: the songs are always grouped by key.

A song in the key of ‘B’ is almost always followed by another song in the same key. This makes it easier to move from one song to another seamlessly without distracting the congregation.

Think about and plan what songs fit together based on key transitions. Try not to be all over the alphabet by singing in multiple keys that do not compliment one another. - Jeremy Armstrong

So next time you put choose songs for worship, try to group the songs by same or related keys—it’s a vital element in creating a sense of flow in your set-list.

Having seen how to pray through the process of choosing songs for worship while integrating useful best practices, let’s also look at the characteristics of a powerful worship set-list.

The 4 C’s of a Powerful Set-List

It’s not about how wonderful we feel, how enjoyable it is, how skillful the music is or how many people compliment us.

Leading worship is about magnifying God, and that’s the core goal of building a set-list.

So once you start applying what you're learning here on how to choose songs for worship leading and your selection of songs is ready to finalise your set list, do a simple check to see if it holds these four qualities, which I believe, are the hallmarks of powerful worship set-lists:

1. Call

At the risk of sounding repetitive, I have to say that effective set-lists are invitational—to the people and to the Lord. They have a ‘welcoming’ feel about them that calls people to offer their praise comfortably.

Think of songs like “Come Now is the Time to worship”, “This is Your House”, “The Same Love”, “Arise” etc. and I am sure you get the picture.

2. Connect

The songs we sing should resonate with the people and move them to participate. It’s not so much about what the worship leader wants to sing as much as it’s about what the church needs to pray.

Great set-lists have this pleasant ability to connect with the congregation and enable them to express their hearts to the Lord.

3. Convey

Powerful set-lists make a point and bring home a message. They are not about aimlessly stringing together a random bunch of songs; rather it’s about placing each song with intent and purpose.

Put together, the chosen songs will teach truths about God, our faith and even ourselves.

4. Convert

Effective set-lists facilitate change in the hearts of the worshipers and evoke a response towards the Lord. The response could be anything from resolving to love the Lord more or forgiving someone to being deeply convicted of a truth or an increase in personal faith.

While being emotive is wonderful, a great set-list will go beyond the emotional and facilitate conversion on the inside.

Okay, it’s time to sum up. Let’s look at 8 tips to construct worship set-lists that actually work in congregational worship.

Choosing songs for worship—8 tips to create the best possible worship set lists

1. Pay attention to the theme of the day

Start with the theme and list down possible songs around it. A useful rule-of-thumb is to have at least one song in the set-list that highlights the theme.

2. Keep the focus on God

Psalm 100:4 teaches us that when we worship God, we are entering His gates, His courts and into His Presence. So ideally, we must give thanks to Him and praise His Name.

If our worship leading is not bringing about a sense of reverence for God, something’s amiss!

Worship must be about God—so fewer songs about ‘us’ and more songs about and to Him are better.

3. Prioritize familiar songs above new songs

Worship leaders/musicians get tired of songs faster than others. While I totally get that, 99% of the times, known songs lead to better participation than new songs.

So a few new songs coupled with more familiar songs would be the way to go.

4. Don’t ignore new songs

It is one thing to take known songs to keep the congregation comfortable, but we shouldn’t stop there!

Learning how to choose songs for worship also requires developing an open ear to discover those fresh prayers in song, and challenge people to move out of their comfort zones. Introducing one or two new songs in a month helps in this regard.

5. Look at the song, not the songwriter

No matter how brilliant a songwriter is, not every song written by him/her will be a winner in congregational worship.

When choosing songs for worship, it is necessary to assess a song based on the strength of its lyrics, melody, ‘singability’ etc. and not just by the name/reputation of its songwriter.

6. While songs need to be congregation-friendly, they should also be ‘our’ congregation-friendly

Songs that work in the United States may not work in India and vice versa. While evaluating congregational accessibility of a song, it’s essential to also consider local cultural accessibility.

Consider who is our congregation (teens? young adults? elders?), and pick songs accordingly. Remember to keep it simple—a typical congregation consists mainly of regular folk rather than highly skilled musicians/singers.

7. Consider musical elements

Can the song be sung at a comfortable key? Are the tempo and rhythm blending smoothly into the overall set-list? Is the style/complexity within the range and ability of the musicians and congregation?

If the answer is ‘no’ to these questions, the song should most likely not make it to the set-list.

8. Listen to the Holy Spirit

It does not take a genius to figure this out, but the temptation to finalize a set-list based on our experience and skill always lurks around.

Praying to the Holy Spirit, waiting on Him and obeying His inspiration is probably the most fundamental responsibility of a worship leader while choosing songs for worship.

Another good practice is to run the entire set-list in a time of personal worship, gauge what works and what does not and edit accordingly. This refines the set-list further.

“Those who are most prepared are the most led by the Spirit of God.” – Chris Tomlin

It’s your turn now

Well, it’s time to actually apply these proven practices into your ministry while choosing songs for worship.

To make the process easy for you, I’ve made a free PDF guide, which also contains the following valuable additional content that’s not included in this article:

• 3 variations of the Standard progression
• The Ascending progression
• The Serene progression
• Bonus section: How to use new songs in worship

Download the free PDF guide now!

If the congregation is not involved, it's music, not worship.

We've been there, right?

We pick the best of songs, practice and rehearse them like crazy, and then play them flawlessly on stage. Everything goes well, there are no musical shipwrecks, and we're feeling wonderful.

Then, we take a look at the people and... there's... nothing!  No one seems to be singing... and you're left wondering why the congregation is unable to get into the ‘brilliant’ set-list we are delivering.

As a worship leader, nothing used to deflate me faster than an unengaged congregation. Frustration, anger, misery, disappointment... I'd feel all of that and more... I'd also drive myself crazy later analyzing it all, trying to figure out what went wrong.

While this doesn't happen to me so much these days, I can still remember my rookie years when I went through it... often. Experience and time are good teachers, I guess!

Leading worship is more about “engaging” your congregation than it is about “amazing” them with your worship leading brilliance. - David Santistevan

Sometimes the microphone can be a barrier between the congregation and the worship leader. It's not too difficult for the band to get so caught up with the technical and the musical that the people begin to feel disconnected.

Leading worship is more about engaging with people than putting up a great Christian performance, right? It's more about connecting together with the Lord than belting out the latest musical chops.

But how do we get to that special place of going beyond the functional and grasping the relational? These tips will help you:

Essential tips to improve how you engage people in worship

Engaging your congregation before the session

1. Pray

Seriously, many of us pray and worship only when on stage—it’s the swiftest route to spiritual bankruptcy.

Worship leaders should be earnest and intense prayer warriors in private seeking the Lord’s voice every day—frequently and regularly. If we don’t spend time with the Lord, we are setting ourselves up for disaster.

And when we pray, we need to also take time to pray for our community—the congregation which we lead in worship.

Apart from praying individually, it’s also great to pray for our church as a team—during team rehearsals for instance.

The point is engaging your congregation begins when you are preparing for the session itselfs.

2. Tune in

There's a danger in trying to keep up with every new song churned out by the worship music industry every day.

Frankly, it's a losing proposition considering the sheer quantity of new material being made available every day!

We can easily get too busy looking for the next great usable song and lose the voice of the Holy Spirit. The natural next step is losing the congregation.

We need to be striving to keep up with the Holy Spirit instead, listening to His heart and finding out what He wants us to sing.

If we tune into the Holy Spirit, our congregations will tune into the worship.

Engaging your congregation is ultimately dependent on Him, not you and I.

3. Imagine

How about spending some time in some much needed reflection and (re)thinking?

I am talking about visualizing our people’s expectations and experiences by putting ourselves in their shoes.

We have to know the people we're leading. The more we become students of our audience the better we'll be able to lead them. - Worship Rocket

Sometimes, it's not a bad idea to just walk into the place where we lead worship and stand where they stand, sit where they sit and look at the stage from where they are.

Do this to get some fresh perspective on our worship sessions on engaging your church.

4. Listen

How about talking to the people on our worship teams?

Asking them what are potential causes of disengagement and discussing possible solutions to overcome them is a fantastic leadership practice—sadly ignored by many worship leaders.

Each member is different, bringing different skills, gifts and personality type into the mix. But when they work together, they produce something greater than the sum of the parts. - Jon Nicol

As much as we hate to admit it, we don’t have it all together—we need help—and there’s nothing wrong in taking help—especially from the very people we are ministering with.

I strongly believe, the people we are serving with can bring in fantastic ideas on engaging your church in congregational worship.

5. Consider the song mix

Do you also consider the needs of the people when you 're choosing songs for worship? Or is it simply, "I like the song, so I will use it"?

Traditional hymns, familiar classics, a new song, and so on... have a good mix of songs.

Let’s not become one trick ponies that can only pick and play one particular type of songs.

Good set-lists tend to have something for everyone.

Additionally, consider the following questions too:

• Look at the lyrics... are they making sense?
• Are the songs fitting into the overall theme of the day?
• Are the lyrics worth singing together? Worth singing to our Almighty God?
• Are the songs appealing to the culture and tradition of our Church?
• Are the lyrics able to teach Godly truths and explore the Gospel?
• Think about how people of different age groups would feel about the lyrics that we are singing; would they make sense to everyone?

The right mix of songs has a lot to do with effectively engaging your congregation.

Engaging your congregation during the session

6. Smile

Sounds too simple? Maybe it is.

But a major turn-off for people is to see a stiff worship leader going through the motions.

You may possess fine technical / musical / vocal skill, but it’s of no use without a sense of connection.

Please smile, express happiness to be there worshiping with your people and ask them to smile at each other too—after all, we are supposed to be a community of brothers and sisters worshipping together.

And while you’re at it, please open your eyes and look at your people. The more you keep those eyes tightly closed, the more aloof you appear to be, preventing you from engaging your congregation well.

7. Focus on engaging

It's critical to work on connecting with our congregations over and above just musical excellence.

Our musical artistry and pastoring of people need to work together to create an environment that welcomes participation instead of causing disengagement.

So don't just stand there and go through your set-list like a robot. Do you have moments to pray, read scripture, be in silence during your worship session? Or it is just song after song after song?

It's darn easy to go through a set like a musician playing a paid gig. We on the other hand, need to be thinking more about drawing people into worship.

Learn to speak to your church, open your heart to them, tell them a scripture verse, your struggle, your aim for that session etc. Remember we are in this together; it's never 'us and them', but always 'we'.

Take a video of one of your sessions and watch it later with your team; you will easily figure out most of your areas of improvement—including how to better engage your church!

8. Use familiar songs

This is probably the no. 1 hurdle that comes in the way of congregational engagement: they don't know the song!

It’s no big secret that worship leaders and musicians learn songs faster than the average congregation, right. Unfortunately, we also tire of songs quicker, and so we keep choosing more new songs, thereby successfully compounding the problem!

Meet them where they are and then take them to newer songs. If your people are elderly, throw in a hymn too now and then. To repeat an earlier point—let there be something for everyone in your set-list.

If you must use new songs, take time to teach the new song, repeat each section many times when playing it for the first time.

Be patient with people and don't have more than one new song in a set-list. Maybe two at the most if the songs are simple enough.

As a rule of thumb, more familiar songs and the least number of new songs is the better way to go to improve how you engage your people.

9. Let them sing

Extend some sections of the songs—maybe the chorus or the bridge or a few key lines in the verse by repeating them one or two times more than usual—stop playing / singing and invite your people to sing instead, thereby creating what we can call congregational solo moments.

Not only does your congregation get to hear themselves, it can be nice to give everyone's ears a break from hearing your band's wall of sound... This puts a healthy sense of pressure on them to sing. - Tommy Walker

You'll enjoy this as much as them, trust me!

Another alternative is using responsorial songs where the worship leader sings a line, and the people sing something in response to it. Songs like "You are worthy of my praise", "Hallelujah glory", "He is the Lord (show Your power)" and so on.

10. Balance your sound

• Check your volume level, is it too high or too low?
• Are the vocals heard well above the musical instruments
• Is the drummer pounding away too much?
• Is the electric guitarist overplaying all over the song?

If people are unable to hear themselves, they won't feel like singing, it's as simple as that.

Work on setting a comfortable and balanced sound.

11. Infuse dynamics

Is everyone playing together at the same time from the start to the finish of every song? Is yes, then, there's a problem.

Stop thinking like a musician and put on the attitude of an arranger.

A good worship session needs to have some quiet intimate moments as much as those high anthemic moments. Too much of both is bad.

Figure out which instruments need to be playing in which sections.

More importantly, figure out when they don't need to be playing! If there are no valleys, there would be no mountains, right?

Engaging your congregation after the session

12. Invite feedback

Hang around after the gathering, walk around and get a feel of their experience during worship.

Being an introvert myself, this doesn't come naturally to me, but I've worked on it over the years and it's a lot easier today!

Talk to people in the hallways, in the seats, etc. Leave your green room and engage. Be a culture shaper. - Jeremy Armstrong

Listen dispassionately to their views whether you agree or disagree with them. You can always evaluate everything later with your team.

13. Thank

And most importantly, don’t forget to thank

• your people for being there and for their participation
• your worship team for serving with you
• the Lord

Worship as a ministry is highly pastoral though people see the musical side of it more. Connecting and engaging with people should be among our topmost priorities.

Let’s remember the opening line of this article: If the congregation is not involved, it's music, not worship.

How do you engage with your congregation during worship? Can you share your top tips in the comments?

'What to say when leading worship' is a topic that's not given the important it deserves.

I mean lousy speaking is probably the no. 1 pet peeve people have against worship leaders! More specifically—what we speak, when we speak, how we speak, and  above all—how long we speak!

Now, this doesn’t mean we should stop speaking all together! But, a greater focus on speaking well, will help us add value to the worship with our words, instead of them becoming a hollow distraction.

Singing songs is only one component of our worship—speaking the right things at the right time matters too in the interest of building a positive connect with the congregation.

What to say when leading praise and worship—7 tips to get better at using words

1. Plan ahead

When planning worship, don’t stop with just creating great set-lists. Visualize the moments in the set when it would be appropriate to speak. Prepare for those moments with scripture verses, an inspirational insight, or maybe even something about the song.

You don’t need an airtight memorized script; but don’t leave everything to the last moment either. Plan the content (brief points) around which you will be speaking, in advance. This will shield you from nervous random rambling.

2. Look

Think of it as any other conversation—how would anyone feel if you close your eyes and talk to them? Not cool, right?!

How to say it is also as important as what to say when leading praise and worship .

So, open those eyes and look at your people. If that scares you, here’s a public speaking trick: start by looking at the heads of people (their hair basically!) instead of their faces. People will still feel like you are looking at them.

And smile too while you’re at it.

3. Invite

Let’s say you want the congregation to experience worshipping with uplifted hands. “C’mon people, lift those hands” would sound a bit instructional, and may put off some people.

Instead, we could try something like, “You know, the Bible tells us in Psalm 134:2 to raise our hands and bless the Lord. Can we try that now and use our hands to praise Him as we continue to sing to Him?”

You see, ‘we’ and ‘us’, are better than ‘you’ and ‘do’. That's the best language to use when thinking about what to say when leading worship.

Every move you make and every word you speak will be communicating one of two things - watch me, or worship with me. - Tommy Walker

I loved how Paul Baloche did it during a concert—“The Bible tells us to praise the Lord by lifting up our hands. For those who are comfortable with this posture, why don’t we raise our hands…” (I’m paraphrasing here, but you get the idea).

Be invitational, conversational, and one-of-the-congregation instead of using ‘me’ vs. ‘you’ language. There are not too many people out there who like an aloof megastar.

4. Pick your moments

Don’t speak between every song in the set—that would make us annoying one-trick ponies.

If a lyric needs more explanation, do it at the beginning of the song on top of the musical transitions. You could say a few words during an instrumental solo too.

And btw, stop calling out every line in the song when people have it on the screen anyways—not clever!

If need be, call out only the first line of the next song section (verse, chorus, bridge etc.), so that the person managing the slides, the band, and the people are all in sync with you.

5. Include emotions

People connect better when we rope in emotions and feelings, so feel free to use emotionally descriptive language.

When considering what to say when leading praise and worship, it's also important to speak like a human—so using emotional language is perfectly fine—after all, we are emotional creatures!

Examples: “Let’s experience the joy of singing to the Lord freely!” Or “How amazing, friends, that we are able to join with Heaven now as we worship the Lord!”

6. King of the content is… the King!

Like the songs that we sing, our words also need to point to God—nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else. Talk more about the Lord, and less about ourselves. For e.g., suppose we are singing “You Alone Can Rescue”, we could say something like this:

“Friends, this song is a wonderful reminder that no matter how great the divide, the grace of Christ is far greater; it’s more than enough for all us! Maybe some of us are feeling frustrated at not being able to beat a particular habit, or a sin. Instead, let’s lift our eyes to the grace that has already rescued us!
This grace will surely lead us home! Trusting this grace, let’s sing the chorus again with joyful and thankful hearts!”

To sum up—let’s choose words that glorify God, and draw people to Him. This is a key element when planning what to say when leading praise and worship.

7. Watch the clock

You know what's worse than speaking wrong?

It's speaking long!

No matter how wonderful a speaker you are, the worship leader’s speaking can only make passive listeners out of the congregation.

Our more important goal is active congregational participation. So consciously practice brevity and limit yourself to 30-45 seconds.

If you want to speak longer, you better be super-led by the Spirit!

Also, to maintain clarity and focus, it helps to share just one thought or scripture verse at a time.

I am sure you agree that speaking well is important when leading worship. Do you find these tips useful? Can you drop a comment and share what works/doesn’t work when planning what to say when leading worship?

When we do something over and over and over again, regularly, it becomes a routine, right?

The problem is that anything that we treat as routine usually becomes boring after a point.

So is the case with leading worship or any other ministry.

Boredom inevitably leads to burnout. How we handle burnout is important—handling it well strengthens us and moves us forward. Not handling it well can be frustrating—for us and for others.

It can damage our lives and/or ministries seriously and sometimes permanently.

So here are a few tips to manage burnout and turn things around quickly.

5 ways worship leaders can overcome burnout

1. (Re)discover the ‘why’ of ministry

Think about it for a second and search your heart—why are you leading worship?

Because you’re paid for it? Because there’s no one else around to get the job done?

Because you can play acoustic guitar and sing at the same time?

Because it makes you the happening person in your church?

Because it’s a step towards a Christian record deal? The point is when the reason for our ministering is not so good, burnout is predictably faster.

So pray about it and find a God-centered and church-centered mission for your ministry.

Sound reasons will help us to remember our purpose and revive us when we need to be revived.

2. Take a break, but don’t take a break!

If you’re leading worship every single week, trust me, you’re on the express highway to ministry burnout!

Give up that position every now and then—may be for 2 weeks in a month to someone else.

But don’t break off completely—stay on the team as a musician/backup vocalist/slides manager, and see how the other worship leaders are approaching the ministry.

Maybe they’ll take up songs that you may not usually consider and thereby help you to learn something fresh.

Doing something else breaks the routine to a great extent and provides us the opportunity to acquire new perspective.

3. Invest and equip

Identify potential people for the ministry and start investing your time in them—pastor them by teaching what you have learned through the years.

Believe me, training is a great joy in itself.

Just preparing the teaching material has been an internal shot in the arm for me and it should be the same for you too!

Sharing our knowledge and experience and mentoring others is a wonderful way of rebooting ourselves apart from raising up others for the Kingdom.

A focus on others more than self is a powerful remedy for burnout.

4. Reprioritize

If there is a need to re-prioritize people and things in your life, do it… now!

On a fundamental level, God must be first, then spouse, then child(ren), then parents, then ministry, career and so on.

Getting your order of priorities right is as good as winning half the battle.

5. Do something different

Increase your quiet time with God, go on a silent retreat alone, take a vacation with family, watch/play some sports, catch a movie, read a new book… you see, leading worship is not your whole life.

If you’ve made it so, go back to (4).

“It is striking that even some who clearly have solid doctrinal and spiritual convictions frequently fall into a lifestyle which leads to an attachment to financial security, or to a desire for power or human glory at all cost, rather than giving their lives to others in mission. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of missionary enthusiasm!” – Pope Francis

Have you ever gone through a burnout phase in your life? Why not share how you managed to come out of it by leaving a comment below?

Worship is more than a song—yes, we know that. Still, it fills us with dread when we have to lead worship and the nearest musical instrument is at least a mile away!

Have you been there? If yes, you'd know the feeling!

We depend on music and musicians to fill the worship environment so much so that without them, it feels kinda empty, right!

On the other hand, such sessions are good times to remember and put into practice an important truth: music is just one among the many vehicles available to express our worship.

So how do you lead worship without music?

5 ways to practice that worship is more than a song and engage people without music

1. Songs

Use simpler, shorter and familiar songs—teaching longer and complex songs without a musical instrument is a daunting challenge and I am yet to see anyone do it successfully (myself included).

Use choruses or responsorial songs where you sing one line and the people sing the same line or a different line back to you (E.g. Hallelujah Glory, He is the Lord (Show Your Power) etc.)

2. Scripture

Use loads of scripture—verses from the Psalms work really well as also other 'songs' in the Bible like the Magnificat for instance.

Read the verses aloud, designate one verse as a 'chorus' and encourage people to repeat it back as a response when other verses are being read.

For example, if we are using Psalm 8, we could fix the 1st (and the last) verse as the 'response'. "

"Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" (Psalm 8: 1,9)

The worship leader can then read each verse one by one and pause after each verse for the people to respond with "Lord, our Lord, how majestic..."

3. Praise prayers

In a small group, we can also request quick praise prayers from the people; short testimonial praise/thanksgiving prayers with a few moments of free praising at the end of each prayer.

In case, your group is not too comfortable with shouting out free praise prayers, use one or two lines from a song as a refrain instead —a good example would be "God, You are my God, and I will ever praise You."

4. Chants

Contemporary Christian songs are not the only musical genre for worship!

There are other types of beautiful music too—like chants.

They are short, easy to learn and you can repeat them easily to create a meditative/reflective atmosphere.

Lookup YouTube for Taizé worship videos to start with.

5. Listen

It's good to call for times of silence in corporate worship too.

As much we like to do many activities when we worship, waiting on the Lord in silence is also equally important—because it's in those silent moments that we are able to listen to the voice of our Lord.

So it's only right that we give Him time to speak to us, right?

The goal for corporate worship with or without music from a worship leader's perspective remains similar: to engage people and facilitate them to participate actively and authentically.

Hopefully, these ideas will help you become more comfortable to lead worship without music.

How else can we help people stay aware that worship is more than a song? Why don't you leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Experience teaches us loads of stuff that can rarely be learnt from any other source. However, experience also brings with it the curse of going through the motions.

I mean, we've led worship so many times that now, we are able to do it with our eyes closed (pun intended!) now, right?

Have you been there? If you have, then you know the fallout of reaching this point: stale worship that bores us and the congregation!

In this post, let's look at 3 questions, which I believe could help refresh us and gain new focus in our worship.

3 questions for reflection that could transform how you lead worship

1. Are you self-indulgent?

Check the content of what you're speaking—is it full of 'I-me-myself' stuff? If it is, you're turning people off more than you realize!

Here's the thing about effecting pastoring: If we want people to be interested in us and our ministry, we need to be interested in the Lord and His people first.

Speak about the Lord and His works more and you will see people responding better.

Be a caring pastor who exalts the Lord and engages His people than a self-indulgent bore who punctuates every word and sentence with the "I" pronoun.

2. Are you a clone?

Don't get me wrong, imitation is a good thing—though it depends on who we are imitating!

But, maybe you're attending way too many conferences and trying to implement everyone else's methods but yours... maybe you're spending disproportionate amount of time with your guitar than with the Lord... maybe you hero-worship Redman, Baloche, Tomlin, Brewster, Houghton and want to be like them so much that you've become a clone of them and lost yourself in the process.

The Lord wants you leading worship the way you lead worship just as much as he prefers Redman leading worship like Redman.

So, if you've been over-influenced by someone else, turn around now and be your unique self—even while implementing the good things we learn from others.

3. How deep are you?

• Do you pray daily?
• Read/study the Bible, spiritual books regularly?
• Invest in training yourself and your team?
• Or are you one of those mediocre worship leaders happily swimming in shallow waters?
• Do you pick songs that have solid meat to feed your congregation or are you satisfied with any catchy tune out there?

In the long run, people always respect and connect better with depth—not superficiality.

Do you agree? How else do you think we can maintain a God-focused worship ministry? Feel free to leave a comment and share your thoughts!

The best worship teams don’t need to have the best musical or vocal talent.

But they undoubtedly need to have the best of relationships within.

Anointed worship teams are more often than not made up of people who genuinely like each other, regard each other positively, encourage each other, and treat each other fairly.

When the people in the worship team are bonding well with each other, engaging your congregation in worship will also become greatly easier!

It’s not too difficult to understand that it’s probably because in God’s eyes, it’s wonderful and beautiful “when brothers and sisters get along!” (Psalm 133:1, MSG).

In fact, God loves it so much when His people get along that He “commands the blessing” (Psalm 133:3 MSG) when we manage to!

One of the best things we can do as a worship team, when there are struggles to get along with each other is to check our attitudes—most of the time, that’s where the challenge lies!

So let’s look at some attitudes that we need to be avoiding to build, and maintain excellent worship teams

4 harmful attitudes that spoil relationships in a team

I am the best

Musically, maybe that’s true—in any team, some musicians will of course possess greater skills than others. But, that’s no reason to rub it in all the time sporting an I-am-better-than-you attitude.

And, it need not be confined to musical skills alone. We can also express things like “I pray longer, so I am more spiritual”, “I can quote more scripture, so I am holier”, “I am a full-time worship leader, you’re not, so I am more anointed”, and so on.

Remember the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14? At times, we can tend to be like that Pharisee putting others down, and raising ourselves up. God didn’t like it then and hasn’t changed His opinion since.

You need to change, not me

Remember those times when we listened to a sermon thinking, “I hope _______ (insert team member name) is listening to this point and understands it’s for him/her!”

We love to see others change, but we just cannot see it as easily when we need to. “It applies to others, not me” is not an attitude that helps the team in any way!

Many a time, we need to be the change to bring about transformation in our ministry.

I am never wrong

It’s impossible for anyone to be right… all of the time! Though we know that no one is perfect, we find it so hard to acknowledge to others when we are wrong, right?

But guess what, the people in any team who command more respect, are those who are willing to admit it when they are in the wrong.

I don’t need you

“For no matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are a part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn't be a body, but a monster. What we have is one body with many parts, each its proper size and in its proper place. No part is important on its own. Can you imagine Eye telling Hand, "Get lost; I don't need you "? Or, Head telling Foot," You're fired; your job has been phased out "?” (1 Corinthians 12:21-24 MSG)

Need I say more? This is a brilliant Bible verse to apply to our worship teams!

Let’s remember that none of us have the right to say to a person in our team that he/she is not needed—it’s probably one of the worst attitudes that we can carry!

So let’s stop grousing that our guitarist is not like Lincoln Brewster; or our drummer is not like Carl Albrecht.

Instead, let’s aspire for contentment with those that we have been blessed with, and joyfully look forward to growing together in unity and harmony.

When there is mutual respect and bonding within the team, the payoff for everyone including our church is multi-dimensional—we will be well able to tune into the heart of our God; our rehearsals will be pleasant, and productive; our ministering will be blessed; our congregations will better connect through our authenticity; our relationships will be deeper than just a “ministry colleagues” level; and more!

Mother Teresa once said that a family that prays together stays together—it’s no different for a worship team! Let’s worship together, stay together, and edify the Body of Christ.

While some of these are picked up from personal experience, I’ve learnt more by listening to others—so i am keen on hearing from you.

Do you agree that better relationships lead to better ministry among other things?

From your experiences, can you share what else can negatively affect relationships in a worship band?

In Philippians 1:21, St. Paul makes one of those jaw-dropping statements that can be meditated on for a lifetime and more:

“…For to me, to live is Christ…”

Wow!

How about letting this verse impact our worship?

Let's think about it—how amazing would it be if we could live and lead our sessions in a manner that inspires us to say, “For to me, to worship is Christ!”

In this post, let’s look at some of the ways in which we can engulf our worship into the vast expanse of the wonder of Jesus.

4 Tips to lead Christ centered worship

1. Embrace death

No my friend, I am not advocating suicide.

I am talking about dying to self and letting go of our fleshly desires to make worship attractive/interesting/entertaining—for that would turn the spotlight that belongs to Christ alone upon us.

Instead, think about what Jesus would want from His Church's worship and lead out of that mindset.

Out of this embrace of self-death, our dependence will shift from our talent/ability/experience to the Holy Spirit who will then bring out a worship that's far more authentic and holier than we would have otherwise offered—trust me on this one!

2. Represent Christ

I doubt any of us will ever declare “Imitate me as I imitate Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1) like St. Paul!
But that doesn’t mean we don’t strive to be Christ like either. Here are a few questions to ponder:

• Am I still arrested by the love of God or is it the lure of the stage these days?
• Am I pursuing God’s will as the food of my life or is it all about me, myself and my latest favorite song?
• Am I willing to encourage, train and equip others in worship ministry or am I wallowing in insecurity possessively hogging the stage?
• Do I value integrity and personal prayer-life above ministry?

Can I take suffering in my stride or am I constantly murmuring when things don’t go too well for me?

Your team and others watch you and when they see Christ in you, they will follow your footsteps far more comfortably and confidently—inevitably, this will also reflect positively in the way your stage ministry functions.

3. Tell The Story

Check your song lyrics—are we too caught up with songs about me, what I can do for God, my emotions and feelings and so on? While such songs are not bad by themselves, too much of them can skew our worship towards self-centeredness than God-centeredness.

Let’s sing more about the greatest story of all—of Christ saving us again and again and again!

Sing of His Cross, His mercy, His justice, His Blood, His ridiculously extravagant love, His resurrection… you see, a gospel focus is crucial to instill joy and life into our worship.

Let's make the story of Jesus Christ the cornerstone of worship.

4. Marry songs with Scripture

When selecting songs, let's not just be seduced by things like the melody, other musical attributes or the songwriter's reputation.

Rather, it's important to use the mind too when following the heart. Let's strive to use songs that are correct in theology, rich in lyrics and firmly grounded upon the Word of God.

At times, it’s also helpful to take a few moments to explain the song, maybe even quoting the scripture verses that the lyrics are based on.

Carefully choose appropriate verses from the Bible and read/recite them between songs or over an instrumental interlude during a song. Keep it short with 1 or 2 verses, else it could be distracting.

5. Communion

I've said this before, but I'll say it again: There's no other tangible means of placing Christ at the center of our worship than the Eucharistic meal.

It brings alive the Story right before our eyes enabling us to join with John the Baptist and joyously proclaim, 

“Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29)

Let's lead the kind of worship that routes us to Communion—there's no deeper climax to worship than this—not the most artistic of lyrics or the sweetest of melodies.

For it’s at the table that Christ becomes the sole focus of our worship enabling us to joyously proclaim, “For to me, to worship is Christ!”

Okay so those are my thoughts—but i am keener to hear yours. What does it take to lead worship that’s centered on Christ?