To kick off the New Church Year I have launched our Music Ministry's new six-month song repertoire. There are a few reasons why I have narrowed down our song list to thirty songs. First of all, the common church-goer is simply not able to handle a ridiculous amount of songs. Therefore, as a courtesy to the congregation (who is really the song leader) we should stick to fewer songs in the regular rotation. Secondly, the band is part of the singing congregation, too. We should be freed up to not have to focus too intently on the music. The way this is accomplished for most musicians is for us to have fewer songs to learn and master. Thirdly, song selection is much easier with a smaller list of songs to choose from.
In addition to the thirty song repertoire, I have a running "B" list of songs that is made up of over a hundred songs the congregation is quite familiar with. I can pull from the "B" list at any time, especially if a song fits a given Sunday's topic, but otherwise minimally. At the start of each new repertoire season, I move the overused songs to the "B" list, keep the working songs on the "A" list, and add five or six new songs to the repertoire. I will then introduce those new songs over the next three months, and hopefully the congregation will have them down by the end of the six months. I will repeat the same thing six months from now to kick off the next repertoire season.
How do I choose the songs for the repertoire? Well, for one, I like to have a good balance of fast and slow songs. For some reason good fast songs are hard to come by these days. Perhaps it's because they are harder to write than slow songs. At any rate, with my repertoire system I can control the number of fast and slow regulars by gearing the new songs to be introduced one way or the other. This time around most of the new songs will be fast. Another thing I look for is a good mixture of thematic content amongst the songs: Creation songs, Cross songs, Heaven songs, etc. Personally, I prefer singing songs that are communal (we/us/our), because we are trying to combat the culture of narcissism that unfortunately carries over into our songs. That means less of the songs we sing are in first person singular (I/me/my). I also include a handful of original songs, and I would highly recommend using original songs in your church. Congregational connectedness skyrockets when good original songs are put into the rotation, particularly because the songs were more than likely written as an expression of what the Holy Spirit has done or is currently doing among the local body.
These are mere guidelines generally adhered to. There is always room to, say, add a new song if one arises in the middle of a repertoire season. Oh, and in addition to the "B" list, we have a list of about twenty great hymns and a handful of Advent/Christmas songs that we draw from. We typically sing five songs every Sunday Celebration. Usually at least four of the songs are from the thirty song repertoire. Okay, here's the list of songs with their authors. I would also love to know the songs you guys are singing in your churches.
- All I Have by Brennan & Dobbelmann
- Beautiful One by Tim Hughes
- Bless His Name by Tony Sanchez
- Cannons by Phil Wickham (new)
- Center by Hall & Redman
- Center of It All by Tim Hughes (new)
- Christ Is Exalted by Ryan Flanigan
- Communion with the Trinity by Ryan Flanigan (new)
- Everything by Tim Hughes
- Glory by Reuben Morgan
- Holding Nothing Back by Tim Hughes (new)
- Holy by Brenton Brown
- Hosanna (Praise Is Rising) by Baloche & Brown
- In Christ Alone by Getty & Townend
- Jesus' Name by Ryan Delmore
- Lift High by Fee & Kirkland (new)
- Light of the World Arise by Carter & Flanigan
- Living for Your Glory by Tim Hughes
- Nothing But the Blood by Matt Redman
- O Praise Him by David Crowder
- Sing Sing Sing by Chris Tomlin (new)
- Stand in Awe by Jeremy Riddle
- Take My Life (Here Am I) by Havergal/Tomlin & Giglio
- That I Might Sing (Woe Is Me) by Ryan Flanigan
- The Lord Is Gracious and Compassionate by Graham Ord
- There's No One Like Our God by Beeching & Mitchinson
- Unchanging by Chris Tomlin
- Up From the Fall by Ryan Flanigan
- You Came by Ryan Flanigan
- You Never Let Go by Beth & Matt Redman
4 comments
Comment by Tony on December 2, 2008 at 6:53 PM
This is a really good idea.
I wish we had some kind of list that we go off of. Our last worship leader had so many songs that he wanted to do, so we had the problem of a lot of new songs that people complained about, because they weren't familiar with them. A lot of people in our church I believe are scared to take some steps forward.
Our new worship leader has the problem of too little songs. We probably have a lot of songs that we just repeat. That's why I've felt that worship is kind of rushed and thrown together a bit.
I love the idea of the original songs. We use them on occassion during offerings, and I've always enjoyed what our worship director writes. I wish we had more of them.
Comment by Chad on January 12, 2009 at 2:04 PM
Ryan,
I appreciate your approach to repertoire! I've heard many opinions on how many songs would make the ideal "list". This is the lowest "list" number I've encountered, at least from a musically literate ministry. I'd love to move toward this approach in my own ministry, yet I'm concerned that the list is too small. My formost concern is that the repertoire isn't broad enough to accomodate a ministry that has multiple worship leaders (male and female). I've discovered that many of our songs don't fit the range of our female worship leaders. Many songs are great, but we've had to bring them down a little to accomodate corporate worship, taking them down even further to fit comfortably in a good female range just simply makes them sound ... well ... flat.
In support of your approach I recently started my current position and encountered frustration as I assembled a song list from the previous two years (19 months of which were filled by numerous interm worship leaders) - The list was over 120 songs used within the past two years. I discovered that a song which was used several times was hardly recognized by the congregation.
Right now our active list is around 60 - 70 songs.
Love your blog, keep it up!
Comment by Ryan on January 12, 2009 at 3:30 PM
Chad,
When I first took my new position here in South Bend a little over a year ago, I inherited a song list of similar magnitude. I immediately went through it, threw out the ones I knew I would never lead, asked the former worship leader which of the songs were "home run" songs, kept those in the repertoire, and began introducing other strong congregational songs that I have been successful in the past. I organized our rotation of bands into a more stable structure, keeping the same musicians with each other as often as possible (three different teams). Certain bands do certain songs better than others, so they adopt songs as their own.
I did mention that we have a B list of songs that we still pull from. For example, everyone and their mom and their grandma's dog knows "Open the Eyes of my Heart." There is no need for me to put that in my 30 song repertoire, but I know that if the Scripture or theme calls for that song, it will be a home run when we sing it.
Concerning song keys, at least half of the songs on my list above have been dropped into a more suitable key for congregational ease. Also, I have a female intern who leads sometimes, and as much as we try to keep the songs in the same keys, sometimes we have to drop it down another whole step. I don't think there is any way around the men feeling a bit uncomfortable in the comfort range of most female song leaders. I really challenge my intern to stretch herself to sing in a higher key, and I also try to put a male BGV up there when she leads.
Comment by Anonymous on March 14, 2013 at 12:13 AM
I see that this is now a few years old, but if you still monitor replies, I have a couple of question for you.
Are you still using this 30 song program, ...or have you modified it some since the time of writing this article?
How many of these 30 songs do you sing each Sunday? ...and did that include a second service (eg. Sunday night} using same song pool?
Thanks for joining us and sharing your thoughts.