New Service - New Songs

About five months ago I started leading worship for a more traditional church here in the Nashville area that wanted to incorporate a more contemporary service.

This has been a slightly challenging experience for me because I am used to a congregation being more familiar with what I consider to be a few "standards",  or favorites, such as "Here I Am To Worship", "Blessed Be Your Name", "Above All", "Open The Eyes Of My Heart", "Heart Of Worship, etc. This has not been the case though, as these songs are still new to many of those in the congregation.

I have taken the approach of teaching a new song almost every week. This is coupled with me learning one or two new hymns every week and chording them out to be a little more modern.  This give and take seems to be working well.  The service is growing and people are excited and are responding well, but this does prompt a few questions:

1. How many new songs do you introduce a week/month?
2. How long should it take to introduce a modern worship style in a more traditional church?
3. What can we do as worship leaders to bring the congregation along without alienating them?

Comments

[Mona]

Hi David!
Since July, I too have been leading worship in a new church - new to me - that is Southern Baptist. I've not been in a denomination for YEARS and so it's all been a learning experience for me. Respecting those comments that began with "we always did, or we've never done that" I realized that I was treading on new territory, like a pioneer. So I had to rely on the Holy Spirit more than ever. Now, seven months later, the new songs then are old songs now, and the hymns are more precious to me. Easy does it is my advice. Keep it simple. And HAVE FUN! It's about serving the master, and He will direct your path, so rejoice!

[Bridget Willard]

I introduce one or two new songs at the most and repeat the new song three weeks in a row. If it doesn't catch on by then I drop it; even if it is one of my favorites...

Every congregation has a song so to speak that they long to sing. If we listen for God to speak to us and through us, we will be amazed.

I've been the worship leader at my church for a year now and all of my favorite moody Bm songs that call for the fire of God and waiting for him, etc. totally bombed out (where in other places at other times they became our heart's cry).

One song has really become our anthem: "You Have Been So Good To Me" by Paul Baloche.

More than anything new songs new new new seem to frustrate the congregation more than anything.

My goal is to make the lyrics their very prayers.

Hope this helps,

Bridget Willard
Calvary Chapel Seaside
Laguna Beach, CA, USA

[John Voelz]

Hey, man. I introduce 5 to 6 songs a quarter. Usually, we will sing a song two weeks in row, lay off a week, then bring it back the next week. They overlap so that by the end of a quarter--on the last weekend of a quarter--we are doing an entirely new set of songs they hadn't been singing three months prior. It's always fun for me to get to that last weekend of the quarter and think, "wow, these songs are so fresh."

John Voelz
Westwinds Church, Jackson, MI
(posted while sitting at EMI)

[Carrie]

Bridget,

Our church has also loved "You Have Been So Good"! Our youth group also loves that song. It is such a wonderful song!

Carrie
Ft. Wayne, Indiana

[BJ Stricklin]

David
I am one of the worship pastors at The Summit Church in North Little Rock, AR. Your question about how many new songs and how long is one that I think is different for every congregation, but there are some general rules of thumb out there. For instance, Tim Hughes in his worshipcentral.org podcast said one new song a month is a good rule of thumb for people to really catch on.
At our church, we plan everything around series. These series are usually three to six weeks. Depending on the length, we will pick one or two songs that really encapsulate the message of the series ( or our response to what is being communicated) and we will drill those songs during that series. For instance, as we have begun a series to mobilize our church to reach out to the community, we are doing "Let God Arise" and "God of this City". These songs really encapsulate a passion for God to move in and through us to reach this city.

This is a general rule of thumb for us but it seems to work well.

Another thing that is working well here is to make a cd of 5 or 6 new songs you want to introduce and play it as preservice and post-service music. This way people have at least heard the song when you do it.

[Leigh]

hi,

i am from the Philippines and most of our young people are on-fire with the new generation music BUt problem arises coz the elders can't jive on the type of music. They can't sing well..this means they can't worship well because they don't know what we're singing. Even if the songs are shown in our overhead projector,oh well, the elders have vision problems now eh.

[Andrea]

I went through just this thing at a church that was used to one songleader, pianist and organist using a hymnal and one older chorus book. I love a team and so started adding a couple of vocalists and guitars - and writing out chord sheets for their well-loved hymns - modernizing them a little. Soon we were introducing some new music but never more than one a week and surrounded by a music package that always had a mix of hymns, older choruses along with the new. It was amazing how quickly a full worship team developed with drums, bass guitar, guitars, keyboard and how some of the older generation were so appreciative...even if it was more about seeing the younger people involved in worship than the newer music itself.

[Andrea]

Oh, and since our team was on a rotation with other teams that were more traditional than ours - a new song would only be introduced about once a month.