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Set List Survey
06Feb08
Do you ever find you get to the place where someone starts a song in worship and you think; 'if I hear that song one more time I'm going to throttle someone!'
Recently at HTB/SPOS we've been thinking about the songs we use in our times of worship on a Sunday. We have 7 services on a Sunday and for the last 3 months have asked each worship leader to send through their set lists. Our intern and budding mathematician, Beth Coulson has collated this information and come up with the graph below.
It's been a really useful exercise for us as a team. As you can see the songs we've been playing lots include, 'Mighty to Save,' 'Love came down,' 'Never let go,' 'Everlasting God,' 'Great is Your faithfulness,' and 'Happy Day.' Because these songs work really well they end up on the set list all the time. However we've definitely got to a place where we've overdone these songs and are in danger of killing them off once and for all! As a result for the next 2 months we've decided to rest, 'Mighty to Save,' 'Love came down,' 'Everlasting God,' and 'Great is Your faithfulness.'
One of the reasons for doing this is that it forces us to think more creatively when choosing a set list. Sometimes it's so easy to pull out and rely on the classics. Now we're having to find other songs that perhaps we haven't used as much. We're on the search for some new material. All of this brings a freshness to the church. Also it means we don't kill the songs off for good. In 2 months time it will be great to re-introduce some of these songs again. People will enjoy singing them having not sung them for a while.
Sometimes as worship leaders we need to force ourselves to think creatively and outside of the box. We've found this process to be really helpful. Perhaps you might want to look through the songs you're singing to find out what songs you are relying on. Also it's great to see the themes that you're singing about. Are we singing enough about the 'Father?' (I'm not sure we are). Are we singing enough about His transcendence and His immanence? Are there enough songs of celebration, lament and intercession? It's so healthy to reflect on the songs and the theology that we are singing week in week out.
I thought it might be cool for people to perhaps add their most recent setlists below. Sometimes it can be really interesting to see what others are doing.
Anyway let us know your thoughts.
Cheers,
Tim
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makes interesting reading!!
vics
06Feb08Hi!
Just wondering: are those 35 songs the only ones you play in worship @ HTB?
We're choosing out of a 600+ catalogue every week... And I can assure you that only few (let's say around 50) of them will be played 'regularly'...
Michiel
06Feb08I love the idea of taking your most overused songs and giving them a break for a couple of months. It forces creativity in a way. I do 3 services in the coarse of a week, so it's easy for me to get in a rut. Here's the set lists from those 3 services.
Sunday AM
Glory (Hillsong)
I Worship You Alone (Song I wrote)
Hosanna (Hillsong)
Sunday PM
Come Now is the Time to Worship (Vineyard)
Beautiful One (Hughes)
You Are My God (Song I wrote)
Wednesday Service
Eagles Wings (Hillsong)
You Are Near (Hillsong)
Apparently I went a little "Hillsong Crazy" last week with my song selection.
Jonathan
Jonathan
06Feb08Strength will rise
Yesterday, today and forever
Worship the Lord
Father we love you
When I survey
Worthy you are worthy
This is my desire
Even though I walk
The splendour of a king
Faithful one, so unchanging
I love you Lord
p.s. i cant believe i just answered the maths question wrong!
simon jenns
06Feb08We have about 5 songs written in house that we play a lot, but you wouldn't be familiar with those (yet). Here's what we do from outside the house:
John Mark McMillan - How He Loves Us, I Am A Temple
Delirious - Solid Rock, Rain Down
Hillsong - Salvation Is Here, What the World Will Never Take, All I Need Is You, There Is Nothing Like, Take It All, Hosanna
Desperation - Coming Back, Ready Now, Who You Are, Rescue
New Life - Everlasting God
Kim Walker - We Cry Out
Brian Johnson - Wher You Go I'll Go
Tim Hughes - Haopy Day, Everything
Older tunes we remix - Joy of the Lord (Twila Paris), They That Wait (Kevin Prosch)
Those are most of what's currently in rotation.
Kyle
06Feb08I have to agree - playing the classics that work so well to death is something that happens very quickly. For us, it's probably "One Way" and "Blessed be Your Name" at the moment. There are other songs in our song list that we have "retired" from active service for a while because we felt we played them too much. They still "worked" well, but we felt we were getting to the point where the band got bored with them and that's a pretty good indication that our churchgoers will soon be tired of them as well.
We now even have some songs that we love and that work very well - but very deliberately we only use them on "special occasions".
Holger
06Feb08Sometimes I really struggle when putting together song lists... I lead worship for Sunday morning church, which isn't super traditional but can be at times... and then I lead worship for a young adults service where things are a lot more relaxed. But I lead from the piano, and right now I don't have an electric guitar player so it's hard to do really upbeat songs...
This is my set list from last Sunday-
My Redeemer Lives (Morgan)
For All You've Done (Morgan)
Hosanna (Brown)
Almighty God (Hughes)
Jesus, Thank You (Sczebel)
... but actually, most up those were upbeat so apparently I don't know what I'm talking about :P
Billiejean
06Feb08Blessed be your name (redman)
Strength will rise (brown)
See his love (lockly)
Happy Day (hughes)
Praise is rising (brown)
Glowing Glory ( me!)
I could sng of your love forever (delirious)
Even Though I walk (Redman)
dave
06Feb08This is very interesting & holds true for our worship team. We are a small church and don't have professional musicians/ singers so we tend to do only songs that the musicians are comfortable with or have music sheets. But at the last music practice we set a new goal of learning 1 new song per month. Let's hope we can do this! We also have a tendency to do whole lists from one Source for eg. Hillsongs so Jonathan you're not the only one :)
My list
1. The Lord Reigns
2. Jesus Christ is Lord
3. My Redeemer lives
4. Here I am to worship/Light of the World
5. How Great is our God.
Dorene
FIJI ISLANDS
Dorene
06Feb08The last 3 (sunday morning) services I led in our church:
We stand and lift up our hands
Beautiful One
Who paints the skies
O God of love (How good it is)
Amazing grace
Come, let us worship the King of Kings
Your name is highly exalted
Creator of all things (written in-house)
Worthy you are worthy
My Jesus, My Saviour
How great thou art
The stars in their courses above (All that you are)
The heavens declare (Let us adore Him)
King of Kings, Majesty
Facedown
James
07Feb08