Pauline L
From unknown
Hi Guys...
One of the things my leadership want is for me to look at setting a new song list for use in our small mid week groups (we currently have a home made book thing of songs we use)
So I have spent the last 1/4 since taking on the role of worship coordianator/pastor recording the song list from each service... who lead it and then breaking that down so we have a list of all the songs used and the frequency of use
So my question now is HOW DO I USE IT? Obviously it highlites the high frequency songs which is great...
Any suggestions gratefully received.
Pauline
Hmmm... ok maybe you misunderstand me here. The leadership didnt ask me for an audit... I did it cos I'm not sure how to go about doing a completely new song book. I cant see how it will be anything other than really limiting... I also dont see the point to be honest...BUT leadership want a little book that people use in the mid week group to use for worship. That currently exists, BUT it is quiet dated now and needs redoing.
I know some worship leaders have a 'hotlist' of songs that they use a lot...maybe I need to look at something like that?!
I dont always pick the songs for Sunday worship, it depends which of my team of leaders we have leading. We also dont have a 'band' so to speak. Just a few people who can play guitar another couple who play keys and some backing vocals (oh and sprog who will do bass or acoustic guitar)
As discussed before in other threads, our PA team struggle the more things we add into the mix so we tend to limit things to a guitar and singers...If I'm on leading i will often add a bass guitar and maybe a celtic drum (that only works cos I insist if people serve on team with me we do set up and practice Saturday pm so we have time to sort out the PA problems instead of it all being a big mess Sunday morning) . So to stay on track... it's not a question of whether the musicians can play the songs...
I sit down with leadership and put together the worship rota for a full term at a time. I know who is preaching and they know who is leading worship etc. Usually I ask for a basic theme if I am leading... I leave it up to the others if they ask/correspond with the preacher. The worship leader emails out the song list by Thursday pm to enable singers and the laptop dude to sort out lyrics etc.
I have 5 lever arch files full of lead sheets going back approximatley 20 years...The problem being many are vineyard or other 'denominations' and our church is a new fronteers church. Leadership want to worship to be characterised by newfronteers material. So when I bring songs that are way old from say Vineyard expecting people to know them I find they have NEVER been used in this church as they try to use predominantly NF songs. This doesnt really work for me as I dont actually know which writers are NF etc... worship is worship for me it is irrelevant which songs come from which 'stable' so to speak. BUT I do try and follow their request where it is feasibly possible.
Sorry... that got quite long and convoluted! also dont intend it to sound critical of my leadership please dont read it that way.
Hi Pauline
It sounds like the request is - basically - the leadership wanting to update your song list to include New Frontiers stuff.
I know people think that worship is worship, but if (by your own admission) the material you've got is a bit dated, chances are that they want to refresh it.
Amusingly enough, I sometimes get fingered in church for not playing enough Vineyard material, but my take on it is that the Vineyard material is characteristically "intimacy", whereas I feel you need a good mix of stuff. My wife used to go to a New Frontiers church, which I went to when I visited her. I loved the celebration aspect of it, but felt like it was pretty poor on intimacy. That's also a function of the size of band... you sometimes need a bigger band to make a few of the songs 'jump' a bit more as they're scored for a full band.
Do you have any other contacts at other New Frontiers churches? I'd simply give them a call and ask them to put you in touch with whoever leads worship at their church, and ask if they have any resources you can copy. For a lot of our songsheets and word books, I just call the office at Trent or some of the guys on the worship team there and get them to email it over. They're already written it out, no sense in me wasting the effort to do it again.
If you do that, you can also form some relationships with other NF worship guys, and find out who's doing what. I should imagine NF might have some links to their worship stuff from their website too.
Hi Joe... thanks for that. I think it would be a good idea to try and make contact with other local NF worship leaders!
As for stuff being dated. The book that church use now is dated. It was already in existance when I came to the church 2 - 3 years ago and has not been updated since. So yes I agree with leadership for the need to update it.
I'm currently in the process of introducing new songs from lots of different sources (including NF songs I come across) But have to take it easy. Leadership believe that we should only introduce 2 or 3 new songs A YEAR. It's the age old that leadership are not musicians problem so they really struggle to learn new songs and assume everyone else learns them as slow too.
I'm currently attempting to introduce about 2 a term (having discussed this with leadership and agreed on the strategy approach) using a strategy for introducing new songs so that they become 'familiar' quickly. Rather than it being all haphazard... ie. someone brings a new song and then it isnt used again for months and is therefore in effect a new song next time it pops up. I liked the method either you or Matt F talked about and have adopted that for now 3 weeks on 1 week of 1 week on and then bob's your uncle so to speak.
I've just introduced Our God is Greater and it has been assimilated and taken up really well.
I think I might look up some other NF churches and go visit... see what materials they are using etc and have a chat with their worship leaders etc.
Good plan.
The process of song introduction should be continual. We're probably introducing at a faster rate than that, but mainly as we planted two years ago, so had to go from a limited range of songs, so we've brought them in faster. Matt's suggestion as to how to introduce songs is a really good idea, and we do it in a fairly similar fashion. We also tend to introduce a song if we think it's the right thing to do, irrespective of how many we've already done.
The rate at which you introduce them would be dependent on the need for rapid change. The good thing about doing what you pastors have suggested - ie. small group songbooks - is that you can introduce what you like a lot more easily in that sort of environment, so that when it comes to the church congregation, you've got some people who know it!
Definitely do go and meet some of the other NF worship leaders. I'm sure they'd be very happy to help you out. My sister-in-law is still involved with the worship ministry at the Stroud's church (Christchurch) in London, so I could probably get hold of Rhys (their worship pastor) or one of the team and ask them to get in touch with you...
Have you thought of a spring bound songbook?
then you can add pages at the back as new songs come on line.........
as to being denominationally loyal.......
sorry, I REALLY disagree with your leadership on that one!!
But the thing is that you're serving your leadership's vision, not your own, and if that current worship isn't going where they want it to...
Martin we currently have the song book in A5 ring binders so yes we can add the new songs in the back of the book, BUT the existing songs are not on individual pages, so you would need to know what songs are in the 'new songs' at the back etc to be effective finding songs quickly etc in the middle of spirit lead worship.
The leadership are not asking for exclusively NF songs, BUT want it to be obvious from our worship that we are a NF church. In their mind that means using a lot of NF stuff. I would agree with you that being denominally loyal is not the way to go... in doing that we miss the blessing of so many excellent songs that God can speak to us in. It limits us as worship leaders when we know the most perfect song to speak into a situation or, that God is prompting us to use... but we cant because it isnt a NF song. That isnt actually what is going on here in my church... we can and do use different peoples stuff, it is just not well known so they are in effect brought as new songs although they can be 10 years old!
Joe... yes my leadership have a set vision of what worship is. I can respectfully bring to them my own vision of worship, and they are very open to me doing that. There have been some instrumental changes in how we do worship from me having some challenging discussions with the leaders about how we do stuff, fo example we made changes to the worship at the end of a service that now makes it so much easier for people to be open to the Holy Spirit's prompting for example.
The leadership and I are a partnership... a team. We are learning how to work together to achieve what we believe God is wanting for our church. Sometimes that can be a bit tricky when we disagree, but ultimately they are the leadership... they are open to me bringing my view point, but I come under their authority because that is the right thing to do.
I think I've gone off topic somewhat here!
Nope, all good discussion...
Incidentally, my sis-in-law said that Rhys is responsible for supporting worship across the UK for NF churches, so you've got a good enough reason to drop him an email right there. Give me a shout if you need his contact details.
OOOOOOkkkk in that case I will email you right now!
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Why do they want this?
is it so they can see you're actually doing something?
I have two lever arch files with about 250 chord sheets. some get used more often than others and if I want to introduce a new song, then I introduce a new song.
new songs need played a few times before the folks get a grip of them, and old favs can be wheeled out once a year and thier fans will jump on them with gusto.
the CCLI fees are the same regardless of if you use one song six times every service or six different songs every week.
if your musicians are up to playing the songs you pick, then other than the preacher saying "any chance of...... it'll fit the sermon" what use could they have of doing this?
we have a policy of the preacher doesn't tell the music people and the person choosing the music emails out the song choices a couple of days before the service and the clergy are on the recipients list. half the time the clergy don't even know whos leading but equally, half the time we don't know whos going to be preaching! we're all part of the same team and we trust eachother, and even though it shouldn't, it still amazes us how often the songs fit the sermon perfectly. its almost as if the Holy Spirit was involved somehow.........