Tag: Song selection

Sermonizing Harmonizing

One of the ways worship leaders can better serve their congregation and their pastor is by choosing songs intentionally and purposefully to underline and respond to the preaching of God’s word. Not every song has to line up perfectly with the theme of the sermon, or be based on the same passage of Scripture, but when all of the songs during a service are completely unrelated to each other and the message, it can result in no single message standing out at the end of the day.

In most of the weekend services at my church, the sermon comes toward the end of the service. Because of this, I’m usually most concerned that the closing song, which comes directly after the sermon, is carefully chosen.

For years I tried to do this mostly by guessing. If the pastor thought to mention something to me about what kind of song would work, then that would be great. But most weeks I was just hoping I got it right. Sometimes I would. But other times I would find myself sitting in the service thinking, “I wish I knew he was going to say that!”

So in recent years I’ve become more diligent about hounding the preacher in the week leading up to his sermon, to get as much information as I can to help me pick songs, particularly the closing song, that both underline and help people respond to the message.

Here are some ways you might be able to do the same:

If he writes it out word-for-word, get a full transcript
Whenever John Yates, our senior pastor, is preaching on a weekend, I will get a word-for-word transcript of his sermon on the Thursday leading up to it. This is invaluable. I take time to read it, chew on it, and then prayerfully discern what songs would help people respond to this most effectively.

If he preaches from an outline, ask to see that outline
Some of the other pastors at my church don’t write their sermons out word-for-word. So I’ll just ask for their outline, or any notes they have. Sometimes I get a lot, and sometimes I get a little. Either way, it’s still something.

If he hasn’t yet finished either a transcript or outline, ask him what he’s thinking
I’ll oftentimes email whatever pastor is preaching and say something like: “I’d love to have any crumbs you can throw my way to help me pick a closing song that works well with your sermon. Any ideas? Specific songs? Themes? Anything?” I’ll almost always get a helpful response. I don’t need an awful lot of information – just some sort of indication of the direction of the sermon.

The key question to ask yourself and the preacher is: how would you envision people responding to this message through a song?

Don’t try to summarize the entire message in a song. You probably won’t be able to, and even if you are, it might be information overload. Just help them respond. It will look different every Sunday, but by asking yourself this question, you’re helping to avoid a mishmash of messages. Say that five times fast.

Read the Lyrics First

One of the best pieces of advice I ever received about choosing new worship songs was to read the lyrics first. Since melodies and harmonies and rhythms and grooves have such a way of grabbing us, they can drastically affect how we perceive the strength of a song. Great melody? There’s a good chance you’re going to think it’s a great song.

I’ve gotten into the habit now of, whenever I can, reading through the lyrics of an album or a particular song before I ever listen to it. If someone recommends a song, before I look for it on iTunes or YouTube, I Google the lyrics. While there are exceptions, in most cases, without hearing the music, you’ll be able to spot a well-written song or a not-so-well-written song with more objectivity.

A great tune can turn a bad song into one everybody wants to sing. Likewise, a bad tune can turn a good song into one that no one has any desire to sing.

But I don’t think the problem with most new songs being written is that they’re great lyrics being set to sub-par tunes. Usually, the problem is either (1) neither the lyrics nor the tune are worth introducing to a congregation, or (2) the tune is catchy but the lyrics are weak.

It’s easy to criticize – and that’s not my intention. Rather, my encouragement to worship leaders who have the responsibility of choosing songs is to set the bar high – very high – for the kinds of songs we introduce. This means looking past a melody or a groove that grabs us on the first listen, and discerning whether the words of the song are equally as substantive.

Bob Kauflin taught an excellent seminar at the 2004 Sovereign Grace Ministries Worship God conference called “Choosing Songs Wisely”. This completely changed my thinking on this critical area – and you can download a free mp3 of his teaching here.

What To Do With The Sanctus

I can’t be absolutely certain, but I would say it’s a safe bet that there has never before been a blog post with this title in the history of the internet.

The “Sanctus” (rhymes with bonk-toos) is the song that appears in the communion liturgy after the opening call-and-response prayer that goes something like:

Celebrant: The Lord be with you
People: And also with you.
Celebrant: Lift up your hearts.
People: We lift them to the Lord.
Celebrant: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
People: It is right to give him thanks and praise.
Celebrant: It is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth. Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with Angels and Archangels and with all the company of heaven, who for ever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your Name:

Then we sing the Sanctus (“Sanctus” is Latin for “holy”). The text for this song is something along the lines of:

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.

If you lead worship in a church that is either nondenominational or fairly informal in its liturgy, you might not use this kind of liturgy for communion. But if you’re in a liturgical church, you’ll probably know what I’m talking about.

And whether you do communion every week or once a month, you might find yourself asking the question: “what do I do with the Sanctus?”

There are many different settings of the Sanctus in various hymnals, but if you’re like me, not many of them are all that appealing. Because of this, it can be tempting to stick with the one good setting of the Sanctus that you have and use it every single time. When this happens, the Sanctus can get to be predictable, rote, and boring.

Worship leaders who lead in the context of a liturgical church can work within the confines of that liturgy to help introduce and maintain a freshness and heartfelt engagement on the part of the congregation.

In this instance, with a song that can easily become robotic, we can use different settings and even different wording to help keep people engaged. The “Sanctus” is meant to be a song during which we join in with the song that all of heaven is singing around the throne. Whether or not we use the exact text as is in the Book of Common Prayer or use a beautiful melody shouldn’t be our primary concern. Rather, our concern should be stirring people to exalt and magnify God as we sing with all of heaven.

Here are the four songs I draw from to use as a Sanctus.

1. Holy, Holy, Holy Lord (Hosanna) by Peter Scholtes
This is an older one – but with some energy it still works well. Every recording I’ve heard of this song is pretty slow. I do it faster, around 100 bpm.

2. Salvation Belongs to Our God by Adrian Howard
Technically, this isn’t a “Sanctus” because it doesn’t have the traditional wording. But, when you use the first verse and chorus, it fits really well in the liturgy. Coming after the celebrant says “therefore we praise you, joining our voices with angels… and all the company of heaven who forever sing this hymn…” it works well to sing straight from Revelation 7:10,12: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb!”

3. We Fall Down by Chris Tomlin
Again, this isn’t the traditional Sanctus text, but it still fits well. “We fall down, we lay our crowns at the feet of Jesus… and we cry ‘holy, holy, holy’ is the Lamb”.

4. Be Unto Your Name (chorus only) by Lynn DeShazo and Gary Sadler
“Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, worthy is the Lamb who was slain. Highest praises, honor and glory be unto Your name”.

Typically, the Sanctus isn’t a very long song. It lasts for about 30 seconds to 1 minute, and then the liturgy continues. So don’t repeat these very much, if at all, unless your pastor is OK with extending that portion of the liturgy.

It’s hard to find good settings of the Sanctus. Hopefully these suggestions help if you’re looking for some new ones, and please feel free to share any that I’ve missed!

Say No to Woah

Imagine with me that King David had decided to write Psalm 103 this way:

Verse 1:
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love
and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Pre-chorus:
Woah, oh oh. Woah woah woah oh oh.
Woah oh woah. Woah oh oh woah, yeah.

Chorus:
The Lord works righteousness
 and justice
for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Bridge:
Woah, oh oh. Woah woah woah oh oh.
Woah oh woah. Woah oh oh woah, yeah.

Thankfully, and Holy Spirit inspired-ly, David left out the woahs.

What am I supposed to be thinking when I’m singing “woah”? To whom am I singing? Is this like a high school cheer or something? Am I telling a horse to slow down? I’m confused.

And my guess is that most (all?) of the people in the congregation are confused when a worship song breaks into a section of repeated woahs. For this reason, I tend to say no to woah.

In other words, woe be to woah. Or, woahs are a no-go.

In 1 Corinthians 14:15 Paul says,

What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.

It’s for this reason that as worship leaders, we should be leery of asking people to stop using their minds for a little while and just sing words that have no meaning. The melody might be creative and the recording might sound cool, but very little is being sung in those moments that will feed anyone or help anyone exalt God’s greatness.

Psalm 103 doesn’t need a section of “woahs” to give it a “lift” or a “hook”. It stands on its own. While worship songs are certainly not holy and inspired Scripture, I don’t think it’s unrealistic to have an expectation that they’ll be able to stand on their own as well, without the woahs.

Don’t Teach Too Many New Songs During the Summer

It’s summertime. In Washington D.C. that means two things: First, it’s ridiculously hot. Secondly, everyone goes on vacation.

This is the time of year when people take advantage of the kids being out of school and the weather being warm to get away. Especially in the nation’s capital, when congress isn’t in session, people scatter. It’s amazing how much shorter my commute is to and from work!

During the first couple of summers at my church I made the mistake of introducing too many songs. I began to realize that, especially during July and August, a larger percentage of people are missing on Sundays than usual. So when I was introducing new songs, it took them longer to catch on since they were newer to more people for longer.

In the months of the year when most people are in town, it might take a song two or three Sundays to get familiar. In the summer months, it might take four or five. It depends on the song, of course.

It’s good to keep your repertoire from getting stale and to introduce new songs – but during the summer months you might want to slow the rate down. Introduce a new song and then wait three weeks to introduce another one. In the interim, if you’re desperate for something fresh, pull out an older song you haven’t done in a while and change up the arrangement. Or find a hymn your congregation doesn’t know very well and use it. A critical mass of people will have heard the hymn before and they’ll help you carry it.

You never know how many people are going to be away on a Sunday. Some Sundays are more full than usual, and then other Sundays you wonder where everyone went. You’re probably better off leaning towards more familiar songs in either case and introducing new songs more slowly. Make sure you get a vacation too!