FredMcKinnon.Com

Hey Everyone,

Welcome to the Worship Q&A #1 … I’m excited about this series. If you have a question that applies to worship leadership, please post it as a comment here on the blog!

This week’s question comes from Harry Offutt in Fallston, MD:

How do you find the current bell curve of “current worship tunes”. Is there are source? I need this for churches exploring Contemporary worship. Familiar is way more important than cutting edge, new worship songs to me. But not old familiar. I hope that makes sense.

For example, some churches have never even heard “Shout To The Lord” and it is no where near new. I hear Drew mention songs like “Hungry” and I have no idea which song that is. I listen to some CCM radio, but with dozens of Wow worship CDs on the shelf, how do you pick what is good and generally well received and not just the ones the labels are trying to push?? There’s a lot to pick from!

My Response:

Great question, Harry. I could easily create a “series within a series” to answer that one. There are so many resources out there to choose from. You are so correct in observing the plethora of marketing that goes into promoting “worship music” these days. Not only is there an overwhelming supply of new music, but there is also the process of figuring out what music “fits” your church, the congregation, the culture, and style. That in itself can be a huge challenge as many congregations have a wide assortment of age groups and culture groups represented in one service.

Resources:

Again, there are way too many worship resources out there to discuss in this blog article. I’ll give you a recap of some of my favorite resources that I pull from, and why.

CCLI Top 25: CCLI (Christian Copyright Licensing Intl.) keeps track of the most popular songs as reported by congregations all across the world. As a result, they make their “Top 25 Songs” available online. This is one of the best finds for proven material. You may not have the “latest, most cutting edge” songs in this list, but you have proven songs that work in worshiping congregations. By the way … “Shout To The Lord” sits at #5 from the most recent reporting period. Not bad for a song that is older … but timeless.

Worship Leader’s SongDISCovery Program: I’ve been a subscriber of SongDISCovery since it first launched. This is a compilation disc that accompanies the subscription to Worship Leader magazine. As stated on their website, “Song DISCovery exists as a resource to bring you some of the best new music for worship. Our mission is to equip Worship Leaders with a broad and diverse selection of worship songs and resources that they can quickly integrate and use in their worship settings—the following Sunday and for years to come.” It’s a great resource, but I wish they would feature more indie material – the labels still have influence in getting material on SongDISCovery, which isn’t a bad thing … but I often wish there were more tracks available for tunes that aren’t already heavily promoted by the labels. I still give it a huge thumbs up as a great resource and think any church should foot the small bill for their Worship Staff to have a subscription to this resource.

Label Clubs and Subscriptions: most all of the worship labels have a “direct mail” or “club” where you can get their latest release. I did this for years – getting the latest Integrity release, the latest Vineyard release, Vertical, etc. This is where I got overwhelmed with material and I found that the great songs on those albums have a way of finding their way to worship leaders … meaning, you’ll hear those songs on worship radio, you’ll see them discussed online, and they’ll start showing up in CCLI’s Top 100 and at conferences.

Original or “Indie” Music: this is one area that excites me the most. Some of my favorite songs are those which I’ve discovered through networking relationships or online. It excites me to find a great corporate worship song that isn’t “overdone by everyone else”. It gives something new, something fresh for your congregation. Original songs are even better – assuming you have those in your midst who are composers, singing original praise and worship songs can be a powerful reflection of what God is stirring in your local congregation.

I do a podcast called the “Highest Praise Worship Podcast” (web | iTunes) where I feature some of the original or “indie” music that I’ve discovered online. Sadly, I’ve not been as faithful to crank out those podcasts ever month as I should, but that’s a discipline I’m working on. There are also lots of blogs and worship podcasts (and Worship Confessionals) that are becoming popular where worship leaders discuss their song selections. You can find out about many of those in TheWorshipCommunity.Com where this is often discussed.

Some of my favorite places to find original/indie music are:
IndieHeaven.Com (IH home | my IH Artist Page)
MySpace (there are some great worship bands with original material on MySpace)
ShoutLife (ditto from MySpace, plus you don’t get all the smut on ShoutLife that is on MySpace)

Enough Resources – Weed Down the List

Ok, so we’ve already posted more resources than any one person can keep up with. The next step is to prayerfully consider your congregation. Song Selection is a big chore, and it also will be addressed soon as one of my “Worship Leading Mistakes” articles. Some questions to ask when choosing songs:

1 – does the style of this music fit the culture of my congregation?
2 – is your church’s band capable of reproducing the arrangement, or if not … will a scaled down, more simple arrangement still work?
3 – is this a song that is condusive to corporate participation (not too wordy, too syncopated — these songs can still be used, but sometimes are better as special music or “performance” type songs)

If you can answer those questions with a positive outlook, you may have found a song that works for your congregation. I like to do a new song as “special music” or in our case at St. Simons Community … a “walk in” song and feel how the congregation responds to it.

Ideally, I’d like to keep these Q&A shorter .. but this is a HUGE question, and I’ve only scratched the surface. My main encouragement would be to NOT fall victim to “pressure” to do all the newest, greatest songs. Find what works, and don’t forget to always blend in the older choruses and hymns … there is usually a need for this and a demographic who not only desires it, but appreciates it when you consider them.

That’s a wrap on Q&A #1 … what are your thoughts and what questions would you like to see answered in a future edition?

For the Kingdom,
Fred

Related posts:

1. Worship Leader Pitfalls #2 – New Music
2. What Songs are you TIRED of doing?
3. I’m Officially “Cool” now – see MySpace