• It's online! For about four years, I've been using an opensource program called Opensong, which was a simple desktop application. All my songs were stored locally on my office computer, which meant I didn't have access to them unless I was at the office! There were also a few other worship leaders in my church using the same software, meaning we all had different databases. It was a pain having to email zip files of the song folders and trying to keep our databases synced. In fact, we gave up a while ago...
• It outputs nice-looking charts. Many of the other sites I explored had pretty ugly-looking chord charts.
• It has a specific import function for Opensong files. This was probably the biggest selling point for me. Instead of having to reformat every single song, I can import an Opensong file and Gospelsoftware automatically formats it (including all the song metadata, like author, key, copyright info, etc.)

In worship planning approaches, there are two extremes:

1) The Hard-core-down-to-the-millisecond-controlled Approach

2) The Zero-planning-let-the-Holy-Spirit-lead Approach

As in most areas of life, we should be seeking to find the balance between these extremes - or as my friend, Dr. Ernie, calls it, "The Radical Center."

There are risks involved with these extreme approaches. In the controlled approach, we run the risk of eliminating the leading of the Holy Spirit and leaving no room for God to move as He pleases. I've attended worship services where the worship pastor had the elements of worship planned down to the minute. Literally. Like, "Amazing Grace: from 9:18-9:22. Scripture reading: from 9:22-9:23." On the other hand, in the unplanned approach, we can end up crashing and burning from lack of organization and leadership. I've sat in meetings where the leader deliberately did not plan because he wanted the Holy Spirit to lead. We ended up sitting around looking at each other until someone with a strong personality started talking and proceeded to dominate the meeting.

The end result in both cases is that God is not able to move freely in the meeting - either from lack of time or from lack of leadership. But we want God to be active in our gatherings, right? The best meetings I can remember were times when God seemed to show up in a powerful way and take us somewhere. And as best as I can remember, these times were always the result of planned spontaneity - times when there was strong, clear leadership and also intentional time/space left for God to speak.

So how do we achieve this balance!?

I think as worship planners, we need to plan ahead for "spontaneous" moments during our worship time. It may seem strange (or scary) to plan out empty space in the worship time, but I believe it is the key to allowing God free rein to move in our meetings. It doesn't have to be forced. Just be intentional as a leader - communicate to the congregation that this is a time for God to speak, and then be quiet for a moment. If it seems like there's nothing really happening, then move on! The point is that we pause and give God permission to mess up our schedule!

Last Sunday morning, as I prayed in my truck before opening up the church, I felt a strong leading from the Lord to leave some space toward the end of the worship set for people to respond. I knew I wanted to invite people to come to the front and respond to God in some way, but I wasn't even entirely sure what I was going to say. So I told the worship team that I was planning for something to happen after the third song. Then I told the senior pastor that I was planning for something to happen after the third song.

When the third song ended, I simply shared what was on my heart. But God really hit me, and I got choked up and could hardly even say what I wanted to say. The funny thing is, my emotional response was probably more powerful than what I was even saying. I asked people to come up to the front as we played the next song, and many responded. It was a precious time of repentance and seeking God.

I want to be committed to planning these moments more often - carved out spaces where we let God do what He wants to do.

I created a spreadsheet this week to chart which songs we used for worship at Kingsway Community Church this year. The songs are sorted by frequency of plays.

I only had set lists from 44 weeks because some weeks the sets were prepared by another leader, and sometimes I would do them at home. I'm planning to add the sets from my home computer soon to give a more accurate picture.

View the Spreadsheet

Here are some interesting stats:

We used 105 different songs this year. Of those 105...

45 songs were only played 1x during the year.
22 songs were played 2x
10 songs were played 3x
11 songs were played 4x

3 songs were played 5x
6 songs were played 6x
2 songs were played 7x
3 songs were played 8x
1 song was played 10x
1 song was played 12x
1 song was played 14x

The top 3 songs were:
From the Inside Out - 14 plays
The Time Has Come - 12 plays
Mighty to Save - 10 plays

Each year, I recognize the season of Advent (the four Sundays leading up to Christmas) by adding traditional Christmas carols into our worship sets.

In the weeks of Advent, I typically add two or three Christmas songs to each worship set, and try to keep the focus on the "coming" of Christ (celebrating the first coming and looking towards his second coming) or on coming before the King and offering our gifts. It's always a challenge for me to get the right "blend" of our regular worship songs and Christmas carols.

Here are two lists that I hope will be helpful: (1) 5 Christmas songs that work well for worship, and (2) 5 Worship songs that work well for Christmas.

List 1: 5 Christmas songs that work well for worship.

1. Joy to the World - we do Bebo Norman's version, not the traditional version.
2. O Come All Ye Faithful - the "O come let us adore Him" part can be used as a tag at the end of songs - it's very worshipful.
3. Love Came Down - a Christmas song I wrote a few years ago listen to a demo here
4. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - we do it in 6/8 time like the version by Mercy Me.
5. Hark the Herald Angels Sing - awesome theological content!

List 2: 5 Worship songs that work well for Christmas.

1. Here I Am to Worship (Tim Hughes) - "Light of the world, You stepped down into darkness" - that's what Christmas is all about!
2. Glory in the Highest (Chris Tomlin) - the chorus of this song must have been what those angels were singing on the night Jesus was born :)
3. In Christ Alone (Keith Getty & Stuart Townend) - this song works well because it basically tells the whole redemptive story, including the Incarnation - "fullness of God in helpless babe."
4. Majesty (Jarrod Cooper) - a great "bowing-down-before-the-King" song.
5. You'll Come (Brooke Fraser) - a song celebrating the promise of His coming - "As surely as the sun will rise, You'll come to us."

Hopefully there are some good ideas in those lists. Merry Christmas! Remember to keep Your eyes on Him throughout this Advent season. Amen.