8 Key Tips For Choosing The Perfect Worship Songs

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Our time of congregational worship during Sunday gatherings is truly impactful. It influences the impression people have of our church as a whole. It sets the stage for the Word of God to be preached and can determine whether those in the room lean into receiving it or not. It helps to shape the culture of our church in general. Worship music can take us into God’s presence for the first time or the thousand and first time. It can strengthen us, call us, encourage us, embolden us, and bless us. It is an avenue through which we commune with our Creator here on earth.

Given all of this, it’s important that we work fervently to select the perfect worship songs for our church. Perfect is not a word we use a lot in regard to church, especially in small church ministry, but there are songs that are a perfect fit for every local assembly. We just have to figure out what they are and what a wonderful privilege it is to fill that role! Here are a few tips for choosing the perfect worship songs for your church!

Why Picking The Best Songs Can Be So Hard

Now, picking the best songs can be difficult because we are influenced by all sorts of things when we start sifting through worship songs. Our own preferences, other people’s expectations, the history of the music program in our small church, what is most popular at the moment in mainstream Christianity, the talent level of our worship team, what instruments might be missing from our worship band, and hopefully the guidance and direction we receive from the Lord.

That’s a lot of information to have to process and when you take into account the sheer number of songs there are to choose from – this process can be extremely overwhelming. It can be hard to know where to begin. So, let’s take a look together at some tips for choosing the songs that will be perfect for your congregation! 

8 Tips For Choosing The Perfect Worship Songs

1. Start With Prayer

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done.

Philippians 4:6 (NLT)

As worship leaders or music directors, our primary job is not to pick songs at random for people to sing, but rather to lead people into the presence of The Lord and minister to the heart of our Great God through song. This means our entire process must begin with prayer. We pray about God giving us wisdom in song selection that through our chosen songs we may glorify Him and engage the souls that gather with us for worship. 

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.

James 1:5 (NLT)

What a blessed assurance that we don’t have to lean on our own understanding to get the job done! If God is leading us, we will be far more likely to lead others well. Let’s saturate our heart, mind, spirit, and song selection process in prayer! Let’s keep God at the center of what we do for His Kingdom and His people! When we do this we will make sure that pride and self focus stay out of the way and that Jesus Christ is glorified in all that we do in leading our church in worship. This is the ultimate goal and the reason why it’s the first tip I want to present to you! 

2. Know The Culture Of Your Church

The identity of your church matters greatly when selecting songs for worship. Demographics within your church matter, the demographics you are trying to reach matter, and the history of your church music program matters. Will the same song set that is engaging in a metro, West Coast city be as engaging in a rural, southern town? Possibly, but not always. The reverse is also true. Many worship songs cross cultural barriers to be sure, but there is going to be a ‘flavor’ or genre of worship music that speaks to your local assembly more than others. If you live in an aged community then pulling songs at random off of the Christian music station might not be effective. 

However, doing a little research to find new worship music that incorporates older hymns can draw in your congregation to fully engage in worship. In the same vein, singing out of hymnals can be beautiful and deeply worshipful – if you’re trying to reach a younger community it may not have the impact you’re hoping for in the long run. Instead, you can marry old choruses with new songs to bring some familiarity to what is sung aloud in your church. These are just a couple of examples of knowing the culture of your congregation. 

Get curious, ask questions about what’s working and not working with your congregation as is, and work to build on what’s already successful. Unless you’re serving a church plan that’s on week one, there’s a lot to consider when it comes to where your church has been on their worship journey. Let that inform, but not dictate, where you lead them next. 

3. Know The Vision Of Your Pastor

Where is your pastor trying to lead your church? The songs you sing as a congregation can have a great influence on the mindset of your church. Is your church focused on a deep moving of the Holy Spirit? Is it focused on celebrating God’s goodness? Does your church have a missional focus on reaching the lost? Does your church have a focus on spiritual warfare? All churches can incorporate many things into their identity, but there is usually a singular focal point that the pastor or pastoral team of your church wants to see your local assembly grow in throughout a year or season. 

What is that focus for your church? You don’t have to make every single song you select have that theme, but you can keep the focal point in mind as you pray about and sort through potential songs to learn. Your pastor will greatly appreciate the effort on your part to support their leading of the Body of Christ. It can also make your job easier to narrow your potential song list down a little through this lens. 

4. Work To Balance The Mix Of Tempos

If all we sing is upbeat, high-energy worship songs, we can be left longing for deeper and more intimate worship moments. If all we sing is slow, deep, intimate songs, we can be left longing for celebratory and vibrant worship moments. It’s a good idea to create a nice blend of the two, including some middle-of-the-road tempos, in your song sets.

As you look to introduce new worship songs into your weekend gatherings – you can ask yourself if one of these areas is ‘top heavy’ in your current mix. What tempo area could you stand to balance out a little bit? Do you need to find some more upbeat songs because you’re singing the same handful over and over? Do you need to bring in some new songs that create space for deep worship? This is a great way to make sure you’re bringing balance to your worship services. 

5. Keep The Vocal Range Of Your Team In Mind

It’s extremely common in small churches to not have a worship team that’s three to five people deep in every ‘part’. You may have one soprano, three altos, and two tenors. You may have a single person able to lead in worship each weekend. You may have two out of three basic parts in each worship service. Whatever your team looks like – keep their vocal range in mind when selecting songs.

If we try to sing heavily soprano-led songs with no soprano on our team then we will end up leaving our team feeling slightly inadequate and disappointed as we teach the songs. We can stretch ourselves and encourage growth without overshooting our actual abilities on a regular basis. Let’s set our teams up for success in leading worship by playing to their strengths! 

6. Play To Your Band’s Strengths 

Speaking of playing to our team’s strengths – let’s keep in mind our worship band’s giftings. While some small churches have a ten-piece band, many worship the Lord regularly with two to three instruments on any given Sunday. Many ‘big’ songs can be simplified to accommodate a smaller band for worship.

For those that don’t sound the same without a full band, you can choose to lean on supplemental apps such as Ableton or Loop Community. It’s good, however, to keep the general strengths and giftings of your worship band in mind when attempting to select the right songs. If your team is led by an acoustic guitar most Sundays then do your search based on acoustic-driven music. Again, let’s set our team up for success! 

7. Be Open To Suggestions

Encourage your worship team and leaders in your church to share their favorite songs with you often. Ask them to send new songs they come across your way. Broaden the scope of how you get new music on your radar. This can fill your suggestion box with great songs on a regular basis and cause you to step outside of your comfort zone and personal preferences in what you are listening to as you are making your song choices over the course of the years! It also lends itself to creating wonderfully diverse setlists and stopping our church services from becoming entirely predictable. Identity and culture are good – stale and boring are not. 

Open yourself up to suggestions, being clear that you just want to listen to a variety of music to expand your horizons, and don’t put yourself in the predicament of someone wondering why you haven’t ‘chosen’ their songs for church. Enjoy the worship music sent your way and pray through the songs that speak to you, asking the Lord if they are a good fit for your congregation. 

8. Know What Isn’t Working

Lastly, and this is important, know what isn’t working in your worship services. If a song falls flat the first time you use it at church it might simply be that change is hard for your congregation. If after two to three times over a few months of singing it, the song still isn’t received well – don’t hesitate to pull that song out of your repertoire. A song can be beautiful, meaningful, and presented with the anointing of the Lord without connecting with your local assembly well.

Unfortunate, but true. It doesn’t mean we made a bad selection, it just means that it might not be the right season for that song in our church. It could mean a different person needs to lead that song next time and deliver it in a slightly different manner. It could mean it was simply a swing and a miss. Don’t be discouraged by this when it happens! Leading a worship team is an art form and we aren’t going to get everything right all of the time. Keep on using these tips to bring great new songs into your church and you’ll get far more right than not! 

Do It With All Of Your Heart

Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for The Lord rather than for people.

Colossians 3:23 (NLT)

As you lead your worship team – do it with all of your heart! You work for the Lord and you serve His people. What an honor on this earth to lead the people of God in worship of His magnificent name! Find great joy in searching out songs that will bless the heart of God and strengthen His people! God has placed you in the role you are in for this time and this season with purpose. May these tips help make the task before you easier and bless you in your worship journey! 

Read More:

I’m The New Worship Leader, Now What?

Thoughts To Share With Your Worship Team

Why You Need A Worship Ministry Handbook