This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission from purchased products at no additional cost to you. See my full disclosure here.
Do worship planning in less time with better results. Three steps for worship leaders to clean out their song closets for easier decision-making.
Purging your song base is key!
- Too many old songs is just boring
- Too many new songs and no one worships
- Where’s the sweet spot?
Sometimes I feel like Goldilocks and the Three Bears on Sunday morning. Goldilocks went through the house tasting porridge, checking out chairs, trying out beds. Experiencing the extremes until she found one that was JUST RIGHT!
That bed was too hard. That one was too soft.
That’s what we are looking for … the worship set that is JUST RIGHT!
So, read on to find your own sweet spot. And a few tips to keep it JUST RIGHT.
The Size Of Your Song Repertoire Affects Worship
What Is A Song Repertoire?
Your song repertoire is like your wardrobe. How many clothes do you have to choose from?
Too many clothes get messy. You can’t find what you want. You don’t remember what you have. And digging through piles is a waste of time!
But unlike your fashion styling, the size of your song repertoire has a big impact on Sunday Worship.
Too many songs in your repertoire will negatively affect your worshipers’ experience.
And it also causes the worship leader more work and unnecessary stress.
How Can The Sheer Number Of Songs In Your Repertoire Affect Worship?
- Too many songs mean your best songs are not being repeated enough to become familiar.
- Newer worshipers are especially confused because every song feels brand new to them.
- For the leader, decision-making takes longer and is less effective.
100 Songs Are Too Many. And 40 Songs Are STILL Too Many
Most churches sing a certain number of songs on a typical Sunday. Our church sings 5. Yours might sing 7. I’ve been to a few that sing only 3.
Whatever your weekly number of songs is, multiply that by 6. And that’s more than enough songs for your repertoire.
That’s how big your worship closet is. That’s what will fit.
… Unless you want things messy, lost, and stressful.
3 Types Of Worship Songs You Need In Your Church Repertoire
Song Type 1: The New Song
New Songs Awaken Our Spirits
Think about the last time you heard a brand-new worship song. Maybe you were getting ready for work or driving in the car. But a lyric grabbed your attention. Or you were so moved by a chorus, you actually stopped in your tracks.
When a new song catches my attention at home, I quickly yell, “Alexa, what song is this?” hoping to capture the song title and artist so I can look it up later and listen again.
If I love the song and learn the title, I search for the lyrics because I didn’t hear them all. I want to read the full message and soak in the words. I search for it on YouTube and listen again.
That’s the impact of a new song.
If I resonate with it in some way, it piques my curiosity. But I’m still figuring it out.
Keep in mind, that is the response of your Sunday worshipers when you introduce a new song. While your team has been practicing, listening, and absorbing … to your worshipers, it is brand new.
They are curious and they are awakened. But they are tentative because they are not familiar.
A brand new song typically should be repeated at least 3 times in a 5-week period.
I often do a new song two weeks in a row. Take a week off and do it again. Then go to every other week. By then, it becomes familiar and moves into the once-a-month playlist.
(Click here for my new top worship songs each month.)
Song Type 2: The Familiar Song
Familiar Songs Draw Us To Deeper Worship
After that new song becomes a favorite, it just sticks. The words echo in my mind.
The new song becomes intertwined with my soul.
Hearing just the introduction, I yell to my Echo, “Alexa, volume 8!”
I’m moved to worship. I know what’s coming and even have words memorized that I never intended. I feel the song. It has become part of me.
(I label familiar songs “CURRENT FAVORITES.”)
With familiar songs, we don’t have to stare at the lyrics on the screen anymore. We aren’t nervous to sing out a wrong note because we know what’s coming next.
When a worship song becomes part of our being, we are more free. We can close our eyes, at least in part. And we are not just making music singing words. We are singing with our spirits.
Familiar songs should make up the majority of your repertoire.
These current favorites are sung about once a month.
Song Type 3: The Tired Old Song
Old Songs Connect Us To A Timeless God
We live in a time-bound world. Everything changes. People change. Situations change. Our culture is dynamic, along with our lives. The same is true with a familiar song.
Just like the Velveteen Rabbit or your favorite old sweatshirt, after a song has been well-loved and long-sung, something changes.
The Familiar Song Becomes A Dearly-Loved, Old Friend
The song will always be a part of us. And dearly loved. But it no longer awakens us or moves us the way it once did.
The song has done its part. And WE are changed.
I may still keep the old song in my closet to pull it out on a gloomy day –– to feel its warmth and comfort.
But it’s no longer my day-to-day inspiration.
Tired, Old Songs Have Beauty And Value
- They connect us to our history.
- Their nostalgia brings comfort and calm.
- They remind us of God’s timeless nature –– He is age to age the same.
Old songs need to be part of your song repertoire. But a small part.
They are warm memories. Old songs often remind us of God-moments of the past. Times when the Creator met us in our joy. Or in our sorrow. They might even be bound to a collective church memory.
The Two-Fold Caution Of Filling Your Set List With Too Many Old Songs
First: To Newer Worshipers, Your Old Songs Are Unfamiliar
They hold no meaning. And your church is a growing and dynamic community.
If your set list is filled with old, familiar songs, you may have 200 favorites that your congregation has sung for decades.
But for new worshipers, it’s like going to a reunion for a high school they never attended.
They will never be familiar and get to know all your old friends. Because there are just too many of them. Your newest worshipers are kept on the outside.
Second: By Hanging Onto Your Comforting Old Friends, You Leave Room For God To Do Something New
And He is always doing something new!
Old songs should make up the smallest portion of your set lists. For us, hymns are included in this category. We include old songs a few times a month.
Worship Leaders: Here’s 3 Steps To Clean Out Your Worship Closet
Too many worship leaders are running off a song repertoire of 100+ choices. No matter how many songs you do on a Sunday, sorting through 100 is too much.
- It adds to your stress in decision-making and wastes time.
- Your songs aren’t being repeated enough to be familiar.
- Your closet will only hold so much.
As you add new songs, you need to get rid of the old. And you NEED to be adding new songs. Because they awaken us!
Quit hanging on to good songs. Keep the GREAT songs.
I once used the Marie Kondo method to purge my clothes. And while I can’t say I talked out loud to my clothes as I discarded them, I can say the results of the rest of her process were quite freeing.
So, taking what I learned from Marie Kondo, the Organizing Queen, let’s clean out some worship closets!
Step 1: Eliminate & Purge Your Worship Song List
Survey your songs and only keep the ones you love.
For me, this means chord sheets printed on paper. For you, it may be a list on a spreadsheet. But I think something beautiful happens when your physical body is involved in spreading out your chord sheets. Picking them up. Scanning the lyrics. Singing a bit.
(Looking at a list on the computer just isn’t the same.)
As you go through your songs, keep only the ones that bring you joy. Spark emotion. Quicken your spirit.
Be choosy. It will be difficult. You only get to keep 30. (And honestly, that’s still too many.)
When purging, you also need to keep in mind a mix of fast, medium, and slow tempos, as well as songs fitting for communion or other elements your church may include.
This can be a painful process.
For most of us, we are eliminating songs with deep connection.
While Marie Kondo teaches to thank your sweatshirt for its service, I think it’s quite appropriate to thank God for each song. For its beauty. For its impact. Before you move it to the “retired” pile.
Step 2: Organize Your Chord Sheets By Song Type
Staying organized is one of the keys to time management. Finding what you need means it needs to be kept where it belongs.
I use brightly colored file folders. My worship folders are labeled:
- Current Favorites
- Hymns
- New Songs
- Retired Songs
- Mostly Dead: but keep for special services
The first 3 folders I carry around with me a lot –– back and forth to practice and to church.
The Retired and Mostly Dead files hang out at home. But I know where to find them if needed.
Step 3: Maintain Your Organizational System
If your closet holds only 30 songs, then every time you add a new song, you need to retire an old song.
This may sound harsh, but songs really do get old and stale.
If you get into a habit of singing your current favorites once a month, by the time you introduce a few new songs each month, you’ll be ready to send some into retirement.
Remember, “retiring” songs don’t mean you no longer love them. It just means you are making room for new songs, introducing them with enough frequency so they become familiar songs.
And it begins a wonderful cycle. A cycle that eases stress, feels natural, and has a refreshing rhythm.
(Instead of tossing a song, I use the word “retire” because it’s just kinder! It makes me feel better as I take songs I love, or once loved [great, beautiful, skillfully written songs], and put them in a folder labeled “RETIRED.”)
Yes, You Really Only Need 30 Worship Songs In Your Current Repertoire
Yep. Actually less. I use 16-18 songs a month.
Our church sings about 5 songs a week. 5 songs a week means 20 song slots to fill for the month (5 songs x 4 weeks = 20).
20 Worship Song Slots = 17 Songs
- 2 New Songs = 5 slots total (because these are repeated a few times in a month)
- 12 Current Favorites, each sung once a month = 12 slots
- 2 Hymns = 2 slots
- 1 Retired Favorite = 1 slot
That’s why 30 songs for your repertoire is generous and doable with plenty of variety. I only need 17.
And next month, when I add 2 new songs, I’ll retire 2 current favorites.
This keeps it fresh, but familiar.
- New Songs become Current Favorites
- Current Favorites become Retired Songs
- Retired Songs come back for a visit now and then
And the cycle goes on.
With this system, each current favorite is happily sung for 6 months, give or take. And usually sung a dozen or more times a year.
How I Use This System To Plan A Month Of Worship Orders In Half The Time
When I’m at my best, I plan a whole month at a time.
- I look at my current favorites and start slotting them in for once a month. It’s so quick! Half of my planning is now done.
- Next, I look at my new song options and usually introduce one toward the beginning of the month. I slot that into 3 spaces within the first 5 weeks. Usually week 1, 2, and 4. Then I introduce a second new song and play it two weeks in a row (weeks 3 & 4).
- If there are themes like communion, Thanksgiving, or I know the pastor’s sermon titles, I give that some thought, move a few things around, and maybe find a retired song or two to add to the mix.
- I sort through my hymn folder and find a few of those to include in the month.
- Because I plan with my guitar, my colored file folders, and my chord sheets, I end up with 4 stacks of songs, one for each week of the month. Each pile has 5 songs.
- I start to fiddle through the orders, testing transitions, and reordering where it’s not quite right.
In the end, I have a month of worship orders complete in the time it used to take me to do one week’s order!
As the weeks pass, I may make some changes.
Sometimes a new song isn’t as well received as I thought and I scratch it completely. Or I feel inspired by another song that wasn’t in my original plan.
But it’s so much easier to adjust a plan in place than to start from scratch each week.
Leave Room For The Holy Spirit, Intuition, And Team Input
In all this planning, leave room for flexibility and changes.
Sometimes during practice, a well-planned order doesn’t feel right.
Or because of the mix of team members or instruments, it’s just not clicking.
Going back to the story of Goldilocks, if it doesn’t feel JUST RIGHT, God may be nudging you in a new direction.
Be open to changing the orders you make. They are just a framework.
For me, 9 times out of 10, my orders for the month remain in place. But when it doesn’t feel JUST RIGHT, swapping a song or even flip-flopping the order sometimes makes everything click.
Do You Have Another System You Use To Put Together Your Worship Orders?
Please leave a comment below and share what works for you!
Read More
Worship Leading In A Small Church: 4 Keys To Wake Up Your Worship
This post came at just the right time as I struggle through making a song list. Right now I have 40 songs on my list. We introduced Build Your Kingdom Here 3weeks ago, but it just didn’t resonate with the congregation, so we’re going to drop it.
My problem is, I feel like we do the same songs over and over. Our congregation does well with hymns, so we do one a week. I realize I need to purge more! Thank you so much!
You are doing great! I really have seen worship leaders with 200+ songs they pull from. So 40 is great. One hymn a week is awesome – and I never include hymns in my “number”.
When you say you “feel” like you do the same songs over and over, assess whether you really are – or if it just feels that way. If you are doing favorite songs just once a month, do you feel like that’s too much?
Sometimes I have to step back and realize the congregation doesn’t eat, drink, and breathe these songs as I do. So if they sing a favorite song once a month, for them, it really only is once a month. (PS – my congregation wouldn’t do well with Build Your Kingdom either. 🙂 But I applaud you for giving it a try. Sometimes you never know and you just have to give it a shot. PLUS your worship team probably grew by learning it. So all is good.)
how do you categorize your songs and plan your songs. I know some people use different paid websites for their worship order. what are some cheat ways to organization the worship set?
Hi Jean Marc – I’m no longer the current worship leader, but, honestly, I’m a paper-girl. I like my paper! I’ve always had paper file folders with NEW, CURRENT, RETIRED, and SPECIAL OCCASION song folders. I made a mess when I planned, spread out my paper chord sheets, and got inspired with my guitar. That’s it for me. When I found a new song, I’d give it a shot, and if the team and the congregation liked it, I’d move it to my CURRENT folder. When my CURRENT folder got too fat, I’d go through and RETIRE songs that were tired. That’s how I did it! But I have worship leader friends who even use excel or google sheets to categorize – not me though!
Your articles are so helpful! When our worship leader fell by the wayside nearly three years ago and we had no pastor we took turns in leading worship, preaching etc. great for growing gifts in a congregation of under 30 but our repertoire is now out of control. My son is now Worship Deacon and I’ve sent him this article. Hope we can implement your points! Thank you for sharing your experience and wisdom.
Awesome, Chris. I’m so glad. We have so much else we want to write to help others too. We also have an online Worship Minsitry for Small Churches planned for October 2022! Super excited to encourage and equip more in worship in small churches! Thanks for you comment!
I have been leading worship for over 30 years, and am not professionally trained by no means. Actually a former rock and roller guitar player saved having my own Damascus Road experience when the Lord pierced my aspirations of being famous, and said “I will use you to spread my Word in song from now on”, and I humbly said yes, Lord.
All that being said, I have in my collection over 100 contemporary worship songs, and that many Hymns. My method is to work closely with the Pastor, what his sermon is, and the scripture text in selecting my songs each week. Since I have recently started with this current churchI will begin the process of teaching them the songs that I’d taught my former church. Many of the songs this group already know, but a few they will need to learn. I use the process similar to yours, two weeks in a row, then a week off or two. Might even use it as a Prelude to introduce it a week prior to them singing it. My church is a small congregation, less than 50 (but once over 100). Hope to be a part of inspiring it to grow by reconnecting the congregation to God through worship.
I enjoy reading websites like yours, that teach me how to be all that God intends for me to be in leading worship. So much for me to learn yet.
Hi Tom! Welcome to our community! Fun to have you here. I’m so glad you have a system that works for you! My systems definitely aren’t the only way to do things for sure, but I’m so glad you’ve found our site encouraging and helpful!
This is nice. Thank you for sharing
You’re welcome!
Great stuff! After many years in the worship ministry (playing guitar and singing backup), I finally started leading worship. First, leading for a prison ministry for 3 years. Now, I’ve been leading at a smaller local church (around 115, give or take) for several months. It’s been a great experience and I really enjoy leading worship. But I never enjoyed picking out songs. It just seemed really stressful. I was constantly second guessing myself. Have we done this song too many times? Am I introducing new songs too quickly? Is my perspective of when a song has been overplayed tainted because of all the time I spending listening, practicing, and running through these songs? These questions were always running through my mind.
I just ran across your article the other day. For our church, I felt like I needed to modify a couple of things, but I’m still using your basic approach. It didn’t take long at all to plan out the next 4 months, and it was actually kind of enjoyable! Of course, there’s still the flexibility to change things as needed. But this gives me a good structure to work with. Thanks for the great article!
Fabulous! Glad you found it helpful! … yes to modifying and adjusting! Every church is unique because the people in it are too.
great content, thanks for sharing
Glad you find it valuable! We love sharing what works in small churches.
Hello Laurie.
Greetings from Nairobi, Kenya.
As a church music minister for over two decades, now a trainer and mentor, I must say I found your article truly refreshing. You shared a ton of wisdom for small churches (even some larger ones, I think). I especially liked the idea of dividing songs into the different categories. I realize that I’ve always done that (to a large degree, including dividing them into sub-categories based on language) but hadn’t come round to verbalizing exactly what it is I do and why. Your article has helped me find the words for it. Thank you so very much.
I’ll be sharing the link to this article with others in my social network.
I’m so glad you found it helpful. Blessings in your ministry!
Thank you so much for the wonderful guideline! I’m a teenager who’s just looking to learn how to truly worship and lead worship, and this will be extremely helpful when choosing songs and creating a list to pull from. I play for very small groups and don’t really have a mentor or teacher for these things so thank you, thank you, thank you for your posts! 😊
Do you have any tips on what someone who plays solo without a team might want to do?
Wow Riley! Good for you! I’m so glad you are finding our website helpful. If you’re asking for tips on worship leading solo, I would choose singable songs that your congregation relates to – and definitely put them in a singable key (as close to the range between middle C and high C). Have you read this one yet? https://smallchurchministry.com/worship/. ((also, we are working on creating a basic worship leading mini-course in the future too!)) so keep an eye on the blog and you’ll find lots more to come!