i don’t pick the songs
at our current church, i’m a member of the worship committee. and the worship committee is made up of others who don’t necessarily have the same ideas that i have.
when i first started leading the music, i was NOT comfortable with this round-table planning committee.
but now….
now i know its a blessing.
see - there’s one man who brought ideas to our group that we never thought of. he’s an older guy. losing his hearing. but, still a fan of the newer worship songs we’re adding. he’s given GREAT feedback on the music, the songs, the hymns, the powerpoint, and the special music.
i’m a better leader because of him.
and, yes, we do songs that i would NOT have picked. but, others in the congregation are blessed by them. and, sometimes we do the order/service/etc, in ways that might not suit ME if i was left alone to plan. but, i think it offers more variety of expression for our congregation.
besides, its not about me, right? its about how i can best serve them as they pour our their hearts before God on Sunday mornings.
how does your church plan services?
are you finding ways to receive input from others who might have a different vantage point?
Good thoughts. At my old church I was responsible for picking every song (with some input from the pastor) and for planning services. In hindsight I wish I would have had others giving some input.
We’re in a church plant, so things are still being figured out, but at the moment the pastor and I plan the general service structure together and leave it up to whoever’s leading worship to pick the songs. We collaborate through writeboard (I nifty tool if you’ve never used it) since we don’t have a central location yet and it seems to work well.
I think in the future some sort of planning/creative team would be fantastic to have.
We currently have a planning meeting on Monday mornings. There are currently 4 of us in on it: Pastor, Worship director, an Elder (who is creative) and myself, the Tech Director. In this meeting we review the service from the day before and work on planning ahead. Song selection, sermon topics, set design, sermon content and timing are all up for discussion in there. We are about to expand and have a group meet somewhat regularly to specifically discuss song selection. Our worship director is looking forward to this because it will remove some of the stress of selection and provide a level of protection around him if people get up tight about what we play. There will be a good cross section of our church represented in there. No more people than we have to have though.
Mandy -
A lot of the music comes from my influence, but I always leave the door open for suggestions. We have a production team that meets weekly to plan all aspects of the service (tech, video, etc) and often they’ll suggest things far beyond what I would have come up with. Even things I don’t like, sometimes. But they turn out to be really, really good.
I read somewhere a statement like, “Their ideas are always better than your ideas. Get over it.” The emphasis was not on the ‘us vs. them’ but ‘us vs. we’. It was cool.
Great post. Currently, we are doing a “U-Pick the Music Sunday” at Topeka Bible Church. People go online and vote for the top 3 songs. Then the top 4-5 songs will be slated for a worship weekend in June. You can read about it and check it out at http://tinyurl.com/6zv66d
At Sojourn, Worship Arts Pastor Mike Cosper has the final say on service planning, although he works with his pastoral assistant. Also, we are blessed to have a large group of people on the worship team, and all are encouraged to share their ideas. Occasionally, one will be a “guest planner” for a week.
As one who is primarily a worship songwriter, as well as our church’s songwriting facilitator (and thus, friends with our many writers) I tend not to offer specific suggestions myself. I don’t want to appear to be pushing my own songs or the songs of closer friends.
whomever is leading worship for the service picks out the music, based on the general topic given and the “matrix” of songs that are used for the particular venue. (we have two video venues and two lives.) then if the head pastor wants anything specific done, you make that happen no matter how short the notice.
for the venue that i lead the venue pastor will make suggestions on songs to teach, but otherwise it’s all up to the worship leader for the service.
previously i was at a church where i would pick the music and then the head pastor would have to approve it each week…i had to have two hymns and two “choruses”…if he didn’t like my choice of songs he would choose others…i would then have to figure out transitions…
i’ve never been a part of the committee approach???
i definitely prefer being able to lay out the flow of songs myself…
We typically have two leaders lead on Sundays. Usually the other leader I work with has another idea about the service and we’re able to combine those ideas together. It’s more work, but it’s awesome.