A while back I wrote a series of posts about the criteria I use when “vetting” songs for our worship gatherings. Those posts focused mostly on how we evaluate songs before we ever sing them together as a church.
What I never really explained, though, is the philosophy behind how many songs we keep in our database, how often we sing them, and how often we introduce new ones.
So here’s a little window into that process.
Right now, I try to keep roughly 60 songs in our active database. Some people might think that’s too few. In fact, I’ve heard the opposite philosophy many times—keep things fresh, keep introducing new songs, keep the variety high.
But I actually think a big part of our role as worship leaders is helping the church sing the best songs well together.
And familiarity is a huge part of that.
When a congregation knows a song well, they’re far more likely to sing with confidence and conviction. When songs are unfamiliar, people tend to listen more than they participate. So for me, fewer songs—chosen carefully and sung well—is usually better than constantly rotating through a massive catalog.
Within those sixty songs, though, not every song has the same lifespan.
I tend to think of them in three categories: short-term songs, long-term songs, and all-time songs.
Some songs are there for a short time. These might be songs we are simply trying out. Sometimes they’re connected to a specific sermon theme or moment in the life of the church. Other times we realize pretty quickly that the song just isn’t sticking. Maybe it isn’t very singable. Maybe it isn’t resonating with the congregation. Or maybe we discover that there’s simply a better song that communicates the same idea more clearly.
Other songs stay around for a long time. These are songs that are resonating in a particular season of ministry. They may fill an important gap in our theological diet, or they may simply be songs that the church is connecting with deeply. These songs often have a level of staying power that suggests they could last for years, though we don’t necessarily assume they will be permanent.
And then there are the all-time songs.
These are songs that I believe are spiritually, musically, and congregationally essential. They express core truths of the gospel clearly. They are singable. And they have proven themselves over time to be deeply meaningful for the church. These songs will always find their way back into our Sunday rotation because they are simply too valuable for the church to lose.
As far as introducing new songs goes, I usually aim for about one new song per month.
When we introduce a new song, we typically sing it two weeks in a row so it starts to feel familiar. Then we might take a week off before bringing it back again. After a few rotations, we can begin to see how the congregation is responding. Is the church singing it? Is it resonating? Is it helping us express truth well together?
From there, we decide whether the song belongs in the short-term, long-term, or all-time category.
And to be clear, none of this is meant to be rigid or dogmatic.
It’s simply a framework. At the end of the day, these decisions are made by a leader trying to shepherd a congregation well. The goal isn’t novelty, and it isn’t tradition for tradition’s sake either.
The goal is to help the church sing the best songs—songs that are theologically rich, musically strong, and congregationally engaging—so that together we can put Christ on display as clearly as possible.
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