Focus
Here we sing songs that are primarily about his attributes and character. It's OK for songs to talk about "us" too, but the dominant theme, especially the first songs we sing on a Sunday, needs to be God-centered. Songs like “Holy, Holy, Holy,” “Praise to the Lord,” “Your Love Oh Lord,” “All Creatures,” “Father's World” give you an idea. These songs are mostly about him, highlighting his attributes, some aspect of his character. Another way to say this is to say that we want to start with a wide-focus lens on, so songs that promote an expansion of our thinking about how big God is can help here.
There is always freedom to shift this if we need to. For example I really felt the Lord telling me to play “A Prayer of Faith” as an opener recently because we needed to hear the message that God has some to teach us, and that we need to listen for his voice above all the other competing voices and pray that prayer of faith and so I "broke" my own rule. But by and large we'll stick to that idea. As always, all I ask from the band leaders is that if they move away from this kind of opener, just have a good reason for it, and then be willing to articulate that pretty clearly.
- 1st song - The rule of thumb is to start with something familiar (and God-ward).
- 2nd song - This is where we intro new material if we have something new. Or if a song is less known than the others, do it in the second slot. I say to my guys, "Don't feel the need to do a new song every week. In fact, you shouldn't do that, as we have plenty of songs we currently know and can improve on--songs which deserve both rehearsal and congregational time." Also, if one band is the only one doing a particularly new song, that band needs to keep playing that new song in the second slot for a few services before it becomes a "regular" song. This puts the emphasis on the worship leader's ability to--lo and behold--lead people through instruction and practice.
- 3rd song - This one, like the opening song, should be pretty familiar and this can also be a spot for preparing people for the sermon/scripture topic or theme of the day.
Important Note: For all the focus songs, avoid songs that have long instrumental passages or that use more “free” or “spirit” singing. Two main points here:
1) First, our job up front is to engage the average person in the pew, not just the hyper-charismaniac who free-sings every song, or the live music nut who goes to see five shows a week at the Pageant. We are targeting the average person, and my experience tells me the average person in the pew feels left behind when there is a long instrumental section or introduction or a section where we are doing more "free" or "spirit" singing, especially at 9AM in the morning! These kind of songs tend to fit better during the response time anyway.
2) Transitions, while always important, are probably more important up front than anywhere else in the service. This is because the beginning of the service is when people feel most tentative and when awkward pauses stand out the most. Make sure your transitions lend to the flow of the service as opposed to bringing it to a screeching halt.
In the next post, we'll hit "Response" songs.
