Recently, the topic of creating the perfect praise and worship set has been coming up a lot. I don't know if there is such thing as a "perfect" praise and worship set, but I do believe that there is a way to create a solid praise and worship set. I say that because even if you have the perfect song list or the best singers, there are other factors that go into whether or not your set will be successful or flop. There are 4 things I have learned to do or be mindful of when creating praise and worship sets. These 4 things are in no way the end all, be all, but they are a good place to start!
1. PRAY! PRAY! PRAY!
ALWAYS seek the Lord on EVERYTHING concerning your set. Seek Him on song selection, transitions, theme, etc. Don't just pick songs with no direction from the Lord. Sometimes it seems as if we pick songs out of convenience or songs that we know will get an emotional reaction from the people, but those songs may not be what the Lord is wanting to use or say in that moment. My prayer lately has been, "Lord, what do You want to say to Your people? What do You want them to know about You?" James 1:5 NLT says "If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and [H]e will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking." I have applied this to many areas of my life including creating sets and His word is true! If you don't know where to start on creating your set, PRAY!
2. Transitions can MAKE or BREAK your set!
Transitions are just as important as the songs in your set! What are some ways you can transition
Let's say you're going from a fast to a slow or mid-tempo song. Your transition can be to end big with the drummer hitting the cymbals (I know there is probably a more appropriate musical term for this but I don't know it and hopefully you can picture what I'm saying), then have the musicians start playing the next song.
Depending on how fast the song is you could potentially slow it down at the end and use the chorus or the bridge to transition with the music.
Let's say you're going from a slow to another slow song. You can have the music stop and have just the voices sing which allows the musicians to change keys for the next song, if necessary.
You could have just the musicians make the transition by themselves without any voices. Don't be afraid of silence. Sometimes silence from the vocals and just letting the musicians minister through their instruments can shift things that mere voices can't. Remember in 1 Samuel 16:23, David played his harp for Saul and the tormenting spirit went away. David didn't have to say one word for the spirit to leave, he just allowed his instrument to do all of the talking.
You can do a "mash-up" where there is no break between the songs. You just start singing one song right after the other. This transition applies to fast and slow songs alike.
You could also choose one line of the previous song to repeat that allows you to transition to the next song. This is a good one especially if the line being repeated has the same words as the next song you're going to.
You could talk the transition. BUT be very, VERY cautious when doing this because you don't want to break the flow of worship. You don't want to turn the transition into a sermon. You also don't want to ramble. You want to be clear, concise, and spirit-led in what you say. Nothing is worse than being in worship and having someone start talking about something that has nothing to do the songs or the moment. You can tell their just trying to waste time and fill space. Don't be that person!
3. BALANCE and KNOW who you are singing to!
I did a blog post a couple of months ago on this topic titled, "Do You Know Them?" where I talked about knowing your audience like what style of music they respond to among other things. Let's take this discussion a step further. Our Bishop came in and spoke to us about some statistics concerning the demographics of church congregations today. He told us that for the 0 to 30 year olds who attend church it is very likely they did not grow up in church like previous generations. We can no longer assume that they know the God we're singing about. We can't assume that they know all of the throwback songs like "God is a good God" or "I don't know what you come to do." We want them to join in and participate, but they can't fully because they have no clue what we're singing about. They may not know God is good, because they haven't tried Him yet.
We must make an effort to sing songs that not only encourages our younger generations to worship, but also teaches them about God. How can they worship a God, they don't know about? There must be a balance between the throwback and the now. We can't just focus on the people who have been in the church for 50+ years by singing only old songs that they know. We have to begin to think about those people who are new to this walk as well. Let's be honest, older generations are beginning to phase out and if they are the only people we cater to in our worship, we will have no one left to come behind them because we didn't take the time to cater to their needs as well.
4. Make sure your set is cohesive!
There are a couple of ways to do this. One way is by making sure that your set has a common theme. For example, the set we did this past Sunday had the theme of "God is awesome." So, every song we did spoke about God being awesome. Something to be mindful of is just because it has the same words that doesn't necessarily mean it has a common theme. For example, let's say you wanted to do a set on God's love for us. So you chose "Love Lifted Me," "Falling in Love with Jesus," and "More than Anything." All of the songs talk about love, but they don't all talk about God's love for us. "Love Lifted Me" fits with the theme, but "Falling in Love with Jesus" and "More than Anything" doesn't. Their message or theme is talking about OUR love for God, but NOT about His love for us.
Another aspect of cohesion is thinking about who the audience is for each song. This can be broken down into 3 categories: man to man, God to man, or man to God.
A man to man song would be something like "Bless the Lord with Me." You are inviting the congregation to praise the Lord with you. You are talking to the audience. A God to man song would be "Forever" by Jason Nelson. It is God speaking to us, telling us He'll love us forever. Lastly, man to God could be something like "Chasing after You." We're telling the Lord we will chase after Him because we need Him more and more.
I hope this post helps anyone who has questions about creating praise and worship sets. Remember that these are only a few things to be mindful of, but they really are a good place to start. Let me know if you try any of these things from the list!
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