When we talk about the work done by the people who lead a congregation in song worship, most of the focus tends to go to the musical skills involved. It may be because these skills are the most visible ones that we see in worship, and the difference between a leader who knows them and one who does not is obvious. So, when we do song leader training classes or workshops we often spend a lot of time teaching people how to read music, use a pitch pipe, and keep rhythm.

These are valuable parts of what a song leader does, of course, but in many ways they are also some of the least important ones, especially compared to how much attention they receive. We all agree that the musical quality of our worship is the least important part to God, even if we ourselves enjoy having leaders who can sing well. Far more important than that is the part of a song leader’s job that is sometimes dismissed as too obvious to even discuss: the responsibility of deciding what songs the congregation is going to sing.

A song leader is the person who gets to decide for a whole congregation what words we are going to be offering to God in worship. That should sound like a daunting task, and yet sometimes I see song leaders who are exceptionally skilled in music flipping through their hymnal to simply pick out their favorite songs at random. Would we accept the same level of planning for a preacher’s sermon or a teacher’s class material? As song leaders, we should be also putting thought and care into our preparation for leading. It is not a bad thing for song leaders to show personal preference in what songs they pick, just as preachers may show it in their lessons, but it does create lackluster worship when the song leader gives their choices no conscious thought whatsoever.

I do not claim to be perfect at this myself, but I do want to share a handful of simple principles that I use for choosing songs when I am leading singing. None of these are hard to understand, but I believe that even just applying one or two of them can have a substantial effect on the quality of the singing in our worship services.

Basic Principles of Song Selection

First, you should have a variety of different kinds of songs. This can be applied in a number of ways, but in general it can be tiring for a congregation to sing too many songs that are too similar to one another. Having some variety in your song selection will make your service more dynamic as you move from song to song. Additionally, a congregation is made up of many different kinds of people who prefer and enjoy different kinds of songs, so it is also good for us to give a chance for everyone to sing at least one song that is closer to their own preference.

When I am choosing my list of songs, these are the qualities that I tend to look at the most for ensuring I have a strong variety in my selections: the age of the song, the length of the song, the speed and rhythm of the song, the genre or style, whether or not it has a chorus, and even what book it comes from (if your congregation uses multiple books). This is a somewhat holistic process: if a song “feels” different to you, it probably feels different to the congregation too.

Second, you should remember to budget the congregation’s voice. People only have so much energy to give for singing, so if you pick nothing but a series of high-energy epics then you are going to end up leaving people exhausted. On the other hand, if you pick nothing but slow dirges, then you are going to have people falling asleep for a different reason. Be thoughtful of how much vocal effort any given song is going to take to sing, and try not to over or under exert your congregation.

To some extent, this adds on to the first point: you want to have a mix of songs with different levels of energy. However, it also has to do with when you place these songs. Having a lot of high-energy songs might not be an issue if you can space them apart with slower songs or other parts of a worship service, giving people a chance to rest their voices. Having two intense songs in row might give some people trouble by the time you reach the end of the second song, especially members with weaker voices. In general, though, it is probably better to err on the side of having too many higher-energy songs than not enough.

Third, you should choose songs appropriate to the part of service they are in. Most song leaders understand that you want to pick an appropriate song before the Lord’s Supper and to pick an invitation song to follow a sermon, but that same concept can extend to all parts of a service. Try to select an opening song that calls the congregation to worship, a closing song that brings the service to a strong conclusion, or a song that leads smoothly into a lesson or a class. You can choose songs that are particularly thoughtful for going before a prayer or a Scripture reading. This rule is one that you can apply strictly to some parts of service and more loosely to others, but it is an easy way to make sure your songs feel like they were chosen with care and intention.

Lastly, you should choose songs to follow a theme. If you are leading singing alongside a sermon or class, the easiest option is to find out what the topic of those will be and pick songs that follow the same thought. Sometimes, the person doing that part of the service may even have a specific song they want you to lead. You might also decide to choose a similar-but-different topic so that your songs explore an idea related to what the lesson will be about, or just come up with your own separate theme altogether.

Sometimes the easiest way to find a theme is to simply pick the first song you want to lead and base all the rest off of that first choice. If I really want to lead the song “All The Way My Savior Leads Me”, I might then choose all of my other songs to follow the topic of being led by Jesus. Whatever theme you choose and however you decide on it, it will help to make the service feel cohesive and guide the congregation along a single line of thought, rather than jumping wildly from idea to idea.

Conclusion

You may not end up following every single one of these principles for every single song you choose. In fact, it would probably be very difficult to strictly apply them all together with the limited number of songs you have to pick from. However, even just having one or two in the back of your mind as you put your service together will dramatically improve your effectiveness as a song leader.

Any amount of thought that you put into choosing what songs you lead is effort well spent. Even subconsciously, a congregation that has a well-organized selection of songs for worship will have their worship flow more smoothly and more effectively than one that does not. I truly believe that this may be the most important thing a song leader does; fortunately, it is also something that everyone is capable of doing and that anyone can learn to do well.