A Blue- Print for Worship
As I was growing in my understanding of worship, and the journey that people went on in worship, I learnt that positioning songs in a particular place in the service was helpful to their journey.
This was highlighted recently when the first song played in the service (and it was an online service) – was a song of response. It was beautifully played and sung, but it was the opening song and it wasn’t clear to me what I was being asked to respond to. It wasn’t a song of declaration, praise or worship, but one that required a “subject”, a purpose for which I could say “yes.
Every song in a set or a service deserves to be given due prayer & thought by asking questions about why the song should be there. it would be OK if the song was just … well … a song with no greater purpose, but we get to lead people on a journey that could be life changing, and I believe that the placement of songs can aid people on that journey.
Whether your service is live or specifically crafted for online, the same principle applies. It becomes more challenging with online services, as fewer songs are required (the services are mostly shorter) and I’ve found that the pool of recorded songs is small. Despite these perceived restrictions, we still need to be intentional about song placement.
Thoughtful song placement and transition can facilitate the opening up of people’s lives to the work of the Holy Spirit.
Thankfully I learnt a lesson about this very early in my worship leading experience. To this day, over 3 decades later, I still use a service blueprint that helps me think through the journey a worshipper may take. Certainly, if you read the psalms, worship begins with call to worship and accompanying anticipation (Psalm 122:1) with the expectation & hope of transformation.
I’ve always tried to follow the pattern of worship that Psalm 95 seems to advocate, and I commend you to consider this as well. With that in mind, here’s a good way to think through song positioning…
- Call people to worship. (vv 1-2). This is a song of praise that helps the worshiper shift their focus from earth to heaven, from themselves to God. It’s often loud, and energetic and includes thanksgiving. (See Psalm 100:4)
- Exalt God as King and Creator (vv3-4).
- Worship with passion and affection (vv 6-7). This is where you get to tell God you love Him. This is also a place for reverence.
- Commit to obeying Him (v 8 -11). This is the response song, often sung at the end of the service, and the people should be clearly told what they are responding to. You can put this at the end of the set by asking people to respond by saying “Yes” to God not matter what.
Whilst not all these need to be songs – they can include prayers and comments etc… there needs to be a journey that ends with intimacy and compliance with God’s desire and revelation. If you follow this pattern – at least when shaping a service, you will find that people will engage more and I believe, be more open to what God wants to do.
So, how do you make the choices a little simpler?
As early as I can remember, to facilitate my options, I attempted to group songs in ways that would make selection easier – those that are praise, worship, exaltation, response and so on. Of course, some songs covered more than one area, and could be a little arbitrary in content, but this helped a great deal. I also put in the key and the speed to facilitate choice and so that flow might be established between songs.
If you want to go deeper into this, especially if you are a worship leader, or craft services online or live, I have used this pattern inside Worship Canvas in the Worship Leading Module, so if you want to do a deep dive, why not sign up and be apart of the Worship Canvas community. I will be launching again very soon.