The Set List:
- Opener: Lord Most High [Harris/Sadler]
- You Are Worthy of My Praise [Ruis]
- All Hail the Power of Jesus Name [Perronet/Rippon/Holden/Baloche]
- All Heaven Declares [Richards]
- Closer: You Alone [Crowder/Parker]
The Recap:
Lord Most High I love this song as the opener / call to worship. Everyone singing to God about His majesty and how He alone is worthy of all praise!
You Are Worthy of My Praise A great personal song of commitment to the Lord.
All Hail the Power of Jesus Name Great hymn with an added chorus from Paul Baloche. A great mix of horizontal and vertical worship.
All Heaven Declares Final song in the main set – all of which were declarative in nature of how sovereign and awesome God is and our response of worship to Him.
You Alone This prayer song from David Crowder is always one that I gravitate toward as a closer/commitment song. It simply positions us at Christ’s feet singing that He alone is all we need and that He has given us all – especially salvation.
The Confessional:
As I was writing this, I noticed that all the songs we did today were pre-2000 copyright. I see nothing wrong with that at all; although, I probably need to intro more new songs at EVC. The challenge is that too many new songs can be tough on people and their concentrated worship during the service. Mike Mahoney (@mikeymo1741) wrote a great blog post last week about how his church has decided to hold off on new songs until July this year – for some really great reasons/observations. Most of the reasons he cites are ones that I consider when selecting new songs to introduce.
East Valley is a mix of generations, which is a distinctive for us. I love the fact that I can do songs from before Y2K and only a few notice!
It was a rough day – I was not feeling well at all and Pastor John was gone, so no fall back. I was so thankful for God’s strength during the service and teaching Sunday school! I hit the wall that afternoon… God is so good and His name is high and lifted up even when I’m pooped!
x
Part of Fred McKinnon’s World-Wide Service Set List party!
I appreciate your comments on pre 2000 songs. We are committed to singing good songs and the copyright dates are not part of the selection criteria. Newer isn’t necessarily better, better is better. We steadily introduce new songs, but at a pace that the congregation can learn and embrace them. That takes time and repetition. We are picky with new songs as a result. Clearly, a fast way to reduce participation and engagement is to introduce too many songs.
I followed your blog link and the blog link within that one. Interesting reading. I am currently working with two other worship leaders in the band to cut over 250 songs from our play list down to 120 (a two-page selection list organized by content). Our goal is to maintain the list at about that level with a regular review.
You’re Worthy of My Praise will make the cut on our list!!!
Thanks for sharing your set list and comments.
Doug,
Thanks for the comments. Wow, 250 to 120…last year we had ~100 songs in ours (ranging from 1x to 9x [Indescribable] each) – so far, this year we are at ~75 songs (ranging from 1x to 5x [God You Reign] each). Check out and even post to Fred’s blog – it’s really cool to connect with other leaders and also see what others are doing (it’s always neat to see what the common song is on a given week).
Blessings!