The 5 Step Process to Crafting Powerful Set Lists.
Set list creation… Pretty easy stuff right? Just pick a few songs, make sure the congregation knows the majority of them. Heck, throw that trendy one in off the top! Helpful if they’re all in complimentary keys and even better if they happen to match the theme of the message?
How many of us really look at creating set lists like that?? 👆
“Commonly, the difference between a good set list and a great one is the level of intentionality.”
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Today, we’re looking at the intentional process that we use to choose the songs of faith that we put into our congregation’s mouths every weekend. Remember, these are more than just songs that hopefully will encourage and strengthen them… These are the words that they will use to articulate their individual — and our corporate — journey of faith. It’s important that we create a system that is intentionally prophetic and that gives us set lists that build people and build culture while also leading us into beautiful encounters with Jesus.
But first… Remember that the best systems and processes occur with cultures that are marked by healthy and intentional relationships. Make sure that as you embark on putting these systems in place that you are involving your senior leadership to the extent of the trust that they have already given you and to the grace of relationship that exists between you. And makes sure you ask yourself questions like…
What is God speaking to my senior leader?
What is He doing uniquely in my church in this season?
What songs are currently resonating with my church community during our corporate times of worship?
How can we best facilitate a time of worship for these people?
“Great set lists are always designed within the context of relationship.”
1 // INVITE.
Invite the right team members into the process from the very beginning. I’ve always found that set lists that are built alone tend to lack a depth of perspective which can lead to less traction with your congregation. Be open to bringing other voices to the table at least to provide meaningful feedback and contribute creative ideas.
In this invitation, there has to be intentionality. Why did I invite each of these people to be a part of informing these decisions? Remember, this is a process that you are going to use at least once a week (maybe more…) so it’s worth doing it right from the start. In my opinion, you should include the worship leaders and music director for that weekend at the very least. You may also include having key musicians, production team members and/or pastors in the conversation to give different perspectives. Remember — worship leaders and musicians commonly only see the corporate expression of worship from one angle (the stage…) whereas other voices may see different things happening while the church worships.
At some point, you may find yourself asking the questions, ‘are there too many people informing these decisions and therefore over-complicating or elongating the process unnecessarily?’ In other words, ‘are there too many cooks in the kitchen?’ While the purpose of this process to create powerful set lists that are well-informed, prayerfully considered and intentionally crafted there should also be a level of productivity and time management involved. If, as a leader in the process, you feel that there are too many people involved it is important that you voice that in a healthy way. One-on-one conversations with senior leadership and then with individual team members is usually the best bet. Be conscious that you are excluding someone from a decision making process that they are most likely very passionate about and in which they believe they have something to offer. This process is empowered not by people, but by the RIGHT people.
2 // PRAY.
Together, as a group, welcome the Lord to lead and inspire you as you choose songs and arrangements. As I said before, these are the words that we are putting into our church’s mouths to articulate their journey of faith — it’s worth taking the time to pray and focus on Jesus.
At this point, it’s a good idea to ask yourself, ‘have I been intentional in my personal time with the Lord this week?’ I come from a charismatic, Pentecostal background… We know how to lean in and spend time in prayer. But, in my opinion, nothing can replace a life that is devoted to the Lord holistically. In fact, I’ve been known to encourage my teams to pray quick and often instead of praying long and seldom. In addition to pray, ‘what is the Lord revealing to you through the reading of His Word?’ I find that worship leaders are exceptionally bad at this… We take all the time in the world waiting on a prophetic word — a specific revelation — when in fact God has already revealed Himself through The WORD — general revelation. In disciplining ourselves to be creatives who are bathed in the Word of God we train our ear to hear His voice and find ourselves better equipped to discern between our own personal preferences and the leading of the Holy Spirit.
“You can only be as prophetic when you lead on Sunday as you were when you prepared for Sunday.”
3 // CONNECT.
Take the time to talk through all of the elements of the service, not just the music. My encouragement would be that this is a regularly schedule meeting that either happens in-person or over your choice of video-chat service. This is also a great time to include production team or pastors in the conversation. Remember, the set list is only a part of the corporate worship experience. This is a great time in the process to allow people to bring their ideas and songs to the table freely. It’s also a great opportunity for people to voice songs or elements of worship that are resonating with the church and, perhaps, things that either need to be done differently, improved upon or never done again.
I like to ask myself these questions to start…
What is this weekend’s message OR what message series are we currently in?
What themes or Scriptures are we focusing on corporately this weekend?
Are there other elements during this service? (I.e. communion, baptism, baby dedications, etc.)
How much time do we have allocated during the service for the musical portion of worship?
Are there songs that we are intentionally putting in front of our congregation during this season?
At most points during the year, we will have songs that we are teaching to our church in advance of a season (i.e. Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, etc.) and songs that are tailored to match a message series. In addition, I’m always doing my best to teach new songs to my church in an intentional way. If you answer those questions, you’ve probably already got two songs locked in for your set list.
4 // PROCESS.
Healthy teams know how each team member processes and makes decisions — and they make room for it. Look… You won’t always be able to facilitate everyone’s preferences on your team, especially if you have a lot of people contributing to the decisions that are being made for your weekend’s experiences. However, knowing your team and tailoring this step to your style and strengths can be an important part of developing synergy and hosting creative minds.
Maybe you’ve read At Your Best by Carey Nieuwhof — friend of the blog and huge influence. If you haven’t, it’s a must read in my opinion. The Coles Notes version is that each of us have hours during the day where we function at a higher capacity than others. For example, my ‘green zone’, as Carey would put it, if commonly between 1pm and 5pm each day. Does that mean I don’t function during the other hours? No… But it does mean that I plan my day so that my most important meetings or activities are during that time. I am more present, I am able to contribute better ideas and lead more intentionally. So what do you do if your senior leader is a morning person and wants to have this meeting at 9am but you’re like me are basically dead to world until 10am? Long story short… You suck it up, buttercup.
Short story long… Perhaps you build into your process time for you to go away with the information that you’ve learned from connecting with the team. You know you make your best decisions 4 hours after the meeting is already done so why not ask if you can take all of your notes from that meeting — and any other conversations you’ve already had — and send a set list proposal around to the right people later on that day? Or, schedule another short meeting the next day to confirm song options?
In this part of the process, it’s important that you know who on the team is ultimately responsible for making the decision AND who on the team is only responsible for creative input and constructive feedback?
5 // COMMUNICATE.
Once you’ve solidified the set list, bring it to your service planning meeting or leadership for confirmation. Maybe, as in most instances, you are both the person creating the set and the person confirming that it’s good; well great, this is an easy step for you. My encouragement would be that you make sure at least one other set of eyes has seen it before it finds its way to your Planning Centre.
You might think that the process is done; the set list has been selected in a healthy way, everyone you was supposed to be a part of the decision making process felt acknowledged and like they contributed and you’re ready to start the same process over again in a short few days. But I’ve included this step because I feel as though it is regularly overlooked. Make sure that you communicate your set list with your team.
Your team needs to see this set list and be given resources with which to practice so they are prepared for rehearsal. The beauty of this is that it doesn’t even need to be you who does all of this. Let’s say you included your Music Director in this planning process… Get them to do it! All you need to answer is, ‘have I clearly communicated my expectations in relation to arrangement, parts and service flow to my team?’ In other words, ‘have I set my team up for a win?’ Your team is the backbone on which you can execute this beautiful set list in the first place so anything and everything that you can do to equip them to maximize their musicianship and preparation is integral to a great weekend.
In my opinion, you should be providing your set lists at least 3 weeks in advance to the service date. Especially if you have primarily volunteer musicians, that should give them enough time to listen to the music, meet with the Lord on it and practice their parts in preparation for rehearsal. It’s worth putting things like introducing new songs or special arrangement through this same filter. If your team is buying or creating patches and sounds, familiarizing themselves with charts or learning brand new parts, the more time you can give them the better. At the very least, give them the set list well in advance so that there is no excuse for not knowing the song and being prepared.
Let’s create set lists that do more than just encourage people. Let’s give people songs that they can use to articulate their faith, that will be songs of hope in the midst of their darkest moments and songs of praise in the middle of their breakthroughs. Let’s create systems and processes that allow us to do that in the middle of very busy ministry schedules and bring intentionality back to our weekend experiences.
