New Music and Worship Teams

My most recent blogs have been pretty general in nature, but this one is going to be a little more focused on my worship leading friends. Today's blog post is the result of the ongoing question about introducing new music to your congregation. Most of this I've learned over the years from doing it wrong. Sometimes the most valuable lessons we learn in life are the lessons we learn from our mistakes.

So, how many new songs is too many?
I've heard it said in several places that most people can only handle 2, at the most 3, news songs per month. There are obviously a lot of variables that go into this, but this is a general rule to follow.

In our context at Living Stones, I often introduce new songs during our communion or offering times instead of in the middle of the list. If you don't have this luxury because of the components or order of your service, just make sure that you don't have too much new material in one list. Have a good balance of familiar in there to keep people connected.

Don't move on too quickly.
Don't stop singing a new song too quickly. Worship leaders and worship teams are never the best judge of when a song has been used too much. I have often heard worship leaders or musicians make comments about "riding a song to death." Most worship leaders will probably never do that. You have to remember that you, as worship team members, have heard the song several times during the week for your own rehearsal, have rehearsed it at least once with the worship team, and may be leading it in multiple services on any given weekend. For every time the average congregation member has heard the song, you've heard it five times. By the time you're ready to move on to another song, your congregation is just getting comfortable with it.

Make sure you know your people.
In all of this, the key is to truly know the people you are leading for. Some congregations will respond differently to different songs, new songs, etc. One of the major responsibilities of any worship leader is to know the congregation you are leading worship for.

Worship leaders: any thoughts or personal lessons you've learned?