Choosing the Right, Right, Right song

Those of us who view worship services as something to be crafted inevitably spend a good bit of time choosing which songs to use. We consider all kinds of things, often without being aware of it.

Old or new?
Traditional or contemporary?
How traditional or how contemporary?
Familiar or sort of familiar or new?
Up tempo or medium or slow?
Corporate or individual text?
Sung to God or sung to one another?
Tired or fresh?

And we could go on with that list, I imagine, for quite some time.

But I want to approach choosing the right song with a different slant, going 3 levels deep.

First level--Is this the right song?
   That's pretty simple, but can be really important. My personal bias is that the most important song choice is the one right after the sermon, but you could make an argument for the one right before the sermon or the one that opens the service or the one that precedes or follows a worship element other than the sermon. For purposes of an illustration, let's decide the right song for a particular slot on a particular Sunday is "In Christ Alone" by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend.

Second level--Is it the right version of the right song?
   A quick look at PraiseCharts reveals there are eight arrangements of "In Christ Alone", some quite different from the others. On the Getty's website there are two very different full orchestrations. In itunes, there are closer to 100 versions. Great news! Finding the best arrangement is one of the ways we can really identify and connect with the heart-song of a local congregation. The more we try different arrangement-styles, the more we can identify what helps connect the hearts of our people with the heart of God.

Third level--Is there something we can do to customize the best version we can find?
   In most of the places I get to lead worship, the arrangement that seems to work best is the one by Travis Cottrell on his Alive Forever recording. I tend to be in places that are very cross-generational, so the fact that he included "The Solid Rock" chorus in the middle of his arrangement is meaningful. But as I've lived with the text of the song, I've come to a meaningfully different approach to the first part of the 3rd stanza. ("There in the ground his body lay, light of the world by darkness slain. Then bursting forth in glorious day, up from the grave he rose again!") So I have all drop out but piano, and it is played up an octave. At "Then bursting..." the piano returns to loco and there is a quick 2 measure build from ppp to ff (super quiet to very loud) so the congregation feels the resurrection in the music. 

This same thinking can apply to song after song after song. Is it the right song? Check. The right arrangement? Check. Anything to tweak? Check.

Connecting hearts? Check!


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