Lay Worship Leading: Music

As a worship leader, what challenges do you face when choosing music, and what opportunities do you see in the process?

The only challenge I have is with YouTube. Even though I have paid the premium subscription, there can still be ads that come up before the song. Other than that, I love choosing music that reinforces the theme of the service. I always tell the congregation that the words are most important and we will get the tune by the end of the song. And that is true. Sometimes there are only a few singing and by the end, everyone has joined in. Variety from the songs everyone has always sung gives new vision to the context.

How do you help the congregation feel more involved in worship music?

Some Sundays we just have time before the service to sing the favourites
congregation members love to sing. I don't have a music director or praise team; it is only me putting the music to the service. No one has offered feedback so either they have been satisfied for the past 15 years or folks are afraid of me! Actually I am also the pianist/organist and sometimes lead just a cappello.

What’s one worship song that has had a deep impact on you?

'Go Make a Difference', More Voices #209 (UCC). It really speaks to going out into the world as the hands and feet of Christ. And a really close second is 'Go Now in Peace' by Don Besig and Nancy Price.

Go now in peace. Never be afraid. God will go with us each hour of every day.

Go now in faith, steadfast, strong and true. Know God will guide us in all we do.

Go now in love and show our belief. Reach out to others so all the world can see.

God will be there watching from above. Go now in peace, in faith, and in love. Amen. Amen. Amen.

We usually sing this at the end of the service, after the Benediction. Many get quite teary thinking of things that are going on in their lives.

What tools or resources help you discover and choose worship songs?

'The Gathering' provides ideas for each Sunday of the lectionary. Today was the service for 9th after Pentecost. Scripture for the Hebrew reading, psalm, epistle and gospel are listed with a one liner to reflect the theme of the passage. Ideas are given to spark inspiration with the children, as a sermon starter and hymns for each of the lectionary passages. eg. "What does the Lord require of you?" is for the Hebrew passage. I don't pay much attention to what hymn is connected to what passage but those are good suggestions for the service as a whole.
If I am not feeing a connection to those hymn suggestions myself, I will go to the indices of Voices United - not so much the index of authors or composers but 'Hymns for the Church Year (A, B, C), index of scripture, index of hymns suitable for use with children and youth, index of topics and categories, metrical index of tunes, index of first lines. These tend to be the more traditional hymns. For more contemporary hymns, I refer to similar indices of More Voices which is the newer hymn book.
Because we are a small congregation, sometimes I will have only one person leading the singing, so I always have at least one YouTube song (with the words). This way I can bring in a fuller choir, an organ, nature scenes to enhance the theme of the service. Folks really like music this way (and it reduces the number of times I am dashing from pulpit to piano - and back!)