Leading the Music Ministry #12 – Planning the Music Program for the Term

There’s many ways to approach preparing a music program. For most churches it’ll be a task done at the last minute, by 1 person, and with little or no consideration for how the songs will fit in with the preaching program. Obviously that’s not ideal. At SCPC we’ve been blessed with Pastors who not only value highly our time singing together as a church family, but who also care deeply about the integration of songs into the service in a way that complements the preaching program. Everyone’s fully on board with the truth that good congregational songs help the preached word to ‘sink in’ every Sunday. You’ll be doing the church family a great service by being a music ministry leader who makes the most of that opportunity, for every Sunday service, and for every Friday night Youth service, every week. When the deadline to get everything finished is drawing close it’ll be tempting to not put in the time and effort it takes to best match the songs with the preaching program – it can take a lot of time, especially if you’re not overly familiar with the lyrical content of each song in the SCPC library. But in the end it’ll be well worth it, and literally hundreds of people will benefit – spiritually benefit, in their relationship with Christ – on a weekly basis, because of your well-thought-out decisions. There’s a far better way to prepare a music program than preparing a program that ‘fills the gaps’ and includes all your favourite songs. Make it your ambition and prayer to choose the songs that will most help the preached word to ‘sink in’ and help the church family to respond with whole hearts. Make it your goal to prepare a music program that will best help the church family grow in their relationship with Jesus.

Here are some tips:

-  Spend a decent amount of time reading through the preacher/s Big Ideas and Key Verses with a pen and paper handy. If you’ve got time then read through the whole passages. Good stuff will come to your mind as you’re doing it – make sure scribble all your initial thoughts and ideas down – it’ll come in real handy. If you think of a good potential item (whether Christian or secular) that will set the talk up well write that down too.

-  Make sure you’ve got both an up-to-date ‘Song Sorter’ and ‘Full SCPC Music Library’ list somewhere you can refer to them quickly and easily (if either of these aren’t up-to-date, it’ll be worth spending the time getting it up-to-date before you start), as well as a Bible, and the preachers notes for the term.

-  Create a blank template with the dates and passages on it, so you can start writing/typing songs into it (eg. Sunday 20th March with space to write all the songs under it, then Sunday 27th March with space under it, etc). You’ll need to include things like ‘kids song’ every week, ‘PM song’ every week, and ‘Lord’s Supper CD’ or Lord’s Supper Item’ where appropriate. You’ll also need to be certain about how many weeks you need to choose music for – you don’t want to hand out a program to the team that will end before you’re going to hand the next one out (so make sure you include school holidays, easter services, christmas services, etc). I personally find it most easy to do all this on paper first, since i end up scribbling so much out and changing it round before i get to the final version.

-  Start filling in the template with the preacher’s suggestions first, which are usually for the song to be sung after the talk. The preacher will almost always have the best ideas for which songs best match their sermons. But if you’ve read their Big Idea and reckon another song will be better after the talk, give them a call and talk it through. There’ll be plenty of room in the service for both songs.

-  The song after the talk is the one that you want to most closely match the sermon. It really helps both the preached word ‘sink in’, and helps us to respond to what we’ve heard. If there are weeks where the preacher hasn’t suggested a post-talk song, choose this song first. It doesn’t matter so much what the musical vibe is (whether it’s upbeat or slow and reflective). The lyrics matching the talk is the main thing (and hopefully the music is appropriate for the lyrics anyway!). For example ‘the Glories of Calvary’ is a great up-beat service-starter, but it’s worked well many times as a post-talk song when it’s been a talk focused on what Jesus has done for us on the cross.

-  The next most important song will be the song before the talk. By then hopefully most people in the congregation will be getting ‘in the zone’ – they will have heard the kids talk at morning, or the set-up piece at night, they will be getting familiar with the Big Idea and the Key Questions – this 4th song will be able to continue that process of setting up the sermon. If nothing comes to mind a reflective/prayerful song like ‘Ears to Hear’ can be great too.

-  Do the kids songs next. These will mostly be suggested by the preacher too. Unfortunately there aren’t relevant kids songs for every theme, so sometimes you’ll just have to choose something up-beat and about Jesus – that’s ok. Kid’s love a Super-Saviour mosh, and it does help them in their relationship with Jesus.

-  Next up it’s time to plan your items and your new songs. When teaching a new song it’s generally good to have the song as an ITEM one week (it’ll be recorded and put up on the website hopefully soon after for everyone to continue hearing/learning/enjoying), TEACH it the next week, and use it AFTER THE TALK the following week (but it doesn’t have to happen that way – having the item and then teaching it later in the same service works too). You might decide the new song works better than what’s been suggested by the preacher – that’s ok, but you might want to talk it through with them first just to check. You’ll have to take into consideration how early in the term you think the band will be ready to play/teach the song together, and when it’ll be best to have the new song as the post-talk song. It gets a bit tricky juggling it all around! But don’t bash your head against a wall, just stick at it and you’ll come up with a plan that works. Obviously if you’re adding a new kids song you won’t be able to have it as an item – just TEACH it one week, sing it again the next week, and make sure it gets repeated once or twice more in the next couple of months.

-  If other songs have come to mind when you were reading through the Big Ideas/Key Verses then start to write these ones on to the template too (if you haven’t already). Use your judgement to think about where they’ll best fit in the service, and if in doubt check their suggested placing in the song sorter.

-  Once you’ve done as much as you can from the stuff that comes to mind reading the Big Ideas/Key Verses, it’s time to start using the song sorter. It’s a helpful guide for where songs will best fit into the service. But remember it’s only a guide, and not a straight-jacket. If you think a song will work better at a different part of the service, go for it. You might want to move the song around in the song sorter permanently. If possible choose songs that at least have a couple of lines or a verse that has something to do with the talk – but often that won’t be possible.

-  Get a Pastor or the Ministry Coordinator to check your Draft program. Once it’s all finished type it up into the Music Program Template (Ministry Coordinator has this if you don’t) and email it to the Ministry Coordinator. Usually the newsletter to the team will be printed on the other side, so don’t get it printed up until they’re both ready to go.

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