do you use a song list, or a song menu?

[HelenaZF]

Pre-planned Song List vs. Song Menu



This is just a style question, not that one is better or righter than the other, but I've come to prefer using a song menu rather than a pre-determined song list when I am planning for an event where Dean and I will be leading the music.



Not sure what I'm talking about? Well a song list would be a written list of songs in a certain order that is planned and possibly rehearsed to be done in that order. You pretty much know where you are starting, where you will end up and how you will get there.



A song menu is just that: a menu of songs that you might (or might not) choose to do as you go through the worship time. It is different from a song list in that it is not constructed in a first-to-last order, but in like sections: same key, or same function (openers, exhortation, throne room songs, response songs, ministry songs, etc.) With a song menu, you might have an idea of where you will start, but as you test the way the wind of the Spirit is blowing, you might choose to stay in a certain kind of song for a while, or move into a ministry song if it seems that is what the Spirit is saying after a glorious outpouring of worship. A song menu gives you the freedom to move in and out of intercession, worship, and ministry in a much more fluid way.



Now the challenge with that is if you have to move a whole team of musicians and singers along with you. The song menu approach can only work if everyone's shares the repetoire and is comfortable moving back and forth through it and through different keys. Obviously, the more people involved, the more complicated this gets.....but when it works...oh my....it can be glorious, because you are so free to follow the minute by minute direction of the Holy Spirit.



You can ease into the song menu style of song leading a bit at a time. You can start by having a couple of "alternates" on your list in case a ministry song or a repentance song is needed, and maybe a reponse-type song or too. That would allow you to insert something not previously a part of your list should the moment call for it. These "alternate" songs could also be rehearsed with the regular list. Eventually, the whole list could become "alternate" songs....See where I'm going?



Now, I'm not saying that every single thing that is in a pre-planned song list can't be exactly what God wants to do....of course it can. God is God, and He can certainly tell us way ahead of time just how things will go. My point in making this post is to challenge us to go beyond the normal planning concepts and look beyond the way it's always been done.



Or maybe you prepare your song leading in another way? I'd love to hear about it...we can all learn from each other!