Worship Leader Strategies: Song Number Categories

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This series on worship leader strategies gives systems and suggestions on how to better organize worship ministries as it pertains to planning, training, and practically leading congregations in musical worship. Like most strategy-oriented discussion in ministry, there are no fix-all solutions, but these strategies are suggestions that should help others organize their ministries to better serve their leaders, volunteers, and general congregations.
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Do you ever have a hard time organizing your songs by style, tempo, and the completely subjective “feel”? You are not alone. I’ve seen lots of ministries have extremely convoluted categories to help break down their songs. I don’t know how many times I’ve seen “Medium Tempo, Rock” and “Upbeat, Pop, High-Energy” as different descriptions for the same song. At Christ Community Church in Omaha, NE, while I was on staff there, we started utilizing a number system to help distinguish our songs and build a well-balanced song bank (more on how to build a song bank in an upcoming edition!). We decided to assign songs with a 1, 2, or 3.

The first category was reserved for upbeat, uptempo songs. Songs like “Alive” by Hillsong Young & Free and “This Is Amazing Grace” by Phil Wickham were labeled as 1’s. The 2 label was used for more mid-tempo, building songs (I like to call them “epics”). Songs like “Oceans” by United and “Reckless Love” by Corey Asbury are typically 2’s. The 3rd category was reserved for low-energy songs, songs that didn’t really get too epic in their builds. Most modern worship songs are not true 3’s simply because most songs have a fairly notable build, but “In Christ Alone” by the Gettys and other hymns that tend to stay low would be considered a 3.

Then, to keep it from getting too complex. when we found songs that didn’t fit cleanly into one of the 3 categories, we assigned a ‘+’ or ‘-‘ sign. Now, this has really just been for identification purposes for me more than helping build service flows or shaping song banks, but I dislike putting a “not exactly right but not completely wrong” type of label on anything, let alone songs. Songs like “Only King Forever” by Elevation Worship seem like a 1- to me, where it’s upbeat but it also isn’t quite uptempo or explosive from the beginning of the songs to be a true 1 in my opinion. “Glorious Day” by Passion would also be a 1- in my song bank. “10,000 Reasons” by Matt Redman would be a 3+ to me (though some people might argue it to be a 2-) and “Who You Say I Am” by Hillsong would be considered a 2+ in my book. As you can see, this adds a little more complexity to the number system, but shouldn’t affect the way a song bank or service flow is built, as the +’s and -‘s are more for accurate labeling and not as much for grouping.

For an example, you can see the song bank that I recently used for a student retreat and how I grouped the songs by the song number categories:

-Alive // Hillsong Y&F // 1
-Glorious Day // Passion // 1-
-Fourfold Gospel // Kevin McClure // 1-
-Lion & the Lamb // Bethel // 1
-Do It Again // Elevation // 2
-Death Was Arrested // NorthPoint InsideOut // 2
-Who You Say I Am // Hillsong // 2+
-King of My Heart // Bethel // 2
-You Are Faithful (Even When I Wander) // Kevin McClure // 2
-Lord I Need You // Passion // 3*

You’ll notice that I labeled “Lord I Need You” as a 3, but typically I would call it a 2. In this case the reason that I labeled it a 3 was because we did it acoustic at this retreat, the only song that we did that way. Obviously for you and your church you might do different songs with slightly different flairs. You might do Bethel’s version of “This Is Amazing Grace” and call it a 2. You might do “Glorious Day” with a more upbeat intro and verses and call it a true 1. There’s certainly subjectivity built into the system so you can utilize it for your ministry.

In my mind the best way to take full advantage of this system is to help standardize the arrangements and styles of these songs (which occasional exceptions). That way you can have a well-rounded song bank and know that when you do “How He Loves”, or whichever song you are doing, you know what the musical timbre and atmosphere will be. You’ll then be able to say with great confidence that you have enough “uptempo rock songs” in your song bank, without having to dig through the tough organization of labels built into your planning center.

Did this help you as a worship leader? I’d love your feedback! Feel free to comment below with your thoughts or how you and your church organizes your songs! Have a question you’d like me to tackle for “Worship Leader Strategies”? Comment with those below as well, or shoot me an email!

CREDITS: Thanks to Joe Jensen, Ryan Shields, Jed Logue, Margie Alford, Steve Yost, Travis Williams, and potentially a few others who I’m forgetting in developing this system. I have no recollection of who initially thought of this process, but I’m grateful to have been a part of the conversation and to have learned this extremely helpful tool!

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Kevin McClure has been leading worship in the local church for over 10 years in different capacities of student and adult ministries. As a songwriter, musical artist, and worship leader he has had the honor of touring the United States both as a performer and worship leader over the better part of the last decade. With a heart to see believers learn how to take the act of worship beyond the setting of a group gathering, Kevin is incredibly intentional with his time on and offstage to help teach the practice of worship as a lifestyle. Kevin lives in Omaha, Nebraska with his bride Hailey and his two daughters, Everleigh (8) and Eliska (2). His favorite food is coffee (lifesource), loves bonfires, and is convinced that Jesus is a Chicago Cubs fan.