Planning Sunday's Songs

Every worship leader knows the feeling, the pain, the anxiety, the utter discouragement. Your song list for next Sunday is due in thirty minutes,and you have no idea what to do.

Or maybe next Sunday is tomorrow morning.

It's late. You're tired. You're staring at a blank computer screen surrounded by stacks of CDs, three hymnals, your worship songbook, and a list of what you've sung for the past five months. Nothing's helping.

You pray. And you start to wonder if even God knows what you should sing.
As you start to sweat, thoughts like these begin to influence your choices:

This is my favorite new song from my favorite CD by my favorite worshipartist. It's hot. And no one I know is doing it yet.

No one got upset when I taught this song last month.

I really like the way my voice sounds on this one.

I can't do this one because it has three verses, and I'm into simple right now.

I think I know all the chords on these three.
Fortunately, we can do better when it comes to planning songs.