What You’ll Learn:
- Strategic timing for introducing new songs (communion, offering, pre-service.)
- What to say (and avoid saying) when presenting a new song to your congregation.
- Four practices to avoid that sabotage new song adoption.
- Why repetition matters and how often to reintroduce songs for maximum impact.
- The quarterly New Songs Night model that educates your entire worship community.
Summary:
How do you introduce a new song without losing your congregation? Bob Kauflin offers battle-tested wisdom from years of worship leadership.
Context matters. Kauflin’s church uses lyric projection, but the principles translate. They strategically place new songs during communion as meditations, letting people listen first then join in. Some churches use offering or pre-service time to preview songs they’ll sing congregationally the next week.
Words matter more than you think. Before up-tempo songs, Kauflin contextualizes: “We’re introducing a song that helps us celebrate God’s lavish mercy at the cross.” Teaching new songs is a unique opportunity to explain why songs are chosen, drawing attention to truth rather than music. Never introduce a song with “We’re going to sing a really KICKIN’ song!” He tells congregations to listen through verse and chorus, then join in.
Four things to avoid: Starting services with unknown songs, introducing two new songs consecutively, doing more than one new song per meeting, and drawing attention to the composer (especially if they’re on the team.)
Repetition creates retention. God gave us singing to remember truth and be impacted by His Word. Teach a song one week, repeat it over following weeks. If a song flops, drop it. But some initially difficult songs with deeper lyrics are worth persisting with. Often, they affect us more profoundly over time.
The New Songs Night game-changer: Quarterly gatherings where music teams, small group leaders, and the congregation learn five to six new songs together. They distribute guitar charts, lead sheets, and Scripture references, teach each song (discussing meaning, highlighting lyrics, addressing musical issues), then worship together corporately. Two hours that serve as education and ministry combined.
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