Build epic worship sets (Thematic Medley Approach)

I’m going to share with you

a better approach to building

worship sets and teach you how to

fit more songs into less time and

have a bigger impact in your services.

So most worship leaders don’t have

an unlimited time slot for their songs,

although many of us wish we do.

But you’re usually limited

to 15, maximum 20 minutes.

How can you maximise that time

to make it super beautiful, impactful,

and take people on this really climactic

journey towards the glory,

grandeour, and goodness of God?

Well, that’s what I

want to show you today.

I’m going to I’m actually let you

look inside my planning centre,

and I’m actually going to be playing

a few of the sets for you.

Not the whole set, don’t worry.

But I’m going to show you how

I weave together a whole series of songs

to really take people on a journey.

Most worship leaders look at

their time slot and say, How many songs

can I fit into that time slot?

That is an underutilization

of your worship time slot.

You should be weaving together

songs, scriptures, prayers, verses

on the screen, all sorts

of elements into a cohesive, rich,

Christ-centered experience.

It’s not just song one, song

two, song three, cookie cutter,

same arrangement, play the intro

the same, play the outro the same.

You’re literally wasting time

on those intros and outros

and extra instrumentals.

You should be chopping

out sections of songs.

You should be weaving them

together, stitching them together.

You should be taking people on a journey.

Too many worship leaders I know

just simply grab song one, song two,

song three, and they call it a day,

they wipe their hands, and they think

they’re done building a set.

No, you can do better.

I’m going to show you

how you can do better.

First of all, if you’re going

to take people on a journey, A journey

always has a destination in mind.

So I like to encourage worship leaders

to determine your theme.

What’s the theme that you’re

highlighting in this service?

Don’t just pick random song one

about blank theme and random song two

about this other theme,

and there’s no cohesion or no tie in.

You want to take people on a musical

and thematic journey towards the glory,

goodness, and grandeour of God.

That is your goal.

That is what you should

strive to do every single week.

And you want to use scriptures,

songs, and prayers to get people there.

So let’s look into my planning centre now,

and I’m going to show you this week’s

upcoming set and the set after that.

By the way, I do encourage you to schedule

your sets three weeks in advance so that

you’re always staying ahead of the ball

and your band has time to practise.

That’s why you see so many sets here

in Planning Centre already done.

So this first week’s set, you see 1,

2, 3, 4, 5 songs plus a scripture.

Now, if you looked at all these songs,

you would see that the theme

is consistent across the songs.

And that theme is that God’s greatness,

his worthiness demands our full,

wholehearted response to him.

So we start How Great Thou Art.

And then we’re going to amplify the themes

in that song through scripture

by reading Romans 12:1.

We’ll put it on the screen,

and it says, In view of God’s mercy,

in view of who God is, what he’s done,

offer yourself as living sacrifices.

And that’s going to tie

the first song to the second song.

So even right there, there’s

an intentional thematic tie-in using

scripture from song one to song two.

Now, let me just grab my guitar so I

can talk you through the rest of the set.

I do have a free e-book underneath this

video called Crafting Incredible Worship

Set, so put your email in and grab that.

But this set here, what I’m

going to do is I’m actually

going to chop major chunks of songs

out so that I can put more songs in.

I want the songs

to stack and elevate and unfold the theme

more and more and more profoundly.

It’s like this unfolding revelation.

It’s like, Oh, yes.

Then my heart wants to say this,

and then my heart wants to say that.

You want to take people on

this escalating journey up the ladder,

up the hill, until they see God

and they can’t help but worship.

I will tell you this, the strength

of your congregation’s response

in worship is directly correlated to

the strength of your song sets.

So it’s very important

that you get this right.

So we’re going to play this old ’80s

song, Lord, I give you my heart.

And at the end of that song,

it’ll be a down chorus, I give you

my heart, give you my soul.

Live for you alone.

Every breath that I take,

every moment I’m away.

Lord, have your way in me.

Christ be magnified.

Let your praise arrive.

Christ be magnified in me.

So, okay, you’ve got the same theme.

It’s like, I want to give you

my heart and give you everything,

and then Christ be magnified.

And I cut the intro,

I cut the verse,

and I went straight to the chorus because

the themes are tied,

and the closer I can put those two themes

together, the more people will feel

the connexion, and it’ll help their minds

and their hearts unfold in that direction.

So what I’m going to do with Christ

be magnified is I’m going

to start with the chorus.

So so that those themes are tied together.

I’m going to go verse one, verse two.

I’m going to go to a chorus.

I’m going to cut verse

three and chorus two.

Okay, believe it or not, yes, I’m cutting

out a middle section of the song.

Why, Alex?

Because it’s going to help

the whole set unfold overall.

It’s a medley.

We’re stitching themes

and songs together in a medley.

The next set that I’m going

to show you right after this is even more

of a medley, and I want to show you

that set as well if you can hang with me

for the rest of this video.

Christ be magnified, we’re shortening it.

I’m cutting out that instrumental

right before the bridge.

Why, Alex?

Isn’t that beautiful?

Yes, it’s beautiful, but people just

stand there, stare, waiting for

their turn to participate.

Church is about participation,

so I typically cut long instrumentals,

or at the very least,

I put a scripture on the screen that’s

tied into the song so that they can

at least meditate with their minds while

they’re waiting for us

to finish the instrumental.

But in this case, to save time,

I’m cutting the instrumental.

We’re going straight to the bridge,

and then a big final double chorus.

When we come out of that chorus,

we’re going to land it.

Christ be magnified in me.

And then what does your

heart want to say next?

Is you are worthy of it all.

That question, what does your heart

want to say next is a huge question

when building your set.

You are worthy of it all.

For from you are all things,

and to you are all things.

You deserve the glory.

So now I’m taking another

section of another song.

I’m just playing the chorus

of that song because it flows.

It feels like the set wants to go there.

You want to not just pick

three songs and be done.

You want unfold something.

So then we’ll go, You are worthy

of it all, and build it, right?

From you are all things, and to you are

all things, for from you, from you are

all things, and to you are all things.

Holy, holy, are you Lord God Almighty?

World is a land, world is a land.

Okay, so do you get it?

Do you see?

I just unfolded a new level.

We unlocked a new level.

We escalated a new level up, right?

And it’s the worthy.

Worth is the lamb.

You are worthy of it all.

And the whole set has been saying,

You are worthy, and I should give my life

in full adoration of you.

Now, let me show you the following week’s

set, because this set has even more

of a medley and unfolding to it.

And I want to encourage you

to try building your sets like this.

There’s something beautiful

and magical when you put

the intention and time into a set.

Instead of just picking three songs and

being done, completely unrelated songs.

I see this happen all

the time and please do better.

Grab that free ebook underneath

this video or join the academy

where I have a full set building

course, and you can just try it for $1.

I’ll also link that below.

But here’s the following week’s set.

And this set is all about Jesus’s name

being above every other name and us

living in humility in response to that.

And if you look, I’ve got

six songs here that are all going

to unfold in a 15-minute time slot.

Alex, how are you going to do it?

Well, let me show you.

I’ll hail the power of Jesus’s name.

It’s an old hymn, and it’ll be upbeat.

It’ll be a kickoff song.

It’s only three minutes.

It.

So we end, And crown him Lord of all.

And crown him, Lord of And then we’ll go,

And crown him with many crowns.

Okay, so that’s another hym.

I’m just going to sing one verse.

The Lamb upon his throne.

So it’s about Jesus being

above everything else.

It’s a tag out of the other one.

It’s a second hym, so it’ll make

all the old people happy.

So we’re going to do that tag,

and that song ends, And hail him

as the matchless king for all eternity.

Sing praise to the Lord,

to the land, to the King of Heaven.

You’ve got praise.

You’ve got King of Heaven.

You see we’re unfolding the theme.

I don’t have to play the whole

song, A Thousand Hallelujahs.

I don’t have to start at the verse.

I can amplify the previous song by just

using the best parts of this song.

We’ll do that bridge, praise to the Lord.

We’ll do it twice, build it, and then…

With a thousand Hallelujahs,

we magnify your name.

You alone deserve the glory,

the honour, and the praise.

Lord Jesus, this song is forever your.

A thousand Alleluias, and a thousand more.

We’ll do it twice, but then we’ll build.

And so when I’m thinking of a thousand

Halleluias, it’s triggering

in my mind 10,000 reasons.

And so now it’s like, Man,

we’re going to bless the Lord.

We’re going to praise the Lord.

We’re going to bless the Lord.

We’re going to worship his Holy name.

Remember, name above all names.

And so we’re going to go,

Thousand Hallelu-Yas and a Thousand More.

So bless the Lord, oh my soul.

And you have to remember

this is like rock dowling.

So huge.

And then, Worship his holy name.

Yes, I will worship your holy name.

And then we’ll go right

into the stand, and we’re going

to do the full song because that song

is about him standing before creation,

standing before our failure.

And so we’re going to stand in response

to his name above every name.

We’re going to be in awe of him.

And so we’re going to do that full song.

I do recommend that you have at least two

full songs in these more medley-type sets

because you do need to help people

have a full progression of a song

and a journey before you add

all these tags and embellishments.

And so we’ll play all the way through that

song to the end, which is female-led.

So it’s like, All I am is yours.

God, all I am is yours.

Yes, all I am is yours.

And then we want to ask that question,

what does my heart

want to say after all I am is yours?

What if we said, I surrender all.

Again, it’s female led to female led.

Oh, I surrender all.

All to thee, my blessed

saviour, I surrender all.

Sing it again.

And so we sing it one more time.

All to thee, my blessed

saviour, I surrender all.

Wow, we just did 15 minutes, six

songs, and it was a journey from point A

to point Z, hopefully all eyes on Jesus,

giving our lives to him in worship.

That’s what we want to do with our sets.

And so I want to encourage you, don’t just

take the grab three songs and slap them

into planning centre approach.

Weave together a beautiful,

cohesive, Christ-honoring set.

God’s worthy of it.

The people will be thankful for it.

And I promise you, you will see greater

engagement from your church if you

do this, if you lead songs in this way.

It’s the way forward.

Do it, please do it.

And grab that free ebook underneath this

video or join the academy to get the set

building course plus nine other courses

on topics like team building,

running efficient rehearsals,

increasing congregational engagement,

and much more, plus our live monthly

trainings, our supportive community,

our coaching sessions, and more.

So try the academy for just one dollar

by going to worshipministrytraining.

Com.

I’ll put a link below this video,

and I’ll see you in the next video.

God bless.