We also use djembe at the Journey. Congas and bhodran--Irish hand drum--also work well with electric guitar or electric guitar and key board. We have also used electric violin. When we blew the sound system, we have gone acoustic. We have gone accappello too.

Djembe can be used by itself. One song that works well with just African hand drum accompaniment is "All you works of God bless the Lord," a metrical version of the Prayer Book canticle--Benedicite opera omnia--set to the upheat West Indian tune LINSTEAD. The final "bless the Lord" of the refrain can be accented with a hand clap on each syllable.

I also recommend tin whistle, recorder, ulihan bagpipes, mandolin, hammered dulcimer, zither, hand harp, and other folk type instruments. By folk type instruments I am not referring to the old ballads or the folk music of the 1960s or the regional folk music of today but the instruments used in traditional cultures around the world--like the kalimba, or finger piano or the Chinese one string violin. It does not hurt to vary your sound from time to time. Do a plaintive Celtic song. Or a melodious African song with no accompaniment. I find that too many contemporary churches have fallen into a musical rut. They need to diversify!

Sounds fabulous Robin!

Sounds excellent, but I do have to ask (without prejudice!)...those songs don't look like they're close together alphabetically ;-) Was this a one-off, or have you found you can tweak your system, now it's been in place for a while? I'm genuinely curious.

Good question..!

The first Sunday of every month, I introduce a new song, which is obviously not in alphabetical sequence. It then gets a four week run, then four weeks off, then another four week run to really make sure the congregation know it. This is why the sequence appears as it does.

Ah - so Blessed Be Your Name and Take My Life are the 'new' and 'nearly new' in there, and you're up to H/I in the list. That makes sense.

How's it gone, the 4/4/4 method of learning new songs. Do people show any signs of fatigue with it? I've been reluctant to flog any song that hard in the past, but if it does work well, perhaps I should!

Actually, "Blessed" from the top of the list - we are back to the start.

The 4 week method has worked really well. No-one has said anything critical about it, and we have been doing it for five months. And the improvement in the singing has been really, really noticeable. People really learn the songs these days.

Here's what I suggest you do - just pick one good song and repeat it over 4 weeks, choosing the other songs as you regularly do. First see if anyone notices, and comments. Second, compare how well the congregation sing the song on the first week to the fourth week.

I've done weeks 1, 2, 4 and 7, so it's not really the first block that would be different - it's the coming back for another round. But I may well give it a go.

Well, it's only the new songs that I bring back after 4 weeks - I wouldn't do that with a well known song. But by singing it 8 times in 12 weeks, I really feel the tune embeds itself into the congregation.

My experience is that worship leaders, the instrumentalists, and the vocalists are more likely to be bored by repetition of songs than the congregation. Members of the congregation who clamour for something new all the time usually are not singing. They are listening to the band, music group, worship team or whatever you want to call the worship leaders, instrumentalists and vocalists, and worshiping vicariously through them. I have always taken my cue from what Betty Pulkingham wrote in the 1980s. "The role of the 'choir' (a term which she used in a very broad sense to include the worship leaders, instrumentalists and the vocalists, what we now call the band, music group, or worship team) is to release the congregation into praise." You may need to do some teaching about worship in heaven, thousands upon thousands praising the Lamb, and that sort of thing. No listeners in heaven, only praisers! We praise God with our lips on Sundays but our praise of him is reflected in our lives during the week. We do not meet on Sundays to get high on the music but to put our exhultation, magnification, and praise of God into words, glorifying him with our lips as we do with our lives during the week. If your worship team is not releasing the congregation into praise and the congregation is not living lives that praise God, then the worship team might want to look for a new gig.