Regular readers know that I became music director at my church early in the year, and I’ve sometimes used these columns to reflect on my experiences in this role. I’ve also published the occasional song list as well, and I’m doing so again today. I’m hoping this will give struggling MD’s a few new song ideas, and encourage others to prune and evolve their own lists.

Here is the current song pool at my church -

All The Nations (Hodge)
Amazing Grace (my chains are gone) (Tomlin)
Blessed Be Your Name (Redman)
Come Thou Fount (traditional)
Grace Unmeasured (Sovereign Grace)
He Is Holy (Garage Hymnal)
How Deep (Sovereign Grace)
How Great Is Our God (Tomlin)
How Marvellous (Tomlin)
I Come by the Blood (Sovereign Grace)
In Christ Alone (Getty/Townend)
In the Valley (Sovereign Grace)
Indescribable (Tomlin)
It Is Not Death to Die (Sovereign Grace)
Jesus Messiah (Tomlin)
Jesus Thank You (Sovereign Grace)
Kingdom Song (Emu)
Let Your Kingdom Come (Sovereign Grace)
My Hope Is Built (Emu)
Never Alone (Emu)
Take My Life (Garage Hymnal)
The Power of the Cross (Getty)
This Life I Live (Emu)

I plan to teach the following songs in the next few months -

Beneath the Cross (Garage Hymnal)
The Voice of the Lord (Emu)
Holy (for you alone) (Castle Hill)
God Moves (Sovereign Grace)
You are God (Emu)
Father’s World (Emu/Garage Hymnal)
The Saving One (Star field)
Day Will Come (Emu)
One Day (Mark/Beeching)
Micah Song (Hodge)

Looking back, it’s a year where we’ve made a lot of use of overseas material, with Sovereign Grace and Tomlin now dominating our song pool. I deliberately set out to retire some of the older Emu tunes (which we have sung to death). My plan was to introduce some of the newer Emu stuff (which I really like), but I got less done in that direction than I hoped. I’ll be rectifying that to some extent in the coming months. Oh, and I’m more convinced than ever that regular pruning is needed to keep your music ministry fresh, vibrant and engaging.

So, what do you think of my list? What are you singing that I’m not? And where would you like to see your church music ministry head in the next year?