What makes the perfect wedding? Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. The perfect praise set has similar elements and I try to include some or all of these when planning worship:

New praise songs: Always be on the lookout for up and coming songs that the Church will be singing over the next year. A good place to find the popular praise songs are on PraiseCharts.com’s “What’s Hot” list.

Staple praise songs: A praise set of entirely new songs will leave your congregation unengaged. Make sure the bulk of your set contains songs your congregation knows and loves. Once engaged they’ll be much more receptive to learning something new. The CCLI top 100 lists these staples. I alternate each week between listing the staple CCLI songs and PraiseChart’s new songs in the WorshipIdeas newsletter.

Hymns: Falling under the “something old” category, hymns connect us to our Christian roots and remind us that the worship experience has been going on for centuries.

Original praise songs: Churches love to sing original songs written by their own music team.

Bottom Line: Enrich your praise sets by combining new, old and original songs.