Updating Your Worship Songs In Church Presentation Software

One of the most beautiful things that the Lord has ever done, or ever chooses to do is to place us on this earth with the ability to create, shape, and cultivate the world around us. You can see just how amazing our God is at creating when you’re driving through mountains, near a beautiful forest, or near a beach. It’s pretty awesome to think that the Lord designed us to create things that to Him are just as beautiful.

One of the most evident things that display this fact is music and worship. Each new worship song that is released contains a bit more of the essence of who God is and why He’s worthy to be praised. It’s so powerful to think about and to engage with Him on that level.

We here at MediaShout think that nothing is more important than connecting with Jesus. For 20 years now we’ve been pioneering ways to make that connection easier, more impactful, and more meaningful than any other time on this planet. 

With our church presentation software that becomes possible, as you can quickly and easily display the worship songs, sermon notes, and images and videos of your choosing. However, with so many creative minds, talented musicians, and shifting cultural tastes, your catalog of worship songs that you have an option to display grows more and more complicated.

We’re hoping this blog will help and encourage you to edit, refine, and refresh your worship lyrics database to keep things engaging within your ministry. If you’re wondering how often you should update your worship songs or why you should update these songs, you’ve come to the right place.

Fresh Worship Songs

The Lord stays the same through the ages. His love for us is constant and permeates every ounce of our lives even when we don’t see or feel it. While some worship songs do the same thing in regards to being amazing displays of affection for the Lord, others are simply out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes and a humble perspective.

At MediaShout we specialize in providing a simple and easy-to-use worship presentation software that utilizes a number of tools to ensure your job as a tech volunteer, pastor, or member runs as smoothly as possible. It’s an amazing software solution to the church’s common presentation needs. However, a huge obstacle we often see and hear of is actually a well-intentioned action.

You may have guessed that I’m simply referring to keeping songs in your database that are no longer used, or that maybe should no longer be used within your worship services. 

This is not meant to be a disregard to anyone’s personal taste in music at all, but rather a suggestion that has been highly beneficial to many churches around the world. If you don’t use a song anymore and haven’t in years, it’s a safe bet to go ahead and remove that song from your library entirely.

It’s tempting to want to retain every single song that your worship pastor has performed over the years, and often times the worship software you use is filled to the brim with thousands of songs you no longer use anyway. This means that you’re going to be searching for quite a while for a particular song or version of a song you really are in need of, whereas that search would be much easier in a more condensed library.

A large library is great in the sense that it gives you options, but too many options will leave you with a headache and shorter amounts of prep time for the songs you truly need for your church services.

If you have over 1000 songs in your lyric library, consider simplifying and updating to a simplified experience. 

Worship Lyrics From An Audience’s Perspective

It’s important to note that these suggestions aren’t an “end-all-be-all” solution for every single church. One of the great things that were God’s design from the beginning was diversity. What diversity ensures is that one church doesn’t have it all, but rather that every church has something unique to offer and discover for themselves. When those diverse churches come together, we get a divine representation of brotherhood and fellowship. 

All of that being said, you as a tech minister need to consider to some degree what perspective and diverse lens is your congregation peering through on a given Sunday?

Some churches come in expecting a simple, straightforward, and highly structured presentation on Sunday Morning. This is amazing and in every way needs to be honed in on! 

Other churches come in expecting an even flow of a service, where oftentimes a song changes to the chorus of a different song halfway through, and where the worship pastor may even begin to exhort the congregation with Bible passages or a short testimony on the fly. 

Whatever way your church works, is specific to your church and yours alone. I encourage you to consider your presentations to the “big screen” in the same way. Say 5 years ago, you created a slideshow for the worship service. “Amazing Grace” was in the service lineup, and you saved that particular version of the song back to your library when you were finished. 

You may still think that that version of the song is good to go and can be pulled in again with no changes. While in some cases that is true, I recommend that you consider otherwise…

Typically when we are displaying through our church presentation software, we want an easy-to-read and engage with display. You may utilize a classic remote control or a remote app on the phone. You may drag and drop your backgrounds and media files and you may be using advanced cross-platform streaming. 

Regardless of how you’re using the system you have, what worked 5-10 years ago display wise, may not work today in that same way. Follow with me here, but much like bootcut jeans of the early 2000s or other out-of-date fashion trends, our worship presentations from years ago may not look as classy as they once did.

We tend to recommend an overview of the songs you use each time you pull them into your program. Check for those simple things and consider changing the background or video files for example. Think about whether or not the font you used then was as visible and crisp as it could be for your congregation, and do you really need an animation or motion on each and every verse that goes to the screen? 

While there’s nothing wrong with any of those things, it’s helpful to try and view each song with a fresh set of eyes to determine what would be the best picture that your congregation can see.

We have other amazing suggestions to make your presentation readable and enjoyable for your congregation and I highly recommend checking those out, but overall, I suggest a simple display, with a dark background and large bright lettering for your congregation to easily partake in. 

Worship Presentations for Special Occasions

Do you remember the part where I said that these aren’t the “end-all-be-all” scenarios you have to live by? Good, because I may contradict myself just a bit here.

There is certainly a time and a place for bold, energetic, and even flamboyant displays of lyrics and presentations within your church software. To me, those times are often reserved for special occasions, holidays, conferences, or even specific sermon series.

The amazing thing about all of this is that again, you’re a creative human being, designed with a unique outlook on life. Some people prefer doing simple presentations, and others prefer to go all-in, with Christmas-themed backgrounds that match the backgrounds chosen for the sermon presentation or play well off of the color of the church walls and carpet… Whatever you prefer and whatever works well in your church should be happily applied.

It’s highly evident that in today’s culture, Easter Sunday, Christmas, and Thanksgiving are all huge days for churches as they bring in those who normally don’t come on any given Sunday. They often bring their kids, friends, and loved ones into the service expecting more or less an impactful experience. Those days are the perfect times to prepare amazing worship song displays that are themed for the holiday season.

MediaShout’s Plus Membership offers monthly background media packs that include, pictures, videos, and countdowns for you to use within your service. We pull them from some amazing partners that provide you with themed backgrounds around the holidays in order for you to have a super unique and fun experience for your congregation to stay in touch with the lyrics and announcements being presented for the screen.

Consider updating your holiday-themed songs with these backgrounds or other festive fonts, etc. that you may normally hold off on. 

A Worship Service to Remember

All in all, we as Christians are here to do one thing. That would be to glorify the Lord and share who He is to those who don’t know Him. Although worship songs and presentations help us get there, our main priority is to focus and draw near to Him. 

We’re hoping that these suggestions will help you and your team accomplish this and will provide amazing reasons that you can use to update your worship lyric database for a better and brighter future. 

Three are tons of presentations solutions on the market, such as Worship Extreme, Faithlife Proclaim, Planning Center Online, and others designed to enhance the worship experience of your church, but if you’re looking, our choice would have to be us here at MediaShout. If you’re on the search for free church presentation software, click the link below!