Practical Tips For Selecting Your Music - Part 2

July 10, 2025•6 min read

"When selecting songs, it's very important to try and choose pieces that have some sort of connection and relevance between what is being sung and what is being taught in the sermon. There should be a level of consistency and harmony throughout the whole service."

Why is it important to pay attention to the theme and relevance of songs when we're selecting our music? And how does the service structure affect this?

In this week's post, we're looking at the next two points in this subject that deal exactly with those questions.

Last week, we looked at responsibility, which was knowing who is responsible for selecting the music, and then also format, and this was simply laying out the different types of music formats you can get.

So the next point then is...

Theme & relevance

When selecting songs, it's very important to try and choose pieces that have some sort of connection and relevance between what is being sung and what is being taught in the sermon. There should be a level of consistency and harmony throughout the whole service.

This just helps to solidify and consolidate things in people’s minds and hearts as we consider the truth that has been preached, the words of Scripture that have been read, and the prayers that have been prayed. The more it links together, the more edifying it will be to the congregation. And while we see these in a more significant way at times like Easter and Christmas, we should be no less committed to matching songs and themes at other points throughout the year.

The truth is, it really isn’t helpful if the sermon is all about the resurrection and you only pick songs about the crucifixion, or if the sermon is about the love of Christ, and all the songs are about the judgement of Christ.

Now having said that, I do think we can take this to an extreme.

Yes, we should aim for cohesion with the songs, and the themes represented in the sermon and the service, but you do want to avoid a situation where you are either meticulously trying to get every song to match the theme/themes, or if you are trying to find a song to fit something that is very obscure or unusual, just for the sake of making it match.

That will probably be a waste of time, and there’s likely a more general theme that will be just as appropriate.

So, do prayerfully try to pick appropriate songs, but don’t get too intense about it, or you may find yourself investing too much time that could be better spent in practicing and familiarizing yourself with the songs.

If you don’t know this already, most hymn books and worship song books have a themed index at the back where the songs are categorized by theme. This is really helpful when you’re trying to do a good job of matching the songs.

Many also have a scriptural index too, which may be quicker if you look at the various passages being taught, and then can find any songs that relate to that.

I've included a couple links in this post of some online song indexes which you might find helpful to use also, but just a disclaimer from me, I’m not endorsing all the songs in those lists. I actually published a blog post recently talking about biblical vs unbiblical music, which you may find helpful to have a look at. If you’re using CCLI, which I’ll talk more about in a later post, they also have a themed index, and then there’s also Praise in the UK that have a themed index of songs.

Let's look at the next component then, which is…

Service Structure

What this refers to then is the certain parts of the service, how it progresses, and what type of songs will fit best with that progression.

Now of course, every church is going to be different. Some churches have a main section of worship at the beginning, with one or two songs sung individually at other points in the service and ending with a final song.

Other churches have the songs separated by different components of the service and each song is sung on it’s own in those situations.

And then there are also variations on those different structures too. All we need to focus on is what our church does, and requires, and what is most appropriate for our setting.

Just to give a little more of an idea of this to those of you who may be new to church piano playing, here are some examples of different aspects of a worship service, that may determine the kind of song you choose.

Firstly, there is The Call To Worship: This is the first song that is sung in a service, usually following a Scripture reading. The style of this song should be uplifting, celebratory, and more importantly, should be a song that declares God’s greatness and calls people to worship Him. An example would be “All Creatures of Our God & King” or “This is the Day That the Lord Has Made”, or “Come Behold The Wondrous Mystery” by Matt Papa. Basically, it's choosing songs that esteem the majesty of God and our response of worship as His children.

Another aspect of the service to consider, is the song that is sung right before the sermon. It’s good if this is perhaps a song that invites us to open our hearts to God’s Word, and encourages us to be ready to obey and respond with a willing heart. Some examples of this would be “Speak O Lord” by the Gettys or “Show Us Christ” by Sovereign Grace.

You may also want to choose an appropriate song for when Communion is served in your church - either before it’s taken, or after, or both can also work well.

And then one other consideration is the final song in the service, which in many churches will be a song that is sung right after the sermon. This is where we really want to sing something, if possible, that is a response to what has been preached. Choosing a song like that allows us to continue in our minds and hearts with the theme, challenge or call of the sermon as we leave church and go into the week ahead.

So hopefully that’s helpful to those of you who may be less familiar with these things. For some services, there are more parts where certain songs can be chosen for, such as a baptism, ordination, or even before or during an offering is taken - but the examples above are enough to give an idea of the process. Hopefully you now have a few more tools to help you choose some well fitting songs.

Next week, we'll be looking at the last few components of selecting our music.

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This blog post was written by pastor and pianist Kris Baines, from The Church Piano Player. Kris lives in the UK with his family, having recently moved back from New Zealand where he worked as a pastor for the past 26 years (also leading worship/worship teams). Kris has also spent over 35 years writing, recording, and performing music and is now bringing all that combined experience together to help equip church piano/keyboard players.

Check out the church piano player website for more information on online courses by Kris Baines.