Worship Playlist by Director of Creative Arts Graham Schardt

I sometimes receive questions about how we choose our worship songs at The Ridge and also how people can purchase them.  While we have introduced a handful of original songs in our worship, the majority of the songs we lead are commercially available.  For those of you who use Spotify (the online music playing service) here is a link to a playlist of our most common worship songs: Ridge Worship Playlist. If you don't want to set up a Spotify account (free btw), here's a list of some of the artists we utilize: Chris Tomlin, Paul Baloche, Gungor, Fee, Kari Jobe, Christy Nockels, Hillsong United, Brian Johnson, Jeremy Riddle, Kristian Stanfill, Matt Redman.

How do we decide on songs?  Just because a song sounds "cool" or "totally rocked" at a worship concert doesn't necessarily mean it will be a good fit in our worship services. :-) Our volunteer worship leaders and I try look at three aspects of any new song we might be considering.  We look at the Lyrics, Music, and Sing-ability of the song: 

     1) With the lyrics, we look at theology, focus (about "me" or God), and wordiness.  

     2) With the music, does it suit today's music style, contain a melody hook, and can our musicians do it well?  

     3) Finally with sing-ability, is the song within a reasonable singing range, and does it contain a melody/hook that's easy to learn?  

Now, I know what you're thinking - not all of our worship songs achieve all of these goals perfectly, pal!  Correct, you are!  It's mainly just a guide to help us decide from the thousands of options out there and to keep us someone consistent from week to week.  

Some exceptions to this include old hymns that we believe have "ancient value" in our worship today.  We include these whenever we can because they engage a reasonably large percentage of our congregation and represent a unity with the early Church.  

Bottom line, we want the congregation to participate and hopefully be inspired with each song.  I am thankful to God for our very talented musicians and worship leaders who lead us, and move us, into worship each week.