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Extras
» 1. Songs that cause trouble
» 2. The Music Team Questionnaire
[3. The Church Song Survey]
The Church Song Survey.................................... 
The customizable survey template can be downloaded here in Excel format. The file will also allow you to enter your data and provide a summary of the results for you. Instructions are contained in the file. Make sure you click "Enable Macros" as the file is opening.
Why do a survey?
There are many factors that go into choosing a well-balanced song list each week. Above all, songs should contain fantastic lyrics that faithfully spring from God's word, and express his purpose for music, proclaiming God’s works, giving him thanks and praise, and encouraging us to give our lives to him.
Songs at church should also be emotive. That is, the congregation should actually be affected by the singing at church. The songs should move people! Good songs have lyrics that touch us deeply - great poetry that speaks to who we are as humans under God. And the music should lift those lyrics off the song sheet and into our hearts! Yet there’s a large spectrum of personalities across every church who are affected in different ways by different music, and it can often be hard to strike a balance. This is never more evident than when the song selection at church is clearly biased towards the tastes of the one or two people running the music team. I’ve even heard of one church where there was an audible groan as a particular song came up on the overhead! A song that very few people enjoy singing has limited value as a congregational song.
It's also important to keep the song list fresh. Have you noticed how people always talk about new songs? Fresh songs engage people far more readily than “favourites” that are slowly but surely going stale from over-use (or worse, starting to aggravate people). New songs - and old songs with new melodies - are a great gift as we continue to connect the word of God with people’s hearts and minds.
Doing a Song Survey at church is one way of keeping the weekly song list effective and fresh - staying in touch with what songs are working (and not working) for the congregation, and finding out about new songs people may have heard elsewhere.
How to use the survey
Choice of songs for church should never be a popularity contest, and as we've discussed, there are a number of factors that go into choosing good songs. However a survey is a helpful way to get a general idea about what's working for the congregation "on the ground". For example, it wasn't until we did a survey at church that we discovered there were several songs we sang that almost everyone disliked! Although they were faithful biblical songs, for a variety of very subjective reasons they simply weren’t useful in engaging people. If anything, they distracted from the message they were trying to convey.
1. The songs that everyone likes
The survey results will help you know which songs are very popular so you can use them judiciously and not over-play them. Songs that are over-sung get stale and stop moving people.
2. The songs that people... prefer we didn't sing
You'll probably find several songs that - surprisingly - most people don't like. What do you do with this information? If you're convinved these really are great songs it would be worth asking around to see what people think. There could be some very subjective reasons why people don't like an otherwise faithful congregational song.
It could be the song is just too hard, in an unfamiliar musical style, or is otherwise unusual. It could be that the song has only ever been played by your less proficient musicians. Some of these reasons can be addressed. But if the congregation just doesn't "get" the song, whatever the reason, there's little point forcing it. There are plenty of faithful songs out there that people will be able to sing whole-heartedly, so go find them (and avoid the others).
4. Finding new songs
The survey is a great opportunity for people to let you know about songs they've heard elsewhere and are keen to sing at church. If you don't teach new songs regularly at church, your repertoire will quickly get stale.
A few gentle hints about how not to use the survey!
1. Don't use it to get your way
Please don't use this survey if there are divisions within the church about what sorts of songs should be played, or if you are tempted to use the results of the survey to get your own way!
2. Don't publish a list of the unpopular songs
3. You won't be able to get detailed feedback about individual songs
This survey is designed just to give a broad idea of which songs are (and aren't) "working". If you want detailed feedback about particular songs, the best way is to speak with people individually.