My website recommendation for May is Worship Together.com  This website is primarily for people who love Christian worship and worship leaders.

What does this website offer?

Songs:

Organised into Free, Popular, new, recently added and favourites. It’s an easy way to keep up-to-date with great new songs from all over the English speaking world. Worship Together have highlighted their top 5 to 25 songs for a certain amount of time but you can always use the Search Bar at the top to search for 100’s of songs. Thus it’s good to visit the site regularly to see what new songs have been added.

When you click on a song a new page full of helpful information awaits. You can then click to see: the YouTube video of the song; listen to it; add it to the planning centre/ Spotify playlist or buy it on iTunes. Below there is an interactive section of the lyrics and cords with the ability to transpose to your preferred key. Then useful information of the songwriter(s),  suggested themes the song could fit in, biblical reference, tempo, original and recommended keys, BPM and CCLI#.

For the Free songs, you can also click to download treble clef sheet music with lyrics and cords – great for piano players and those who want to see the melody in black and white music notes.

 

Worship Leaders (and Bands)

Currently, there are 55 worship leaders and bands icon’d here. Giving you relevant information about the person or band. There are a good selection of their video’s (mostly from the New Song cafe section), and songs. But you can easily see all their songs, videos and other content by clicking the green “see all songs” comment at the bottom. Which doesn’t actually describe what it enables you to access.

This is a great resource section if you wanted to know more about / learn from a specific worship leader. The video’s and interviews help to hear the heart passions and stories not only behind the songs but the people themselves. We can all learn a lot from their honesty.

Lists

If you are someone that likes lists, especially setlists then this is a dream resource for you. Yes, there are the categories of Featured, New Releases, Set Lists, Collections & Ideas. But the best one is ALL 🙂 There are currently 162 different setlists from themes, specific celebrations (like Christmas, Easter, Pentecost), but so much more. But it doesn’t just give you a straight list of songs there are the resources behind each song too. Which can help you learn any song or use it to create your own set.

Resources

Still not quite sure what their ‘top resources’ are. As they are just their highlighted Videos, Podcasts and newest Blog.

The video section is just a selection of 24 of their videos. But no way to look at all their videos (maybe there’s just too many).

The Podcast page is literally the full list of all their posted blogs. Which might just be exactly what you were expecting. But no categories or other grouped ideas.

The Blog section. Mmmmm, yet another different format. This time giving you their top 5 but done over a much bigger space (so need to scroll down a lot). They seem to all be a kind of song devotional with 3 options on the side of Songs, Inspiration and Resources. Which when clicked can date back to over a year ago for the most recent post. Plus there doesn’t seem to be any rhythm of when a blog is posted. For example, the latest ones are in March. There are a few for the same date then none for a bit, then a few a week apart. So perhaps a little confusing if you’re looking for a regular post.

Worship Together Kids

This page seems to be done in partnership with Ignitermedia.

Ignitermedia is a great group dedicated to providing you with “everything you need to lead your kids to worship”. Their resources are excellent. But you will be required to pay for this resource after your first free month. They have 3 sections of Kids Songs, Kids Series and Scripture Memory Songs.

Leading worship specifically for kids is something I’m not that used to. So if you want to grow in this area – then this could be a fantastic resource for you. I was particularly intrigued by the Scripture Memory section. Which is videos (and downloads of different video and audio tracks for each subject. So you can split the video and audio depending on how your set-up needs those to work. But also gives you a video to help you learn the hand motions and printouts. Well done. Professional so probably worth paying for esp if you are a church or kids ministry and want more quality resources.

Woman Who Worship

I was looking forward to checking out this page, as I am a woman who loves worship. But sadly there is not so much here. There are 3 links to YouTube videos of Webinar’s. And a message saying they have a heart to connect female creatives. But nothing else. Hoping that this will be further developed soon.

Overall

It doesn’t matter if your new to worship leading, been doing it for a long time, or if you just love to worship. This website is a fantastic resource for:

  • discovering new songs (to you or in general)
  • finding inspiration for a worship set
  • finding songs on a particular topic…
  • hearing from the songwriters – their process with God and background to the song
  • looking for the original music/ cords to go with the song (so you don’t have to rely on your gifts or someone else to figure out the cords yourself.
  • Listening to fellow worshippers and being inspired by their experiences and wisdom.
  • You can have your own account to gather your favourites in one personal space.

You can also sign up to receive their regular email updates. Which saves me time to see what new songs are being highlighted.

I am a busy woman – so having this great resource to help inspire and teach me new songs and ideas for worship – is a big need for me. Especially when I lead worship regularly (which I’ve not done for a while).
If you are new to worship leading and feel a bit overwhelmed by it all – spend some time here, joining gifted and anointed people in worship. Don’t try to be like them, but be inspired to develop your gifts and calling so that one day you will be leading your group is amazingly anointed worship times. But just remember – the place you need to keep is your first a worshipper, not a worship leader. You can’t take people who were you’ve not been.

Thank you Worship Together.com for providing such a valuable and useful resource for worshippers everywhere.

Another site I use regularly in my own worship times is Ultimate Guitar.com – here’s the link to my recommendation and thoughts about them.

Sing to the LORD, all the earth. Tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous works among all the peoples. For Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be revered above all gods.

[1 Chronicles 16: 23-25. NRSV]