We’ve all been there. You’re building a worship setlist around a sermon theme, and one song or hymn comes to mind. You’ve used it before, but you’re drawing a blank for other songs to go with it. By starting a simple habit today, you can minimize or even eliminate this problem.

Archive your worship orders in one place and maintain it consistently. Church management apps can track song usage history for you, but they are often paid subscriptions. It’s not a big deal to keep track of it yourself. If time is an issue, ask a church volunteer to handle it. Teens and retirees are often eager to help if you ask them personally.

We have created a free Google spreadsheet to help you get started. You can customize it however you’d like. For example, you could add columns for Song Leader and/or Instrumentation. What you get out of it depends on what you put into it, so make it your own!

Here are some key benefits:

By the way, it’s perfectly fine to repeat the same setlist from time to time. People can’t remember what they had for breakfast, much less the exact combination of songs they sang in church three months ago. There’s no need to re-invent the wheel each Sunday. If it worked well, use it again!