A playlist? For the season of Lent? A Lenten playlist? What an odd idea. Lent is often seen as a somber and even silent season. Certainly, there is space for contemplation, for embracing the quiet, for being still to seek out God. Many of us, however, find music a helpful tool for contemplation. So, we offer this playlist as another tool for your worship experience this season. We chose a song for each worship moment in the series from Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday. We aren’t suggesting that these are to be used in worship, unless that fits your context. Rather, this is preparation work, thinking about making connections, about plumbing the depths of heart and soul, of the community of faith and the wider culture. However you use them, let music be a guide into worship this Lent.
Sustain in Me (March 5, 2025)
A playlist? For the season of Lent? A Lenten playlist? What an odd idea. Lent is often seen as a somber and even silent season. Certainly, there is space for contemplation, for embracing the quiet, for being still to seek out God. Many of us, however, find music a helpful tool for contemplation. So, we offer this playlist as another tool for your worship experience this season. We chose a song for each worship moment in the series from Ash Wednesday through Easter Sunday. We aren’t suggesting that these are to be used in worship, unless that fits your context. Rather, this is preparation work, thinking about making connections, about plumbing the depths of heart and soul, of the community of faith and the wider culture. However you use them, let music be a guide into worship this Lent.
As part of the worship resources for this series, we have put together a playlist for inspiration, meditation, and reflection through Lent. Click here to see the full playlist. At the end of the worship planning notes for each week, you will find a social media devotional and YouTube video link that link the themes of that service with the related song from the playlist.
Rescue Me (March 9, 2025)
For many worshipers, this is the beginning of Lent. Weekday or weeknight services are sometimes difficult to manage in our overly busy world. So, the worship teams can recapture some of the essence of the Ash Wednesday service as we gather for this First Sunday in Lent. There is an invitational quality to this beginning. Whatever call was issued on Wednesday needs to be repeated here. Are there recommended spiritual disciplines the community is focusing on this season? Are there opportunities to gather, to partner with others, to join a small accountability group that will walk with you this Lent? If so, then reissue those invitations, not with a wagging finger saying, “You should have already been on board with this,” but with an open, enthusiastic invitation, making the genuine offer to “observe a holy Lent,” as our Book of Worship has it.
Conceal Me (March 16, 2025)
Let’s talk about sanctuary. We seem to have moved away from calling the space where we hold gathered worship a sanctuary. We now prefer worship centers or something like that. That makes sense; let’s define what we do in that space. Let’s find something a little more contemporary and dynamic. Let’s emphasize the event that is worship, the experience of worshiping. It seems a positive move to leave sanctuary behind in favor of something new.
My Soul Clings (March 23, 2025)
To what do you cling? That might be the question before the worship planning team this week. Perhaps your first reaction is, “No, I don’t cling. Clingy is not a good adjective for people. Let’s move on to something else.” Hold on. Maybe you’ve sung this: “Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.” Or “I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for a crown.”
Steadfast Love (March 30, 2025)
Psalm 32 is a Selah psalm. There are only three of them, but they are powerful. Sure, no one knows what they really mean or how they function in the psalm. But there is something intriguing about the placement of the word in Psalm 32. The first one comes after a statement about how difficult life is and how faith is sometimes a burden that we bear. After expressing that pain and admitting that weakness, there is the word “Selah,” and then everything changes. The psalm becomes a celebration, a declaration of faith, a cleansing, a renewal. One of the understandings of selah is that it means to breathe. Some think it is a musical notation for singing or an instrumental interlude like a music bridge. I think it is a call to breathe, to stop and reflect and breathe.
Fill Me with Laughter (April 6, 2025)
Humor is more difficult than it appears. Laughter too often comes at the expense of another person. Yet, when used well, humor is a binding agent, bringing total strangers together in a shared experience. So, this is not a call for worship to be replaced with a stand-up comedy routine. Yet, a lightness of heart seems called for this week—the ability, perhaps, to see blessings instead of burdens. This laughter is not because something is funny – though it might be. Rather, we laugh because of the sheer joy of living. We give thanks for the gift of living and loving, for being in community, for having space to worship. Gratitude leads our prayer time this week.
Open the Gates (April 13, 2025 - Palm Sunday)
This day is surely the most paradoxical of any on the liturgical calendar. Is that a controversial statement? Perhaps, but it seems true. There is a paradox on this day. The obvious one is the juxtaposition of Palm and Passion on this day. How does one service contain the emotions present in the celebration that was the Palm Sunday parade and the painful solitary walk to the cross on Good Friday? It seems impossible, and we usually make a choice to observe one over the other. Maybe we focus on the parade and let the children dance around the sanctuary waving palm branches and shouting for Jesus. More rarely, today could become an extended Good Friday, as the attention to the Passion overwhelms the liturgy of the day. It is possible to begin with the parade and then transition later in the service – interestingly often after the offering is taken! Maybe this is a recognition of the sacrificial nature of giving our financial resources.
You Have Loosed My Bonds (April 17, 2025 - Maudy Thursday)
Maundy Thursday worship tends to be heavy, somber, and quiet. We aren’t necessarily recommending you throw a raucous party here, but we are suggesting that might focus on the resolution of the Savior instead. Jesus, whether you are reading the John text or the Luke one, has his face set toward Jerusalem. This doesn’t diminish the prayer in the garden where, for the last time, Jesus asks for the cup to pass from him, but emphasizes the end of that prayer, “nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.”
Do Not Be Far From Me (April 18, 2025 - Good Friday)
Is Good Friday about trying to overcome distance, or is it about acknowledging the distances between us? On this day, we feel a long way from God. We think we’ve resolved that childhood question, “What’s good about Good Friday?” but our answers still seem inadequate. This day doesn’t feel good to us. It feels a long way from good. I suppose that is part of the point.
We gather this day in dim lighting to remember that even the sun refused to shine over this death. Our music is slow and weighty, carrying the hammer blow of crucifixion and the desolation of the abandonment at the cross. We set a mood, not to manipulate emotions, but to express what is in our hearts and heads as we contemplate this day, this event, this gift.
A New Cut (April 21, 2026- Easter Sunday)
It is Easter; let there be light! Let there be color and music and joy. In everything, let there be joy as we worship this day. We certainly understand that, for many, this day is driven by tradition. And that’s a good thing. We don’t have to reinvent ourselves every time we celebrate this highest and holiest of days. Meeting the expectations of those who are a part of the community can be a powerful way to worship on Easter Sunday. Can it really be Easter in our tradition if we don’t sing “Christ the Lord Is Risen Today”? I don’t think so. But there are new songs that your community has not sung that could be sung. The key is a balance between tradition and innovation, between the comfortable familiar and the edgy new territory. Lean into the former and sprinkle in the latter and things will go well.
Rev. Dr. Derek Weber, Director of Preaching Ministries, served churches in Indiana and Arkansas and the British Methodist Church. His PhD is from University of Edinburgh in preaching and media. He has taught preaching in seminary and conference settings for more than 20 years. Originally published by Discipleship Ministries. Republished with permission by ResourceUMC.