Some churches introduce worship music only after the Alpha weekend while others start with carefully selected songs on the first night. There are some ideas below if you'd like to start your Alpha with music right away.

Some churches provide a live worship team while others stream music from Spotify or Google Play Music. We don't provide a specific list of songs for churches to use on Alpha since the styles and song preferences vary widely. The CCLI website has a list of popular songs with lyrics. Please double check the lyrics and make sure they're not too "Christianese" at first. 

There's a great video by Tim Hughes, UK worship leader, on YouTube that explains more about worship music on Alpha. Click here to watch this video.

Here are some ideas for you to customize:

For the first week or two, play upbeat energetic music, either live or streamed. This provides a welcoming and positive atmosphere. For the Intro Dinner, have the Music Leader perform a few songs in the background. Guests can relax and don’t have to participate.

On Week 2, choose two songs that are about God or faith, but not TO God (e.g. Do not sing "I love you Lord" since it requires people to agree with what is being sung, and someone new will not be ready for that). Ask guests to participate if they feel comfortable.

The Alpha leader or the Music Leader can briefly comment before the music begins in order to put people at ease. Say something like, "Since this is a course about the Christian faith, we want you to experience a key part - music and singing. Please sit back and enjoy. You don't have to sing along unless you want to."  Avoid long explanations.

By Week 4, people are starting to connect. At this point, introduce songs that are sung more directly TO God than ABOUT God. Include a brief explanation of what worship is--thanking and adoring God and opening our hearts to Him.

For the Alpha weekend, guests will be observing the Christians in the group as they worship. They will learn as you model how to praise and worship God. We don't want to restrict Christians from outward expressions of worship; however, we do want them to be mindful that some Alpha guests may have never experienced this setting. We want to remind them that Alpha is for the guests and we want to do everything we can to make them comfortable.

Related articles:

What are some ways to show hospitality on Alpha? (video)
What is the Alpha weekend?

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