Leading Worship at Easter

It is a great privilege to lead worship over the Easter season, not only to remember the death and resurrection of our Saviour, but because many people come to church at Easter who would not otherwise do so. We are given a unique opportunity to present the gospel, through the songs we sing and, in fact, through everything that happens during these services.

Therefore, we need to give our preparation on these occasions careful and prayerful consideration. Some people may not be familiar with ‘church’ or our particular repertoire of songs so, in whichever service you are leading over Easter, I suggest including a song that everybody knows, like ‘Amazing grace’. Literally everyone knows that hymn, and I think it’s helpful to give visitors some familiar territory where they can feel ‘at least I knew that one!’

First, let’s look at Palm Sunday, which opens Holy Week. There are a number of church traditions associated with this day such as the distribution of crosses made of palm leaves, which symbolise the palms placed before Jesus upon His entry into Jerusalem. Your church may or may not do this. Either way, if I were leading worship on this day, I would take my inspiration for songs from the heart of Bible passages which describe ‘the triumphant entry’ of Jesus into Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, the fulfillment of prophecy in Zechariah 9:9. This event is recorded in all four gospels: Matthew 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-44 and John 12:12-19 and, in each account, the people are shouting their praises to God.

For Palm Sunday, my song selection would be centred around songs that are very God-focused. Some suggestions are: Agnus Dei, A Thousand Hallelujahs, At Your Name (Yahweh Yahweh), Be lifted up, Bless the Lord O my soul, the three-part song Great is He, Holy forever, Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty, Hosanna (Praise is rising), How great is our God, and Shout to the Lord.

For Good Friday, we want our attention to be focused on the cross. As worship leaders, we have a lot of wonderful songs available to us which follow a similar arc: they take us to the cross, to the grave, and then lead us to exalt the resurrected Jesus. These are, absolutely, the songs we will be selecting from when we think about Easter Sunday, and we’ll talk about them shortly. But for Good Friday, we want to keep our focus on the cross, where we reflect upon the extent of our sin, and ‘count the cost’ of Jesus’ sacrifice and what His work was achieving.

Thankfully, there are many wonderful songs which help us to do this. In my view, these are some of the greatest for a Good Friday service. The wonderful hymns, ‘When I survey the wondrous cross’, ‘Before the throne of God above’ and ‘How deep the Father’s love for us’ are hard to surpass lyrically. Graham Kendrick’s classic song, ‘From heaven You came (The servant King)’ takes us to the ‘garden of tears’ and ‘scars that speak of sacrifice’. The hymn, ‘Nothing but the blood’, Chris Tomlin’s ‘At the cross’ and Bethel’s ‘Forgiven’ are also great cross-centred songs.

The wonderful hymn, ‘Here is love vast as the ocean’ takes us to ‘the mount of crucifixion’ where ‘heaven’s peace and perfect justice kissed a guilty world in love’. I have added a chorus to this hymn, ‘Grace takes my sin, calls me friend’ which speaks of the cross being our place of rescue and salvation. Another simple song I have co-written (with my friends Geraldine Latty and Carey Luce), if I may offer it as a suggestion, is ‘Come to the cross’. Because of its simplicity, I have found that people are able to grasp it and join in singing it straight away. This could be useful to you especially if you think you may have a number of visitors at your service.

Now to Easter Sunday. Here we can fully celebrate our risen Saviour. As a worship leader, I would be bringing scriptures to read to inspire faith and celebration, such as Philippians 2:6-11 and Hebrews 7:16, which tells us that Jesus “has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to His ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life.”

Here are, I believe, some of the best examples of songs that take us from the cross, to the grave, to the victory of the resurrection: ‘In Christ alone’, ‘It was finished upon that cross’, CityAlight’s ‘Jerusalem’, ‘Living Hope’, ‘Man of sorrows’, and the hymn ‘Man of sorrows what a Name’, ‘O praise the Name’, ‘The power of the cross’, ‘What a beautiful Name’, ‘Yet not I but through Christ in me’.

One word of caution is that because all these excellent songs take us on a similar journey, you do want to be selective in how many you use. To use multiple songs that take us on the same emotional arc would be too much. Perhaps have one in your main worship time and one to conclude your service.

So, as well as a key song detailing that cross-grave-resurrection journey, we can also praise God for what Christ’s resurrection means for us. Examples include ‘And can it be’, ‘Christ the Lord is risen today’, ‘Death was arrested’, ‘Glorious Day’, ‘Thank You Jesus for the blood’ and, if I may, my own songs ‘Grace is not earned’ and the co-write with my friend Colin Webster, ‘The stone is rolled away’.

Finally, we also want time to just give God glory, with songs such as ‘Holy forever’. And the most wonderful conclusion I can think of for Easter Sunday, to celebrate the one we read of in Philippians 2, who ‘humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death’ and who is now ‘exalted to the highest place’, is the wonderful song ‘Is He worthy?’ It asks, ‘Is He worthy of all blessing and honour and glory? Is He worthy of this? He is! He is!’