Part of the reason it has taken a week to answer this is that I haven’t started planning these services yet! (I normally plan services 5-10 days ahead)

We just introduced See, What a Morning by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty this past Sunday so that we can sing it as a congregation on Easter Sunday. Another song that I almost always use for Sunday is Christ the Lord is Risen Today by Charles Wesley. A song that we are singing this coming Sunday is Up From the Grave He Arose by Robert Lowry. This is a particularly good one for including kids – it’s one of our children’s favorite Easter songs. We will probably use The Power of the Cross and/or In Christ Alone by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty as well.

For Good Friday I will definitely use O Sacred Head, Now Wounded by Bernard of Clairvaux (1153) which I consider the quintessential Good Friday hymn. After noticing that Bernard is referred to by his town a smart songteam member suggested that I start signing my songs “David of Minnetonka.” We may use The Power of the Cross by Stuart Townend and Keith Getty and leave out the verse describing the resurrection. There is No Greater Portrait by myself and Eric Schumacher, Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed by Isaac Watts and Bob Kauflin and How Deep the Father’s Love for Us by Staurt Townend, and O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus by Samuel Francis might be used.

We have a fledgling choir that will sing Surely He Hath Borne Our Griefs on Good Friday and And the Glory of the Lord / Hallelujah Chorus from Handel’s Messiah as well.

I hope that helps! I pray for wisdom as worship leaders begin planning congregational worship for these important worship services.

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