Analysing Your Worship Setlist with ChatGPT

ChatGPT is a household name. I work in the AI industry and use a plethora of AI tools, including ChatGPT. Initially, the random parent at my kids’ school would surprise me when they mentioned they used ChatGPT, or the fireman friend who said he also uses it.

It is so common these days, that it doesn’t surprise me anymore. Worship teams and church leaders can also benefit from diving into ChatGPT. The use cases are many, and we’ll explore a few along with example prompts that you could copy and paste.

First, ChatGPT for Worship Teams and the Church.

Using ChatGPT isn’t cheating. If you use it to learn and research topics. ChatGPT is just like any search engine. Plenty of startups use ChatGPT as a resource to learn new things. It can explain complex concepts in simpler terms, it can analyse a set of inputs and more.

Use ChatGPT to Find Themes in Songs or your Sermon

If you have your setlist, get all the lyrics and put them into a Google Sheet (if you use Excel, you might also have a fax machine) and then download it as an Excel file. Okay. I have Excel as well, but no fax. This exercise requires you to have an active ChatGPT subscription. It costs $20 a month.

1. Create a column for each song
2. In the first row, add the titles of each song
3. In the second row, paste the lyrics of each song
4. Go to ChatGPT and click on the paper clip icon to upload your spreadsheet
5. Type in the following prompt: Analyse the worship songs in the spreadsheet. Find common words, patterns, tone, and phrasing
6. ChatGPT will run through all the songs and give you its analysis.

Why do this?

Data can bubble up some interesting patterns that you might not have seen. People like saying “I’m data driven”. I prefer saying “I’m data informed”. It means I can take data and make conscious decisions.

When I ran this experiment, there were interesting patterns that ChatGPT surfaced. I could have gotten there, it might have taken me longer . I ran the analysis on these songs: Holy Forever, All Hail King Jesus, Trust in God, & I Believe.

General analysis

Song 1: Holy Forever begins with a vision of generations worshiping, hinting at themes of eternity and devotion.

Song 2: All Hail King Jesus opens with a dramatic moment of darkness and victory, focusing on themes of kingship and resurrection.

Song 3: Trust in God starts with a personal testament of faith and assurance, emphasising trust and divine presence through trials.

Song 4: I Believe declares a firm belief in salvation and truth, with a focus on faith and confession.

Analysing common words

Common Words: The most frequent words across all songs include "the," "and," "all," "I," and "he." This suggests a focus on inclusivity ("all"), personal testimony ("I"), and possibly a narrative or descriptive tone about others ("he").

Analysing the theme across all four songs

Devotion and Worship: The repetition of words like "holy," "hail," and "lord" points to a strong theme of devotion and worship.

Kingship and Authority: Words like "king" and "lord" highlight themes of authority and kingship, likely referring to Jesus.

Faith and Belief: The frequency of "believe" and "trust" underscores themes of faith, belief, and trust in God.

Analysing the overall theme of the four songs

The overall tone of the songs appears to be reverent and worshipful, with a strong focus on faith and devotion. The use of personal pronouns ("I") alongside words denoting worship ("holy," "hail") suggests a personal connection and individual expression of faith.

In the word analysis, I would look for an overuse of “I” and “we” etc to see if it was used more than “Jesus”, “God” etc. This would let me know if there is a good mix of “God” songs. Are we naming our God in our worship?

Watch this phenomenal video from Mike O’Brien about crafting your setlist.

In the theme analysis, the phrase “Kingship and authority” stood out. What great attributes to talk about and research some more. Use ChatGPT for that research.

Type in: List the verses that talk about "Jesus' Kingship and authority" in the bible

ChatGPT gave me this:

Revelation 19:13, 16 - "He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God.... On his robe and on his thigh, he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords."

Matthew 28:18 - "And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.'"
Ephesians 1:21 - "Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come."

Colossians 2:10 - "And (because) ye are in him made complete; or fulfilled... finding the whole fullness of God brought within our reach and engaged in our behalf."

1 Corinthians 12:3 - "Therefore, I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, 'Jesus be cursed,' and no one can say, 'Jesus is Lord,' except by the Holy Spirit."

Revelation 20:6 - "Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years."

Okay, great start! Now you can type in your own prompts (questions or whatever you type in are called prompts in ChatGPT). You can speak to it like it were your personal know-it-all.

If this was my set for Sunday, I’d go read up on these topics and pray that we sing His kingship and authority over the people, and the city. I’d take 1 minute to share with the congregation – to point them in that direction and pray they engage and follow along, and then overtake the worship team.

Of course, pre ChatGPT you would have prayed about your setlist. And that does not change. Research and prep however has just become easier. Do pray about the things you researched and seek guidance. ChatGPT isn’t replacing the Holy Spirit. It is just saving you time in your research.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV

Pastors, you could do the same. If you are in the middle of a series, create a spreadsheet of all your sermons and analyse it for patterns. Ask your worship leader to share their analysis of the songs. Does it inspire your message? Vice versa.

Initially I was going to write about other prompts and even other AI apps in this one blog but it is already a long read.

If you have specific questions about AI and the church, post your comment or send me a note!

Posted by Conrad Abraham

Hey there. I’m Conrad from Atlanta, Ga. I’ve a passion for worship, In fact, I’ve been worshiping before it was official – or before I accepted Jesus as the one true God and as my saviour.

All PostsWebsite