Praise Charts’ Ryan Dahl on Resourcing Your (actual) Church

In this episode of the pod, Ryan Dahl (founder & CEO of Praise Charts) and I sit down and geek out haaaaard over the relationship between what worship leaders say and how they behave. The impetus for this convo is our recent time together in Nashville at the inaugural Worship Leader Research conference, where Ryan unveiled this treasure trove of data (a treasure trove which he has agreed to share for a limited time with the listeners to this podcast, so… don’t sleep on it!) In this convo we cover Ryan’s backstory, what to do with tubas in modern worship, and what is the busiest time of the week for WLs to download chord charts (hint: it is not Wednesday afternoon). You can watch the conversation on YouTube or at the bottom of this post.Keywords:worship resources, church music, praise charts, data analysis, worship leading, song complexity, music trends, church growth, worship theologyChapters:00:00 - Introduction to Ryan Dahl and Praise Charts05:02 - Praise Charts’ mission and impact on worship06:06 - Ryan’s journey from worship leader to data enthusiast08:14 - The unique setting of the worship leader research conference09:33 - The importance of data in understanding worship trends11:02 - Ryan’s nerdy passion for musicology and design15:55 - The diversity of worship teams and song choices21:32 - The shift from analog to digital distribution of charts22:23 - Saturday night panic and last-minute downloads28:41 - The complexity of songs and their popularity33:11 - The longevity of classic hymns and their continued relevance38:07 - The shared song repertoire across churches46:14 - The role of data in understanding church song turnover48:31 - The surprising discoverability of new songs53:25 - Praise Charts’ role as an intermediary in the worship ecosystem56:28 - Future directions: theological insights and resource customization57:39 - Closing remarks and appreciation for Ryan Dahl Get full access to Marc Jolicoeur (aka Jolly Thoughts) at marcjolicoeur.substack.com/subscribe