Score every worship song in Planning Center Services from 1 (sung about God, for the edification of the church) to 5 (sung to God). The scores become tags you can filter, report on, and use to plan services with both declaration and prayer.
Mac and Windows · No coding · Practice mode included · Open source (MIT)
To download, open this project's GitHub page, click the green Code button, and choose Download ZIP.
When the church sings, we sing to God, bringing Glory to His name, and in doing so we sing for the benefit of each other. Congregational worship does both.
Songs and expressions that ascribe worth to God. Their direction is upward, and they're often a response to the revelation of Jesus. These songs echo what heaven is already doing.
For example: Holy, Holy, Holy · Great Are You, Lord · Holy Forever
Songs about God, His Word, and His works. They're declarative: they proclaim truth and doctrine, and they edify the body as we sing that truth together.
For example: Christ Our Hope in Life and Death · Is He Worthy?
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”
In one sentence, Paul tells the church to teach one another (horizontal) by singing to God (vertical). It's the same act, moving in both directions.
The right balance isn't always the middle. When the moment calls for ascribing glory to God, we lean vertical. When the body needs to be reminded of eternal truth, we lean horizontal.
Either way, singing together is never only personal. Scripture says we address one another as we sing to the Lord (Ephesians 5:19–21), and that everything we do when we gather is for edifying one another (1 Corinthians 14:26). Greg Gilbert of 9Marks applies this to singing: sing even the songs that aren't your favorites, and sing them wholeheartedly, because someone beside you may be deeply strengthened by them. That's true whether you're on a microphone, holding a guitar, or running slides from the back.
Worship often moves from revelation to response. Many churches shape a service to retell the gospel, and that flow tends to move from horizontal toward vertical:
A score doesn't rank a song. A 1 isn't better or worse than a 5. It simply names the song's direction, so your team can:
Planning tools have their limits. Whatever we do, in word or deed, we do in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to the Father through Him (Colossians 3:17). Good intentions and careful planning don't make our worship acceptable; as Harold Best reminds us, only God, seeing faithfully offered work as perfect in Christ, does that.
Further reading: Harold M. Best, Unceasing Worship · Greg Gilbert on congregational singing at 9Marks
Double-click Start Tagger, pick a number, and follow the prompts. If you can fill in a spreadsheet, you can do this.
Create five score tags in Planning Center and connect the tool with a key. Its instructions walk you through it.
About 30 min, onceExport your songs from Planning Center. The tool turns the export into a simple spreadsheet, for every song or just the lists you choose.
5 minType a 1–5 next to each song using the one-page rubric, or let Claude score them and review only the ones it's unsure about.
30 min – 2 hrsThe tool sends 3 songs first so you can check them, then sends the rest. Every other tag on each song is kept.
About 10 minEvery path uses the same rubric and the same tool to send scores to Planning Center. Choose the one that fits your team.
Open the scoring sheet in Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets, keep the printed rubric next to you, and type a number for each song.
Claude scores every song and flags only the ones it's unsure about, plus a random spot-check of the rest.
Install the skill and ask Claude to "score my scoring sheet." It reads the files directly and fills in the sheet for you.
One that can edit songs in Services.
Plus Python, a free program. The guide shows how to install it.
Excel, Numbers, or Google Sheets.
Only if you want Claude to do the scoring.
Step-by-step, plain-language instructions with troubleshooting.
One page explaining how to choose each score.
Edge cases, scoring as a team, and strict vs. loose scoring.
Copy-paste instructions so regular Claude can do the scoring.
Made-up sample songs and a filled-in sheet for practice.
Commands, file formats, and how the Planning Center API is used.
No. Both directions are biblical, and healthy corporate worship needs both. The score describes a song's direction, not its quality or its worth. A church may lean one way for a season, and that's fine. The point is to choose on purpose.
No. You double-click a file, choose numbers from a menu, and fill in a spreadsheet. The Admin Guide is written for office admins and volunteers, and covers installing Python (a free program the tool needs) on Mac and Windows.
No. It changes only the 1–5 score tag on each song and keeps every other tag. It also sends 3 songs first so you can check them before it does the rest.
No. You can score every song yourself with the printed rubric. Claude is optional and makes the job faster: it scores the list and flags only the songs it's unsure about for you to review.
The tool is free and open source. You need a Planning Center Services account that can edit songs. If you choose to use Claude, the usual Claude plan applies.
Lyrics come from your own Planning Center export and stay on your computer. They're shared with Claude only if you choose that route, and Claude is instructed to use them only to choose a score, never to reproduce them. The project files never include any lyrics.
Yes. Planning Center's tag names can say anything as long as each starts with its number, 1 through 5. You can also adapt the rubric to your context. Just make sure everyone on your team uses the same one.
Export again and choose to leave out songs that already have a score. Your new scoring sheet will include only the new songs.
No. It's an independent tool built by a church worship team and shared for others to use. It uses Planning Center's official API.
Start with the practice mode. It runs the whole process with made-up songs and changes nothing in Planning Center.