The Songs We Sing: Part 1

There are a lot of songs in the Christian music genre, but some of them we use for corporate worship, and some of them we don’t.

I’m going to spend the next few posts addressing the songs that we choose to sing and the songs that we choose not to sing. I hope to tackle it from a number of angles, and I want to start by saying that this isn’t gospel truth in much of what I’m saying. I’d label most of this under personal conviction, but personal conviction that is informed by the truth of God’s Word and intentional thoughtfulness about lyrics, style, worship language, and other important factors that help us determine what music we should or shouldn’t use in our worship services.

I’ll separate these posts into the criteria I’ve chosen to use when determining what songs we use at the church I currently lead at, but I believe this list could easily translate to any worship ministry. Here is the criteria I’ve come up with to use in weighing song choice decisions:

1. Scripture
2. Emphasis
3. Topic
4. Diet
5. Singable
6. Congregational
7. Worship Language

Let’s dive into the first item on the list; is the song Scriptural? In some faith practices, in order to ensure that the songs are Scriptural, they choose to only sing songs that are taken directly verbatim from Scripture. I don’t believe this to be a bad practice, but perhaps an unnecessary practice. There are other places that don’t even take the time to mull over the details of the lyrics of the songs they are using because they assume that the Christian label and the source the song comes from must mean they’ve already done the hard work of making sure the song lines up with Scripture.

This is the first item on my list, because I have zero interest in weighing the other areas on the list if a song doesn’t check this box immediately. Sometimes, it’s possible to argue that the song has scriptural merit, but in cases of ambiguity, I choose to avoid it. There are enough wonderful songs in existence that I don’t need to choose one that could possibly be argued as scripturally inaccurate.

“Do we need to examine and scrutinize every line of every song?! That seems a bit extreme, doesn’t it?!” “Songs can mean different things to different people!” “There’s part of that song that might be a bit of a stretch, but the message of the song and the response we get from the congregation is so great that we can overlook that.” “Some people can get pretty strict on this issue, and I just choose to not waste so much time on overanalyzing everything.”

These are all phrases I’ve heard from worship leaders. At times, it’s disheartening to be looked at as almost legalistic or “holier than thou” by those in the world of worship leading because of how much I value the songs we sing being true to God’s Word. I’m fully aware that I am not the source of all truth and that I can be wrong about so many things, so I truly don’t intend to place myself as the sole expert of all things worship ministry. But, we are responsible for putting words in the mouths of people, helping form their doctrinal beliefs, and bringing a sacrifice to God that He desires, so taking it extremely seriously is warranted.

I won’t bash songs or songwriters, but it would be valuable to look at some common examples of song themes that are being used so commonly in churches without the analysis that is needed. It is fairly simple for anyone grounded in Scripture to find the glaring instances of unscriptural lyrics, but there are songs that have skated though mostly because I think we aren’t being careful and watchful as worship leaders.

1. Songs about “Battles” – Not all songs that mention battles are inherently wrong! However, songs that use the theme of battles and how worship relates to fighting our battles that send the message that when we sing loud enough or worship hard enough, all the bad stuff in our life goes away, are incredibly theologically harmful. I’d even say songs that can teach that the reason why we worship, is so that we can see victory in our battles are also harmful. One example of a song that I think scripturally handles this theme is “Battle Belongs“. The emphasis is on prayerfully surrendering our battles to God and knowing that ultimately the battle belongs to Him. It doesn’t insist that when we do that, He makes the battle go away. It doesn’t ask us to fight harder by worshipping louder so our battle goes away. It asks us to put battles into the proper perspective and to hand them to the God that can handle them better than we can.
2. “Good Enough” Songs – One of the primary points of the Gospel is that humanity is not good enough to earn right standing with God. Jesus is good enough. Songs that teach us that God sees us as not needing transformation, or that God wants us to be exactly as we are without changing a thing, are anti-gospel. We want people to know that they can come to Christ exactly as they are, but just because He loves us doesn’t mean we don’t need to become a new creation and have the old creation pass away. We need to be careful that we aren’t (even subliminally) teaching people that they’re fine where they’re at because of God’s love. God loves us so much that He wants to eradicate the sin in us and make us more like His Son.
3. “Feeling” the Holy Spirit Songs – This is one of the more prominent things I see happening in worship music. There are many beautiful songs musically that are even well intended that miss the mark on our theology of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is present and active in the life of every believer, amen? But what if the song isn’t making my heart pound? What if I’m not tearful, raising my hands, dancing around, speaking in tongues, or doing something demonstrative in worship? Does this mean the Holy Spirit isn’t active in me? There are a few songs specifically that I think reduce the Holy Spirit to a feeling we get that negatively impact our theology on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is more than a feeling, more than a sensation, and anything that makes someone question whether or not the Holy Spirit is working based on what they feel needs to be scrutinized carefully.

Ultimately, if a song is not aligned with the truth of God’s Word, there is no value in having it be part of our worship services. We as worship leaders need to be willing to do the hard work of digging into God’s Word and into the songs we sing to know if we could be negatively impacting the theology of our congregation, and be willing to change what we’re doing as needed.