4 Guidelines to Look for When Choosing Worship Songs
Recently, a song came to my attention that I was sure I heard the Lord asking us to put into the set for February... the month of "love."
It was a fun song with a cool beat and great rhythm and plenty of singable tones and sound and melody.
I asked the team to take a listen to let me know what they thought about it.
Pastor drummed to it. I could tell he enjoyed it.
Kevin, my husband, added his own flare. It sounded not only like our own version, and he was having a ton of fun playing it. Oh, I thought, this song would be so fun for the congregation!
I glanced at the other girls. Most seemed to nod their heads in approval.
Except for one: She did not seem pleased. In fact, she had her eyes closed (squinted painfully closed) and she was not at all comfortable with what she was hearing.
I pretended not to notice.
When we decided to start the song on our own, she said she had to leave.
I honestly didn't think much of that.
She came to me on Sunday and apologized for leaving so quickly. I told her I just thought that she was tired. (Wednesday rehearsal nights can get late.)
No, no ... it wasn't that, she said. I was really uncomfortable... with the song. We spoke a little bit more and then I asked if I could call her that afternoon.
When we spoke again, she told me why she felt like she could not sing that song. Ultimately, she said, she felt the Lord was convicting her not to sing it.
I told her I'd be praying about doing the song and thanked her for bringing this to my attention. Do we want to do it or not? I was leaning towards not doing it now, especially if she had planned to sit it out! We are a team, after all, and if God convicts one of us, this should be heeded as warning to all.
When God speaks, His message is clear and unchanging
This past Sunday, following our rehearsal, I announced that we are not going to do the song that we had planned to do for the month. We'll learn a new song next month, instead. I thanked them for their willingness to stay flexible and explained that I don't want to do a song if God convicts a team member about it.
I watched our pastor's facial expression. He tilted his head and gave sort of a half-smile.
After I finished, he made his announcement: He faced the same conviction about not doing the song!
For the next five minutes, each member of the team took turns sharing lines that we didn't care for, or were confused about within the song. Had God convicted each of us?
I thanked the team for their willingness to drop a song after possibly already having learned it. They said, "Oh, yeah, no problem. Better to honor God."
We prayed and gave thanks to God about how the spirit of God works in us, around and us and UNITES us in our desire to wholeheartedly glorify and obey Him, and listen to His conviction.
For us to introduce a song to the congregation, it must be:
1. Theologically accurate
2. Singable / catchy
3. God-glorifying
4. Familiar
1. Theologically accurate
A song needs to match up verse with theology. It's amazing how a songwriter may miss the mark in favor of being stylish or sounding cool.
This may not be intentional, but it happens. One website I like to read when review before choosing a song is called The Berean Test: Analyzing Lyrics in Jesus' name which I like most of all because if dissects a contemporary Christian song line-by-line and matches verses with God's word.
Bible Gateway, I recently learned, has a whole bunch of information and scriptures to match up with even if I just input a phrase or line within the song.
Our goal (and what I like to call humble responsibility!) is to point others to Christ. To help lead them into His presence.
I need to ask, and scrutinize, at times: Is what the song saying true? Can the lyrics be attributed to scripture?
2. Singable/Catchy
When I used to write songs, there was a goal I used to shoot for every time: did I create a hook? The hook of the song is the part that grabs the listener, and usually has them singing after the first listen. It's the part of a song that gets stuck in your head and makes the song "catchy." Usually it's the chorus, or refrain of the song, sometimes the end of a verse, and sometimes the bridge but it's part that is repeated most often. The hook is not always in the words, it can be in a guitar or keyboard solo or drum beat.
For a song to be sing-able, you want to choose a song that is easy to learn (a catchy hook will help), is not too challenging to sing, (not too high or too low a key), and with a simple melody. Some of the simplest sounding songs have been the most successful. (Ex: "How Great is Our God" by Chris Tomlin)
3. God-Glorifiying
What does that mean? The lyrics focus more on God and His work in our lives and who He is, rather than ourselves. We live in a me-centered culture and even Christians can unknowingly be seduced by 'self,' so we need to embrace the idea that if something is not truly God-glorifying it may NOT be worthy of our worship. There are many songs we've put aside that seem to be more about what God does for us, rather than who He is. I realize this can be a blurred line, as some music can serve as a testimony about God's power, and there is a time and place for that too, but God shares His glory with no one, so why should our music glorify anything BUT Him?
4. Familiar, or beautiful This last point it wildly subjective. I'm aware that our congregation holds different tastes in music. Some listen to modern music on Christian radio, while others prefer old church hymns. Maybe it depends on the physical age, or whether or not they've grown up in the church. But, the point of worship is not to entertain but to worship. Songs chosen for worship are not meant to make us feel good, (that's a happy accident when it does!), but to point to the person of Jesus. Singable might also mean technically speaking, and I can include that here. We do want the song to be in a fair range, and not too much range. (Personally, I love his stuff, but Phil Wickham songs often get pulled aside. Kari Jobe too, for the same reason.)
Defining Corporate Worship
In summary, corporate worship has to be a participatory experience, rather than a performance or passive experience. And the participation begins long before a song is introduced to our congregation, first it has to reflect truth and resonate within the hearts of those who lead.
Over to you. I mentioned just 4 guidelines that we look for when choosing songs for our corporate worship. What would you add to this list?
Resources mentioned:
Photo by Emily Morter on Unsplash
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