With the great volume and variety of worship music available, none of us should have to settle for bad worship songs. We should be able to select hundreds or even thousands of top notch songs very easily.
What makes a song a worship song? Is it enough to contain words like God or holy? How about vaguely spiritual sounding phrases? Should Jesus be mentioned?
We think an excellent worship song should contain the following elements:
- A direct expression of adoration (God, you are...)
- A progression of ideas that culminates in a coherent story
- A focus on God, not us
- Lyrics that do not create uncertainty or cause confusion
- A certain amount of profundity
- A singable, interesting melody
- Allusions to Scripture
- Doctrinal soundness
- Not excessively metaphorical
- Not excessively repetitive
- Jesus is not your boyfriend
It's worth noting the most worship songs contain at least something good. That is, there might be a musical idea or a lyric that has merit.
Here are the words to a song we did recently in church. I sent the following analysis to the leadership, since I wasn't quite sure about the song's message.
Whatever the call whatever the cost
All of our lives for the King of the Lost
Forever we come to bring You praise
Whatever the course whatever the way
I’ll follow You through the darkest days
Your word inside is a mighty blaze
All my days, give You praise
For Your glory, we’ll carry high Your torch
For Your glory, we’ll lift the highest call
For Your glory, we’ll bridge the great divide
For Your glory, Your light could never hide
You’re the Voice that stills the storm
You’re the Sun that breaks the dawn
Forgive us for micro-analyzing the lyrics. The song seems like a series of random disjointed thoughts. What does lifting the highest call mean? Is God really the King of the Lost, or was the word selected because it rhymes with cost? To older generations, carrying a torch meant still having feelings for an old girlfriend. "Your light could never hide" from what, "Your glory"? It's a bit confusing.
On more general terms, we wonder about songs that tell God how faithful we will be to him. This song is actually about us, telling God what we will do, how dedicated we are.
We do want to make it clear that we should convey to God our desire to love and serve him. But proclamations of our intent do not necessarily constitute praise/worship. There are a lot of supposed worship songs out there that are actually about us. We are very wary of this self-orientation.
"I will" songs are about us, sung to Him. "He is" songs are about Him that we sing to each other. "You are" songs are to Him and about Him. "Will You" songs are about Him acting on our requests. "Thank You" songs tell of our gratefulness. "I am" songs are about our identity in Christ.
Definitionally, we consider praise/worship to be proclamations of praise, declarations of the attributes of God, and recitations of the great things He has done ("You are" songs that are focused on Him and rarely mention us). To a somewhat lesser degree, proclamations of thanksgiving as well.
Whatever the call whatever the cost
All of our lives for the King of the Lost
Forever we come to bring You praise
Whatever the course whatever the way
I’ll follow You through the darkest days
Your word inside is a mighty blaze
All my days, give You praise
For Your glory, we’ll carry high Your torch
For Your glory, we’ll lift the highest call
For Your glory, we’ll bridge the great divide
For Your glory, Your light could never hide
You’re the Voice that stills the storm
You’re the Sun that breaks the dawn
Forgive us for micro-analyzing the lyrics. The song seems like a series of random disjointed thoughts. What does lifting the highest call mean? Is God really the King of the Lost, or was the word selected because it rhymes with cost? To older generations, carrying a torch meant still having feelings for an old girlfriend. "Your light could never hide" from what, "Your glory"? It's a bit confusing.
On more general terms, we wonder about songs that tell God how faithful we will be to him. This song is actually about us, telling God what we will do, how dedicated we are.
We do want to make it clear that we should convey to God our desire to love and serve him. But proclamations of our intent do not necessarily constitute praise/worship. There are a lot of supposed worship songs out there that are actually about us. We are very wary of this self-orientation.
"I will" songs are about us, sung to Him. "He is" songs are about Him that we sing to each other. "You are" songs are to Him and about Him. "Will You" songs are about Him acting on our requests. "Thank You" songs tell of our gratefulness. "I am" songs are about our identity in Christ.
Definitionally, we consider praise/worship to be proclamations of praise, declarations of the attributes of God, and recitations of the great things He has done ("You are" songs that are focused on Him and rarely mention us). To a somewhat lesser degree, proclamations of thanksgiving as well.
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