Bad worship songs: Fullness, by Steve Furtick, Chris Brown, Matthews Ntele

From time to to we examine the lyrics of worship songs. Our desire is not to mock or humiliate, but rather to honestly examine content with a view to calling forth a better worship expression.

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. Such is the case with this song, Fullness.

Video here.

Lyrics:

[Verse 1]
Fullness of eternal promise
Stirring in Your sons and daughters
Earth revealing heaven's wonders
Spirit come, Spirit come

[Verse 2]
What You spoke is now unfolding
All Your children shall behold it
Dreams awaken in this moment
Spirit come, Spirit come

[Chorus]
Pour it out, let Your love run over
Here and now, let Your glory fill this house
Pour it out, let Your love run over
Here and now, let Your glory fill this house

[Verse 3]
Now the world awaits Your presence
And this power is within us
We will rise to be Your witness
Spirit come, Spirit come

[Bridge]
Tongues of fire, testifying of the Son
One desire, Spirit come, Spirit come
Speak revival, prophesy like it is done
One desire, Spirit come, Spirit come
Tongues of fire, testifying of the Son
One desire, Spirit come, Spirit come
Speak revival, prophesy like it is done
One desire, Spirit come, Spirit come!
Spirit come!

[Verse 4]
Let our hearts continue burning
For our King is soon returning
As we hold to this assurance
Spirit come, Spirit come!
Spirit come, Spirit come!

Overview

The Music

This is a pleasant, if forgettable melody. The production contains all the features of a contemporary copy-and-paste worship song:

• Emotive tenor singer eventually singing notes so high no congregant could hope to reach them
• Heavy toms/drum march
• several background pads/synths - wall of sound at the climaxes

This particular lead singer has an irritating habit of ending sustained notes with a flip up or down to a millisecond of another pitch. It's almost a non-pitch in some instances. It's a stylistic affectation that breaks up the phrase in an unpleasant way.

The chord structure is pretty basic with no surprises:

Verses: 

vi - IV - I played 3x with a turnaround for the last stanza, V (first inversion) IV (first inversion)

Chorus: 

V - I (first inversion) - IV

vi - V - I (first inversion) - I

V - I (first inversion) - IV

vi - V - I (first inversion) 

Tag: 

IV - I (play vi instead of I to go to instrumental)

Instrumental:

IV -  vi - V - ii (repeat)

Interlude:

Same chords with the final stanza holding IV chord

The Lyrics

It seems like in contemporary worship music we inevitably find formulaic, cookie-cutter music production coupled with formulaic, cookie-cutter lyrics. 

This particular song is on the whole not terribly offensive, but even with the opportunity of many lyrics it really doesn't have much to say. It's nicely written, it sounds pleasant, and is often on target with its topic. We identify this central theme as a plea to God to pour out His Spirit in last days revival. It's a theme that personally resonates with us, so we really wanted to approve of this song. 

As an aside, we should mention the fact that "fullness" is not really the topic of the song, despite its title.

The lyrics are loosely based on Acts 2:17-18:

17 “In the last days," God says, "I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy."

There is so much that could be articulated regarding this passage and also revival. Instead we find vague throwaway stanzas like "dreams awaken in this moment" and "let our hearts continue burning."

The song is expressed toward God in petition, with the somewhat odd exception in verse four, where the first two stanzas turn to exhorting the congregation before returning to addressing God.

There are several doctrinal problems, the last of which is important:

• In the chorus we find pour it out, let Your love run over. If the intent of the songwriters was to write lyrics in accordance with the theme of the Acts verses, then "pour it out" is the Holy Spirit. But He is not an "it." What seems to have happened is the songwriters attempted to fix this problem by sort of changing the subject ("it") to His love. This crashes into the narrative of the desire for poured out revival, however. In addition, what does it mean for His poured out love to run over?
• Verse three, now the world awaits Your presence. The word does not await His presence. Only His faithful church does.
• Bridge, tongues of fire, testifying of the Son. The tongues of fire testified of the poured out Spirit, not the Son.
• Bridge, speak revival, prophesy like it is done. The fact of speaking things is more and more being presented in the Church and in its worship songs as an active factor in causing things to come to be. This is Word/Faith, that the power of our words create reality. 

This idea is partly based on Ro. 4:17:

As it is written: “I have made you a father of many nations.” He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed — the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

The power of our words is derived from the premise that because we carry God's nature and therefore His power, we have the ability to create things by speaking, just like God does. Prophesy Your Promise by Jesus Culture (And when I only see in part, I will prophesy Your promise), Speak the Name (Miracles unfolding at the mention of the name), and Sound Mind by Jesus Culture (Use each breath to prophesy, I prophesy) are examples or songs about the god-like power of our words.

We believe this to be a gross misrepresentation of Scripture. There is nothing in the Bible that tells us that His indwelling presences means we can do everything God does, nor is there anything in the Bible that tells us our words carry God's power. 

Conclusion

If it weren't for the doctrinal issues, we would still manage to muster only a tepid support for this song. It simply doesn't express the fervent prayer for revival with any sort of profundity or power. But with fatal flaw of Word/Faith doctrine contained in the song, we find it to be disqualified.