Bad worship songs: Spirit break out - Bryant, Hellebronth, Dhillion, Hughes (Bethel)

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, Spirit Break Out.

Video found here.

Lyrics:

Vs. 1: Our Father, all of Heaven roars Your name
Sing louder, let this place erupt with praise
Can you hear it, the sound of Heaven touching Earth
The sound of Heaven touching Earth

Chorus: Spirit break out
Break our walls down
Spirit break out
Heaven come down

Vs. 2: King Jesus You're the name we're lifting high
Your glory shaking up the earth and skies
Revival we wanna see Your kingdom here
We wanna see Your kingdom here

Overview

It is somewhat unfortunate that we must regard Bethel songs as suspect until proven otherwise. So many of their songs are fluff, with some solid stuff sprinkled in between. Today's song is not entirely fluff, but it also has very little that is substantial. Now, we don't require a doctrinal treatise in worship songs, but we cannot accept lyrics comprised of vague allusions and amorphous language, which seems to be the "standard" to which many worship songs aspire.

The production of the above-linked video obviously was carefully thought out, and after a keyboard into that goes on for a minute and a half, the band supplies a truly energetic performance. We suspect that this is part of the attraction, that the worship "experience" offered here is so compelling. But for us, the "experience" needs to be combined with some level of substance. 

And substance is where this song comes up short.

The Music

The linked video does not agree with the lead sheet we obtained. In the video the first verse is omitted entirely, and after the afore-mentioned overlong arpeggiated piano intro the song drops immediately into a full-bore chorus. From there it never lets up, and of course it also has nowhere higher to go. Thus it is at its apex for the entire song.

This makes us wonder if the intensity of the presentation is intentionally beating down the congregant with sensory overload. 

In addition, there seems to be some changes to the chords. The charted chorus chords are:

IV - V - vi - I (first inversion) 

(repeat)

The charted verses:

IV - V - vi - I (first inversion) - IV 

(repeat)

Tag: vi - IV 

(repeat)

The video shows the band playing some suspended chords, plus the I (first inversion) sounds more like a iii instead.

As mentioned, the song is all in from the end of the intro to the end of the song. This means that the intensity would be difficult for the band to sustain, which perhaps explains why the first verse was dropped. We suspect that in this performance the song was never intended to be performed in its entirety, but rather, it functioned as sort of a transition or prelude.

The Lyrics

The song begins with the Chorus, which is a petition. It's an appeal for the presence of the Holy Spirit, and is directed to Him. Now certainly there are those who believe that the Holy Spirit is already present and doesn't need to be invited. However, we do not have a particular problem with this idea, since Luke tells us:

Lk. 11:13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

However, the specific language used to invite the Holy Spirit's presence is curious. Does He really need to break out? Usually the Spirt fills or moves rather than breaks out. 

Further, the songwriters attempt to rhyme by using the same words, "out" and "down." Rhymes require two different words. Surely the songwriters can do better than that.

The unsung first verse is bothersome because of the hyperbolic use of the word "roars." Not "shouts" or "declares" or even "praises." Nope, heaven roars the Father's name. 

The second stanza of the verse inexplicably swerves away from addressing God to exhorting the congregation to sing louder (let this place erupt with praise). Then in the third stanza the songwriters ask the congregation if they can hear the sound of heaven touching earth. We have no idea what this means. What if the congregation can't hear this sound? Should they feel bad or inadequate? Aren't they singing loud enough? Really, what is purpose of such a question?

A worship song ought to address God directly, with statements regarding His glory, goodness, power, justice, beauty, etc. If the lyrics turn to address the congregation at any point, this should be rare and be done very carefully.

Verse two speaks directly to Jesus. The first stanza tells Jesus what the songwriters are doing (You're the name we're lifting high), which we suppose means that Jesus didn't know this until they wrote these lyrics. The second stanza is where we find the sole statement of praise in the entire song, but actually it is not praise, it's simply a description of what Jesus' glory is doing (shaking up the earth and skies). The third and fourth stanza return to making an appeal for the kingdom.

Conclusion

This song seems like another wasted opportunity. With this many lyrics one would think there would be time for something substantial. We have seen too many Bethel songs where a lot of effort has been put into the presentation but the content is just meh. Unfortunately, it isn't surprising that this song also has very little to say, and what is said is inscrutable, vague, or just empty. The Babylon Bee has a worship song generator, and this song sounds like it could have came from there.

We cannot recommend this song.