Why We Sing What We Sing
Introduction
Anyone who has attended any local church over the past two-thousand years understands that singing is an important part of the local church gathering. Though singing has taken different forms throughout church history, no one denies that singing was and is an integral part of worship in the church—after all, the apostle Paul makes it clear that we are to “[speak] to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.” (Eph 5:19, LSB)[1] Now, of course, throughout church history, what singing within the church looked like and sounded like has differed.
The New Testament (NT) itself doesn’t dictate any sort of instrumentation or musical style, but since the NT church was located in multiple physical locations and included multiple cultures, the instrumentation probably differed depending on the culture and the style of music reflected where the local church was physically located. Now, the NT doesn’t give an example of different instrumentations depending on context, but the Old Testament (OT) does show us various examples of different instruments being utilized depending on where the worshiper was, when the worship was taking place, and what the purpose of that particular song was. Consider all the encouragements, exhortations, and admonitions of David to “raise a song, strike the tambourine . . . blow the trumpet” (Ps 81:2-3) and to play stringed instruments with multiple psalms (cf., Pss 4, 55, 67, and 71); or consider the fact that the Levites were commanded to lead musical worship with instruments (1 Chr 23:5). Not every psalm was intended to be sung with every instrument and not every moment of musical worship was meant to be a capella (despite what some denominations and churches insist).
The question really isn’t whether musical worship should entail the use of instruments or utilize a specific musical style because the Bible gives credence to many different musical styles and instruments. In fact, Scripture gives the impression that regardless of what specific instrument or musical style you prefer, the goal is to make sure that you’re musically worshiping the Lord with the right heart and intent. The question, then, is after we determine our musical style and instrumentation (as a local church), what exactly should we sing when we worship the Lord in this medium (e.g., what words should we sing and what songs should we sing?)? Should we sing every song that comes across Christian radio? Should we limit ourselves to only what’s in hymnals? Or should we only sing psalms or songs that we write ourselves? What dictates our song selections during musical worship as a local church? This question is the basis for the rest of this blog.
What dictates our song selections?
There are thousands of Christian songs—there are ancient hymns, modern hymns, Christian music from the radio, camp songs, dirges, and what some consider worship anthems. There are easily more Christian songs than any one local church could ever utilize in the entirety of its history and there are dozens of new Christian songs being added almost daily. It really is no wonder why you can go to different local churches within the same region and hear completely different songs meant to lead people to worship the Lord—there is an abundance (maybe even an overabundance) of Christian songs. Thus, anyone who leads musical worship needs to be discerning when choosing the music that their particularl local church uses—it has to be more than singing fun songs, or singing entertaining songs, or just singing the songs people like. Musical worship is far more important than flippantly choosing songs just because they’re popular or because they create an emotional response in the congregation. At Grace & Peace, we take song selection for musical worship seriously because we know that our congregation needs to sing songs that focus their attention on God (and we also know that songs tend to be remembered far longer than sermons). These are the three main standards that matter most when we choose music at Grace & Peace:
Doctrinal Integrity
More than anything, our number one question with any song utilized at Grace & Peace is, “is this song theologically sound?” We never want to utilize music that is weak theologically or errant, again, because we know songs tend to be remembered. If we utilize music that is theologically weak or errant, then those who attend our services will learn false teaching (or at the very least, weak theology) through the music. This is why we intentionally don’t utilize songs that are doctrinally weak or errant—even if they happen to be a favorite hymn from years past or a favorite song on Christian radio. There are two ways that we apply this standard at Grace & Peace; we apply this in an ecclesiastical basis as well as on a per song basis:
Concerning our ecclesiastical basis—as a church, we have a position statement concerning churches that we partner with. “The church as a whole must separate from those who teach false doctrine and attempt to subvert the saints—including, but not limited to individuals who teach false doctrine and local churches who teach false doctrine. (Romans 16:17; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15; 2 John 9-11; 2 Corinthians 6:14-18)”[2] We take this seriously as a church because doctrine and theology matters. We want to be a church that actually knows what we believe and stands firm on the Gospel according to Jesus Christ. Since Scripture teaches us to take false teaching seriously, we refuse to partner with any church or organization that unrepentantly teaches and preaches false teachings. This includes utilizing music that these organizations and churches publish or record.
Now, some might wonder how utilizing music from a church that teaches false doctrine is partnering with that church. The reasoning for this is two-fold: (1) there is an implication when you use someone’s music that you’re in agreement with the person—there’s an implication that you agree theologically and thus, you must be partners or at least on friendly terms. (2) Because of modern-day copyright laws, anytime you utilize someone else’s copyrighted material you must compensate them financially. Many churches utilize licensing to do this (e.g., CCLI) and that licensing organization keeps track of which songs you use so that they can compensate the writers of each song financially. This effectively means, that you end up supporting churches and organizations that teach false doctrine financially just by using their music.
What this looks like practically is that there are ministries, churches, and organizations that are known to teach false teachings and wrong doctrine—we simply choose not to use their songs. For instance, Hillsong Church, which publishes music under the names Hillsong Worship, Hillsong Live, Hillsong United, Hillsong Chapel, Hillsong Young & Free, and Hillsong Kids is known to preach and teach the prosperity gospel (a heretical false teaching also known as the health and wellness gospel and is connected with the heresy of the Word of Faith movement), thus, we don’t use their music. Bethel Church, which publishes music under the name Bethel Music, has made many erroneous claims like (1) it is always God’s will to heal people, (2) that angels can be coaxed by humans to do the human’s bidding, and (3) it is possible to “soak up” the anointing of a deceased person by “grave sucking.”[3] They are clearly teaching false doctrine, thus, we don’t use any of their music. This same standard is why we don’t use songs by Jesus Culture, Elevation Music, Chris Tomlin, and Kari Jobe despite their popularity.
Utilizing music from false teachers gives an appearance of validation and depending on the extent of the partnership, may even yoke the church into being partakers in their evil false teachings (2 John 1:9-11). So, we intentionally choose not to use music from these sources, regardless of their popularity, their catchiness, or their musical quality.
Concerning our per song basis—occasionally songs come from a decent source that isn’t known to be a false teacher, but the song doesn’t teach good theology. For instance, the hymn He Lives by Alfred Ackley is a very popular song, but what exactly does the song teach? The premise of the song seems good—that we can trust that Jesus does live today, but what does Ackley base that premise in? We see it in the chorus, “He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today / He walks with me and talks with me / Along life’s narrow way / He lives, He lives, salvation to impart / You ask me how I know He lives? / He lives within my heart.”[4] The foundation of Ackley’s statement concerning Jesus living is his subjective experience—he feels like Jesus lives in his heart. What should inform the Christian that Jesus is alive? Objective truth—Scripture. Songs like Shine, Jesus, Shine, I’ll Fly Away, and Good, Good Father while catchy, popular, and easy to sing, have little to no doctrinal meaning and rely on emotionalism and sentimentality rather than truth.
This applies to both modern music and ancient hymns. There are plenty of songs new and old that are completely void of good, biblical doctrine and thousands of people within the church sing them for sentimentality and emotionalism. Here’s the issue with this, should sentimentality and emotionalism dictate what we do in a church? Should we do things simply because we like them? Should we sing songs just because it’s our favorite song from our childhood? Or should we hold ourselves to a higher standard in the public worship of our Lord?
Now, some might argue that when these songs are sung, the people singing the songs aren’t trying to proclaim false teachings, but in this instance, intention doesn’t preclude the proclamation of false teaching. Or in other words, it doesn’t matter if you don’t intend to proclaim or teach false teaching, once you know that it is false teaching, the Bible clearly tells us to stop teaching it and stop proclaiming it. In the public worship of the Lord, in which we’re told to utilize singing to confirm our mutual beliefs, we must be careful not to sing things that are untrue.
Singability
If the song in question passes theologically, then the next question is whether or not the song can be sung by the majority of the congregation easily. Of course, there’s a little bit of subjectivity in this—churches that are particularly blessed with a large number of skilled musicians will be able to sing songs that require more skill, whereas churches with less musical ability, will have to choose songs that are musically simpler. The skill of musical worship within the local church really isn’t the primary point—God is more concerned with people worshiping Him in spirit and in truth than He is with skill (John 4:24); though of course, those more skilled in their musical abilities ought to sing and play instruments to the best of their ability and for the glory of God. (1 Cor 10:23-33)
This means, when choosing music in a local church setting, the musical worship leader needs to take into account the musical ability of his congregation and the difficulty level of the songs. For example, there are plenty of newer Christian songs on the radio that are simply too difficult for the average congregation to sing (songs with vast vocal ranges, irregular tempos, and unusual melodies). They’re great songs to listen to while driving, or at home, or while around town, but their musical difficulty becomes a distraction to the average churchgoer who can’t sing the higher or lower notes, can’t follow the irregular tempo, and can’t sing a regular melody (let alone an unusual one). If the song isn’t singable to the average person in the pew, it becomes a distraction; and instead of leading the people to worship the Lord through song, the individuals within the church will simply choose not to sing.
Musical worship within the church ought to be easily singable so that the average churchgoer can participate in the musical worship. Otherwise, the musical worship of the church becomes a performance in which the worship team/music team/band (or really whatever you want to call it) entertains rather than leads the congregation to worship God and praise Jesus.
Memorability
Lastly, if a song makes it past our theological screening and our singability screening, the remaining standard is that of memorability. Unlike the previous two standards, this standard is a bit subjective because it is based on whether the congregation develops an affinity for the song itself. In other words, is the song going to be something that the congregation likes to sing? Again, it’s a bit subjective of a standard, but the reasoning for it is simple—if the congregation doesn’t like the song, they aren’t going to enjoy singing it, and thus, they will not learn it well enough to remember it. There are some songs that are singable and theologically sound, but because our congregation doesn’t have an affinity for them, we don’t use them regularly.[5] This doesn’t mean that those songs will forever be disregarded, it just means that at the moment, our church has a hard time actually worshiping the Lord with those songs; so, we choose not to use them presently.
Part of the memorability issue can be fixed by encouraging the congregation to listen to the songs that the church uses outside of the church setting. In fact, we already do this and you can listen to the majority of our songs on a private playlist through the church’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXn9Rt00DKaFLIxScJeC696oZc24vrLkN). Part of this issue can be solved simply by using and reusing certain songs that might not be so familiar now but would be beneficial to delight in over time. Both ancient and modern hymns and songs can be memorable, but it does take effort; and sometimes, the congregation isn’t ready to make the effort to delight in something a little unfamiliar.
Conclusion
At Grace & Peace, we take musical worship seriously. Congregational singing isn’t just an add-on to our services, and it isn’t a time of entertainment for our congregation. What we sing together is important and should be taken seriously. Thus, we choose to only sing songs that are theologically sound, singable for the average person, and memorable to the regular churchgoer. We believe we best glorify God in our musical worship when we sing songs that are biblically accurate to the best of our ability; and we believe that we ought to do our best to not just sing songs because we like them or because they’re popular, but rather, sing songs that teach doctrine while worshiping Jesus, equipping believers, and making disciples.
For those that are a little more curious, please check this link to see the current core song list that we use at Grace & Peace.
[1] Unless otherwise specified, all Bible references in this blog are to The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (ESV) (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2016).
[2] “Constitution & Bylaws,” Grace & Peace Bible Church of Philipsburg, Pennsylvania,” (Philipsburg, PA: February 27, 2022), 4.
[3] Joe Carter, “9 Things You Should Know About the Bethel Church Movement,” The Gospel Coalition (September 29, 2018), https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/9-things-you-should-know-about-the-bethel-church-movement/.
[4] Alfred Ackley, He Lives, (1933)
[5] An example of this is Reformation Song, which despite its rich theological meaning and singability, we only use once or twice a year because our congregation hasn’t grown to enjoy singing it, yet.
