Evaluating a Worship Song: Is It Biblical?

One of the most important responsibilities of a worship leader is choosing songs for corporate worship. For those not involved in worship ministry, this may seem like a simple task: just throw together a few of your favorite songs and bada-boom, you’re done, right? But it’s not quite that simple. Choosing songs is (or at least should be) an involved process that requires us to ask several important questions. This week I will begin a series highlighting several key questions we should ask about the worship songs we use. We can apply these questions to help select new songs, or to evaluate songs we already use.

Here’s the first question we ought to ask about a worship song: Is it biblical? Does it adhere to, reflect or contain truth found in Scripture? Christians are people “of the book”–we believe the Bible is the revealed Word of God, and that it’s our guide for faith and life. Therefore, the message and meaning of a worship song must align with biblical truth.

Here are a couple of good examples:

• The classic hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” is a fantastic song because it uses vivid biblical imagery to highlight a key characteristic of God: his holiness.
• The uber-popular “How Great is Our God” (recorded by Chris Tomlin) focuses on the simply truth of God’s greatness, and also uses poetic imagery. It’s sort of like a modern hymn.

Likewise, here are a couple of poor examples:

• Back in the 90′s I used a song called “I Love Your Grace” (by Rick Founds). The chorus says, “I love your grace, I love your mercy; I love the way you help me when I call. I love your truth, I love the power of your name, but you know I love your presence most of all.” Is it really true that we should love God’s presence more than his mercy, grace or truth? This is theologically muddy at best, so after a time our church stopped using it. (I’m not even sure why I began using it in the first place. Don’t be afraid to stop using a song if you become uncomfortable with its theology.)
• Or how about the hymn “In the Garden”? My grandmother loved this one, but in truth it’s kind of a silly song that talks about meeting Jesus in a garden and enjoying his presence. The song doesn’t really say anything of substance. At best, it’s only suitable for personal devotions.

A couple of observations:

1. Worship leaders are one of the primary theologians in the church. When we select songs for worship, we are essentially putting words in people’s mouths. The songs teach as much about God as the sermon. (And songs stay embedded in our memories much longer.) Worship leaders should get as much theological training as they can.
2. This is not an issue of “hymns” vs. “contemporary music.” It’s not about old vs. new songs, it’s about good vs. bad songs. There are plenty of bad hymns, and there are plenty of good newer songs. It’s not the age of the song, but its quality. (With that said, one of the great things about hymnals is that most of the bad songs have been weeded out. The CCLI top 25 list functions the same way.)

A couple of good resources on choosing songs for worship are God Songs by Paul Baloche and Jimmy & Carol Owens, and The Art of Worship by Greg Scheer.

Question: What is your church’s process for ensuring that worship songs reflect biblical truth?