Discerning Praise and Worship – A Primer
Knowing that I’m a musician, many readers of Protestia and followers/supporters of Protestia Tonight have asked me how I approach the selection of worship music from a biblical perspective. In response, I’d like to humbly offer my rating system for figuring out if a given song belongs in your church service. There are other websites that offer similar analyses, but frankly, I have found them far too tolerant considering churches don’t need any particular song. First, some context.
The Megachurch Takeover
Worship music is extra-biblical. Songs are notes, rhythms, and often lyrics not found in scripture. Of course, this does not mean that there is anything sinful or wrong with songs in general, but scripture does instruct us to sing songs that are spiritual (Col. 3:16). We sing Psalms (worship songs written under the inspiration of the Spirit that are part of scripture), hymns (which often contain scripture, and should contain rich doctrinal truth), and spiritual songs. Spiritual songs may be more general, but should be characterized by the promotion of those things that are true, honorable, just, lovely, commendable, excellent, or worthy of praise (Philippians 4:8) – again, informed by scripture.
While the singing of Psalms faces no scriptural challenge (as they are scripture) and most long-accepted hymns enjoy wide acceptance (although a few present some doctrinal or associational difficulty), modern music technology has presented a vast array of new challenges to the Church. This modern technology includes recording, easier and cheaper music production and the internet becoming the sole distribution channel for musical products.
Churches of the market-driven, seeker-sensitive variety quickly realized the power of music to aid their marketing efforts, and many developed in-house, professional writing, recording, and distribution operations to capitalize on the music industry’s paradigm shift. Music could now be recorded cheaply and distributed instantaneously, and (as with so many other products) the church was a ripe market. The relatively-niche market for Christian recording artists (once largely separate from the music used in church worship) was quickly taken over by church music ministries recording and producing cheap, emotional songs under the “worship” label. These songs were created not for the purpose of selling albums to Christian customers, but to be used in church worship services. People had stopped buying music, and streaming royalties remained low, but churches continued to license music through CCLI for Sunday morning.
Aside from the revenue generated through licensing, mega-church ministries that had their own music production and distribution arms enjoy an attractional, and professional feather in the cap that signals to the wider Christian world that they are the real deal. Additionally, music has a way of leading people to let their doctrinal guard down, and accept teachings that would likely draw opposition if taught directly from the pulpit.
Christian recording artists, unable to compete against the unassailable certification of holiness granted to “church bands,” jumped on the bandwagon and started producing worship songs and albums as well. The ironic result was that the tapestry of “spiritual songs” that was on the verge of blossoming a couple of decades ago gave way to a homogeneous, cheap, sound-alike Christian music industry. Questionable doctrine now came in a church-sanitized package on Sunday morning. Artistry had been replaced with generic praise bands singing emotionally manipulative, universalized, and generic lyrics over music that was cheap, basic, and disposable.
The Current Landscape
Yet there is a remnant. There are Christian music artists writing songs that exalt God’s truth using music that is artistically crafted rather than comprised of the same four chords that make up every Phil Wickham, Elevation Worship, Hillsong, or Bethel tune blasted from evangelical sound systems on Sundays. And of course, we have the Psalms – which are often put to new music yet contain inspired truth. Classic hymns of the faith are re-produced or rearranged musically.
Yet seemingly every day a new, disposable Christian praise tune is released and is quickly promoted on lowest-common-denominator Christian music outlets. K-Love Kathy quickly goes from undiscerningly blasting it in her Toyota Sienna to sharing it with her girlfriends at the weekly Priscilla Shirer “bible” study. Soon, the tune catches the ear of the worship pastor or leader (who is no doubt aware that the hipster church down the street is using it) and he follows suit – using the same tune to raise the hands, close the eyes, and bend the emotions of his emotion-addicted congregation.
Discerning Songs
And so we find ourselves asking: By what standard should a church determine which music is praise-worthy, which music should be off-limits, and what should be the approach to music that may be in the middle? Christian liberty is an important biblical doctrine, and there are many choices that fall into the category of being “permissible, but not beneficial” (1 Corinthians 6:12). In this spirit, and under the plain logic that there is an opportunity cost with every song used in Christian worship (every time one song is used, another is not), I humbly suggest the following biblical rating system designed to analyze the value, fidelity, and risk of singing a given song in corporate worship.
Many of these principles can be used when deciding what a believer might listen to at home or privately, but this application will be for the purpose of selecting music for corporate worship. Note that I am not rating the artist per se (several standards would be stricter if the artist were a pastor, for example) – I am rating the songs. For example, if the artist has a troublesome theological belief that doesn’t manifest in the song itself or create an obvious or undeniable reproachful association, this may not be enough to disqualify the song itself.
The Rubric
Songs will be rated on a 100-point scale, scored by the following:
Doctrinal Fidelity and Clarity – 25 points. Is biblical doctrine consistent throughout the song? Are the nature, works, and character of God described in the lyrics consistent with scripture? How are the Gospel and salvation characterized? Are there phrases commonly employed within false teaching being used?
Doctrinal Specificity – 20 points. Are the lyrics specific enough to positively describe the true Christ rather than a generalized God? Do the lyrics positively exclude false versions of Jesus? Would anything prevent followers of other religions from singing this song? Would lost people be able to sing this song without any issues?
Focus – 20 points. Does the song rhetorically place the focus on God or man? Is God being praised apart from the individual experience of the worshipper, or is He characterized as praiseworthy by the approval of the worshipper?
Association – 20 points. Is the song written by or primarily associated with a heretical, false, or troublesome church movement? Would using the song in church reasonably be seen as a tacit endorsement of a false church or false gospel? Does the primary songwriter or artist associated with the song partner with false ministries or teachers?
Musical Value – 15 points. Is the song using the same musical structure as every other praise song? Does it employ repetition as an emotional device and/or a replacement for lyrical content? Is it arranged in an artistically unique way, or could the melody and lyrics be easily replaced with another song?
Songs will receive a raw score indicating overall appropriateness for a worship service, but a loss of more than 10 points in a doctrinal category or association will result in an automatic non-recommendation. The “musical value” category is obviously the most subjective, but also includes consideration of low-value techniques like phrase repetition and emotionally manipulative musical devices.
Three Categories
80-100: Safe for Sunday. If you like it, program it.
50-79: Pastoral Guidance Suggested. This song may be used, but prayerfully consider choosing something else and be ready with an explanation if questioned about why the song is being used despite its issues.
0-49: Pick Something Else. These songs have no business being used in a church worship service. Stay away.
We will continually update the category of analyzed songs as a resource for pastors and church members to use as a handy guide when presented with a song they are unfamiliar with.
Bonus: Practice applying this rubric to a David song here:
About Author
Disconnected from history is what this article reminds me of. Instead of understanding that worship isn’t some do you own thing type of deal, we have forgotten what our forefathers in the 3 kingdoms of England, Ireland and Scotland swore before God Almighty to do….do that which God has authorized in His scriptures. Since this deals with what to sing, the Apostles had a song book in their hand and only this song book….The psalms of David and Asaph. Songs, hymns, and spiritual songs are just another way of saying “the 150 psalms”. The church has schism over and over, it’s rejected the 1st and 2nd reformations and now wallows in vain worship. Maybe a 3rd reformation will be granted to us if God would have mercy on us.
My forefathers are the Hebrews and the Danes. Not sure something decided on the British Isles has much to do with us.
This country is the physical and ecclesiastical child of those 3 kingdoms. The Jews and Danes didn’t establish the colonies. The English, Scots and Irish did. The churches were the spiritual children of the churches of those kingdoms. Read about the Solemn League and Covenant. Those nations swore to God to put their hand to reformation, the colonies were bound by oath by their forefathers to that covenant. God has a very very very long memory.
So you are an Anglican? No, thanks. Are you writing to them about the heresy the Anglican church teaches over there and the Episcopal Church here?
I’m a Presbyterian. When the covenant was sworn, it led to the Westminster Confession of Faith and directories which required a Presbyterian form of church government in ALL of the 3 kingdoms. The hierarchy of Anglicanism (Erastianism) was to be reformed away.
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While much of this is no doubt somewhat subjective, I applaud the examination of what passes for praise and worship music today.
We attend one of the better large churches – theologically and administratively – in the country that has started creating its own worship songs. While some aren’t bad, many are banal and self-focused, with too much “I” and “we” and not enough glorifying God.
Sad there is no discussion about hymns. There are wonderful hymns being written these days (Keith Getty is one) in additional to our rich history of hymns. Not all hymns have good theology and should be re-examined, but many did. As I am reading through the Bible this year, I am often reminded of some hymn or song I learned as a child using Scripture. When did the American Church train go off the tracks? 30 years ago when Peter Drucker influenced Robert Schuller, Rick Warren and Bill Hybels to bring business growth principles into the church. The church opened wide their doors and invited Satan right on in. Where look at where we are now. All stems from that.
The American church went off the rails long before the church grow movement reared it’s ugly head…..long before. What the American church has always been good at, is forgetting the faithful contendings of the ancient brethren, schism, and ignoring God’s commandments, especially those related to worship and song.