Theological Song Review: Do It Again by Elevation Worship
Do It Again by Elevation Worship was released in February of 2018 on the album There is a Cloud, but earlier versions were heard back in 2016. Like most Elevation Worship songs, Steven Furtick is one of the songwriters, and this song was written with Chris Brown, Mack Brock, and CCM mainstay Matt Redman.
Note: For a full explanation of the rubric and a primer on our scoring methodology, click here.
Doctrinal Fidelity and Clarity: The song is written from the personal perspective of the worshipper. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it does present the challenge of avoiding subjective and emotional verbiage in place of what should be grounded, powerful, and doctrinal truth. Unfortunately, the narrative presented is one where the worshipper is characterized as on the verge of losing God’s providence.
The song opens up with seeming disappointment in God’s plan (“I thought by now they’d fall”), and lines like “I’m still in your hands” and “Jesus you’re still enough, keep me within your love,” imply a shaky relationship with God that requires constant renewal rather than the Christ-won eternal security promised to believers. The line, “You’ve never failed me yet” implies the possibility of God’s failure.
The ironically-labeled “confidence” of the chorus and belief in seeing God “do it again” seems much less confident than it should considering God’s true power and providence – the inevitable result of generalizing every statement about God. There is no direct false teaching in the lyrics, but the rhetorical closing of the distance between God’s power and ours is consistent with Steven Furtick’s consistent God-minimizing teaching (more on this in the association section). At a minimum, the lyrics are intentionally vague. 15/25.
Doctrinal Specificity: Do it Again bears signature Elevation Worship lyrical vagueness. Yet there are some discernable markers of Elevation theology (discussed above). While worshippers may assign salvation to the “battle” in verse one, the “promise” and the “confidence” in the chorus, overt Gospel proclamation is simply missing. This leaves the door wide open for a worshipper to insert anything their heart desires into the position of the battle that is won, the promise made by God, and which personal mountain God will again move for them. Want the mountain of your financial difficulties moved? How about the mountain of a physical ailment or broken relationship? All can be a promise of God if you proclaim it with enough belief (“I believe I’ll see you do it again”) – consistent with the prosperity gospel lifestyle, associations, and teachings of songwriter Steven Furtick. 12/20.
Focus: This song is generally (and no doubt purposefully) unfocused. Biblical doctrines are as generalized as possible, and the song is at least half focused on the worshipper. This would be less problematic if any of the statements in the song were doctrinally specific, but in the context of the wide-open meaning of the lyrics, the self-focus encourages worshippers to look inward.
The line “you have never failed me yet,” while referring to God, places Him in a rhetorically subordinate role where God’s worthiness seems to be based on his not failing the worshipper in a general sense. 10/20.
Association: Elevation Church vision caster Steven Furtick is a narcissistic, anti-Trinitarian heretic. Aside from his disqualifying association with modalist heretics like T.D. Jakes and prosperity hucksters like Joel Osteen, Furtick’s own teaching is replete with false doctrine. Furtick teaches his own brand of the prosperity gospel, in which he struts around in super expensive clothing while consistently minimizing Jesus and elevating (no pun intended) mankind to a quasi-god status. This false doctrine was made painfully obvious in May of 2021 when Furtick screamed “I am God Almighty!” and the end of a crazy, man-exalting sermon rant.
Having an easily-verifiable false teacher as one of the songwriters is the essence of dangerous association. 0/20.
Musical Value: There is some decent musical composition employed in this song. The keys break before the “I’ve seen you move” build is a nice variation from the usual formula. The “do it again” chorus is a bit repetitive, but it’s not beaten into the ground. As is typical, the arrangement features all the modern praise band signatures from soft pads, ethereal piano, and floor tom-built musical building into the last chorus. It is a shame that the lyrics are so lame and that the song comes from a heretical movement. 13/15.
Total Score: 50/100. Scoring a zero in the association category is automatically disqualifying (remember, you can always sing something else), but shrinking God’s certainty and generalizing what could easily have been specific biblical truth is enough to disqualify this song for corporate worship with or without Steven Furtick.
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Despite all the rubbish worship songs out there, we have a plethora of great choices to lead congregations in authentic worship of the Creator. Yes, you can always sing something else, we don’t need music from sketchy sources.