Regardless of where your church is located or how it operates, you want to make sure you are intentionally picking songs that work well for your congregation. Here are seven things to consider when choosing worship songs for your church:
Solid Theology
All of the songs you pick should contain biblically sound theology. This means that you should pick songs that focus on the truths found in God’s Word and not on human opinions or assumptions about God. Doing this will give people a greater understanding of who God is, what He has done, and what He is going to do as revealed in Scripture.
2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.
The bottom line is this: The songs you choose will help shape what people think about God, so make sure your songs are consistent with biblical truth.
Singability
One of the mains goals for the songs you pick should be congregational involvement. This means that you should pick songs that have relatively easy melodies that your congregation can follow along with and sing. A great way to know if a song is singable or not is to evaluate how hard it was for you to learn. If it took you a while to learn, you can almost bet it will be difficult for your congregation to sing.
Lyrical Clarity
Since your church services will likely be made up of both Christians and non-Christians, consider picking songs with lyrics that the average person can understand. This isn’t to say that you are picking songs for seekers, but you are mindful of them when picking songs. God’s heart is that the whole world should be saved through a personal relationship with Jesus, so we should have the desire to do the same through the songs that we pick — to make it applicable and helpful to all who engage.
1 Cor. 14:19 But in a church meeting I would rather speak five understandable words to help others than ten thousand words in an unknown language.
While Paul is talking about speaking in tongues in this verse, the underlying principle is found a few verses later in verse 26: Everything that is done in church should strengthen everyone, not just some.
Central Theme
When you are deciding whether or not a song will be effective for your church, you want to ask yourself if the song has a central theme. This means that the song is directing people toward a distinct attribute of God or a certain response. A good way to tell if a song has a central theme is to listen to it and then ask yourself what was the overarching message of the song. Some examples of possible themes to look for in songs might be grace, love, mercy, glory, joy, greatness, etc.
Musically Interesting and Appropriate
After you have evaluated the song is solid lyrically, evaluate whether it has a good level of musical interest. As a general rule of thumb, look for songs that are dynamic, powerful and have appropriate layers of musical texture and intricacy. With this being said, consider songs that are within the musical reach of your worship teams. If you are thinking of doing a song with a challenging electric guitar part but your electric guitarist has only been playing on the team for a month and is still getting the hang of things, you may want to rethink your suggestion. At the end of the day, don’t confuse a song’s musical interest with musical busyness. The best songs should be able to be played and led from an acoustic guitar and still be a great song, even if it isn’t a highly produced arrangement.
Culturally and Stylistically Relevant
Consider choosing songs that are stylistically relevant to your cultural context. While there are many wonderful music genres used in churches, such as gospel, hymns, contemporary rock, country & western, R&B, etc., be attentive to the culture in which you minister and pick songs that will be most effective to those you are trying to reach. In general, we find that an alternative rock genre works well for reaching a wide range of people.
1 Cor. 9:22-23 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.
Did It Work?
Even when a song fits all of the guidelines above, you still may introduce a song that just doesn’t work great for your church. There are some songs that may work well for your congregation and some that may not work as well. Sometimes the only way of knowing if a song works or not is to play it at your church a few times. If it works, great, if it doesn’t work, don’t be afraid to remove it from the rotation.
Article for this topic by Ashton Abbott.
