After we posted our master song list last week we got a few questions about how we choose songs for worship. We also have people each week in our congregation suggest songs to us and wonder if they will ever hear them in services. So, we wanted to post the things that we consider when we are choosing songs to use in worship.
1.) Theological Correctness – we want to always make sure that the songs we sing preach the right theology. We don’t want to sing songs that could rationally or metaphorically undermine the doctrine we believe. We want to sing songs of truth and that’s where we start. If a song is unclear in theme or the truth it teaches chances are it won’t make the cut.
2.) Subject Matter – There are certain songs that will work in any worship service and there are some songs that are for specific moments, messages, or topics. We consider this when we’re adding songs. It doesn’t make a song bad or good it just determines whether that song is applicable for our congregation during a certain season or message series. We will always avoid songs that are overly romantic or poetic as those songs could either not connect or connect with vague theology.
3.) Taste – We want to introduce songs that stylistically fit our congregation and instrumentation. We don’t do the reggae versions of popular worship songs nor do we choose songs that are out of our ability to play. We want to have a certain quality and continuity of style when it comes to choosing songs for worship.
4.) Sing-ability – A lot of people recommend songs to us and this is usually why they don’t make the cut. A lot of songs that we love to worship through personally in our cars or devotional times just don’t make the cut when you think about their sing-ability as a congregational song. There are specific things we look for in regards to this, but as general rules it must have a simple, but unique melody, parallel verses, and lyrics that are comprehendible yet poetic.
5.) Current Series – as a congregation we consider the messages and sermon series that we are planning for and some songs may only make the cut for a season. However, some of these songs that we thought were seasonal have taken on a life of their own and stayed with us for a year or so. We always consider the topics, scriptures, and metaphors used in teaching when we are choosing songs especially for a specific series of sermons.
These are some of the things that we consider as we are choosing songs. There are multiple questions we ask ourselves inside of each of these and this may sound a little over the top, however we only introduce a handful of new songs each season so it’s important to choose them carefully. We are also writing more of what we are using in our worship services and those songs uniquely written for Northstar are written with these criteria already in mind. I hope this was helpful. We’ll be posting next week on how we plan our worship services so stay tuned!