Coming Back to the Heart of Worship

Our church here in Logan is a little of the formal side. Some may see it as purely ritualistic but I actually get a lot out of the liturgy so it is a good fit. That said though, they loosen up a bit during the summer. Some weeks we even have guitars and praise music. Craig doesn't really like praise music in general but I do, if it is done right. There are two areas in which praise music in church services can go awry, the presentation and the songs themselves.

One of the most annoying presentation problems occurs when the song is repeated and repeated till all you are thinking is "when is the song going to end." This thought is a far cry from the thoughts of worship and praise that one should be thinking. I love "Create in my a clean heart" but I have no desire to sing it's 4 lines 20 times in a row!

Another presentation problem goes back to the point of songs in church. They are there for the worship of GOD, not the singers, guitar players, drummers, etc. I hate it when the set-up feels more like a concert for us instead of a situation when the instruments and singers are assisting the congregation in lifting praises to God. These are pretty easy things to fix in a church service, if people are aware of the problems and care enough to change.

The other problems are with the songs themselves. Just because a song is a "Christian" song doesn't mean it makes a good praise song, often times it just means a song, kinda about God, that doesn't have anything bad in it. There isn't anything wrong with those songs, but it doesn't mean we should sing them in church.

There are also a lot of P&W songs that sacrifice making sense in order to rhyme. They are just strings of little cute phrases that don't really relate to one another. Then there are the songs that are really self-centered and/or full of phrases that I can't sing because they aren't true. A prime example of this is found in You are Worthy of My Praise:

I will worship
With all of my heart
I will praise You
With all of my strength
I will seek You
All of my days
I will follow
All of Your ways

I will give You all my worship
I will give You all my praise
You alone I long to worship
You alone are worthy of my praise

I will bow down
Hail You as king
I will serve You
Give You everything
I will lift up
My eyes to Your throne
And I will trust You
I will trust You alone

There are a lot of 'I's in that song, I counted 12 'I's and 7 'My's, but only 8 'You's and 2 'Your's. Isn't something wrong with that picture? And look at the words, why should I be singing a song about all the things I am doing for God. Shouldn't we instead be praising God for all he does for us? But I can't even sing this song anymore because I know it isn't true, do I really praise him with all my strength or give him everything? I know that I don't. I should, but I don't. Maybe the song should be:

I will try to worship
With all of my heart
I will try praise You
With all of my strength
I will try seek You
All of my days
I will try follow
All of Your ways ...

Luckily, I have really been enjoying the Praise and Worship music at our church this summer because they have managed to avoid all these issues. We have a few guitar players that do a good job of leading without being the center of attention and we have had some great songs. In fact, we sang one of my favorite songs today, Lord of the Dance. While on this site it is a more hymn-like than how I typically hear it, if done fast it is a lot of fun to sing, tells a great story (the best in the world) and doesn't get too old, too fast. It is a great example of what a good Praise and Worship song should be like. I challenge you to look at your favorite P&W songs and see if they really should be your favorites. If so, let me know what they are.

This post wasn't meant to pick on P&W songs. I know that hymns are not immune to these problems either. I think most of you, at one time or another, has had to sing a hymn with really silly lyrics, or worse, one that is so hard to sing and awkward that you have to try not to laugh as the whole congregation struggles to put it together. But over time, the really good hymns have risen to the top and left most of those below. Hopefully that is what happens to more contemporary church music too.