I was in London last weekend and thought I’d take the opportunity to visit a large well known church that I haven’t been to before.  Having been to their evening service I’m writing this blog post out of sheer frustration …

Worship.  Oh dear I don’t know where to begin.  Firstly let me say the quality of the music was fine.  In fact, it was excellent.  Technically, musically, and in terms of presentation I don’t think it could have been better.  That wasn’t the problem.

My frustration was with the words.  Arrrgggg!  I should say at this point I am neither a worship leader nor a musician.  I haven’t ever written a worship song and I’m the last person you’d ask to.  But I am a worshipper and that was the very thing I couldn’t do much of tonight.  Let me explain why.  These are the points that I scribbled down on a bit of paper after the service ...

What I need in a Worship Song:
 
1.  Mention at least one of the Trinity - by name. I think any song that exists to help us worship needs to mention one of the Trinity – by name.  Referring to “God” or even “Lord” doesn’t count (see point 3 below).  Sadly, out of the 10 songs sung at the service I visited none made any direct mention of "Father", "Son" or "Holy Spirit" by name.  The closest we got was “God” (and that only in one line in one song) all of the other references to God consisted of  “You”, “Your” and “Him.”
 
2. Quote some scripture. If you aren’t going to mention a person of the Godhead then I assume you’ll be quoting a good chunk of some passage from the Bible.  Can’t go much wrong there.  The Psalms are great (most of them are songs already), but don’t feel you need to stop there.  Let the Word of God form the content and theme for what were singing.  Sadly no Bible based songs at the meeting I was at.
 
3. Is it a “Christian” song? This might seem a rather obvious thing to ask … but is this a song of worship to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?  Is it Christian worship?  I remember a hymn I sang every week at primary school - nice tune, memorable words.  When I became a Christian at University I discovered it was in fact a spiritualist song and stopped singing it because ... it isn’t a Christian song.  Can this song only be sung in a “Christian” context … or would it fit any religion?  IMHO 8 out of the 10 sung last weekend would have fitted any religion!
 
4. Mention a great theme from the Bible. Doctrine is a great energiser for worship.  Sadly, songs often only have theology of the level of children’s work.  To be clear, understanding the good news is something a child can do - the gospel isn’t rocket science.  But, the revelation of God in scripture is like an ocean – paddle at the edge or jump in and dive deep.  I think that song writers need to work with theologians.  John & Charles Wesley were a great example of this – John preached the theology and Charles wrote it down as a hymn!  There are clearly many key Christian themes, but the Cross and the work of Jesus through his death & resurrection is surly going to be at the top.  Any of this at this service?  Sorry – not really.
 
5. “We” not just “me.” This one isn’t an absolute, but still worth a mention.  Since worship is nearly always a corporate act then its good to reference that “we” are together worshipping God.  Its not going to be wrong to speak personally and individually, but church is about being the body of Christ – together.  Last weekend's service was all “me” and “I” – a bit of “we” and “us” would have been good.  

6. Get the focus off me and my feelings. Worshipping with personal feeling is powerful stuff, but I reckon worship is more objective than my feeling based response to God.  This might be a difference, say, between what might strictly be considered “worship” as distinct from “praise.”  I might be having a terrible day and my feelings might be all over the place - I can still worship God … but not very easily if all of the words refer to personal feelings.  Go objective.  At least for the first few songs.  Start with objective praise – things that are always true and don’t vary or depend on how I’m doing or how I feel.  Then move into songs that let my heart speak.

7. Drop the instrumentals. Last, and not least lets take it easy on the instrumentals.  I’m thinking of verses that are just music, long intros, drum solos and the like, and open endings to songs.  The acid test here is: is it helping everyone worship God?  Or is the focus on the musicians and their talent.  A little bit of this won’t be wrong … but remember who we are here to worship.


Phew.  Rant over … what do you think?