Posted on 09/27/2020 2:39:07 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A church with one service a week will likely sing over 200 songs in a year. Our church has five services in two languages at two sites on Sunday. We also have Wednesday night programming. Throw in the student service and children’s ministry, and we probably sing close to 2,000 songs in a year (obviously some are sung more than once).
Songs elicit emotion. That’s how the art form works. Worship is no exception. Most have a favorite worship song. Most will have a few worship songs they don’t like. One song can mean something different to two people standing next to each other in the same service. A worship pastor can craft an excellent plan of 2,000 songs in a year and still receive complaints about “that one song.” In my pastoral experience, people care more about song selection than they do church doctrine.
Given the acute attention to worship songs, I asked a question of the Church Answers community and posted the same question on Twitter. The poll was done more for fun than science, but over three hundred people responded.
How involved should the lead pastor be in the selection of worship songs?
The Church Answers community provided a lot of clarification around these percentages in Church Answers Central, our coaching and consulting forum.
The level of involvement should be higher with a less experienced worship pastor. A long-tenured lead pastor will have more oversight with a new, inexperienced worship pastor. An inexperienced and young lead pastor should lean into the recommendations of a long-tenured worship pastor.
Lead pastors should provide plenty of lead time with themes and directions of sermon series. The worship ministry is often the largest ministry in the church (in close competition with the children’s ministry). Coordinating large amounts of volunteers takes time. When the lead pastor makes changes right before weekend worship services, it can cause a lot of chaos in the worship ministry.
Sole pastors of smaller churches with volunteers tend to do more song selection than lead pastors of larger churches with staff. This one makes sense. I did most everything at my first church, which had all of six people. I not only selected the songs, but I led worship. On a karaoke machine. Yes, it was as bad as you are thinking.
There is a distinction between “picking” and “approving” songs. Some churches have a predetermined bucket of songs from which to choose. The lead pastor works with the worship ministry on selecting these songs ahead of time. Then the worship pastor can choose from them for any given service.
A weekly standing meeting between the lead pastor and worship pastor is beneficial and will help with tensions that can exist with song selection. When the worship pastor and lead pastor meet regularly, a bond of trust is formed. A standing meeting can build unity and friendship that the church will feel during worship.
The goal of song selection is more complex and deeper than simply reinforcing the sermon. The worship experience should do more than simply build up to the sermon. Worship pastors selecting songs desire to complement the sermon, but there is more to the process. Churches are full of people with a complexity of emotions and experiences. Worship pastors should select songs according to the mood and experience of the church, in addition to the text and topic of the sermon.
Equip or hire the right people and you will not need to be as concerned about song selection. When lead pastors micromanage song selection, it can become a source of frustration for competent worship pastors.
Song selection is one of the most visible parts of a worship experience—something felt by most everyone in the church. Lead pastors should be in tune with what songs the church sings. High-level guidance is what most believe is the best degree of involvement.
Originally published at Church Answers
As President of Church Answers, Sam Rainer wears many hats. From podcast co-host to full-time Pastor at West Bradenton Baptist Church, Sam’s heart for ministry and revitalization are evident in all he does.
Being sang? Never encountered that particular solecism before.
Sometimes one or more of the hymns relates to the scripture and/or the sermon. If so, it’s not a bad idea for the pastor to select the hymn.
We could go back to the days of “Give them WATTS, boys!” for those who understand that statement.
For Catholics Gregorian Chants still sound good. I used to have a vinyl record of them. Wish I still had it.
Doesn’t matter as long as they are played as loud as possible....................
Depending on the church, it might be OK for a member to suggest a hymn. I got talking to the music director about the Titanic one day - I don’t remember what brought that up - but I suggested that he put “Nearer My God To Thee” on the schedule for the following April. There is conflicting evidence whether it was the American or the British melody that was played on the Titanic - I’m inclined to think it was the British version. Anyway he did put it on the schedule.
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And a lot, if not most, of these praise songs come from dubious sources such as Bethel Church in Redding, California, Hillsong Church based in Australia, Passion City Church in Atlanta, and Elevation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Look these places up and you’ll find they’re megachurches led by charismatic “pastors” who have their hands out for money and are duping gullible congregations. Look up Bethel Church’s “apostle” Heidi Baker. Watch the YouTube videos of her “impartation” services at Bethel which are disturbing and depressing. Listen to Bill Johnson of Bethel Church at a Hillsong megachurch appearance flat out deny the deity of Jesus Christ.
These people are evil heretics and the money churches are funneling to them in licensing fees to use their music is financing their operations. Pastors who have become aware of these imposters are banning their music from their churches
Elevation’s whack job pastor faked “spontaneous” baptisms at his church. Bill Johnson claimed angel feathers and gold dust fall during his services as signs of the presence of the Holy Spirit. The “gold dust” spewed from the ventilation system is the kind of stuff you buy in a craft store. His spaced out youth pastor said an enormous angel that he encountered upstairs at the church spoke to him and assured him he was protecting church finances. The guy admitted online he has a history of heavy drug use. His brain is fried as a result. Johnson’s wife claimed she encountered giant angels in the Mojave Desert who were sleeping. She woke them up, she says, by shouting, “wakey, wakey!”
Do a Google search and find who holds the copyright for most of these praise songs. It’s Bethel and Hillsong, primarily. Do a search of Brian Houston of Hillsong. His outfit is simply a money-making machine and he’s been raking it in for years. Australian television has done in-depth investigations of his racket. Check them out on YouTube. If your church is using this music and supporting these heretics you should stop immediately.
Hymns have been vetted and used for generations and are based on sound doctrine and scripture. They have depth and richness and they were written for congregational singing, not as performance pieces for wannabe rock stars who imagine they’re standing before the enormous, mesmerized crowds that pay large sums to attend the megachurch concerts.
Watch the YouTube videos that ridicule these stupid, vapid, juvenile praise songs. They’re all over the Internet. I find this inferior contemporary praise music with its endlessly repetitive lyrics embarrassing and repulsive. I refuse to sing it.
“Members who leverage their donations to force the church to hire their family members for worship or youth leaders.” You are so right. My church has featured a praise band whose leader was the son of one of the prominent church elders. This kid was a college dropout with no employment prospects. He left after using church money to create recordings of his meager talent which he took to Nashville.
Another prominent church member’s son is leading the praise band and getting paid. Church services featuring his performances were being streamed on YouTube during the COVID shutdown. Unfortunately, this guy wasn’t crediting the composer of the praise songs who certainly isn’t him. Church members who attend the contemporary service have been subjected to him moaning into a microphone every Sunday. Some of us don’t go to church only to be entertained by wannabe rock stars of questionable talent.
I smell “legalism”.
Does God care about what clothes you wear to church?
Does God care if you are dirty?
Does God care what type of praise music you sing?
Does God HATE electric guitars?
Does God hate Contemporary Christian Music?
The answer to all these questions is NO!
SHUT UP AND SING!
They may or may not be doctrinally correct, but the headline is grammatically incorrect. Change “being sang” to “being sung.”
"Nearer, My God, to Thee" probably wasn't played on the Titanic, but it was played by a Confederate band on the Gettysburg battlefield.
Mason also wrote From Greenland's Icy Mountains" (1823) with lyrics by the prolific English hymnodist Reginald Heber. This stirring gospel tune is way to politically incorrect for many "woke" churches today.
The legalism I smell is from the Con-temporary music crowd. That group wants to rid the churches of senior citizen members. They never want to listen to older people and really have very little tolerance for them.
They hate the organ (ok if that is their preference) but love the horrible sounds of the marginally talented garage band. They say this music and only this music will reach the younger people in the community, but they fail to see that they themselves are too old and out of date to reach most young people. What pop radio station or top 40 station plays anything that remotely sounds like the noise coming from the praise bands? They will judge anyone harshly who tells them their music is not that good.
The larger problem they refuse to see... people who want to throw out all church tradition and church hymns of the past, will quickly want to throw out the teaching of scripture. This is all about tickling itching ears and failing to endure sound doctrine. Woman pastors, gay pastors, transgendered pastors, BLM sermons must be accepted and everyone else is soon not wanted at church. If you don’t think the con-temporary church is full of legalism you a need to get the log out of your own eye.
Probably not, since he likes the psaltery, a forerunner of the electric guitar.
"Praise the Lord with harp; sing unto him with the psaltery..."--Ps. 33:2
You know, it really is kinda hard to read on after that.
The pastor should choose the hymns they complement his message.
Does God care about what clothes you wear to church? Yes see Matt 22:11-13
Does God care if you are dirty? Yes 1 John 1:9
Does God care what type of praise music you sing? Yes Colossians 3:16
Does God HATE electric guitars? No basis in scripture to say. My guess is no. But Isaiah 55:8 should be considered.
Does God hate Contemporary Christian Music? Some of the lyrics go directly against scripture so I will have to Proverbs 30:6 that one
We arrive at our church to miss the “song service” - in time for the sermon. We can’t stand the “worship team” prancing around the platform caressing their hand-held mics singing insipid contemporary crap. We know how to get to Vegas if we want to see a floorshow.
It’s hard to find a good traditional and dignified church service.
RE: but the headline is grammatically incorrect.
It was a typo.
RE: Does God care what type of praise music you sing?
I would say yes He does. If the praise music you sing contains errant theology, I don’t believe that it will receive His approval.
The heretical teacher Arius and his followers wrote many “Praise Hymns” in the past glorifying Jesus as son of God but not co-eternal with God. We should be very discerning of the lyrics of a song we sing.
If the lead pastor does not have some input, that leaves the worship team to do as they see fit.
And that is dangerous.
They are accountable to him.
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