How’s Your Worship Diet?

“Which hymns will we sing for worship?”

One of the most common challenges for those who plan worship is deciding which hymns the congregation will sing. Often the worship planner is left wrestling between hymns “thick” in lyrical weight and theological content and songs that are quite “thin” lyrically and theologically. Sometimes the hymns are lyrically heavy, but theologically light, while others are light in the lyrics, but theological heavyweights.

Often as worship planners, we’re tempted to go with what’s light and easy when what is theologically “thick” would better nourish the worshipers. If left on a diet of the theologically light, our members and guests could very easily become spiritually starved and hungry. At the same time, an overload of very wordy hymns could leave them wondering what they just sang, especially if the poetry of the hymn is filled with metaphors. (For me personally, that’s what I find with many of the hymns written by Martin Franzmann - very rich in deep theological imagery and I love them dearly! But I usually need to sing through them a couple times or read them on my own to really “get” them.)

Thus, much like what our doctors tell us at our annual check-ups, it’s important to provide a well-balanced diet of the weighty and the light in our use of hymnody. As we use theologically “thick” hymns, though, it’s vitally important to do all we can to take time to teach them to our members. In this way, they can better understand and appreciate the beautiful, soul-nourishing depth of these theological heavyweights, both old and new.

Below is an interesting post from Bob Kauflin, an Evangelical blogger, who provides some thought-provoking insights into this topic of hymn selection.

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A Worship Matters reader sent me this question:

With the hymns being so rich in lyrical content and theological ideas, there are often times where we can get to the end of the hymn and think “Well, what was all that about?” let alone getting to a point of engaging our hearts in response to the truth. From your experience, what could we do in terms of leading and arranging hymns with weighty (not a negative term) theological and lyrical content to allow room and time for people to engage God in meaningful worship through the song?

Before I answer this, let me share a few thoughts on words in corporate worship. One of the primary purposes for singing praise to God together is to enable the word of Christ to dwell in us richly ( Col. 3:16). That can’t happen when all the words we sing are shallow, vague, or completely subjective. On the other hand, too much information at one time can result in people singing songs with disengaged hearts. As much as I think that churches should be singing songs that are rich in theology and biblical truths, I’ve learned that just singing words doesn’t mean people are understanding or being affected by them. The words may be biblical, even profound. But unless there’s understanding, there won’t be much worship happening. It’s like feeding a baby a 20 ounce Porterhouse steak. There won’t be much eating happening….

So how do you know if people are understanding what we’re singing about? And what determines how much “content” people can take in at one time, in one song, or in a single meeting? It can be hard to tell. But here are some of the things I think about when I’m trying to find the balance.

What your church is used to singing.
A church that sings simple praise choruses might find any hymn difficult to digest. At my home church we regularly sing wordy songs. People tend to notice it more when the songs are simple than when they’re not. But with guests it can be the opposite. Newcomers often mention the theological content of the songs we sing. I take that to be a good thing.

The kind of poetry.
Wordiness doesn’t automatically equate to “hard to understand.” Amazing Grace has a lot of words, but no one thinks of it as a difficult song. Other hymns use more archaic or poetic language that is more difficult to grasp the first time around.

The context.
Three theologically rich songs in a row may be more difficult to take in than one wordy song that has a simpler song before or after. That means I might choose to sing You Are My King after In Christ Alone or How Deep the Father’s Love.

Leading.
There are different things I can do to make it easier for people to take in what they’re singing. The musicians can play a brief musical interlude between verses. I can repeat lines, verses, or entire songs. I can make sure we don’t sing songs too quickly. I can explain what a song means before we sing it. It’s okay to tell people what they should be thinking about when they’re singing. You can also do a portion of a hymn rather than the whole song. If you do, though, make sure you’re not cutting out a crucial part of the lyrical progression. Something else we can do is reduce the frequency of chord changes. That can make lyrics “sound” less complex.

Over time, worship leaders and pastors should be training the church to think and sing in more biblical terms, without forgetting new believers and guests who may also be present on Sunday morning. My job as a leader is to make sure that there’s enough biblical truth in the words to stir people’s affections in the right way. I know people can genuinely worship God while singing lyrics like, “Fire, fall on me” or “Come and fill me up,” but I want to give them food to feed on, not simply an opportunity to express emotions, however sincere. I want them to clearly remember how great, good, glorious, and amazing our God is. That means my first priority in picking songs is words, not music. That’s not to say that music isn’t important. It’s just that music serves to support lyrics, not the other way around.

We want to do whatever we can to help people appreciate what they really need - the truth and power of God’s Word. As a member of our team said this past Sunday, we want to take what’s best and make it “popular.” In other words, it’s worth finding ways to sing songs with “weighty” lyrics. We worship a “weighty” God whose glory surpasses all we can imagine, who dwells in unapproachable light, and whose splendors will never fade.