Does your music match your theology?

“I don’t think we should use that song. In fact, I don’t think we should ever use that song again.”

Strong words for a leaders’ meeting to decide on youth worship repertoire, but I meant them. I had just named a favourite song being sung in countless churches. It was full of engaging musical features: an upbeat tempo, easy-to-learn and sing verses that built to a rousing chorus with strong faith declarations, and optional actions that enticed youth participation.

So, what was the issue?

While the song was Scripture-based, its theological interpretations were out of sync with our statement of faith. Since my worship leader training had emphasized understanding how Christian beliefs are reflected in lyrics, I had verified my suspicions about the song’s theology by checking the songwriter’s denominational affiliation and the meaning of key phrases. This confirmed that singing this song meant singing what we didn’t actually believe. My conclusions were validated in an article by the songwriter that discussed the song’s inspiration, development spread and meaning.

Some readers might question if song theology matters. After all, this song hadn’t been previously flagged by our team, and everyone loved it. However, if you believe that Scripture should guide our lives, then song meaning does matter. With so many sources of Christian music available to us – some we curate and others curated for us – being intentional about what is in your head and in your heart becomes important.

A foundational place to begin is to recognize that Scripture gives us general guidelines for our music and addresses its multiple purposes.

Music is teaching us

One vital function of worship is teaching. Through singing, we learn and express what we believe to be true about our Creator, our world and ourselves. Col. 3:16 makes this clear:

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.”

Paul describes worship music of various types enabling Christ’s word to live in our hearts in a significant way. Through listening and singing, we allow song lyrics to take up residence within us (perhaps you’ve experienced lyrics running freely through your mind, and even bursting open the door without warning). The music that lives in us should reflect what we believe because God wants us to be people of truth who think about truth (Phil. 4:8) and worship in truth (John 4:24) because Christ is the truth (John 14:6).

This vital task of embedding truth in our lives underscores the importance of musical choices, especially since technology now provides multiple ways to access music – whether it be streamed digital audio playlists, YouTube videos, or older technology like CDs (or even cassettes or vinyl).

Truth is also important due to music’s exciting and unique potential for ongoing impact and formation, which leads to worship music’s powerful expressive ability and influence. The authors of Worship: Rediscovering the Missing Jewel say:

“It would be difficult to overstate the power of the musical language. It has emotional- mental stimulation unmatched by any other means of communication. Words alone can be and often are very strong, but couple them with the ‘right’ music and they can be burned into the mind and consciousness indelibly.”

This same power has also been found in secular studies on music’s effect, described by Nichola Wood, Michelle Duffy and Susan Smith as the “emotive power and radical potential of music” to communicate emotions. Music can make theology more understandable and memorable by coupling it with melodies. This supports Christian music’s teaching function and spiritual benefits, which include improved well-being, social connections, spiritual care and encouragement. These are aspects that I enjoy researching because they have such a vital impact on our lives.

Hymnals as history books

A historical examination of worship music reveals that, beginning with the Reformation, hymns were circulated in hymnals and letters, and taught at schools and homes (sometimes using printed scores, but often by repetition), which effectively spread the gospel and Protestant beliefs. Hymnologist Erik Routley writes in An English-Speaking Hymnal Guide that hymnals don’t just transmit music, though. They are often denominationally based and reveal church history, traditions and theological differences. A hymnal goes through a lengthy editorial process of examining multiple factors to determine if its music is singable and suitable for that denomination or branch of Christianity. For instance, I’m currently researching a Baptist hymnal project that took five years, with an editorial board consisting of five theologians.

This careful editorial process makes sense if what we sing is an expression and extension of what we believe – which is typically, but not always, differentiated by denomination. Christians agree on major points, and songs often are general enough in content that we can share much music across churches and benefit from songs by gifted creators in the wider Church. However, differences do exist that could affect which songs best fit our beliefs. Yet technology has broadened our musical vistas to include music from every – or no – denomination, making it important to be aware of our music’s underlying theology. My opening story illustrates how songs can circulate far beyond their denominational origins, since the song that I flagged continues as one of the top 100 worship songs in use, according to the widely used CCLI tracking system. The process is made more complex by the power of music that I’ve already mentioned. Some songs grab our emotions and can lead us to overlook meaning or source, but often, we just don’t know those factors.

Worship music is an industry

The situation is also complicated by the Internet’s impact, the music industry’s influence and our lack of knowledge about all the factors behind the music that we hear at church, on the radio, on our listening devices or online. The newest songs from across the world are a click away, suggested by algorithms based on keeping us listening and engaging with whatever platform we use. We don’t often think about it, but those platforms are financially motivated, rather than motived by our spiritual welfare. Another issue is the prominence of music privileged with the most promotion. All these factors actually limit our choices, limit musicians’ opportunities, and can lead to songs that aren’t musically or theologically suitable for congregational singing appearing in our Sunday worship. We may not see them, but market forces are shaping our playlists.

Elias Dummer is a seasoned Canadian worship leader and songwriter working in the Christian music industry who is part of a research team studying music circulation. In a recent interview he stated that the industry around worship music has always been more complicated than we think, but at its centre are humans who mostly want to impact people spiritually. He points out that even hymnal companies were for-profit enterprises, but our tendency is to either romanticize or demonize factors related to music creation and use.

His research team found that the top 25 worship songs since 2017, according to CCLI, were single song releases to streaming platforms, promoted by playlists curated by only a couple of people at Spotify and Apple. In addition, the top songs between 2010-2020 were connected in some way to four megachurches: Bethel, Hillsong, Passion City and Elevation. These are the songs becoming the most familiar and most used in contemporary worship services.

The power of a worship leader

Dummer argues that these developments illustrate how “worship music has long existed in relationship with distribution systems (such as streaming technology) that help its spread.” However, he believes – and I agree – that worship leaders hold the most power through their choices since church services are where most people engage with Christian media. Worship leaders hold a vital ministry role since their music choices can support their church’s teaching and ministry, and also profoundly impact members’ lives. Yet leaders may be making choices based on trends and preferences, rather than selecting what is best for their specific congregations, based on musical and theological factors. It’s vital, then, that they have training in both areas; however, in many cases, worship leaders are enthusiastic volunteers. While volunteers can gain training through resources and conferences, Dummer points out that worship leader development has also become an industry that can elevate songwriters with hit singles, rather than those with other important qualifications, such as a broad theological background and longstanding faithfulness to God.

Dummer believes that music’s emotional impact is a key factor, although this power can be criticized by those who don’t understand that it is inherent to music’s nature. “All music is emotionally manipulative. . . That’s the whole point. . . There are things we want music to do.” For worship leaders, this includes worship, reflection, comfort, care, meaning, teaching and bonding. These are not negative uses of music, and they definitely align with Scripture, but music can be a hot topic within faith circles – which is not surprising because it is such a meaningful part of being a human and a Christian.

How to pick good songs

This is not an argument about hymns versus modern songs, since there are outstanding and forgettable choices in both categories. Rather, I urge us to think beyond song preferences and trends, and others agree. For example, a team of pastors, worship leaders and theologians from the Christian Reformed Church in North America recently reviewed the top 100 songs on the Christian Copyright Licensing International list, and cautioned against the theology, individualism and singability of many of the entries, along with their tendency to minimize human reality and suffering.

As a worship leader planning congregational music, I ask myself, “Is this music singable, accessible, worshipful, meaningful and theological?” We should also consider these questions for our personal listening. However, a song that doesn’t meet our criteria doesn’t mean that it is not valuable to another congregation. It also doesn’t necessarily mean rejecting everything by that songwriter. We need to examine each song’s merits. For example, the songwriter of my opening example has also written a powerful song about God’s unchanging faithfulness in life’s storms that always moves and encourages me.

We can and should take action to reclaim our playlists, and this will involve articulating our beliefs. However, alongside theological reasons, a vast musical world exists that is waiting to be explored. Consider this your invitation to look beyond the song recommendations you are now seeing and hearing.