Songs We Sing: An Introduction

Introduction to the Songs We Sing – The Praise Song Cruncher

Please understand that this is not an attack on our praise team. It really isn’t an attack on anyone. This is a simple tool that I discovered a few months ago that has challenged me to reconsider my opinion of a lot of praise songs (and hymns). Many songs I thought were great had terrible scores, and many songs I hated did much better than I thought, causing me to go back and change my thinking of what makes a good worship song. The criteria below can certainly be added to, but I think they are a fair assessment of what a praise song at the very least should be.

Criteria for Discerning the Usefulness of Praise Songs

Determining the truth of what someone is saying is impossible if the person isn't actually saying anything. This is the great difficulty of assessing praise songs commonly used in the church. The nature of modern praise songs makes them difficult to make them useful judgments regarding their fitness for use in the church's worship.

Often the songs are written in sentence fragments, thought and phrases rather than a regular sentence with an subject, verb and object. Simple questions are often unanswerable: “Who is this talking about?”“What does this mean?” “What is the relationship between one phrase and another?” …

What is needed, then, is an objective method of judging the usefulness of a praise song for edifying the Lord's church and bringing the comfort of the forgiveness of sins. The following criteria are offered for use in considering the usefulness of praise songs.

Pastor Bryan Wolfmueller

2008

1. Jesus

“Is Jesus mentioned?”

Yes | No If yes, is it in name or concept?

2. Clarity

Is the song clear? Does it use sentences (with subject, verb, and object) or sentence fragments?

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Very clear Obscure

3. Mysticism (Subjectivity vs Objectivity)

Is the song about the things that God has done (objective), or about my own emotions and experiences (subjective)? Does the song repeat the same phrases over and over in a hypnotic mantra?

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Objective Subjective

4. Law and Gospel

Does the song proclaim the law in its sternness and the Gospel in its sweetness? (The Gospel is the promise of the forgiveness of all sins won for us through Jesus' death on the cross.) Are law and Gospel rightly divided (and not mixed up)? Is the law presented as something that we can do, or does it show us our sins? Is the Gospel conditional (based on my actions, decisions, and acceptance)?

Yes No I can't tell

5. Is there any explicit false teaching?

Keith’s additional criteria

6. Scripture

Is the song purely scriptural (like a Psalm, or another passage), contain Biblical phrases or is scripture absent from the song?

Scripture Mostly Scripture Some Scripture No Scripture

7. Context

If there is Scripture, is the Scripture being used in its proper context, or are the phrases used to simply string together subjective ideas.

8. Non-Christians

If a non-Christian came heard this song, would they understand the meaning? Or is it heavily laden with “Christianese” to a point that either it is meaningless to the “uninitiated” or does it give the unbeliever a false understanding or assurance of security?

9. Teaching

It is said that more doctrine is taught through songs than through sermons. Assuming that this is true, did I learn anything new from the song or was confronted by my sin for failing to live up to the teachings found in the song? Simply put, is it worth my time to sing it?

10. Manipulation

Does the writer have God or people in mind when this song was written? Do I get the feeling that I am being manipulated into having an emotional experience or a physical display of emotion (clapping to a good beat) or is the song creating true heart-felt emotions?

11. Where

Where is this song best suited? Is the song best used for private worship times (like a quiet time), in corporate worship (church) or at a concert?

To get your own copy of the “Praise Song Cruncher” and other goodies, please visit Table Talk Radio. If you enjoy podcasts, please sign up for Table Talk Radio, it is one of my favorite programs to listen to.