It seems obvious enough that Christians sing in church. if you’ve been around church any length of time, you will find all of them sing. But they don’t all sing the same things. Some sing exclusive hymnody, other tend toward modern songs, some sing a series of praise and worship songs and others sing things with more pointed themes. So, how does anyone decided what to sing? Here are the principles I think are helpful.

Sing what serves the Word

The key thing I want to happen when we sing in church is that the songs support and underscore the main points of teaching from the scriptures. We want God to speak to us through his Word and then we want to sing songs that reinforce what he has been saying to us. I want people to understand what this passage of scripture says, and what it means particularly for them, and then to sing songs that help them remember those truths and reinforce them in their minds. Primarily, I want to sing songs that serve the Word that was preached.

But beyond just what was preached, I want to sing things that are in line with the Word generally. It is easy to slip into songs that either say nothing at all or actively speak against what the scriptures teach. Despite the protestations of some, this is not a modern phenomenon. Some gladly gloss over the slightly iffy lines in certain hymns just because they’re old and they have the name Wesley attached to them. But if we want to try and sing what serves the Word that has been preached, we similarly want to avoid singing anything that might undermine the Word; either what has been preached or just that generally undermines good biblical doctrine.

Sing what serves others

We all know that we can have our favourite songs we like singing in church. There are certain truths of scripture that roll round again and again too. Both of these things mean it is all too easy to regularly and frequently sing our favourites, about the truths we hear regularly, and seem to pay little attention to the fact that others may be getting tired of them. Others of us don’t so much have our favourites as just favour variety, so we love bringing in new songs every week and every time we hear a new song, we insist on it at church, ignoring that nobody is able to sing it and get no opportunity to learn it because, no sooner than it’s sung, we move onto the next new one we’ve found. There is some balance to be struck between familiarity with the songs and introducing new things to sing.

Similarly, there is much to be said for having a range of different people choosing the songs. In our church, it is usually the meeting leader who chooses the songs. They do so in discussion with the preacher, who can point out his main ideas and the things the songs might want to pick up on. But the decision on which particular songs to pick lie with the meeting leader. The benefit of this is we don’t tend to get one set style or the same old favourites every time. But even when meeting leaders pick songs, rather than serving themselves with the ones they want to sing, I hope they are thinking about what would best serve the congregation because we are singing to serve others, not just to pick whatever we fancy because we like it.

This means we should expect a range of styles week by week. Some hymns, some modern, some new, some old, some familiar, some less familiar. But all are aimed at helping people think about the Word that was preached and should be seeking to think what would serve folks best. That means sometimes singing songs that aren’t my favourite because I know they are somebody else’s.

Sing songs that are singable

A lot of songs these days aren’t really written for congregational singing. Other songs are just difficult to follow. Some just don’t say a great deal. Despite the claims of some, this isn’t exclusively an issue with modern songs. Some old hymns have weird meters that, if you don’t know them, are impossible to get behind. Many of them have words that are unintelligible to most modern readers. Some don’t say much too.

Ideally, we want to aim for songs that are singable. It’s not very helpful if people can’t get behind the tune or don’t really understand the words. I am painfully aware that people don’t go home singing my sermon and I’m relatively pleased if they remember the main idea a few hours later. But they might sing the hymns that call to mind some of the sermon if we pick them helpfully. But they won’t if the tune is instantly forgettable, or they can’t get their head round it, or we don’t sing anything remotely familiar for them. So, it is worth at least trying to sing things that are actually singable so people might go home and sing them and recall things from the Word.

Be charitable

Of course, we don’t always get these things right. Sometimes we think we’ve chosen well and nobody is able to sing the song or one we thought was familiar nobody knew. Sometimes we choose things and we understand why we picked them but nobody else seems clear how this song in any way speaks into that passage we just heard from. Sometimes we think we’re picking for other people’s benefit but it turns out we’ve actually picked ones we’re alright with that they don’t really like all that much. These things inevitably happen from time to time.

The answer, on everybody’s part, is to cultivate charity. Assume that these songs have been picked for our benefit. Assume these songs are at least attempting to serve us by introducing us to a new one with deep truths or that somebody thought aided the Word, even if we couldn’t quite see how. When we sing songs we don’t like so much, it’s worth remembering that maybe the person next to us loves it and singing up will encourage them. It never hurts to remember our preferences aren’t necessarily sanctified and what we think is great (or not so great) might not be the view of most nor, it bears saying, the view our Lord whom we are there to worship. Having a bit of charity will always help us when it comes to what we sing.