Week by week Christians sing in church. It is something the scriptures tell us to do and is something the church has been doing since her inception. With over 2000 years worth of singing material, it isn’t unreasonable to ask: how do you decide what to sing? Here are some guidelines that I find helpful.
Is it biblical?
First and foremost, you are looking for songs that are biblical. In short, if the theology is dodgy or the words overtly contradict scripture, it isn’t one to countenance. But if the words reflect clear, biblical truth that can be sung without caveats, we potentially have a song on our hands that we may just want to sing.
Is it singable?
Some songs have excellent words but nobody has yet managed to figure out an excellent tune. Sometimes those excellent words just don’t scan. Sometimes the feel of the tune doesn’t really reflect the words in front of you. Sometimes the tune itself is just unsingable. I appreciate some of this stuff is in the eye of the beholder, but there are definitely examples where the vast majority of people would affirm together – this is unsingable! If it isn’t singable, it probably isn’t worth singing, no matter how good the words.
Is it relevant?
Relevant is an interesting word because I think we can legitimately take it two ways. First, is the song culturally relevant? There are some wonderful old songs that were once culturally very relevant but whose language, tone and meaning has so altered they no longer are. Think of songs such as ‘blessed is the man whose bowels move‘ or, possibly my favourite ever genuine hymn title, ‘there’s crap on the door‘. Once culturally relevant, now carrying an altogether different meaning! These are among the more obvious and egregious examples, but there are lots of factors that might make a once good hymn now culturally irrelevant (or even irreverent).
But the other way we might take the word is to think in terms of contextual relevance. Specifically, I mean the context of the particular service you are in. A funeral service, for example, might warrant different hymns to a wedding which, in turn, would warrant different hymns to a Sunday service. Similarly, a service that has focused on a passage about sin probably wants some songs focusing in on that theme specifically rather than a handful of generic praise songs. Those praise songs, however, might be altogether appropriate for a service in which the sermon centres on the glory of God. Context will drive the relevance of the things we sing. In my view, it is good to choose things that are both culturally and contextually relevant.
Is it known?
This is important, but a bit trickier to parse. It is inevitable that you will sing some songs that people don’t know. Whether that is because you reach new and unchurched people who don’t know any of them or you are introducing a new song to the fellowship. It isn’t quite the case that you shouldn’t or wouldn’t sing things that people don’t know ever.
Rather, we need to be mindful of what people know. It is tiring to sing four or five songs on the bounce that you don’t know. It is difficult to build up a repertoire of songs and encourage people to sing well when you introduce new songs every week. If people are going to be encouraged by the singing, it helps if they at least know some of them!
Ultimately, this means we should lean heavily towards songs the congregation know. We may occasionally introduce a new song to expand a repertoire, but it is unlikely to be helpful to have more than one of these in any service and similarly not best if one of these is included every week. Learning new songs now and then is good, but our heavy leaning should be towards what is known.
This is very helpful. I can’t really sing in tune, though I wish I could. I like tunes that are really easy. That flow in obvious directions. In old hymn books they were designated ‘common metre’ though I don’t know what that means. I guess these would come within your ‘singable’ category.
When tunes aren’t easy and don’t move predictably, in truth, my heart isn’t engaged in worship. The whole thing ceases to be an act of worship, when I can forget myself and celebrate God’s goodness and truth. Instead it becomes a three or 4 minute task… a challenge to get through. So the topic you raise is actually very very important. And requires more thought week by week than tends to be given to it.
What I have found interesting is the way people from different traditions think about what is singable and engages the heart. I know reformed types who would argue modern stuff doesn’t engage theirs whilst I’ve had more charismatic folk tell me old hymn tunes without a chorus are not very engaging for them. So much is driven by our tradition and, to some degree, what we are used to and expect when we come to church.
It is a particularly difficult issue to navigate when you have a multicultural church, full of people from different traditions and backgrounds. You can teach the bible and get everyone together on the same theological page; you will struggle to undo years of culture and tradition (if you felt the need) because it dies hard.
Yes, but I think if we were diligent in following the principles you outlined we would begin to break down these cultural issues among established believers, and set a good foundation for new believers and those young in the faith.
And for the sake of us musical dullards, include ‘easy’ as a sub category of ‘singable.’
The “meter” of a tune refers to the number of syllables in a line. No idea why it’s called “common”, but “common meter” means an 8-syllable line followed by a 6-syllable line, follows by another 8 and another 6
God moves in a mysterious way (count8)
His wonders to perform; (6)
He plants His footsteps in the sea, (8)
and rides upon the storm. (6)
Then there’s double common meter, and short meter, and double short, and long and double long … and then some very odd ones!