Picking Songs
October 25th, 2005 by Travis Swan | Posted in Ministry Philosophy, Song Selection
Today I’m listening to a bunch of worship cds and also browsing iTunes, listening to 30 second snippets of worship songs. There are so many things I look for to find a “good” song for the Rock to worship with. Music in general is a topic that is plagued with baggage - styles, volume preferences, etc.
There has always been a “coolness” factor in music that we work with at the Rock. Back in ‘99 when we started the Rock, our emphasis was on radio-style songs for worship, making sure people were comfortable and hearing music similar to what they were “used” to hearing every day. In the last few years, radio music has gotten more diverse - it’s not as cut and dry as it used to be. The rock stations play so much more than rock music - the lines between genres themselves have blurred to a point where it’s hard to classify songs. The emphasis on genere has switched to an emphasis on reality, sincerity, and epic. The “coolness” factor at the Rock has thus changed to more of an innovative idea of music that takes people on a musical journey.
So with that, here’s the general ideas around my song picking criteria:
The song allows people to worship God by: -”Hooking” their hearts with the music - music that complements the lyrics, innovative, not cookie-cutter. -Intellectually connecting with God through the lyrics, which must be clear, relevant, and sincere. (Real!)
The lyrics must be theologically sound.
“God” focused songs, rather than “me” focused. I tend to agree with this quote:
“If you doubt what I’m saying, listen next time you’re singing in worship. It’s about how Jesus forgives me, embraces me, makes me feel his presence, strengthens me, forgives me, holds me close, touches me, revives me, etc., etc. Now this is all fine. But if an extraterrestrial outsider from Mars were to observe us, I think he would say either a) that these people are all mildly dysfunctional and need a lot of hug therapy . . . or b) that they don’t give a rip about the rest of the world, that their religion/spirituality makes them as selfish as any non Christian, but just in spiritual things rather than material ones.” -Brian Mclaren
Now, this isn’t a 100% rule, (there are MANY great “me” focused songs out there that really glorify God) but it’s a good guideline to follow, to help avoid that “consumerist-experiental” American trap we so often fall into.
Songs about a mission have been taking off like crazy in our church, like “Take My Life” - songs that could get you “in trouble” if you really are sincere the words you are singing! Just think about what you’re giving God permission to do! He’ll probably do it. Side note - have you ever been in prayer before a service and invited God to humble you for that particular service? He will. You’ll break a string, or forget all the lyrics, something will fall out of the ceiling and break your equipment, or SOMETHING. Dangerous. I love it.
Relevant lyrics. Words like “Zion,” “Israel,” “Jubilee,” “Ancient Of Days,” etc don’t mean much to our audience unless they’ve grown up in church. I’m not saying we should simplify our message or water it down, just keep current with today’s language - it’ll resonate with people’s hearts a LOT more.
After a song gets picked, I listen to it and play it by myself a ton of times and think of new things to do with it musically, or whether it needs things added to the lyrics - then take it to the band. We practice it a few times, then think of ways to make it better as a group, and then bring it to the church. When we’ve done it three times or so at the church, we’ve got the “feel” of it, and can really fine tune it to a new standard. It’s a fun process to be a part of!
OR . . . you could skip the weeding out process and write your own worship songs. More on that later.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 25th, 2005 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Ministry Philosophy, Song Selection. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Good stuff Travis. Selecting new songs is probably one of the hardest parts of this difficult job. It’s about 50% of the reason I created this site, to help eachother find new music.
Great post man. These are pretty much the same criteria that I use, you just articulated it well.