Ephesians 5:19 says, “Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.” Exactly what Paul was referring to as hymns and spiritual songs isn’t clear, but a principle is clear: as we sing together, we should use a variety of different songs. This is one of my favourite ‘music verses’ in the bible — Paul continues, “Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord.” This is a central aim of our church music: encouraging corporate worship both outwardly (“sing”) and inwardly (“in your hearts”).
If singing is important, it’s important that we sing good songs! Some songs will help us put Ephesians 5:19 into practice, other will not. How do we choose which songs we sing here at Lakeshore? Here are 5 different criteria:
- Theology: Are the lyrics biblically true?
- Helpful: Is it a theme we want to focus on? (e.g. Jesus / the cross / the gospel, Adoration, Mission etc)
- Current Need: What sort of songs do we need variety in right now? (e.g. energetic songs, reflective songs, hymns)
- Singable: Does it encourage, invite and allow everyone to sing with enthusiasm?
- Playable: Can our band play it well with our current level of skill, our band make up and our amount of practice time?
I don’t find it easy to track down the right songs for our church! It certainly takes patience — there are enough songs available that pass all 5 tests for our church situation, but it seems like I have to listen to plenty that don’t before I find the winners…