pwarchive.com - Resources

I grew up in an Anglican, Church of England context where we hopped back and forth from the modern “Common Worship” service book to the old traditional ‘1662’ order of service. The services would always incorporate scripture readings, prayers, confession, the creed or statement of faith, communion and so on but the whole thing was considered ‘worship’. In our modern charismatic or ‘new churches’, where we claim to spend more time in ‘uninterrupted worship’, we seem not only to have lost a number of those key ‘liturgical’ elements, we also appear to have fallen into a rather predictable formula or habit of starting with two or three up tempo praise songs and then move more towards what we would call more intimate worship.

As a model you could argue that this isn’t unbiblical. There are a number of Psalms that follow this basic pattern from celebration and declaration to thanksgiving and praise to worship and bowing down. Psalm 100 for example starts with “Shout for joy…come before him with joyful songs…enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise.” It then moves on to talk about his love and faithfulness. Incidentally, I once heard it argued that to move from thanksgiving to praise was a move towards intimacy because anyone can thank someone for a gift received. You don’t have to know that person to thank them, they could be a complete stranger. But to praise someone you at least need to know something of his or her character and strengths or accomplishments. So there is an implied relationship or ‘knowing’ here. (See also Psalms 95, 96, & 106)

In this context our choice of songs is vital. If we are not careful our whole ‘liturgy’ is largely determined by the content of the songs we sing. We may claim to be those who are led by the Spirit yet in reality we are in danger of just being directed by whatever the popular current ‘hit’ songs are at the time. In which case, our liturgy will be more a reflection of whatever happens to be the theme or content of those particular songs.

Having said that I have no qualms about introducing new songs regularly. The Psalms are full of exhortations to “sing to the Lord a new song” (see Psalm 33;v3, 40;v3, 98;v1, and 114;v9)

In addition to acknowledging the importance of liturgy and attempting to incorporate these various aspects of our worship into our songs, or meetings, there are a number of other factors I would consider when deciding which songs to include in the worship ‘set’.
Here are seven pointers to think about when choosing songs for a worship service.

1. Songs of praise & celebration. I usually try to start out with God focused songs that remind us of who our God is. Declare objective truth about what he’s done, his character and attributes. His creation, his power and might, his faithfulness and mercy. I think this helps us get our minds focused and get our thoughts off our circumstances and ourselves. Not to deny or suppress those things but to set everything in its right perspective in the light of God’s Sovereignty and grace.
NB. Not everyone will have had a great week and some won’t find it easy to celebrate but I have always believed we are serving God’s people best by reminding them of who God is and help get things in perspective. Someone once said, “you can’t express feelings that you don’t have but you can express truths that you don’t ‘feel’…” and that’s more likely to lead you into an experience God’s grace rather than leave you wallowing in your situation!

2. Songs of proclamation and thanksgiving. Songs that remind us of what God has done for us and who we are in Christ as new creations. Thanksgiving can dramatically change the atmosphere and help nurture gratitude, faith and worship.

3. Songs that remember the cross. Jesus said, “No one comes to the Father except through me”. We should always be mindful of what it cost Jesus to bring us into such incredible open fellowship and intimacy with the Father.

4. Songs that pick up on current prophetic themes. God is alive and still speaking and acting! The Church should be a dynamic expression and demonstration of that. We want to embrace what God is doing and saying in our generation and his particular call on us as a movement or as a local church and incorporate it in our worship.

5. Songs that flow naturally. Try to make sure there is a logical or thematic flow from song to song. We are on a journey into God but we don’t want to be seasick. Don’t go from celebration to intercession for the lost, to the cross, to revival, to lament, to the second coming, to social injustice! (NB. Songs of lament that cover suffering or social injustice do not always appear to fit easily into our well established and ‘comfortable’ patterns of worship, however I feel increasingly strongly that we need to incorporate these themes and should be able to do so without crunching the gears.)

6. Be flexible. Don’t set your plans in concrete. Allow room for the Spirit to move. We worship the Father, through the Son by the Spirit. The New Testament adds a totally exciting new dynamic to the way we worship. We must endeavor to facilitate spiritual gifts especially prophecy, whether at the end of our time of ‘singing’ or interspersed with the songs if the content happens to relate to the theme and flow of where we are going. We must not lose that which made the early church such an exhilarating company to be in and which kept them on course, built up and edified through times of momentous growth as well as strong persecution!

7. Songs that facilitate intimacy in worship. We should expect to encounter God in worship! He says ‘if we draw near to him he will draw near to us’ (Jam 4:8). As well as songs that declare truth and doctrine, we need songs that allow us time and space to soak in the grace of God and linger in his presence. To consider and respond to what he has done or what he is currently speaking to us. Sometimes we need songs that have fewer words, that don’t try to cover all the main doctrines but just allow us to say ‘Yes Lord’, ‘I surrender to you’, ‘I love you Lord’ ‘thank you’.

Conclusion
An effective song list is one, which will help usher the congregation into the presence of God whilst remaining flexible enough to facilitate a response to whatever particular focus the Spirit brings us to during our worship. It should incorporate a good balance of both new and older more familiar songs as well as facilitate the spontaneous expression of worship that comes from the congregation.

Should we always prepare a song list? There are times when it’s more practical and appropriate to do so and other times, perhaps in the smaller more intimate meetings such as in a home group context, where we would not give such a strong lead but encourage everyone to contribute to the direction of our worship. There are still other times when you may well prepare a list and then abandon it after two or three songs because the Holy Spirit is so powerfully leading you in a different direction. For me, those times are the most exciting!