Finalizing the content for the coming weekend’s corporate worship service at our church occupies part of my Tuesday morning routine. Yesterday I spent time working on new songs to add to the song library at IDC. It’s always a joyful and weighty task.

I’ve said before that preaching pastors are worship pastors. Preaching pastors – and any installed elders – are charged with overseeing all aspects of the church’s teaching ministry. Songs teach the congregation (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). Therefore, preaching pastors ought to ordinarily oversee the selection of songs for their congregation’s gathered worship. It just so happens in the life of our church that I regularly pick the songs we sing.

One of the most helpful grids for choosing songs I’ve seen comes from Kent Hughes’ contribution to Worship by the Book. He says congregational music must meet three criteria: text, tune, and fit. I choose to think in the categories of theology, melody, and suitability.

THREE CRITERIA FOR SELECTION SONGS

Evaluate the song’s theology. Evaluating the song’s lyrical content must always come first. The song, of course, must be faithful to Scripture and orthodox theology. But it isn’t enough that the song simply use biblical language, it must use such language correctly. We must do the hard work to parse out the intended, and unintended, meanings of the words and phrases employed. Here also I would advocate not settling for mere simplicity in lyrics. A song can be true biblically, but actually communicate very little. Give your people some red meat for their soul in the songs you choose.

Evaluate the song’s melody. This is generally where most songs get chucked, at least for me. In evaluating the song’s melody we must first ensure it fits the meaning of the text. Many faithful lyrics have crashed a sad death on the rocks of a “cool” melody. Secondly, the melody of the song must fit the congregation that will sing it. A good question here is, “Can the average church member sing it?” Which leads to the third criteria.

Evaluate the song’s suitability. Some songs will work in one congregation and not in another. Cultural context ought not to be ignored when selecting the arrows we launch into Satan’s kingdom each weekend. A particular song might be too formal for your congregation, where another might be too informal. Or maybe the dynamics of a song do not fit the median musical style of your church.

I hope it’s clear that I am always picking songs with my individual congregation in mind. They are the chief instrument of praise and I want to help them assault hell’s gates with battle cries of depth and delight. Like every area of pastoral ministry, patience is indispensable when it comes to song selection. I feel that it took us a good 10-11 months after planting Imago Dei before it felt as though everything clicked in our singing.

Good songs are applied theology and will shape the life of your congregation. So choose ’em wisely.