Words to the Song Neer Again Again

ten Worship Songs I'd Be Fine with Never Singing Over again (And Why)

Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer
2021 2 Aug

10 Worship Songs I'd Be Fine with Never Singing Again (And Why)

If yous're reading this piece (and yous obviously are), it'southward probably for one of 2 reasons: 1) to run across if your favorite worship song is on this list, or 2) to see if your least favorite worship song is on this list.

Music (and maybe particularly worship music, due to its personal, participatory nature) is a very individualized preference. What I "similar" or fifty-fifty love may well be a song you'd be fine never to hear (let alone sing) again... and vice versa.

Simply I'm reminded of the story of a pastor whose congregant commented to him afterward the Sunday service that he hadn't liked the music that forenoon. The pastor replied, "Oh, what don't you recollect the Lord liked about it?"

I'yard going to put on my worship leader chapeau here and say that worship songs are not about what we like or don't similar. Worship music at its best should exist an authentic reflection of who God is and an accessible tool for His worshipers to use to affirm that truth. Worship songs should also depict united states of america closer to God and to the strength, conviction, condolement, and counsel He provides. A vocal that does not do these things may be a perfectly "likable" song. Information technology may exist fine to mind to on the radio or sing in the shower. Merely it might be best left to those venues and kept out of the sanctuary on Sun morning.

From my worshiper'southward and worship leader's center (and with full admission that these are my personal opinions), here are 10 worship songs I'd be fine non to see on the Powerpoint screen once again.

1. I Could Sing of Your Love Forever

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(Words and music by Martin Smith)

When I hear this song, I tin can never stop myself from thinking, "And with this vocal, we very nearly Do sing about it forever." But the repetitive chorus doesn't carp me just considering I find information technology deadening. It bothers me because of a troubling characteristic of some worship songs: they're low-cal on truth and heavy on repetition.

Used wisely, repetition in worship music is a valuable and crucial asset. Members of a congregation but exercise not worship fully when they don't know what's coming next. If they're constantly trying to figure out how a song flows, they're ever going to hold something back—and that something is rightly the property of God. They're going to clutch passion and and praise tightly to themselves. Merely when a song relies likewise heavily on repetition, it does then at the expense of truth about the One we are worshiping. Rather than sing seemingly forever about how we could sing about God's love forever, I'd rather sing nearly specific aspects of God's dear. That list really could continue forever.

Photo courtesy: ©Unsplash/TylerNix
2. Trading My Sorrows

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(Words and music by Darrell Evans)

Church building tin can be a hard place to be when you lot're in pain—physical, emotional, or otherwise. And when we sing lyrics similar, "I'm trading my sorrows, I'k trading my pain, I'm laying them down for the joy of the Lord… I'm trading them all for the joy of the Lord," nosotros tin can get the idea that replacing sorrow or pain with joy is supposed to be a simple swap. When information technology isn't, we tin experience ashamed or alienated, neither of which is the objective of worship.

I also fearfulness that this song (which I similar in so many other ways) sends the bulletin that sorrow and joy are mutually exclusive in the life of the believer—that you cannot take ane if you have the other. All the same most of the Christian life is lived with one foot in sorrow and the other foot in joy. This is life on this earth, and our worship—including the songs we sing during it—should be faithful to that reality.

Photograph courtesy: ©Thinkstock/SplashofPhotography
three. How He Loves

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(Words and music by John Mark McMillan)

The worship squad I'm blessed to be role of at my church has a few keywords we toss around when we're choosing songs, and "singability" is one of them. If a song is not singable for the average person on the average Sunday morning, it doesn't matter how popular it is on the radio or how powerful it is when performed past professionals. Our job every bit a team is to brand the congregation feel secure enough with what nosotros're all singing together that they can get past the mechanics—how does this song go? what are the lyrics? how fast is it? how exercise the words fit with the notes?—and go to the main matter: adoring, praising, and shouting the fame of The Keen I AM.

"How He Loves" fails the singability test for me. The constantly syncopated rhythms are hard to experience. Vocally, the chorus makes a giant spring upwardly an octave'south worth of notes, which means that at some point, the melody line is going to exist in an uncomfortable range for someone... probably for several someones. That's too many mechanics and besides niggling of the primary affair.

Photo courtesy: ©Pexels/SwapnilDeshpandey
4. Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)

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(Words and music by Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio)

My teenage daughters and I accept a running joke that at that place are certain songs we don't like hearing on the radio because we can't sing along with them. These are usually performed past a vocalist with a ii-octave range (usually a male tenor) that no regular person possesses. "Astonishing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)" is one such song. The melody line spans a full 12 notes, whereas near people standing in worship have a vocal comfort zone of about half dozen.

Worshipers have an well-nigh paralyzing fear of looking or sounding foolish. So if the song they're being asked to sing makes them feel similar that's a possibility, they're not going to sing it. This defeats the purpose of corporate worship, which is supposed to be a participatory experience, non a operation.

Photo courtesy: Pexels.com
5. Forever

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(Words and music by Chris Tomlin)

Worship—in all its forms—is not about us. It is about God and reorienting ourselves toward Him. It is a sacred task and not to exist taken lightly. The tools we employ to worship God should be equally honed and useful as possible.

Enter, again, songs with excessive repetition and a melodic line that leaps out of the range of well-nigh normal people, as is the case with "Forever." There are sharper tools in the worship kit than this.

Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/qingwa
half-dozen. Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

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(Words and music by Joel Houston, Matt Crocker, and Salomon Ligthelm)

Awhile back, our worship team tried to work this song up to teach to the congregation, merely we could never quite get it to fly. Now I think maybe God was keeping us from getting it set because He saw what we'd missed: this is non an accessible vocal for the average worshiper.

A mature, lifelong believer may be able to understand truth almost God cloaked in Oceans' imagery and verse (interspersed with lyric placeholders like "oh" and "yes… some other pet peeve), but those new to the faith and those notwithstanding seeking faith are likely to exist left backside. And this is a problem, because worship should bring us alongside each other.

Photograph courtesy: Unsplash.com
7. Good, Good Father

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(Words and music by Anthony Chocolate-brown and Pat Barrett)

This is another song where lyrics are repeated at the expense of communication of deeper truths about God. Repetition tin can be used finer for emphasis, but here it feels used to excess. Rather than sing "it's who you are" and "it's who I am" over and over, I'd rather sing specifically most who God is and who I am in His dearest-driven sight.

Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/artphotoclub
viii. Nosotros Fall Down

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(Words and music by Chris Tomlin)

As a worship team member, I want worship to describe in those who haven't grown up in the church. I want our songs to increase their understanding of Abba. I don't see that happening in this vocal.

Even if an unbeliever or new laic can get past the rather unsettling image of falling down, they're likely to trip up afterward on the repeated "nosotros weep holy, holy, holy (holy, holy holy)." God is surely holy, but what does that mean to an inexperienced worshiper? There are other specific aspects of God's holiness that we could be crying out about.

Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/Arrangements-Photography
9. Draw Me Shut

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(Words and music by Kelly Carpenter)

We sang this song in church building terminal Dominicus. I loved singing it. I felt the intensity and yearning of it. Just this song disturbs me, because it makes a liar of me every fourth dimension with these four words: "You're all I want." I feel like a fraud when I sing this phrase, because it but isn't truthful. God is non all I desire. I know He should exist, but He isn't. There are so many other things I desire, likewise.

I hope we keep using this song in worship at our church. But if we practice, I'll need to sing it as a plea for what I desire God to make true rather than a declaration of what already is true.

Photo courtesy: Unsplash.com
ten. Mighty to Save

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(Words and music by Reuben Morgan and Ben Fielding)

Honestly, I'm cringing even to put this song on this list. It'southward actually one of my favorites. I all the same remember the start fourth dimension we sang information technology in worship at my dwelling church. I loved information technology then, and I mostly dear it still. Merely I can never quite get past a few lyrics that hold me back. Have, for case, "Everyone needs a savior." I don't believe everyone needs a savior; I recollect everyone needs THE Savior. Lowercase-"s" saviors come pretty cheap, but the simply Savior who can truly relieve came at great cost.

I'm also uncomfortable with the line, "And then take me equally y'all find me." Information technology feels too cavalier, too irreverent, as if nosotros're ordering God around. I'd be a more fervent fan of this song if these lyrics but read, "You lot accept me every bit you lot find me." Which is true... thanks be to God that He does take us equally He finds usa, though He never leaves us at that place.

I am in no fashion suggesting that the 10 songs on this listing be banned from our contemporary worship services. And for every one song I've listed here that I'd be fine not to sing again, at that place are endless more I hope to sing once more and once again, until the day when all Christ'south worshipers sing a new song—the vocal of the Lamb, the song of the redeemed.

"I heard every fauna in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all that is in them, singing, 'To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, exist praise and accolade and glory and power, for ever and e'er!'" (Revelation 5:thirteen)

Elizabeth Spencer is a Midwest wife of 22 years and mom to two teenage daughters, one a high schoolhouse freshman and the other a college freshman. She and her family nourish a small country church where she is privileged to serve on worship team and to facilitate women's Bible written report. When she is not driving her high-school daughter to school or dance or volunteering equally a marching band mom, she writes about faith, family, and food (with some occasional funny thrown in) at world wide web.guiltychocoholicmama.blogspot.com.

Photograph courtesy: Unsplash.com