For generations, The Church has been faced with the question of what songs should be sung in our worship services? In the preface to Charles Spurgeon’s hymnbook, it says this, “Whatever may be thought of our taste, we have exercised it without prejudice; and a good hymn has not been rejected because of the character of its author, or the heresies of the church in whose hymnal it first appeared; so long as the language and the spirit of it commended the hymn to our heart, we included it and we believe that we have thereby enriched our collection.” Today, churches that are anchored in God’s word have to wrestle with the same questions of singing songs from sources who have some teachings and practices that are “questionable” at best. For example, Bethel is accused of practicing “grave soaking” to absorb the supernatural anointing from people who have passed away, by laying on their graves. There is nothing Biblical about this. Bethel teaches that God’s will is to always provide physical healing, and if we don’t receive it, then it’s a problem on our end. This too, is simply not supported by Scripture. Everyone in Christ will be healed, but that often doesn’t happen in this lifetime! Paul pleaded with the Lord for the thorn is his flesh to be removed, but it was not God’s will to do so. Still, some of the songs that come out of these churches are incredibly well anchored in Scripture and teach truth about God in a very memorable and powerful way.
Some churches choose to avoid singing any songs that come from questionable sources. Some churches choose to avoid songs from sources that co-write with questionable sources. Some of the richest theological songs we have in our repertoire are from Cityalight: Yet Not I But Through Christ, Christ Is Mine Forevermore, and Only a Holy God. But, their most recent His Glory and My Good, was cowritten with Hillsong. So, what do we do with that song? On Sunday, we sang, “This is Amazing Grace” that gained popularity from the recording by Phil Wickham who cowrote the song, but honestly, I didn’t even remember until after the services that he co-wrote that song with somebody who used to be at Bethel music.
As a church we want the Word of Christ to dwell in us richly as we sing. (Colossians 3:16). Under the guidance of our Elders, our worship council considers songs to add to our repertoire by critiquing the song and not the source. This helps us to be consistent, as there are hymn writers that we also don’t align with theologically and we would need to remove from our repertoire if we decided to critique the source. Like Charles Spurgeon, we haven’t rejected a good song because of the source. Just because we sing a certain song from a source or writer doesn’t mean that we agree with that source or writer in everything. While most of our repertoire isn’t Hillsong, or Bethel, and we don’t chase the latest “top worship songs”, we do have some songs from these sources. And like Cityalight and Hillsong recently co-writing together, the lines have become really blurry with what sources are questionable. We will continue to pick songs that help teach us about God, remind us that we are sinners in need of a Savior, and reflect on Jesus’ death and resurrection providing forgiveness of sins. We will teach songs that get stuck in our hearts and minds so that God’s truth will get stuck in our hearts and minds. I’ll see you Sunday. I hope you come prepared to worship through song!
Pastor Kyle