Another form that needs to be addressed in this discussion is in the area of worship music. Every worship pastor has probably been put under the stereotype of a “worship musician” who is hip on the latest Hillsong or Passion album, writing his own music, or digging in some of the best indie Christian music out there. Regardless of stereotypes, I want to spend some time on song selection and ordering elements. As a reminder, song choice and service order is a FORM and not a function of worship, but to strive for excellence and a biblical standard we ought to talk about this. It is an important subject because it is sad how many churches go week by week with worship element packages that have no biblical rhyme or reason to them.
We need to start with choosing the right worship songs. There are generally (and I mean generally) three types of worship songs and then there are what I like to call “christianese” songs. “Christianese” songs don’t have any place in a worship service and are typically very man focused. These songs are heard mainly on mainstream Christian radio, and though they may be very encouraging with puffy statements of how God is our buddy, they are lyrically shallow and sometimes counterintuitive to our standing with the Lord.
It goes without saying that the style of the music or the catchy nature of the tune has nothing to do with the message of the song. It would do the worship pastor good to choose songs based on the lyrics and message before being savored by the music it was put to. In terms of the message of the song, there are three categories of God-glorifying worship music that ought to be used in a worship service: Horizontal, Diagonal, and Vertical worship songs.
I use these directionally descriptive words as categories because of the direction that one’s heart, soul, and mind are pointed if singing the words genuinely. The first category is Horizontal songs, which can also be referred to as gathering songs. These songs are horizontal by nature because the message that is being sung in general form is: “Hey lets gather together to worship our Lord! He has saved us, let us now come together to lift up our voices to praise!” These songs will typically be in the third person tense and focus heavily on the body of Christ coming together corporately and declaring the intent and motivation to praise God. You have songs that declare heavy amounts of truth of God’s work of Salvation and a plea to come and worship together because of this. Insofar as form is concerned, the style of these songs are typically more upbeat and energy driven. The purpose of these songs is to energize and get the church body excited to praise God in song. In these songs you are very aware that others are with you in the room and you are united together and pursuing now a greater purpose and intention to praise. A great example of a song that would fit this horizontal description is David Crowder’s “O Praise Him.” In general when you think of a horizontal worship song, think of a song where you are singing to the person next to you, “Hey, let’s praise the name of Jesus together right now! Sing with me! Let us ascend the hill of the Lord! (Psalm 24:3, Psalm 95:6) ”
The next category is the diagonal worship song. These songs can also be referred to as testimonial songs. These songs speak on the work of God in the life of the believer and how the believer relies solely on God and the sacrifice of Christ on the cross for our sin. Testimonial songs still are very corporate expressions because we are declaring to one another how God sustains them in trial, forgives them of sin, and how he sacrificed his son for them. These songs recount our sinful nature and the grace of God. These songs also state the attributes of God that pertain to the life of the believer such as God is faithful to me, God never let’s go, or Christ has healed me. Most hymns fall into this category by nature, because most of the lyrically strong hymns have a personal nature to them about the work of God in the believer’s life. A good example of a song that is in the diagonal and testimonial category is the old hymn put to modern music “Here is Love” or even a modern worship song like “You Alone Can Rescue” by Matt Redman. Also the song “Enough” by Chris Tomlin fits in this category, and of course the song “Amazing Grace” by John Newton fits here as well. When you think of a horizontal and testimonial song, think, “Hey, let me tell you what the Lord has done for me! (Psalm 9:1, Psalm 77:11-15)”
The final category of worship songs are the vertical worship songs. These songs can also be called ascriptive songs that lyrically ascribe worth, glory, and honor to the Lord. Such songs may rely on the Revelation passages that declare glory, honor, strength and power to the Lord. The focus of these songs is no longer what the Lord has done for the believer but responding to the greatness of God with words of praise. The singing of this song is now with the throne of God in view and our voices are unified directly TO God in giving him what he is most worthy of: glory. The person who sings this song genuinely is no longer caring of the people around them, they are fully engaged in declaring praise to a one man audience: Jesus Christ. Lyrically these songs may be more simple and repetitious in order to promote emphasis of the praise: “Holy, Holy, HOLY is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come! (Revelation 4:8).” “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created (Revelation 4:11).” “Great and amazing are your deeds, O Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, O King of the nations! Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you, for your righteous acts have been revealed (Revelation 15:3-4).” And I’ll leave you to read Revelation 19 on your own to have a personal time of worship. The point is that the vertical songs are just that: songs of praise and thanksgiving that we are singing directly and vertically to God. The praise shall leave our lips and not be directed to anyone else except the Trinitarian God of the bible. He alone is worthy of praise and vertical songs truly are the most appropriate songs that declare and respond to this truth. Musically these songs are more like anthems and may have more legato and beautiful sounding melodies. They are the songs that you will most likely have stuck in your head for the rest of your Sunday after the service is over. A couple songs that fit in this description would be “Revelation Song” by Jennie Riddle, “All Glory” by Andi Rozier, and “Agnus Dei” by Michael W. Smith. When you think of vertical songs think this, “How Great are you God, worthy of my praise and thanksgiving!”
I know what you are thinking, “Aren’t there some songs that don’t fit neatly in one of the categories?” Yes! The beauty of art is the fact that you can’t always fit good art in the confines of a categorical box. Some songs are very horizontal but then jump to diagonal in the choruses or perhaps even jump to vertical at the bridge. The important thing is not trying to categorize songs perfectly but to make sure what you are doing fit because the categories as a form fit perfectly in the context of many of the functions of worship. Songs can be meditative, testimonies, prayers directly to God, presentations of scripture, and even confession of sin. If the song does not lyrically fit in these categories or the message is not accomplishing a function of worship, please spare your congregation the confusion and don’t use it in a worship set. It may be a great song, but probably is not appropriate to adequately lead people to a genuine and truthful response to the overwhelming greatness and presence of God. Song selection is vitally important in terms of cultivating a culture of worship in your church as a worship pastor. If you put no thought into it but base it on musicality, you’ve just identified and idol in your life that needs to be put to death.
So with adequate songs in play, how do you put together a worship song set that is most effectual? When dealing with order of service, you have many traditions that come into play, as well as personal preference. The phrase was already mentioned, “Theology leads to doxology.” Some people have taken this phrase in a more drastic way and demand that the worship response by song is to be done after the sermon where theology was preached in a way that motivates a response. I really have experienced powerful worship services where this was indeed the case, and I have ordered some of my church services to reflect this model. However, to say that theology only comes by means of the sermon is simply false. With adequate and careful selection of appropriate worship songs, theology is declared in song and it is responded to. It is with this vein of thought that I want to present to you a philosophy of planning a worship set using the above categories of songs but now including other elements that may or may not be musical to fill the slot of one of those categories. I want to give a disclaimer that this is by no means the only biblical model to structure a worship service, however has proved to be one that works very well.
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