The 10 Commandments of Worship Songs

Helen Bourne sets out some guidelines

Photo: Lizzie Freear

Perusing the message boards on shipoffools.com, I came across a thread complaining about mediocre hymns and choruses, and found myself breathing an immense sigh of relief. It appears I am not the only one who gets exasperated by some of the music in Church today. Thus, for your edification, I present a useful tool for both congregational sung worship and composition.

1. I am the Lord thy God, not thy Girlfriend

Apparently Tim Hughes’ My Jesus, My Lifeline has been re-dubbed My Jesus, My Girlfriend (it contains lines such as “I’m crying out for your loving”). It’s true that the Bible speaks of the Bride of Christ — and Jesus even refers to himself as the Bridegroom — but does that really mean that worship songs have to sound like mediocre pop songs played at the end of a disco? I’ve heard a few songs that despite their Christian authors, the listener would be hard-pressed to work out that it’s actually about Jesus.

I propose that every song, once written, should be given what I call the “Mandy test”. If you can change every instance of ‘Jesus’ for ‘Mandy’ (or any other girl’s name that scans) and ‘my Lord’ for ‘my love’ etc., and it’s still obvious the song’s about Jesus, the song passes. Shine, Mandy, Shine gets through, as does My Mandy, my Saviour, and Mandy, lover of my soul makes it through on the skin of its teeth. My Mandy, my lifeline (I’m really sorry, Tim Hughes) doesn’t make it at all. To be fair, Mandy, joy of man’s desiring sounds a bit suspicious to me too.

2. Thou shalt not write songs about thyself and claim they are about me

Once at Soul Survivor, I heard Matt Redman give a talk about composing worship songs. He suggested that you count the amount of times the words ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘my’ come up compared to ‘you’, ‘your’, ‘Jesus’, ‘God’ etc. Later on in the week Mike Pilavachi mocked poor Tim Hughes (who isn’t doing too well in this article either) “Here I am to worship, here I am to bow down, lucky I’m here, Lord!”

Ah, says the sceptical listener, but in Amazing Grace there are 11 instances of ‘I’, ‘me’ and ‘my’ and one of ‘God’, and is still a true classic. You have a point, and I might add that Here I am to worship is actually rather good.

But then I remember a song called I can only imagine, a song about being in Heaven, and it goes like this:

Surrounded by your glory What will my heart feel? Will I dance for you Jesus? Or in awe of you be still?

It seems the singer is most preoccupied with what ‘I’ will be doing when ‘I’ get there, and says absolutely nothing about Jesus, what he’s done, and what he’ll be doing in Heaven. Or perhaps I’m just being a bit harsh.

Photo: Lizzie Freear

3. Thou shalt not take thy grasp of English grammar in vain

A very simple one, which will prevent disasters like this:

Saviour, since of Zion’s city I through grace a member am

as written by John Newton in Glorious things of thee are spoken. Amazing Grace, John Newton wrote. No idea I had that like Yoda he could speak.

4. Remember correct theology and keep it holy

It’s one thing for countless hymnists to mistakenly believe that Jesus was born during a snowstorm, but it surely can’t be that hard for them to get more important facts straight. For example, James Montgomery writes in Lord teach us how to pray aright: “Faith is the only sacrifice that can for sin atone”.

No. Christ is the only sacrifice that can for sin atone. Faith is a gift of God (“So no man may boast” — Ephesians 2:8).

A more egregious example is Jesus in the Garden, an embarrassingly agnostic hymn we sang at school that managed to completely miss out the resurrection and leap straight to a Holy Spirit-free Pentecost. It confused me, then a young heathen, no end.

5. Honour thy congregation and do not subject them to endless action songs

I’m very fond of We want to see Jesus lifted high and actually have a warped sense of pride that I know the actions to Shine, Jesus, Shine. That said, I’m sure subjecting a congregation to an endless rendition of either of these surely contradicts the Geneva Convention. Funnily enough, many people worship in many different ways and Who’s the King of the Jungle? might not be the most heartfelt worship song for some people. Let us not even mention Great, Great, Brill, Brill.

Photo: Lizzie Freear

6. Thou shalt not murder a decent hymn

This goes both for modernisations, and for singing There is a Green Hill Far Away in a jolly staccato.

7. Thou shalt not write hymns that could be taken in a kinky fashion

As I’m sure most Christis readers are pure as the driven snow, I won’t go too much into this, but I will offer this example, which had us childishly sniggering at school, from When I needed a neighbour.

I was cold, I was naked, were you there, were you there? I was cold, I was naked, were you there?

Think about it. The speaker was cold, naked, and can’t remember who was present at the time. Two words: stag night.

8. Thou shalt not steal tunes from elsewhere

God the saviour Can he fix us? God the saviour Yes, he can!

Actually, I just made that up. However, I have known churches to sing songs to the tune of Michael Row the Boat Ashore, The Flintstones, and The Bare Necessities (“I’ve found the bare necessity, that Jesus died to rescue me”). I think what bothers me most is the belief that we’re acting as trendy counter-culture by doing this. I was never more relieved than when I discovered that Smells like Holy Spirit was a spoof.

9. Thou shalt not sing false testimony

My heart’s one desire is to be holy
Every prayer I make is a prayer of faith
I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom.

It’s at times like this, I feel it’s prudent to be “quick to listen and slow to speak” (James 1:19).

10. Thou shalt covet the ability to write decently

Enough said.

But seriously…

I rather like Tim Hughes and might even forgive Graham Kendrick one of these days. Matt Redman also isn’t to blame for the immense popularity and misuse of Heart of Worship.

As I think about all these much-loved and much-hated songs, I realise that it’s important for us to actually realise what worship is — and it isn’t just singing a rousing chorus of “Na na na na na na, hey!” It’s honouring, glorifying, and praising God, and the moment we take that seriously, I’m sure our music will follow.

Helen Bourne