Worship Leading In The Spotlight

Making Theology of Our Worship Songs a Priority

By Graham Kendrick

Theology is simply the study of God, and everyone who opens their mouth to sing or speak about God inevitably expresses an idea about God—a theology; the question is whether it is a good one or a bad one, a true or a false one. Every song sung in Christian worship has a theology, for better or for worse. Therefore as songwriters and song selectors, our role is that of local theologians.

It is not that our existing songs are full of grievous errors, though issues pop up from time to time. In my view, the pressing issue is one of balance, or rather lack of it. It is about what is missing, the subjects we never sing about because the songs either are not being written, or not being chosen. And it is about the growing dominance of a “default” worship culture that only allows for certain kinds of expression, a limited range of mood and style that edits out certain subject matter. So, why does any of that matter? Here are a few reasons I can identify; though I’m sure there are many more.

God’s Glory
Orthodoxy sounds like a dusty old word, but actually it means “right glory,” in other words representing God as He actually is. In the same way that we are jealous over the reputation of someone we know and love, a large part of worship’s purpose is to lovingly and accurately, richly and comprehensively, describe God’s nature and qualities. What and who we believe God to be has eternal consequences both for His glory and for the eternal destiny of every human being. It is a cosmic battleground. The Bible presents truth as reality, and its opposite, untruth as unreality and deception. Bad theology not only robs God of glory, it can be a dangerous thing on a vast scale, the Crusades of the Middle Ages being just one sobering example.

So if we are to give right glory to God in our songs, we need to pursue the biggest vision of Him we can. My reference Bible lists fourteen descriptive names and titles by which God the Father is revealed, 101 for God the Son and twenty-three for the Holy Spirit, each one a window to seeing more of who we worship and why. Worship is a response and will grow or shrink in direct proportion to our view of its object.

Numerous songs enable us to worship Jesus as a savior and friend, but how many enable us to worship Him as judge, heir of all things, or in the context of His hometown humanity, as the Nazarene? We are not short of songs about Christ’s crucifixion, but there is not so much available concerned with His existence with the Father and the Holy Spirit before the world was created or after His ascension or how the world might look under His future Kingship. 

Therefore, we need a balance of right theology, right glory, and right songs which accurately express right ideas and concepts about the great God we serve so that we may offer our Heavenly Father worship that is pleasing as well as aright - and that enables the people we serve to do the same.