The Bible is clear on the importance of believers meeting together to exhort each other in the faith, teach the “fear and admonition of the Lord,” and praise and worship together. In fact, other Christians are part of God’s spiritual strategy for victory in the life of His people. But Sundays can be complex for many reasons – including the worship.
Worship means many things to many different people, but the Bible is clear about what worship is in God’s eyes: The ministry of gratitude through sacrifice to Him.
People from all walks of life come together on a Sunday at church. People with different backgrounds, different preferences and styles, different cultures, and even different beliefs about what the Bible says may attend the same church, and those differences can be woven together as part of a beautiful, complicated tapestry of faith—or cause division, strife, and resentment.
The greatest desire of the Adversary is to be worshipped, but if he cannot lure Christians away to worship him, the next best thing is to infiltrate the praise and worship that belongs to the Lord and to twist, abuse, corrupt, and redirect worship to deceive God’s people into worshipping anything else other than God.
Before Sunday Comes, Worship Begins.
Great worship leaders are a great thing to have, but even the best worship leader can’t force an unwilling person to praise the Lord from their heart. On the flip side, even the worst worship leader can’t ruin your praise if what’s in your heart is truly centered on the Lord.
Sundays are a day of corporate gathering for believers to come together and to continue to grow together as the body of Christ for:
- Exhortation and encouragement: “Exhort one another…” (Hebrews 10:25, MEV)
- Instruction and wisdom: “…teach and admonish one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (Colossians 3:16)
- Worship in Spirit and Truth: When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.” (1 Cor. 14:26 ESV)
- Fellowship: “…they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42 ESV)
- Testimony: “I will tell of Your name to my brethren; In the midst of the assembly, I will praise You.” (Psalm 22:22 KJV)
But before Sunday comes, worship should already be a daily devotion because worship is a heart condition, a sacrifice of grateful ministry to the Lord, and worship is a lifestyle. Anyone who is truly grateful to the Lord doesn’t wait until Sunday to say, “Thank You.”
Sundays can be a struggle for some people because music is so personal and is often chosen by worship leaders who pull from their own generation, their own perspectives and preferences and personal walk with the Lord, and, in all reality, who can’t please everyone all the time.
So, what really matters when it comes to the songs that are sung in church on a Sunday?
3 “Matters” When it Comes to Worship in Church on Sundays
While there isn’t necessarily a “right” or “wrong” way to praise and worship the Lord, there is a Biblical way. There is the way God Himself expressed His desire for worship. There is God’s due order for how believers interact with God’s presence in praise and worship.
All believers can (and should!) worship the Lord at any time without qualification or condition, but when it matters to you to truly honor the Lord, it is time to dig into the Word and find out what matters to Him.
1) Lifestyle Matters
In Exodus 32, after the Hebrews had implored Aaron to craft a golden calf for them to worship, they “corrupted themselves” and were “in a frenzy…causing derision from their enemies…” Moses stood for the holiness of God and cried out, “Whoever is on the Lord’s side, come to me.” And all the Levites gathered themselves together around him.” (NIV)
Only the tribe of Levi—one-twelfth of the entire nation of Israel, God’s chosen people—stood for the Lord with Moses on that day, and it cost them dearly to do so. They were then tasked with destroying 3,000 of their brothers who had been complicit in the idolatry of worship.
Later, in Numbers 8, the Lord rewards that unwavering commitment of loyalty and personal sacrifice by eternally setting apart the tribe of Levi to care for, steward, and make holy sacrifices in His presence. Every Levite had to be:
- Loyal
- Committed
- Teachable
- Excellent
- Pure
Before the Levites could begin their public ministry, they were required to go through a specific, voluntary cleansing ceremony (See Numbers 8:5-7). The process included sprinkling, shaving their flesh, and washing their garments, which represented:
- The acceptance of an anointed calling
- The removal of sin
- A cleansing to righteousness
Those same requirements of the Levitical priesthood back then are reflected in the New Covenant today, especially for worship leaders (although there has always been tension between charisma and character on worship teams).
When it comes to choosing what songs are sung in church on a Sunday “in the congregation”, the lives of worship team leadership must reflect God’s standard and the songs they choose for congregation worship will reflect that standard.
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2) Theology Matters
In Colossians 3:16, Paul writes that believers are to “teach” and “admonish” each other “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” (MEV)
Ephesians 5:18-20 (MEV) says, “…be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Give thanks always for all things to God…”
“Psalms,” “Hymns,” and “Spiritual songs” refer to where praise and worship songs originate:
- Psalms: These are songs taken directly from God’s Word
- Hymns: These are songs written based on principles and accounts from God’s Word
- Spiritual songs: These are spontaneous songs of gratitude written from within the spirit of a believer, a “new song” (Psalm 40:3), often in private worship
Throughout history, psalms and hymns were how people learned theology, singing encouragement, exhortation, recounting verses, and more. Singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are all faith-building strategies that come from a corporate Sunday gathering, but at no time should any song sung in a church service ever contradict the Word of God—yet many do. It matters.
The drift from solid theology in “worship” songs to hyped up, me-centered songs filled with skewed theologies, wordy storytelling, personal empowerment declarations, an overemphasis on God’s benefits instead of on God Himself, and even lyrics that contradict God’s Word or present extra-Biblical concepts and Scripturally shallow ideas are all part of Satan’s strategy to derail the church through worship that belongs to the Lord.
Idolatry in worship is easy to slip into, hard to recognize, and almost impossible to remedy in church worship leadership without separating and removing all those caught in it—as Moses and the Levites once did to uphold the honor and glory of God. This is why God set out a standard in Numbers 8 for worship leadership. The worship and praise of the Lord truly matters.
3) Focus Matters
Singing “to each other,” as Paul said, is a “horizontal” form of praise where faith arises as Scriptures are sung, and testimonies are sung to encourage and exhort with gratitude to the Lord. “Vertical” worship is sung directly to the Lord. Both matter when songs are sung on a Sunday at church.
When examining a song sung in church on a Sunday, the best question to ask is: “Who is specifically being sung about here?”
If the proportions are too much “me” and not enough “Him,” it’s time to make a different selection. Even if the worship leader or worshippers themselves personally enjoy a song, it’s not always appropriate for a Sunday.
Many good songs focus too heavily on the story rather than on the One who wrote the story—they may make you feel seen, heard, and healed, but they’re not worship. Many songs sung on a Sunday have lyrics that are so convoluted it’s impossible to tell they’re speaking about Jesus at all. Others aren’t even worshipping the Lord but are instead presenting the personal thoughts of the writer as Biblical truths.
This matters because there is a difference between private and public worship. Some songs are powerful because they grew out of a personal time of deep worship, but they may not be appropriate for a Sunday morning corporate gathering. On Sundays, it’s time to remain focused on Biblical, publicly appropriate, faith-focused praise and worship to the Lord, and leave the long, wordy, interpretive, questioning songs for private devotional times.
Singing with Melody in Your Heart
Worship leaders have a tough job. A true worshipper who leads from the stage will seek the Lord about which songs to choose. They will seek to discern God’s leading and then lead by example. They will analyze lyrics according to Scripture. They will hold themselves to the standards of musical excellence, godly leadership, commitment to the church, and a personal lifestyle of worship and praise.
It matters that a worship leader is Scripturally solid because the songs they choose will be, too, and the people who sing those songs will be influenced and directed in how they grow in their faith through those songs. It matters that songs on a Sunday are singable for seasoned Christians and unsaved visitors alike. It matters that songs sung on a Sunday are rooted firmly in God’s Word. It matters that there is “more of Him” and “less of me” in the lyrics. It matters that psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are given emphasis over trends in Christian, God-themed music.
It doesn’t matter whether songs are old or new. It doesn’t matter that the best instruments are available each Sunday. It doesn’t matter if there is one person or 50 on the stage. It doesn’t matter if the songs are fast or slow. It doesn’t matter how poetic the lyrics are. No other words but God’s have any true power anyway.
The songs that are sung in church on a Sunday have a lot of “matters” that need to be addressed by a worship leader, and it matters to the worshippers who are being led—but the biggest thing that matters is that God’s people focus, first, on the ministry of gratitude to Him in their praise and worship.
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Alicia Purdy holds an M.A. in Journalism from Regent University. She is a worship leader at her local church and the author of “The Way of the Worshipper: Connecting with Spirit of God Through Restoring Intimacy, Purpose, and Understanding in Worship”. Alicia publishes www.TheWayoftheWorshipper.com, a devotional Bible study blog focused on the power of praise and worship that offers free printables, study materials, teachings, books, and other resources for individuals, groups, and churches to gain revelation, insight, and understanding from God’s Word about praise and worship.