You Are No Fun You Are a Song I Never Want to Hear Again

10 Worship Songs I'd Exist Fine with Never Singing Once more (And Why)

Crosswalk.com Contributing Writer
2021 ii Aug

10 Worship Songs I'd Be Fine with Never Singing Again (And Why)

If y'all're reading this piece (and you manifestly are), it's probably for 1 of two reasons: 1) to see if your favorite worship song is on this listing, or 2) to see if your least favorite worship song is on this list.

Music (and maybe specially worship music, due to its personal, participatory nature) is a very individualized preference. What I "similar" or even love may well be a song you'd exist fine never to hear (let alone sing) again... and vice versa.

Just I'm reminded of the story of a pastor whose congregant commented to him after the Sunday service that he hadn't liked the music that morn. The pastor replied, "Oh, what don't you lot think the Lord liked nearly it?"

I'one thousand going to put on my worship leader hat here and say that worship songs are not near what we like or don't like. Worship music at its best should be an accurate reflection of who God is and an attainable tool for His worshipers to use to assert that truth. Worship songs should likewise describe u.s.a. closer to God and to the forcefulness, confidence, comfort, and counsel He provides. A song that does not do these things may exist a perfectly "likable" song. It may be fine to mind to on the radio or sing in the shower. But it might exist best left to those venues and kept out of the sanctuary on Sunday morning.

From my worshiper's and worship leader's middle (and with full admission that these are my personal opinions), here are 10 worship songs I'd exist fine not to see on the Powerpoint screen again.

1. I Could Sing of Your Love Forever

Slide 1 of 10

(Words and music by Martin Smith)

When I hear this song, I tin never stop myself from thinking, "And with this song, nosotros very virtually DO sing about information technology forever." But the repetitive chorus doesn't bother me merely considering I find it boring. It bothers me because of a troubling characteristic of some worship songs: they're light on truth and heavy on repetition.

Used wisely, repetition in worship music is a valuable and crucial asset. Members of a congregation simply do not worship fully when they don't know what's coming adjacent. If they're constantly trying to figure out how a song flows, they're always going to hold something back—and that something is rightly the property of God. They're going to clutch passion and and praise tightly to themselves. But when a song relies also heavily on repetition, information technology does so at the expense of truth about the 1 we are worshiping. Rather than sing seemingly forever almost how we could sing about God's love forever, I'd rather sing about specific aspects of God's dearest. That list really could proceed forever.

Photograph courtesy: ©Unsplash/TylerNix
two. Trading My Sorrows

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(Words and music past Darrell Evans)

Church can exist a hard place to exist when you're in pain—physical, emotional, or otherwise. And when we sing lyrics like, "I'yard trading my sorrows, I'grand trading my hurting, I'yard laying them down for the joy of the Lord… I'm trading them all for the joy of the Lord," nosotros can get the idea that replacing sorrow or pain with joy is supposed to be a uncomplicated swap. When it isn't, we tin can feel aback or alienated, neither of which is the objective of worship.

I also fear that this song (which I like in so many other ways) sends the bulletin that sorrow and joy are mutually sectional in the life of the laic—that yous cannot have ane if yous have the other. Yet most of the Christian life is lived with ane human foot in sorrow and the other foot in joy. This is life on this earth, and our worship—including the songs we sing during it—should be faithful to that reality.

Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/SplashofPhotography
3. How He Loves

Slide 3 of 10

(Words and music past John Mark McMillan)

The worship team I'thousand blessed to exist function of at my church has a few keywords we toss around when we're choosing songs, and "singability" is 1 of them. If a song is not singable for the boilerplate person on the boilerplate Sun morning, it doesn't thing how pop it is on the radio or how powerful it is when performed by professionals. Our task equally a team is to make the congregation experience secure enough with what we're all singing together that they can get past the mechanics—how does this song go? what are the lyrics? how fast is information technology? how practise the words fit with the notes?—and get to the main thing: adoring, praising, and shouting the fame of The Swell I AM.

"How He Loves" fails the singability examination for me. The constantly syncopated rhythms are hard to experience. Vocally, the chorus makes a giant bound upward an octave's worth of notes, which ways that at some point, the melody line is going to exist in an uncomfortable range for someone... probably for several someones. That's also many mechanics and too piddling of the primary thing.

Photo courtesy: ©Pexels/SwapnilDeshpandey
4. Astonishing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)

Slide four of 10

(Words and music by Chris Tomlin and Louie Giglio)

My teenage daughters and I have a running joke that there are certain songs we don't like hearing on the radio considering we can't sing forth with them. These are usually performed by a vocalizer with a two-octave range (usually a male person tenor) that no regular person possesses. "Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone)" is one such song. The melody line spans a full 12 notes, whereas nigh people standing in worship accept a vocal comfort zone of about six.

Worshipers have an most paralyzing fear of looking or sounding foolish. And so if the song they're beingness asked to sing makes them experience like that'southward a possibility, they're not going to sing it. This defeats the purpose of corporate worship, which is supposed to be a participatory experience, non a performance.

Photo courtesy: Pexels.com
5. Forever

Slide 5 of 10

(Words and music by Chris Tomlin)

Worship—in all its forms—is non most us. It is nearly God and reorienting ourselves toward Him. It is a sacred task and not to be taken lightly. The tools we employ to worship God should be equally honed and useful as possible.

Enter, again, songs with excessive repetition and a melodic line that leaps out of the range of most normal people, as is the case with "Forever." At that place are sharper tools in the worship kit than this.

Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/qingwa
6. Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)

Slide 6 of ten

(Words and music by Joel Houston, Matt Crocker, and Salomon Ligthelm)

Awhile back, our worship team tried to work this song up to teach to the congregation, just nosotros could never quite get information technology to fly. At present I think maybe God was keeping us from getting it ready considering He saw what we'd missed: this is not an accessible song for the average worshiper.

A mature, lifelong believer may exist able to understand truth about God cloaked in Oceans' imagery and poesy (interspersed with lyric placeholders like "oh" and "yep… another pet peeve), but those new to the faith and those withal seeking religion are probable to exist left behind. And this is a problem, because worship should bring us aslope each other.

Photo courtesy: Unsplash.com
seven. Good, Good Father

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(Words and music by Anthony Brown and Pat Barrett)

This is some other song where lyrics are repeated at the expense of communication of deeper truths about God. Repetition can exist used effectively for emphasis, merely here it feels used to excess. Rather than sing "it's who you are" and "it's who I am" over and over, I'd rather sing specifically nearly who God is and who I am in His love-driven sight.

Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/artphotoclub
viii. We Autumn Down

Slide eight of ten

(Words and music by Chris Tomlin)

As a worship squad member, I want worship to draw in those who oasis't grown up in the church. I want our songs to increase their understanding of Abba. I don't see that happening in this song.

Fifty-fifty if an unbeliever or new believer can get by the rather unsettling image of falling down, they're probable to trip up subsequently on the repeated "nosotros cry holy, holy, holy (holy, holy holy)." God is surely holy, just what does that hateful to an inexperienced worshiper? There are other specific aspects of God'south holiness that nosotros could be crying out about.

Photo courtesy: ©Thinkstock/Arrangements-Photography
nine. Describe Me Close

Slide 9 of ten

(Words and music past Kelly Carpenter)

We sang this vocal in church concluding Lord's day. I loved singing it. I felt the intensity and yearning of it. But this song disturbs me, because it makes a liar of me every time with these four words: "You're all I desire." I feel like a fraud when I sing this phrase, because it simply isn't true. God is not all I want. I know He should be, but He isn't. At that place are and then many other things I want, too.

I promise we proceed using this song in worship at our church building. But if we exercise, I'll need to sing information technology equally a plea for what I want God to make truthful rather than a announcement of what already is true.

Photo courtesy: Unsplash.com
10. Mighty to Save

Slide 10 of 10

(Words and music by Reuben Morgan and Ben Fielding)

Honestly, I'yard cringing even to put this song on this list. It's actually 1 of my favorites. I nevertheless retrieve the first time we sang it in worship at my home church building. I loved it then, and I mostly love information technology yet. Merely I can never quite become past a few lyrics that hold me back. Take, for instance, "Everyone needs a savior." I don't believe anybody needs a savior; I think everyone needs THE Savior. Lowercase-"s" saviors come pretty cheap, but the only Savior who tin can truly save came at dandy price.

I'm also uncomfortable with the line, "And so accept me equally you find me." It feels as well condescending, too irreverent, as if nosotros're ordering God around. I'd be a more than fervent fan of this song if these lyrics simply read, "You take me every bit you find me." Which is true... thank you exist to God that He does take us as He finds us, though He never leaves united states of america there.

I am in no way suggesting that the ten songs on this list be banned from our contemporary worship services. And for every one song I've listed hither that I'd be fine not to sing again, there are countless more I promise to sing over again and again, until the 24-hour interval when all Christ'southward worshipers sing a new song—the vocal of the Lamb, the song of the redeemed.

"I heard every fauna in heaven and on globe and nether the world and on the ocean and all that is in them, singing, 'To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb, be praise and honor and celebrity and power, for e'er and ever!'" (Revelation v:13)

Elizabeth Spencer is a Midwest married woman of 22 years and mom to two teenage daughters, one a high school freshman and the other a higher freshman. She and her family attend a small land church where she is privileged to serve on worship team and to facilitate women'southward Bible study. When she is not driving her high-school daughter to school or trip the light fantastic toe or volunteering equally a marching band mom, she writes nigh faith, family unit, and food (with some occasional funny thrown in) at www.guiltychocoholicmama.blogspot.com.

Photograph courtesy: Unsplash.com