What if Someone Asks You to Sing a Bogus Worship Song?

We all have our favorite songs that have encouraged us through tough times.

People bring me songs like that and ask if I will put them in a worship set. If the songs are not truly praise or worship, I won’t consider using them. However, I don’t want to hurt those people’s feelings because many times they are emotionally attached to those songs. But if we are going to truly worship God, we need to evaluate whether a song focuses on and blesses Him.

So what do you say to the person who brings you a song that is not really worship or praise of God?

Recognize that the song is important to them or that they hear something in it that resonates with where they are or have been. Ask them to tell you what it is about the song that is meaningful to them.

This is a good time to go through the song words with them gently and ask them to compare the song words to the New Testament. I have a list of scriptures that I show in worship workshops. We compare Christian songs’ words to those scriptures to see if they align. So many times, we find that songs sound spiritual but they don’t truly agree with the truth of who we are as believers according to the New Testament or who God is as we see in the Bible.

If our goal as worship leaders is to truly lead worship and praise of God, then we need to communicate that to the people of the congregation. It should always be done respectfully and with the goal of creating an understanding of who God is and what will bless Him. The words of Hebrews 13:15 provide direction, “Through him them, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name.” (NASB)

We want to praise and thank God for what He’s done, and we want to exalt and adore Him for who He is.