I found this article from the Resurgence interesting and not just because I grew up in a Reformed community. There was real insight here for today’s church and worship leaders. Hope it speaks to you as well.
Interviewer:
Donald Zimmerman (Living Stones – Reno, NV)
Interviewees:
Joel Brown (Mars Hill – Seattle, WA)
Matt Stevens (Vintage 21 – Raleigh, NC)
Josh Dix (The Journey – St. Louis, MO)
Michael Bleecker (The Village – Dallas, TX)
Aaron Spiro (SOMA – Tacoma, WA)
This is the first of a four-part interview with several worship pastors…
Zimmerman:
How does reformed theology shape how you do worship? What are you looking for in worship song selection?
Bleecker:
The main thing is, are the words Biblical? Number two, does it teach who God is and what He has done? Does it teach about the Gospel? Is it Christ-o-centric? is it Trinitarian? Lastly, do the songs stir my soul to worship God? Have I myself worshiped the Lord in listening to this song?
Spiro:
When we’re songwriting, we write out of the redemptive story and we give a lot of freedom. I won’t say, “write a song about Noah and the ark,” Instead, we ask, “write a song about struggle as you respond to the story of Noah”. You’d be surprised about how much they draw out of it, as opposed to if it were just some book study. We give people questions of theology, ask them to engage with that, and they come up with amazing art.
Stevens:
We ask: is it accurate, and is it something that we should praise Him for? Our church doesn’t need to be singing about the fact that Jesus’ father was a carpenter, while that is a true statement. We want a complete picture of the Triune God, so that we’re singing of God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, and that we’re covering a vast amount of who God is in the service. We choose songs or write songs based on what we feel the Spirit is leading us through.
Brown:
We’re looking at songs that have a full Biblical viewpoint on a given topic. As we’ve grown, we’ve also begun to see the dangers of having too much of a focus on the cross without the resurrection, too much introspection and reflection on the self and sin. We should never neglect these topics, but when not combined with the rest of the gospel it can become idolatry. Easter has far less purpose and meaning without the Atonement and if the Atonement is the end—well, we don’t have a whole lot of hope.
Dix:
Reformed theology ensures that we’re confronted both with the deep depravity of our nature and the fact that God’s love and mercy are greater. We also watch themes and content, because many songs are either hyper-jubilant or hyper-desperate. Those are not super helpful. We’ve seen that men have a hard time connecting with poppy love songs, especially guys who are just checking out Jesus. Sound theology should remind you as the worship leader that you are not the mediator of people’s worship, Jesus is.
Zimmerman:
How important is personal connection to a song you are going to use for the corporate worship environment? How does a worship pastor keep their finger on the pulse of the community and know what’s going to challenge and resonate with their flock?
Bleecker:
I go back and forth on that. God has placed me as the worship pastor in our church. With that authority and blessing from the Lord, I’m going to be who He’s made me to be. I’m opening up more to other styles—but the end result is that if I’m not worshiping the Lord as I listen to this song, if it does not stir me one bit, if the truth isn’t solid, and if the melody doesn’t match well with that truth, I don’t know why I would lead it at my church. Sometimes we can be really fake as worship leaders. Just because a song is really popular, we’ll ride the wave of popularity instead of internalizing that song, and getting to a place where we can say, “I’m worshiping in Spirit and Truth right now.”
Stevens:
Prayer may seem like an obvious answer, but it’s not something to skim over. Over the years I have felt the Spirit guiding us to sing a certain song and other instances where I felt strongly against a song. Without prayer we can be swayed by what we are enjoying or what we are sick of hearing during a particular season. I also seek the opinions of leaders who have an understanding of the particular goals of our corporate worship. This requires asking what it was they liked or disliked and graciously thanking them for their opinion. It takes time, but their honest critique can be some of the most helpful feedback. Studying the Scripture that will be preached and asking the teaching pastor what the Spirit is leading them to teach will allow you to shape the liturgy to reinforce what God is revealing about Himself.
Finally, I’ve learned a great deal about the way our congregation responds through sitting in the congregation with them while another band leads. This might be difficult for church plants with only one leader, but when the opportunity presents itself, take the chance to be a part of the congregation.
Brown:
There’s no single true way to tell what songs people are ‘responding’ to, but we have a few gauges we use. We watch for the visible and audible response and how well the congregation picks up and sings the song. Also, feedback from trusted leaders and watching to see if a song has done what it was intended to do. Overall, there will be some songs you play that aren’t your favorites, but may bless your people enough that you need to keep doing them.
Zimmerman:
With many of us overseeing multiple worship leaders and locations, how do you guys equip your leaders and determine what songs are used?
Stevens:
Some of my band-leaders choose songs, but they all send them to me. Some leaders are musically strong, but their theology needs to be built up and spoken into.
Dix:
As mentioned earlier, I try to remind our leaders that our theology shows us as worship leaders that we are not the mediator of people’s worship, Jesus is. Many worship leaders don’t actually operate out of that truth. Does our excellence or mistakes impede or assist God’s sovereignty? Does the music have more power than the Spirit? The answer is no. Can we get better at what we do? Yes. Excellence and sovereignty don’t have to be mutually exclusive. We try to wrestle with that tension; God is sovereign but we can still get better at our craft”.
Brown:
In recent history at Mars Hill, we have had a policy that if you are a band in development or a rookie leader, you’re required to stick to a predetermined list for all your sets unless you’re specifically approved to do otherwise. More seasoned leaders who are well trusted are allowed to bring new songs in without approval, but they of course still submit their sets to the Elders of their campus.
Bleecker:
Once we get a new song, we search for what Scriptures inform the song. It can be poetic and not necessarily straight from the Bible and we’ll still do it. On our screens, I put Scriptures on the bottom of the screen. I wrote a song called “In My Place” that says, “In my place he stood condemned, he who knew no sin became sin for us.” For somebody who hasn’t read 2 Corinthians, they’re going, “Oh, he’s being poetic” or “that’s interesting,” but, at the bottom of the slide it has the scripture “He made him to be sin who knew no sin.” I think supporting songs with Scripture is really helpful.
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worship360 and 
Steve240 are discussing. 
Jean, and 
Are you sure you want be relying on what Bob Kauflin is saying? Are you aware of all the problems going on within his organization (Sovereign Grace Ministries). It doesn’t look like SGM has handled this well at all. It was recently revealed that there was a lot of hypocrisy with C.J. Mahaney and that Mahaney blackmailed the group’s cofounder and hid that sin for 13 years.
SGM’s response was to declare Mahaney still qualified. Are you sure you want to use their example?