LCMS Approves 100 "Worship / Praise" Songs
In 2006, the LCMS through the Commission on Worship published its new hymnal Lutheran Service Book. Now it looks they have moved on to a new project – reviewing “worship and praise songs” for use in LCMS churches. According to a Reporter (official LCMS newspaper) article, 100 “worship and praise songs” have successfully made their way through the Synod’s doctrinal review process (13 of them appear in LSB or earlier publications). And more are on the way. In the future these songs will be sorted based on the church year.
And what are these 100 songs? The list has yet to be released — it isn’t on the Commission of Worship’s website. Evidently, they used CCLI data from LCMS churches to determine frequently used songs. I am interested to see what songs made the cut of the Synodical reviewers — what do these songs proclaim?
What bothers me about many “praise and worship” songs is what they often don’t say rather than what they do say. In particular, I recently reviewed a list of these types of songs to be used in a worship setting — out of the list of a dozen or so songs, Christ was mentioned once or twice directly, and a couple more times as indirect assumptions. Many tread lightly on sin and focus on the theology of glory rather than the theology of the cross. In comparison, I can randomly page through LSB and Christ and what He has done and continues to do for us is seen page after page. I assume there are some “praise and worship” songs that also do this, but these are not the norm from what I’ve seen.
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3 Responses to “LCMS Approves 100 "Worship / Praise" Songs”
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Did you, in your study of praise songs, find any that were truly worthy, or simply ones you could live with?
I hear people speaking highly of some of them, but never by name, and never quoting me any texts. So I wonder if they’re songs that really do the work of hymns, or simply songs that ‘do no real harm.’ Do they add content, or just tickle the ears and tug at the hearts, without mucking up the nature of a divine service?
And do you think that’s a good enough reason to include them? Or am I simply missing out on an entire worthy genre, because of my stiff-necked, stubborn nature?
Susan . . . I would generally say that most of the praise songs don’t match the quality of a good hymn. A few of them I could live with — but they’re not memorable enough for me to even remember their names.
The number one song from the latest CCLI survey is “How Great Is Our God” by Chris Tomlin. Here’s a video of this song sung by the writer.
If you look at the lyrics, you’ll notice that the text focuses strictly on the glory of God. It constantly tells us that God is great. Yet it doesn’t tell us why God is so great (e.g., the suffering Savior dying for our sins). I think this is typical of many of the praise songs.
Ok. I watched and listened.
It’s got a lifespan of maybe 2 years. One year as a hit, another as a golden oldie.
Exactly what I suspected.