Sometimes, worship songs are used in ways other than their original text’s intended purpose. There are hundreds of ways this can occur, but mainly wish to concentrate on the amazingly common occurrence where worship leaders attempt to use a worship tune in a manner other than its original intent. In other words, there may be no apparent intention on the part of the worship leader using the song other than for worship. Such instances are referred to as “free worship”, “free usage” or “unplanned”. In many situations, this may result in the worship leader losing their tune with their congregation and causing an ineffective worship meeting.
In most established monastic and Catholic churches, the use of regular worship songs by local worship leaders is seen as perfectly acceptable, especially for worship vocals. A common practice is for the leader to begin or conclude the worship with a hymn, which is then sung by the rest of the congregation. This has obvious advantages over liturgical colors, hymns, and instrumental worship songs. For instance, it avoids the “I am taken for granted” dilemma many congregations have experienced when worship songs are used and sung during the worship service. Moreover, it avoids the “blah” effect liturgy music can have on some people.
Let’s take a look at one of the most well known and well practiced worship songs – Mary, Lover of All Faith. The lyrics speak of the Virgin Mary, her child, and her constant companionship with Jesus the Christ. At first verse one can almost feel the presence of Jesus as he reads from the Bible. Then after the chorus, we are introduced to a more detailed description of Mary and Jesus in life. Verses three and four describe the life of Jesus in detail as recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke.
We have all heard, read, or heard youth group worship songs, but what do we make of the verses written in a young age group song? One could write an entire book on the subject, especially worship drumming. The verses in this particular song give us another view of Jesus. The children sang the words as a description of the life of Jesus, not as a summary of that life.
There was a time when there were not enough nursery rhymes and music to accompany the Nursery rhymes so churches created their own worship songs or sang them as they sang other songs at the time. Children sang songs to encourage one another and to teach them to love God. Some of these songs are still used today and can be found on the Internet. If you go to your church website, you will probably find these songs or others like them.
It seems that today we are told to “live and let live” and yet we find that some of the commandments of God end up in the “live and let live” category. We are also told that we should not worship publicly or testify publicly before God in worship services. We are also commanded not to bear our testimony publicly before God. It seems we are commanded not to tell of His glory, not to praise Him, and certainly not to discuss Him with fellow men.
Some Christians have tried to follow the command of Jesus by using their own testimonies in worship songs, especially Christian songs, Worship Bass Lessons Online and Worship Chords Piano. Some Christian songs have testimonies attached to them; however it seems they don’t get as much worship as they expected. Sometimes they end up being used for praise only. Many people feel a testimony is a personal relationship between God and the Christian, though He has given no testimony. Some have tried putting testimonies together that portray Christ’s character in a positive light, yet that doesn’t portray the personal relationship that the rest of the Word says Jesus had with His disciples.
A great way to improve the quality of your worship songs is to learn how to play them on your worship guitar. You will quickly see the difference. When you know how to play easy christian songs for guitar, you will be able to easily and seamlessly share your message to the entire congregation. If you don’t want to start learning how to play your own worship songs just purchase a good CD set of contemporary worship songs. There are several very popular ones available.