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Can't remember who said it (might have been Brian Doerkson) but I remember one helpful insight on this being a comparison with driving a car. To do that there are some words that you simply have to learn the meaning of, like accelerator. There are others, like crankshaft, that you can pretty much do without unless you're going to get into fixing your car yourself.

Similarly with worship songs - there are certain words and concepts that, whilst unfamiliar to non-churchgoers, simply have to be learnt to understand Christianity. What does 'Jesus has saved me' mean to someone with no church background? Dunno, probably not much. But I'd say you have to learn that concept (!) to understand what being a Christian means.
However, saying: 'I have been justified by faith in the atoning death of Christ and am being perfected through the on-going sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit' is getting a bit more into crankshaft territory, and needs explanation and unpacking if those concepts are going to be used in a worship song IMO. People simply cannot worship if they don't understand what they're singing. They might have a warm and fuzzy feeling singing along to a meaningless lyric, but it ain't worship in my opinion.

Re language that is possibly archaic, there's a few other considerations. Thee and Thine are pretty obvious to their meaning (so there's not the objection of being too technical), but they are giving the message that God is ye olde beardie one in the sky, which is simply untrue and misleading. Using 'thee' instead of 'you' for the sake of a rhyme is just sloppy song-writing.

There are certain words that are marginal - how much do words like 'proclaim' 'exalt' 'magnify' actually get used in everyday language? Not much, but they crop up in worship songs a lot. Not sure that's a good thing, but I'm sure I've used them so I can't complain too much!

Re 'hallowed' (which is where this thread came from) I'm not too sure either way. On the one hand it's not a word in everyday usage and is possibly confusing/misleading, but on the other hand I (like Sim) grew up saying the traditional version of the Lord's prayer so there's all those resonances of years of prayer to draw on. And it's fairly obvious (I think) from the context what it means.

Re modern words in worship songs, I don't think 'Jesus is well safe' is going to last very long as a worship lyric - but if a youth group were corporately writing a worship song for their own use, why not? Andy Flannagan is one worship song-writer who is very good at using modern imagery in his songs to great effect, they feel much more 'rooted' and real for that. Here's an example of a verse of one of his songs:

VERSE 2
Bring home to the homeless
Bring keys to the chained
Bring worth to the purchased
And touch to the shamed
Bring flesh from Your word Lord
Bring truth where there’s spin
Bring risk where there’s safety
And grace where there’s sin

BRIDGE
In the broken
we shall see restored
The image of our King

CHORUS
We are blessed
to bless a world in pieces
We are loved
to love where love is not
We are changed
to be the change You promised
We are freed
to be Your hands O God

There's not many worship songs around that use words like 'purchased' 'homeless' 'spin' 'risk' - but the song is all the better for being very real-world, and not living in wafty-worship-land which is where some of our songs are in danger of straying sometimes.

Could say a lot more on this (!) but will stop now, there's no conclusions here but it is an issue that all of us song-writers need to really grapple with. Fundamentally I think it comes down to the context you're writing for. If you are writing for your local church (which nearly all of us on this board are) then you know the language your church is comfortable and familiar with, and can decide whether the boundaries need to be pushed, and if so in which direction. If you're writing for a wider context I think more consideration needs to be given to appropriate or misleading language, and things probably need to be self-explanatory to a wide range of people.

Good topic Paul, cheers for bringing it up.

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hi paul,

good question this one.

i think whatever language we use it needs to be clear to the majority of people singing it.
ie if we go too contemporary we will lose some older people, too old and we will lose younger people. we just need to make sure what we write is clear. ie in teh song above all by paul baloche, he writes, 'like a rose trampled on the ground' as a metaphor for Jesus dying on the cross. for me this is a great image that everyone can relate to. we should push our lyrics to make them as clear as possible without being boring. the andy flannagan example above is great. i'd also add brian doerksens song 'more than oxygen' which has superb lyrics and modern images that everyone can relate to.

God bless,
Gav.

I'd agree with what Gav and Matt said. I do feel some songs try to be spiritual by forcing spiritual language into the lyrics. Like thee, holy, justified, surrender etc. Those words aren't bad, just when forced aren't good either. I'd say the bottom line isn't the words you use but the heart you write from and the discipline you apply to making your song useful to the church.

Paul, I think you're quite right to assert that the hymn-writers of old didn't think, "What words can I take from 100 years ago, that no-one says now, and use them in a song." I think they simply chose the words which they felt best communicated truth and helped people connect wholeheartedly with that truth in worship.

My original comment in the post about Sim's song was simply to say that I think it's OK to use words that aren't necessarily in common currency IF they are genuinely the best words for the job - i.e. not thrown in to suit a cheap rhyme scheme or to try and sound super-spiritual and intellectual.

In the case of the word "hallowed" - I do feel that it was the right choice. I think it has resonance. I also think it has a different shade of meaning from the word "Holy". "Holy" is an adjective - "hallowed" can be a verb. It's active. Yes, God's name is holy but "to hallow" means to actively revere and acknowledge the holiness.

There are many fine words which have real treasure in their depth and shades of meaning - words which you don't hear every day but which, nevertheless, can communicate great truth. Take the word "bought", for example. Other, less common, words to describe financial transactions include, "purchased", "redeemed" and "ransomed" - all of which have different shades of meaning and give us a slightly different glimpse into the truth behind Christ's work on the cross.

So, I'm certainly not advocating a return to incomprehensible, archaic language. Neither am I recommending that we're only allowed to use contemporary language (whatever that is). I am saying that language is a great gift and a powerful tool. We have a responsibility to use it wisely and thoughtfully.

Right I'm off to write my new song - it's called, "Like in't God, like, just so totally awesome and, like, well cool - innit?!"

Andrew

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Matt, I found the car-part analogy really helpful, but it only applies to the complexity of the word or idea. The "old language" analogy would be still using the names for all the car parts of the original Ford cars...

It's interesting that the general assumption is that language in worship songs is primarily for the churched (and that I think is right). But a good church will have a proportion of people with no church background. We'd probably all agree that sermon content should reflect that. Do you think our song lyrics in general have enough unpacking of ideas in them to be understood by people with no background in Christianity? I'm not suggesting that all our songs should be fully understandable by everyone who comes to church, but that perhaps we should have 1/2 songs that can teach fundimental ideas of grace or the cross in a set. I guess what I'm trying to ask is, should our songs have more of a teaching role?

Gav, as you say, what is understood from the language depends very much on the eye (ear...) of the beholder. That doesn't help hugely if you have a wide age or educational demographic in your church. Which side should you err on? SHould you try for an even mix?

Marc, I agree about the "spritual language" thing. It overlaps a bit with archaic language. I do disagree that "writing from your heart" trumps the words you use, but that's a separate topic. ;)

Andrew, you make some excellent points. Language is a great gift. I'd agree with you on using the best word for for the task.

I guess there are two potential difficulties with older words either being not understood (potentate of time or raising an ebeneezer spring to mind), or being understood, but conveying a meaning that is misleading or innaccurate or lost on current culture (like thee/thou, or even raising an ebenezer once you know what it means!). Part of my day job involves writing for teaching purposes, where writing concisely, simply and clearly are important. Perhaps not always desirable for song lyrics though...

Thanks all. Useful food for thought. Good challenge to think a bit more about my lyrics.

Interesting thread!

If we're reaching out to people with our songs, then it should be in language they understand. If we're reaching out to God then as long as the language is reverent it shouldn't really matter what tongue/dialect/colloquialism is used - it's all the same to Him and He understands not only what's coming from our lips but also more importantly, our hearts. The songs we use (and the words within) are merely the beginning of our worship.

When you have a varied congregation or you're trying to do outreach and upreach simultaneously - then ye are blest, verily I say ;) You can't please all the people all the time, but we do well when we try to please God. Perhaps we can do this by accomodating others at times with our selection of ancient/dated/last year's/hot-off-the-press material.

Would you frown at a kid if he told you "God rocks!"?

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