Short Answer
Worship music should be evaluated with discernment, but not taken to extremes. If a song is biblically sound, it can be used—but if its associations trouble your conscience or cause others to stumble, it’s wise to avoid it. The goal is to worship God clearly, without distraction or unnecessary controversy.
The Overview
Choosing worship music involves both truth and wisdom. The most important factor is the content of the song—whether the lyrics are biblically accurate and honor God. If the message is sound, many believers are comfortable using it for worship, focusing on the truth being expressed rather than the background of the writer or publisher.
However, concerns often arise when songs are connected to groups or individuals with questionable or unbiblical teachings. In such cases, knowledge plays a key role. If people are aware of these associations and it affects their conscience or causes confusion, it can become a distraction from true worship. For church leaders especially, this may require avoiding certain songs to protect the congregation from misunderstanding or stumbling.
At the same time, it is important not to become overly rigid or obsessive. In everyday life, believers interact with a world that is not fully aligned with biblical truth—whether through products, services, or content. It is not possible to completely avoid every indirect connection. Scripture encourages believers to live for God’s glory without becoming consumed by guilt over every association.
The balance, therefore, is practical discernment. Focus on biblical truth, avoid what clearly causes confusion or offense, and don’t go beyond what Scripture requires. Worship should remain centered on God, not distracted by debates over associations or secondary issues.
Key Takeaways
- Prioritize Biblical Truth in Lyrics
The message of the song matters most. - Consider Conscience and Influence
Avoid songs that may cause confusion or stumbling. - Leaders Must Be Especially Careful
They guide what the congregation sings and believes. - Don’t Become Overly Restrictive
Not every indirect association must be avoided. - Keep Worship Focused on God
Avoid distractions that shift attention away from Him.
Transcript
[00:00:01 – 00:01:01] Hi there. It’s actually Kira, but um I’m calling with a question regarding worship music. Um as far as you know, for Christians when we listen to worship music or we’re recommending it to others, uh where we draw the line with discernment on like the bands or um you know, the churches that the music itself is coming out of just so we can kind of you know make sure we’re not um recommending author is you know what publisher music publishers put that out. And so that’s why at least in the modern era, if a
[00:00:32 – 00:01:22] church is keeping the rules the way they’re supposed to, uh there’s going to be some credit given to a song and most people if they’re looking at screens for instance, they’re going to see um who wrote it and what music publishing company puts it out or in a himnil. Think about that. You know, you got the author at the top of the page and you certainly have a publisher at the the front of the hymnbook. Now, that is why this issue comes up because someone’s going to say, “Well, do you know who
[00:00:56 – 00:01:50] publishes that song or do you know who wrote that hymn or do you know where that hymn book, you know, originated? What church or denomination it came from?” And and once you have that knowledge of connection to something, you say, “Oh, that’s heretical. Those people don’t believe in the deity of Christ, or that group is so far out there. They’re trying to, you know, you suck souls out of graves in in central California.” If if that becomes part of your thinking, then there’s no doubt
[00:01:23 – 00:02:06] that that’s ruined for for you if you know that. And if it’s ruined for you if you know that and you’re a worship leader and thinking, “How many of my people know this connection or might know this connection?” Well, then I think you’re going to have to make a decision as a as a worship leader. Say, “I’m not going to put these songs up there because people’s minds are going to go to this connection and maybe this is going to open a door for them going to these churches or thinking that we
[00:01:45 – 00:02:30] endorse these churches and therefore we shouldn’t do it.” Now, here’s the problem. It’s really based on knowledge. It’s like that whole problem in in First Corinthians where Paul’s talking about meat sacrificed to idols, ceremonially sacrificed idols, and now it’s sold in the marketplace. Well, if you didn’t know it, well, then it doesn’t matter, right? But once you know it and your conscience is violated, well, now it matters. And that’s the thing. I could
[00:02:08 – 00:02:59] go through the HIMYM book because of knowledge and just having studied these things. I can show you a lot of these people that became full-blown heretics. Or maybe some of them actually were heretics when they wrote the hymn. And yet they were catchy hymns and they caught on and people love them. They were put in evangelical hymn books and now all of a sudden if you sing it and you don’t know it, nobody cares. But once you know it, now you might care. And the problem with some people today is they love spreading the news of guilt
[00:02:33 – 00:03:25] by association and they’re saying this is a bad hymn because of who wrote it. Now here’s the question that some people have. What does it matter who wrote it if the lyrics themselves are good? Right? And and that really is is the is the debate in churches. Some people are going to say, “I don’t care who published it. I don’t care who wrote it. The lyrics are orthodox. They’re good. They’re biblical and I can worship to it.” And then other people are going to say, “Yeah, but I know the associations
[00:02:59 – 00:03:45] and therefore my, you know, well, they wouldn’t put it this way, but what they’re really saying is my conscience is violated. I don’t want to support that. I don’t want to give money to that. I don’t want to be singing that. I don’t want to see that that that music publisher on on the screen in our church. So, in the end, it won’t take many who have knowledge to basically say, “Yeah, that’s going to put it on the no playlist uh at church.” And that’s just has to happen. And it
[00:03:22 – 00:04:13] happens at our church and that, you know, at the beginning we sang songs, everybody was singing them, but then it’s like, oh, who published this? Oh, what are those people? People are learning about that. Soon as I have 10 or 15 or 20% of the people who are aware of this, surely out of that 20%, probably 5% are massively offended by it and then all of a sudden the worship wars continue. Not with the volume or the beat, but now it’s who published it. And frankly, we just have to get rid of
[00:03:48 – 00:04:38] those songs in our playlist and say we’re not going to sing them because I don’t want anybody to stumble over this. I want them to focus on the Lord. They can’t focus on the Lord and the lyrics. They’re focusing on the publisher. So in that sense, I do think it’s wise for leaders to cretail their singing of songs from people that you’re either heretics or a part of organizations that obviously are not orthodox. And uh that’s very relevant. I know what you’re talking about. I probably know the
[00:04:12 – 00:05:02] groups you’re talking about. And um I would say it’s wise for for people to could just cut that. But here’s what I don’t want to do. I don’t want to look I don’t want to go through my himnil and try and find out every you know every heretic that wrote a hymn. There are a lot of him writers, not a lot, there are a few himmw writers that after they wrote those hymns, they became apostate, right? There are some that claim to be Christ later in their lives. Okay. Well, I don’t want to ruin the hymn book for
[00:04:38 – 00:05:18] you. So, I don’t even think that’s information I want to spread. I don’t even want to get it out there because they’re hymns that you’ve loved and you worship to. So, I don’t want the guy and you know, it’s the kid in school you can always think of always wants to ruin things for everybody. There are people in church like that and I don’t I don’t I don’t like that. I don’t like those kind of people. I don’t like the way they do that. And I’d say don’t become
[00:04:57 – 00:05:49] one of those people. But yes, you probably should give up on songs that are going to be associated with groups that are bad, but let’s not become researchers on every single page of every himnil or every song that’s ever. Well, and it’s not so much um researchers on especially like for himnils because I figure most of those, you know, the artists are passed away. You know, there’s not like a um public uh publication company that’s like making money off of that anymore. I’m
[00:05:23 – 00:06:16] thinking more so like where do we draw the line for like current, you know, music that’s coming out of some of these heretic churches. Okay, we’re not going to sing their music, but then what if they’re writing songs and then we’re seeing the songs by a different artist, but it’s like they’re still given the written credit. It just makes me nervous to then like, well, but I don’t want to like recommend that song to somebody because maybe when they go to YouTube to pull up, you know, this current song, it
[00:05:50 – 00:06:35] will direct them to that other, you know, bad heretic, you know, church band, whatever it might be. I wish wouldn’t I would be careful not to go down that road and and I would say what Paul says, the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. I’m sitting here in front of a camera with a microphone that’s made in Germany. I have no idea what the background is. Maybe this was Hitler’s favorite company. I I’ve just I don’t I mean at some point I’m going to say I’m going to
[00:06:13 – 00:07:02] use my microphone for the glory of God. I’m going to sing songs for the glory of God. And yes, I will cretail the list of songs I sing if it’s causing people to stumble. But I’m not going to sit here and say, “Well, that, you know, 25 cents went to this artist today.” Well, I I’m using a computer and I know that the money I spent on this computer is going to an organization that hates just about everything I stand for as it relates to social issues, but it doesn’t matter.
[00:06:38 – 00:07:32] the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. If I can buy the same computer from a a you know a bunch of pastors that make it, well then sure, great. But that’s not the world we live in. And Paul was clear. You want to go through the meat market and buy your meat, just buy it without asking questions, right? And and that I think is a good way for us to go about our lives in most things. But I can’t do that when people start having that association in their mind and it violates their conscience. But
[00:07:05 – 00:07:57] I’m not going to worry about a few dollars going to a group of publishers or a few, you know, people. I I read newspapers. I read book. I got books all over my office right now. And uh a bunch of them are put out by people that are making money and they hate God. And yet those books are helpful for me to get my mind up to speed on a lot of things so that I can do work for the glory of God. My life needs to be directed to the glory of God. I’m going to consume a lot of things. I’m going to eat at
[00:07:30 – 00:08:28] restaurants that that that are run by atheists or Buddhists or who knows what. But I’m going to do what Paul did, and that is I’m just going to do this and eat or drink to the glory of God myself. And I can’t worry so much about boycotting every single store or every single song that’s got some association or making someone rich that’s not a good person. I just don’t think that’s the right way to go about life. And I think a biblical precedent to to live that way. Does that help?
[00:08:00 – 00:08:48] Yes. In the fact of like can’t can’t control it all, right? We’re here, right? The best of it. Yeah. We’re going to use the world. Yeah. We’re going to use the world and a lot of the stuff we use is going to enrich a lot of people. Uh think about it. Most of the rich people we know of in our culture, right? We we don’t want to hire them to lead our Bible studies. And yet, we’re using things every day that make them rich. And I’m like, “Okay, whatever.” And I remember the
[00:08:24 – 00:09:14] whole Target thing. And I get that. And for a while, I had a hard time walking into Target for my own conscience sake. Well, whatever. Great. I didn’t go to Target, but I didn’t campaign about it. And and and I thought I can go to Walmart or whatever. It’s there are if there are options, take them. And if it helps your conscience, great. Uh but we got to we got to live in this world and we’re going to be separate in in our churches in the sense that we’re going to do things for the glory of God there.
[00:08:49 – 00:09:20] I I can’t come out of the world as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6. I’m going to be in this world and I’m going to have to function in it and buy buy food and buy computers from places that are not god-honoring. I hope that helps. That’s a great question and very very practical.
