Song Categories Part 4 - Response–Prayer, Response–To God, Response–To Each Other

We can only do one song every week from one of the Response categories Prayer, To God, and To Each Other which is restrictive because ...

These three categories of Response songs are the easiest to find and there are plenty of great songs out there! We haven’t deliberately tried to balance our song use between these three categories at this point. We just currently reviewed and reduced our play list and in this area. We went from 93 songs to 15 (5 in each category) based on the number of songs we can actually use. The cut hasn’t been an easy one and the five we chose will be presented after the description of each category.

Response – Prayer. Simply a sung prayer. Songs where the major emphasis is prayer and not repentance (another category!) get put in this category. The quality of these sung prayers varies. I’m looking for prayers that are less self-centered and more God and others centered. Another need for balance in filling out songs in this category would be individual and corporate prayers. Clearly individual prayers are more dominate, probably because they are more personal, and because we live in a very individualistic culture. I think community needs more emphasis, so it is also important to have corporate prayers to. This is a great opportunity to expand the prayer vocabulary of the congregation and broaden personal horizons. Questions are try to ask myself are: What kinds of prayers does our congregation need to be praying at this time? – or – What kinds of prayers will help grow our faith? I’m looking for godly prayers that inspire a godly faith. As it turns out in our reduced set list all the prayers are individual prayers. We have more work to do here.

A Song For The Nations
Deanne Rutledge ©1986 Scripture in Song
Open the Eyes of My Heart
2298355 Paul Baloche ©1997 Integrity's Hosanna! Music
Word of God Speak
Bart Millard & Peter Kipley ©2002 Simpleville Music/ASCAP
Your Amazing Love
4010751 JULIE PIEMONTE ©2006 Doulos Publishing (BMI) (Adm. by Music Services).
Take My Life And Let It Be (Classic Hymn)
Frances R Havergal, Wolfgang A Mozart, Public Domain

Response – To God. A vertical song where most or all of the direction of the song is to God and it is not a prayer. What we see in these songs is God ward directed devotion. Many of these songs would be God in the Spotlight songs except our God ward directed devotion to God is the dominate theme of the song and not God’s character and works. In many cases this is a judgment call. We are trying to move towards songs that balance devotion with God’s character and works. Some songs reflecting a corporate expression of devotion would be a nice addition; however, e aren’t quite there yet. Only one of five songs uses “we”.

Jesus, Thank You
©2003 Sovereign Grace Worship (ASCAP)
Offering
Third Day - Bradley Avery Mark Lee David Carr Tai Anderson Mac Powell ©2003 EMI Christian Music Group
Who Am I
4196651 Mark Hall ©2003 SWECS Music and Club Zoo Music (EMI CMG Publishing/BMI)
Worthy Is the Lamb (Thank You for the Cross)
3217555 Darlene Zschech ©2000 Darlene Zschech/Hillsong Publishing
Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee (Classic Hymn)
3404612 Henry Van Dyke, Ludwig Van Beethoven Arr.©1987, Maranatha! Music.

Response – To Each Other. This is a horizontal song where most or all of the direction of the song is to each other. Often we declare our faith together, encourage and challenge each other.

I Cannot Ignore
©2001 Jordan Fowler Dropknee/Prologue Worship
We Want To See Jesus Lifted High
1033408 Doug Horley ©1993 Kingway/ThankYou Music CCLI#1033408
What Kind of Love Is This
3995729 Shawn Craig ©2002 Ariose Music/Praise Song Press
Jesus Paid It All (Update to a Classic Hymn)
Elvina Hall/John T Grape/Alex Nifong © Worshiptogether.com Songs/Six Steps Music(Admin by EMI Christian Music
O The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus (Classic Hymn)
S Trevor Francis, Thomas J Williams, Public Domain


In Part 5 I will look at Communion songs. (Part 3 was Holy Spirt songs.)

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