Once Again, Critiquing the Most Popular Praise and Worship Songs
It's been three years since I first reviewed the most popular worship songs heard in church. This was a critique I planned on writing annually (Christian Copyright Licensing International releases their top 100 list every 6 months). But when 2017 rolled around, I looked at CCLI's top ten songs and saw that the list was almost exactly the same as the year before. Some of those songs are still in the top twenty even now, but I think the list has changed enough (and enough time has passed) that I'm able to do my review afresh. Why is this important? Because the Bible says, "Test everything; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). The doctrine in even the songs that we sing must be as sound as the preaching. I'm going to examine not only the theology in the lyrics of these songs but also of the artists who sing them. If you wanted to enjoy these songs in the privacy of your home or singing along with them on the radio, that would be one thing. But ...