Question:
Discuss about theology of Worship Song and explanation of the Worship Song and doctrines relevant to the Theology of the Worship Song?
Answer:
Introduction
‘We believe in God the Father’ is one of the best lyrics of Graham Kendrick from his album “Make Way for The King of Kings – A Carnival of Praise.” The song recorded in the year 1986 and had become one of the most loved worship songs for the modern generation. Graham Kendrick, the author of the song is referred to as ‘father of modern worship music’, as his songs comprise of truths from the bible, divine thoughts and the poetic elements. His songs capture the hearts of common people thereby imbibing within them the love for God (Make Way Music, 2015; Finder dj Music dan Video, 2015).
Discussion
Theology of Worship Song
The field of study that gives a clear conceptualisation of God is elaborated as Theology and the words that reflect the perception of the God at the time of worship is refers to Worship Song. The worship song preferred by an individual gives a clear depiction of his perception of God in relation to their belief, trust, and faith. The texts used in the worship songs denotes “a way of seeing and articulating what has been apprehended as God’s act” (Steele, 2013; pp. 82). The worship songs also referred to as the hymns, which considered being a unifying element that brings the Body of Christ i.e. all the followers of Christianity of a church together. It also confirms the aspect that the beliefs of an individual along with their understandings and actions result in accordance of God willingness. The words of the songs provide a wide opportunity related to the professional expression of one’s own practices as well as beliefs, thereby acting as theological attributes of the world. The worship songs or the hymns is a dynamic process as songs go on releasing one after the other with the passage of time and never has an end. The newer hymns, the faith, and belief of the individuals tend to get stronger. These worships songs also offer the people with diverse knowledge of the doctrines and the themes of theology, which are rarely heard in any discussion (Steele, 2013).
Explanation of the Worship Song
The song ‘We believe in God the Father’ of Graham Kendrick gives a hint of the belief that every individual should have on God, his or her Saviour. The reasons for the belief are that he is the Maker of the Universe, and sent his son to the Earth for protecting the humankind from evils and harms. God sacrificed his life and faced the pain of crucifixion to free the individuals of their sins. The song provided a clear explanation of the aspect of ‘gifts of power’ and glory that the saviour had sent to the earth in the form of the words of truth spoken by Jesus Christ. These beliefs and the practices, therefore, enables the believers to lead a life free of sins and give them the power to confess the mistakes done by them at some or the other points of time. The theological aspect of the worship song that is arousing the belief of God within the human minds is getting clearly reflected from this song of Graham Kendrick (Kendrick 2016; Castle 2005).
Doctrines relevant to the Theology of the Worship Song
A wide range of Christianity doctrines also comprises in this particular worship song of Graham Kendrick, as it gives a clear understanding of the theologies. The foremost important doctrine, which identified to be the foundation of this song, is the Doctrine of Justification. This doctrine helps in making a complete evaluation of the sacrifices made by the saviour of humankind, Jesus Christ and the painful death that he had accepted for the salvation of the humankind. This song also clearly denotes this aspect from its initial lines itself, which gives an apparent concept of the way Jesus bore the sins of the mankind with the cross during the time of his death even without having done any throughout his life. Two other doctrines that connected with the Doctrine of Justification are the Doctrine of Salvation along with the Doctrine of Sin. All these doctrines have a relationship with the nature of sin created by the people and its results. The grave nature of the sin that the people perform in their lifetime is clearly been evident from the pain and the sufferings that Christ had to face at the time of his death. Therefore, it can be understood considering all the three doctrines, the Christian theology is presented in the song ‘We believe in God the Father’ with due consideration (Burge & Lauber, 2014; Haywood 2009).
Another very significant doctrine of Christianity that has been depicted in this song is the Doctrine of Trinity, which reflected that God plays the role of three persons at one point in time and they are a father, son, and the Holy Spirit. Additionally, although they are much different in from one another, but possesses Godliness at all aspects and this why the baptism of every individual takes place on their names. This doctrine entailing the three entities of God comprises of the creation, redemption, and the sustenance of the entire humankind and this has been clearly depicted as per the song (Bower 2003). All the doctrines as discussed above produces a clear image of the theologies of worship song from the perspectives of the father of modern worship music, Graham Kendrick as it has been portrayed in the song ‘We believe in God the Father’.
Conclusion
The above discussion, therefore, helped in properly analysing the theology of a worship song. The famous author of the worship songs was selected along with one of his well-known works, ‘We believe in God the Father’ in order to reflect its theology as well as for deriving an effective understanding of the doctrines of Christianity relevant to the same. The effect that these worship songs have on the minds of the individuals along with its impact on increasing the belief on the almighty has also been portrayed in this essay on the theology of the worship songs.
References
Bower, P C 2003, The companion to the book of common worship, Geneva Press, Kentucky.
Burge, G M & Lauber, D 2014, Theology questions everyone asks: Christian faith in plain language, InterVarsity Press, USA.
Castle, B 2005, The power and potential of hymns. Church of England Readers, pp. 1-3.
Finder dj Music dan Video 2015, Graham Kendrick – We Believe (with lyrics) from The Very Best of Graham Kendrick, Azkazone, viewed 30 January 2016, <http://stafa.azkazone.com/yt/8OhjvKHNKb0>.
Haywood, M 2009, A theology of worship, Bethlehem Baptist, pp. 1-5.
Kendrick, G 2016, We Believe, Worship Songs of the Vineyard #09, viewed 30 January 2016, <http://www.worship.co.za/wsv/wsv-0906.asp>.
Make Way Music 2015, Graham Kendrick Biography, About Graham Kendrick, viewed 30 January 2016, <http://www.grahamkendrick.co.uk/about/graham-kendrick-biography>.
Steele, E 2013, Theological themes in contemporary hymnody’, JBTM, pp 82-92.
