SCL

I know exactly what song you are talking about!

In our ____, Lord, be glorified, be glorified. In our _____, Lord, be glorified, today.

Those kind of nearly contentless songs were all the rage in the 70s and 80s, when the Vineyard churches had a bunch of songwriters who knew next to nothing about the Bible. They wrote these kinds of songs that could be sung equally well by a Muslim, Mormon, Jew, etc. My favorite was the one that went,

Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia

Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia
Alleluia, alleluia

Who can argue with that? Plus as a bonus, you could make up more verses in the way you describe, as long as you had four syllables. “I will praise him,” or “Bob is hungry,” or whatever.

I’ve certainly encountered this, but I think my home church is, bless its heart, guilty of the opposite – rigid dependence on structure, virtually preempting any “movement of the Spirit” by ensuring that no spontaneity is possible.

See what I did there? Bless its heart? LOL!

give me wax for my board…keep me surfing for my Lord…give me wax for my board I pray…hallelujah…

I recently learned that this version may have only been sung in so cal…where I grew up…I thought everyone sang it…

Give me oil in my lamp keep it burning burning burning…

I can sing of your love forever
I can sing of your love forevermore
I can sing of your love forever
I can sing of your love forevermore
I can sing of your love forever
I can sing of your love forevermore
I can sing of your love forever
I can sing of your love forevermore
I can sing of your love forever
I can sing of your love forevermore

(you get the idea)

The more I read this blog the more I think we all go to the same church.

At our church, we consider these a form of “7-11″ songs (seven verses, each sung eleven times…)

BWAhahahaha!!!!
I’m a missionary in Mexico to the deaf. One of my tasks is interpreting the Spanish worship songs for them. So, forgive me if this is “non-chirstinan like” and God is worthy of ALL praise, but I hate these types of songs while I’m signing. There is one song in particular that I cring when I have to sign it . . .in English it is:
Holy, you are holy
King of King
Lord of Lords
You are holy . .

worthy, you are worthy . .

etc.

In my six-fo Impala wit the dubs, Lord, be glorified!

Give me hot sauce in my taco
Help me witness in Morocco
Give me hot sauce in my taco
I pray (Hallelujah)
Give me hot sauce in my taco
Help me witness in Morocca
Help me witness
‘Til the break of day
Sing Hosanna, etc.

Lord, lift me up and let me stand
Where the devil can’t do me no harm
Lord, lift me up and let me stand
Where the devil can’t do me no harm
No harm, no harm, no harm
No harm, no harm, no harm
No harm , no harm, no harm
No harm, no harm, no harm
No harm, no harm, no harm
(let’s see, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5… one more)
No harm , no harm, no harm
Where the devil can’t do me no harm.

Those songs bug me a little for one reason:
When a church has more than one singer in a worship ensemble, it is almost inevitable that someone will get mixed up on which word comes next.
I am thinking about the song “Holiness, holiness is what I long for”
I don’t even which word comes next. Is it faithfulness? peacefulness? It’s all too confusing.

I think it’s funny (strange) that sometimes, the “Spirit” is leading only the worship leader with continuously, nonceasingly singing “bottomless lyrics”! Fortunately, our worship leader doesn’t do that (or should I say, the Spirit hasn’t yet led him to do so!)

I think the worst is “Awesome God.” I like it the way Mullins sang it, with actual verses. But I’ve NEVER been to a church that sang those, and only recently found out that there were verses. And churches sing it over, and over, and over, and over….

God is so good. God is so good. God is so good. He’s so good to me.

I love Him so…

He cares for me…

I’ll praise His name…

Satan is bad…

I stubbed my toe…

lol, be glorified was the first song I learned to play on the recorder (and one of the last)

Give me salt for my Frito cause the Lord is really neato…

Give me gas for my Ford, keep me truckin’ for the Lord…

I know the man that wrote “Lord Be Glorified” and we joke about that a lot!

I just about died laughing.. I’ve heard so many variations on those types of songs that I grew to quickly despise them.. IMHO they’re only good if you’re trying to make new/creative verses

i just only got to number 6 and am already laughing out loud. great blog… this will keep me up all night

After about the 20th repetition of “I could sing of your love forever” I used to verrry quietly switch to “We’ve been singing this song for hours.” It drove my holier-than-thou then-husband bonkers. I attend a church with hymnals now.

wv: prent – the few days pre-Lent in which one overindulges in whatever one plans to give up.

I heard this one 50 billion times on a middle school retreat 12 years ago, and have hated it ever since:

Mercy is falling, is falling, is falling
Mercy it falls like the sweet spring rain
Mercy is falling, is falling all over me
Hey-oh! I receive your mercy
Hey-oh! I receive your grace
Hey-oh! I will dance forevermore
Etc., ad nauseam

Not as bottomless as "Be Glorified," but the perpetual "is fallings" and the "hey-ohs" were enough to make my head want to explode. And this was at a stage in my life when I was also listening to the Spice Girls, so that tells you how much musical taste I had.

I've never laughed so much in my whole life…I set about looking for extra verses for "Give me oil in my lamp" and came across this site. You all are a hoot! I've never been to a church where all we've sung is mindless diddies…even tho I know them all. I'm with the one's that have hymnals, but that can be as frustrating. You have more than 600 pages and they only use appx. 100 songs. I don't get it and I get bored. Keep up the good work us Christians need a good laugh now and then. You all made my day.

"Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty" day and night they sang this around his throne. It's not always the poetry or content of the lyrics, but the heart behind them that God honors."

The songs are long and simple, so everyone can sing them no matter the level of singer they are. And after 5 minutes everyone knows the words. Some are very Looooooong though. Too long!

MAD LIBS, BABY!

I totally agree! On so many of the newer songs we keep repeating over and over again.

And of course these are the songs that run never ending in your head throughout the day and the rest of the week. Over and over…and over……………..and over…..

Was watching a televised service recently and I am not lying, the SAME woman sang the SAME worship song for over 20 minutes. I actually left, went to the bathroom and curled my hair, and came back and it was still playing. I could hear it from the bathroom, so I know it lasted the entire time. I mean, I understand having a moment, but seriously. You know when you hear a word over and over and it suddenly takes on a new and humorous sound? By the time it was over, I'd had that 'funny moment' with just about every word in the song and was laughing uproariously.

oh, I see someone already did that one!

I love the perpetual repeat at the end of some songs, not as witty as the song you’re talking ’bout, but effective nonetheless.

man oh man we did that song at my old church growing up alll the time. i formed SAIL (society against inappropriate looping) and everyone thought that was pretty funny. well, most people. not the worship team.

Ha, ha! And is it just me, or is there some kind of unwritten rule that you can repeat the loop three or four times and it feels pretty comfortable, but somewhere around loop five or six (depending on the length of the loop), people start kind of looking out of the corner of their eyes to see if you're still singing or if you're deep into the repeat of the song? And then they start shifting from one foot to the other because who wants to be caught "looping" when the Worship Leader quit, but you missed the sign so you're totally busted and have to cut your loop off mid-word then act like, "It's cool…I'm okay singing my own personal solo here." But on the other hand you don't want to NOT sing because then you're giving off either the vibe that you CAN'T sing or that you're so not into the Spirit of the song like everyone else seems to be that you kind start getting disdainful looks from the people around you because they've been waiting for the church to bust this song out for ever so long. So you cut your song volume down so you're ready for when the song actually ends?

In Brazil, a song with finishless lyric is “God is so good”.

Oh my. You've touched on a guilty, inner pout I feel when the band starts, "Open the Eyes of My Heart, Lord". While I like the groovey idea of having open, blinking eyes in my heart, I do not enjoy singing about it over and over and over. Gimme some old timey hymns!

What about the Oh you can't get to heaven song

At my church, it was "God is Good." There was a really old guy who led worship and he would sing it like, "God is good all the time. Through the darkest nights, his light will shine. God is good all the time. When the darkness finds you, may this song remind you. God is good. God is good. God is good. God is good. God is good. God is good. God is good. God is good. God is good. God is good. God is good. God is good. God is good. God is good. God is good. God is good. All the time."

Growing up Baptist, I always wondered why we never got to sing all the verses of the hymns. We always sang verses 1,3&4 as printed in the bulletin!