When choosing songs to do at chapel and Praise and Worship many factors are taken into consideration. The Director of Worship for Campus Ministries, Josh Kuipers, who is currently finishing his eighth year in the position, works closely with the three student worship leaders on campus – senior Dustin Groen and juniors Samantha Vermeer and Gabrielle Johnson. Together, they choose songs that, to quote Kuipers, “First and foremost, align with scripture and lift the name of Jesus.”
To ensure every song aligns with scripture, Kuipers and the student leaders look at every line of every new song that they consider introducing. “If there is a lyric in a song we find questionable, we look to the Bible to see if the lyric is rooted in scripture,” says Kuipers. “If not, we don’t do that song. It’s pretty simple.” Something Kuipers has implemented over the past few years as a response to people who have concerns as to whether lyrics are biblical is placing the scripture passages where each lyric comes from at the bottom of each lyric slide.
Beyond assessing each individual lyric, Kuipers is mindful of what songs need to be sung at certain points in the school year. One way he does this is by slowly introducing Christmas songs during the Christmas season, as well as Easter songs during the Easter season. Kuipers also does this by choosing songs that align with certain chapel series. For example, when we walked through the “Idols” series last semester, Kuipers introduced the song “Idols Fall” by Influence Music, which talks about putting God before all else.
When asked how he and the student leaders go about choosing songs that satisfy the needs and the desires of most of campus, Kuipers responded, “We realize that there are people of many theological backgrounds and denominations. For everyone who says we sing the same songs repeatedly, there is another person who says we do too many new songs. For every person who thinks we should sing more hymns, there is someone who thinks we need to do more of the latest and newest songs. For every person who thinks chapel is too tame and boring, there is another person who thinks it’s too much of a show. The first and most important step is to ensure we are praying and following the spirit. If we’re doing that, we can be confident in what we’re doing.”
“When we receive positive feedback on certain songs,” says Kuipers, “We like to know why.” Kuipers went on to talk about how Planning Center, the software he and the student leaders use to plan services, is helpful because he can go in and see how many times a certain song has been done throughout the year. By doing this, he can also see how many times certain themes were sung about and how many times certain names of God were used.
Overall, Kuipers and the student leaders try to focus on what Northwestern as a campus and as brothers and sister in Christ have in common. He says, “When we focus on our collective love for Jesus and our need for Him, rather than our differences, we are able to worship more freely.”
