[gtrdave]

Originally Posted by Dwight Schrute

there are some songs I worship with privately that I wouldn't introduce corporately simply because the lyrics aren't clear or appropriate. How He Loves is one prime example of this.

I held off on doing "How He Loves" on a Sunday morning for quite a while and did so for some of the reasons that you're bringing up; I'm not as savvy on poetic and metaphoric songwriting as, say, my wife is and I tend to be more literal. That said, God's been working on growing me in this area and what's been helpful to me in this is recognizing that the Bible itself is not only literal, but also poetic and metaphoric. The Psalms, the Song of Songs, Revelation and Jesus using parables and analogies in his teachings are examples of all of the above.
So, if these are tools that God himself uses and we're made in His image...

Originally Posted by Dwight Schrute

on one extreme is the only sing hymns or scriptures, and the other is complete subjectivity where we could sing Britney Spears' Baby Baby and when you sing it just think about God as the Baby. crazy extreme example, I know.

Thankfully, we don't have to live in extremes. There is a lot of legitimate area to properly work with in between. If not, we're not safe with using hymns only as "The Garden" is hardly a work lifted straight from scripture.
And I thought that Amy Grant wrote "Baby, Baby"...

Originally Posted by Dwight Schrute

as a worship leader, we are supposed to think about what we are encouraging others to worship with corporately. we are responsible before God as a leader in the body. if there are gray areas, is it worth it? how much gray? what shades of gray? and so on.

We're to be discerning and God's Spirit helps us to discern rightly. If you're not feeling 'right' doing a particular song for your congregation, maybe God is leading you that way. Maybe He's leading me and my congregation differently, not for sake of contradiction, but for meeting the specific needs of whom He's entrusted us to lead. Not every church needs to sing "How He Loves" or "Great I Am" in the same way that not every church is going to have a rock-band worship team.
I believe that Ephesians 5:19 encourages us all to utilize a very vast "gray area" with which our 'psalms, hymns and spiritual songs' originate.

[Dwight Schrute]

All true points, and I hope I didn't offend in my litany. I was defending myself for being overly fussy, not implying that other people are taking it too lightly.

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[gtrdave]

Originally Posted by Dwight Schrute

All true points, and I hope I didn't offend in my litany. I was defending myself for being overly fussy, not implying that other people are taking it too lightly.

Sent from my DROIDX using CGR Forum

No, no offense taken at all. It's been a good dialog.
We have to be responsible for what we introduce to our congregations and that does mean that there are songs...maybe even good, personal worship songs...or flat-out bad songs...that I won't play in my church.