Punctuation matters. It is used every day in most forms of communication to provide clarity and readability to writing. It is an essential part of the process, even in some ministry contexts. Yet, in one ministry context, punctuation is often overlooked or ignored.
Over the years, worship ministries have implemented many technological advances. One of the most prominent advances has been in how we display song lyrics. We’ve gone from using hymnals, to overhead projectors, to televisions, to modern projectors, and most recently, to LED screens. As technology has advanced, new software programs have been developed that import songs into computers with ease, allowing the operator to design the way lyrics appear on screen.
As lyrics slides are designed, the use of punctuation is often left to the individual operator’s discretion. This results in a wide variety of punctuation use from church to church, and has become a source of disagreement among some church leaders. Some churches remove all punctuation from the lyrics in favor of visual cleanliness. Others prefer to leave the punctuation displayed. I believe punctuation in worship lyrics is necessary to provide clarity and enhance the worship experience.
Punctuation Matters: A Quick Study
Punctuation is vital to each song’s meaning and theology. Take, for example, the song “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death,” by Matt Boswell and Matt Papa. The lyrics to verses one and two are:
What is our hope in life and death?
Christ alone, Christ alone.
What is our only confidence?
That our souls to Him belong.
//
Who holds our days within His hand?
What comes, apart from His command?
And what will keep us to the end?
The love of Christ, in which we stand.1
If the punctuation were omitted in these lyrics, the singer might not understand that these lyrics are questions being asked and responded to. Making that connection is significant, as the questions posed are at the core of faith in Jesus Christ. Without the question marks and commas in the text, the words become a jumbled mess with no clear direction.
This same dynamic arises in the hymn “Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow,” commonly referred to as “The Doxology,” whose lyrics are:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise him all creatures here below;
Praise him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.2
There would be multiple issues here if punctuation were removed. First, the third line would read, “Praise him above ye heav’nly host,” and the word “heav’nly” would have an added syllable to its singing. Second, the fourth line would read “Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost,” which could cause issues with our trinitarian understanding of the triune God. While all are God, we recognize that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost are three distinct persons. Omitting the commas from the line causes this not to read as though they are three persons, and generally makes the line sloppy to read. A congregation can learn theology from the music they sing, and if the text is ambiguous, the theology contained can become equally confusing.
There will likely be new Christians or unbelievers singing this song for the first time, people who have had little to no knowledge of the Trinity. The goal should be that their first encounter with this crucial doctrine should be as clear as possible to prevent them from creating false theology from words they read on screen. Too much is at stake to take shortcuts or be unclear. Visual elegance has value, but not above theological clarity, and leaders can’t be afraid to make decisions based entirely on visual elegance rather than theological clarity.
The Problem with Importing
The current trend in lyrical display is to omit all punctuation on the slide. This doesn’t mean the lyrics were originally written without punctuation, but rather that the punctuation was removed from the lyrics when the song was imported.
Modern software programs, such as ProPresenter, have an import function from Christian Copyright Licensing International (CCLI)’s SongSelect program. This makes song-building much faster than typing or copying and pasting. While the import function significantly reduces the amount of programming time, it also removes all punctuation from the downloaded lyric sheets, chord sheets, and imported text. When asked why the punctuation is removed, CCLI responded, “Only about 20% to 30% of the product CCLI receives from the publishers contains punctuation. Even with the assistance of a linguistic specialist, we found that users from different areas of North America differed on the rules for punctuation.”
They went on to explain, “The attempt to accommodate left no consistency in our database. The process of correcting, inserting, and omitting punctuation in lyrics took many hours. Therefore, it was decided by the publishers and CCLI to omit punctuation from at least the lyrics and chord sheets and to allow the churches to add their own punctuation if they so choose.”3
For CCLI, this isn’t about whether punctuation should or should not be included. It is a time- and labor-saving practice that allows the local church to decide on its preference. This is certainly understandable from CCLI’s standpoint, but it lays the burden of responsibility on the local church to choose how song lyrics will be displayed in corporate worship settings.
A Punctuational Compromise
Another popular trend is to allow punctuation within text, but omit particular punctuation at the ends of lines. This seems to be the most sensible option, as it allows the punctuation inside the text to guide the singer but cuts the ending periods, commas, and semicolons to provide a cleaner look. Through this, there is an excellent balance between having complete punctuation and providing clean, easy-to-read lyrics.
This approach would display “The Doxology” thusly:
Praise God from whom all blessings flow
Praise him all creatures here below
//
Praise him above, ye heav’nly host
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost
The line breaks do the work of the semicolons, and aforementioned trinitarian commas carry their necessary theological weight.
While it doesn’t allow for all punctuation as a hymnal does, it’s not all needed because screens are not intended to display sheet music like hymnals are. Screen space is at a premium, with the text needing to be significantly larger to be readable.
Kendall Conner suggests this exact method in his article, “Six Quick Changes To Improve Your Lyric Slides”4: “For a much cleaner look, delete the commas and periods on the end of lines. The line-break is more than enough for your congregation to recognize that there is a separation.” Conner’s logic makes good sense, so this option is what I consistently use in my ministry context. I agree that the line break is sufficient to indicate a break in thought or a pause in music, with one key exception: question marks. As seen above in Boswell and Papa’s song, question marks carry logical and theological weight that cannot be replaced by a simple line break.
A similar option would be to cut periods at the end of lines, but leave commas and semicolons. While this is similar to removing all punctuation, it retains the pauses and indications of logical flow that commas and semicolons communicate. Ultimately, punctuation helps achieve clarity.
The most uncommon way to present lyrics is to have all of the punctuation left in the text. If the desire is to stick as closely as possible to the way the lyrics were written, this is the way to do it. The songwriters who wrote this punctuation into their songs did it for a reason; therefore, it can be argued that it should be as crucial to the person displaying it as it was to the writer.
The Heart of Worship
Adding in any amount of punctuation is admittedly more time-intensive. As referenced above, the most popular method of importing lyrics is through CCLI, which automatically strips all punctuation from the lyrics it provides. David Manner describes the extra time it takes in Artistic Theologian like this, “It is certainly easier not to add punctuation when we are preparing song slides for our worship services. But is ease what we are called to when we’re trying to encourage our congregants to leave with those texts and tunes in their hearts and on their lips for continuous worship? Punctuation can help them take those formative lyrics home with biblical and theological accuracy.”5 CCLI importing causes the person building the song to question whether the time spent adding punctuation is worth the effort.
2 Timothy 2:15 says, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth” (ESV), and 1 Corinthians 10:31 challenges us, “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” (ESV). We are called to give our best work to God, and if a few extra minutes are needed to add clarity and potentially help people receive the Gospel more clearly, then that time is well spent for the sake of the Church. As Joseph R. Crider says, “Each week, we have the responsibility and the privilege to help the congregation engage in a potentially life-changing, divine conversation with the Triune God of the universe.”6 When we think of lyrical displays as part of someone’s life-changing encounter with God, then the extra work is eternally worth it.
Ultimately, the decision on whether to use punctuation in displayed lyrics or omit it should be a consensus reached among the pastor, worship leader, and lyric operator. Above all, try to be as consistent as possible. Having some songs with punctuation and others without will create more confusion, so prioritize consistency in this decision. People tend to notice and be distracted by things that are out of the ordinary, which can turn into a distraction, pulling the person out of their time of worship to God. Correct and clear punctuation is a valuable step towards aiding the congregation in worshipping God without distraction.
- “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death,” lyrics and music by Keith Getty, Matt Boswell, Jordan Kauflin, Matt Merker, and Matt Papa, copyright 2020, Getty Music Publishing (BMI), Messenger Hymns (BMI), Jordan Kauflin Music (BMI), Matthew Merker Music (BMI), Getty Music Hymns and Songs (ASCAP), Love Your Enemies Publishing (ASCAP), administered by MusicServices.org. ↩︎
- “Thomas Ken (words), and Louis Bourgeois (tune, “Old 100th”), “The Doxology,” in Baptist Hymnal (Nashville: LifeWay Worship, 2008), no. 668. ↩︎
- Trego, Kobe, and CCLI. 2023 Email exchange with Jimbob Brown. ↩︎
- Kendall Conner, “Six Quick Changes to Improve Your Lyric Slide,” The Creative Pastor, 16 February 2016. https://www.thecreativepastor.com/six-quick-changes-to-improve-your-lyric-slides/. ↩︎
- David W. Manner, “An Argument for Punctuation in Projected Song Lyrics – Artistic Theologian,” Artistic Theologian, 14 Feb. 2020, https://web.archive.org/web/20240816011602/artistictheologian.com/2020/02/14/an-argument-for-punctuation-in-projected-song-lyrics/. Accessed 25 May 2023. ↩︎
- Joseph R. Crider, “Worship Ministry,” presented at the Serve Summit at First Baptist Church Mansfield, 7 August 2022.
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