When Christians discuss worship, especially if their conversation is heated, they usually focus on one primary element of worship above others—music. The church's songs are without question the most controversial aspect of Christian worship. However, some careful thinking about what Scripture has to say about our hymns, adequate understand of the purpose of power of Christian hymnody, and consideration of how the church's music has related to the culture around it throughout history will help us arrive at some conclusions about how we should go about choosing hymnody for our churches.