How are songs chosen?

While we don’t necessarily agree with everything taught within each church community, we do spend time in prayer and study before any song is introduced in corporate worship at The Experience to ensure it's not only biblically sound but also gives the community a voice and offers up a proper offering to our Creator. What's most important to us is that the gospel is preached, and Jesus is glorified in corporate worship. So often, we're quick to point out the flaws of the more known churches and say that we're not gonna "sing their songs," but the truth is if that's the standard we set, we'd literally have to wipe out nearly every worship song that's existed, and we'd have to start with some of the hymns. A classic example of how difficult it is to hold that standard to all authors of our worship songs is H.G. Spafford. You may know that he wrote “It Is Well With My Soul” in 1873 after his daughters died. It remains a mega-popular hymn of lament and hope in the English-speaking world. Yet by the end of his life, Spafford began espousing unbiblical views on important topics, which begs the question, should we stop singing "It Is Well"? It's also been said that John Newton, who wrote "Amazing Grace," was actively involved in slave trade. But we would take it even further and start with David. If we look at the life that David led, we'd have to tear out the Psalms, which are some of the first worship songs, if we held the same standard. We care so much about the community of believers at The Experience and spend a lot of time in prayer and study, preparing what we bring to corporate worship each week. If there's one verse that we always point to whenever this question is brought up, it's found in Philippians 1 when Paul said:

"It is true that some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry...[They] preach Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing that they can stir up trouble for me while I am in chains. But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this, I rejoice."