On Sunday night we held our 4th Quarter Members’ Meeting. One of the items on our agenda was to talk about how we select music to sing here at Cornerstone. To put it simply, we believe the music should be Scriptural and singable. A little background first…last year, the Elder Board tasked Derek with putting together a description of how we select songs for congregational singing. He did that and brought it back to us, we talked about and then he came back again. Last month the Elder Board approved the paper and Derek read it on Sunday night. That paper has been copied below and we have included it so you (especially members) can be aware. If you have questions, you can see Derek or one of our Elder Board members. - Dave Kaynor
Statement on Sources for Church Music
CORNERSTONE BAPTIST CHURCH
January 10, 2026
Derek Niffenegger
Since at least the late 2010s, a handful of so-called Christian organizations have garnered a lot of attention both for dominating the Christian Music Industry and for promoting unbiblical teachings. In response to this trend, some have called on churches to refrain altogether from using music produced by these organizations. In particular, there is concern that the use of these songs provides the organizations behind them with financial support and extends their influence.
The Elders of Cornerstone Baptist Church have identified two biblical criteria for what music is to be used in our worship services, those criteria being 1) theological accuracy, and 2) singability. For the sake of brevity, theological accuracy will not be discussed further in this document, but the requirement of singability comes from Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:18-21. Both of these passages instruct us to address one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, which requires that songs be singable for as many congregation members as possible. Without further biblical instruction on the subject, the Elders of Cornerstone believe that to add any additional criteria would mean instituting legalistic standards for our church to adhere to. Legalistic music standards in one form or another have been a consistent temptation among churches for generations, and Cornerstone Baptist Church is not going to enact regulations that cannot be clearly defended by Scripture.
Even if Cornerstone were to implement a boycott of specific parties within the Christian Music Industry, such an action would be both ineffective and impractical for several reasons. First of all, as an individual church, we have little if any control over where the money we pay into the industry goes. CCLI is a licensing organization that provides churches with the legal rights to sing, play, and project songs onto screens. Even though we periodically report to CCLI on what songs we are using, the fees we pay to CCLI are distributed to artists and record labels based upon surveys of churches from all over the world. We as one individual church are simply unable to meaningfully direct our money toward the artists we approve of and away from others.
Secondly, even if we could choose which artists received our money, we have no effective way of identifying and keeping tabs on which artists are safe to use and which artists are compromised. The nature of the Christian Music Industry is such that songwriters, artists, and performers are constantly collaborating with each other, and sharing rights to the songs they are producing. This means there is no clear, objective way to distinguish which artists are acceptable to use and which are not.
Cornerstone Baptist Church has long taken great care in selecting music that is both theologically rich and congregationally singable. These two biblically defensible criteria on their own eliminate much of what the Christian Music Industry has to offer, and we consider them to be more important standards to adhere to than who the artist is affiliated with or who owns the copyright.