New Songs That Have Worked at My Church

I’m always looking for good new songs to add to the repertoire at my church. Here are some new songs that have seemed to work well over the last year.

A Thousand Amens
This is an upbeat song of celebration that takes the words of the doxology and adds a chorus based off of Psalm 92:2. My two criticisms of this song are: (1) in the chorus it says “it’s your kindness, Lord, that leads to our healing”. Since he’s basing this off of Romans 2:4, which says God’s kindness leads us “to repentance”, I think it makes more sense to go ahead and sing it that way. So I change the words (with the writer’s permission) to “it’s your kindness, Lord, that leads to repentance”. (2) The closing bridge of “amen, amen, amen, amen…” is a bit monotonous. If you explain to the congregation that “amen” means “so be it”, and that when we sing that part we’re all agreeing together and affirming God’s faithfulness, then it helps give it context. Having said that, I actually really like this song and it has worked well on Sunday mornings.
– Written by Tim Timmons
– Featured on the Catalyst Music Project
– I’m working on finding a chord chart for free/download
– Listen to the song here
– Watch a video of it here
 – Download the song on iTunes here

Center
My church is studying the book of Hebrews this year, and this song fits well with Hebrews 1:3 which says “(Jesus) is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power”. The verse of the song says “you’re the center of the universe, everything was made in you, Jesus. Breath of every living thing, everyone was made for you. You hold everything together…” And then the chorus is a prayer: “Oh Christ, be the center of our lives, be the place we fix our eyes, be the center of our lives”. It’s a simple song and people grabbed hold of it pretty quickly.
– Written and recorded by Charlie Hall on Flying Into Daybreak and Passion: Everything Glorious
– Watch a video of the song here
– Download a free chord chart here
– Download the song on iTunes here

Completely Done
I have to be careful not to pick this song every Sunday. There’s nothing better than declaring “the old is gone, the new has come… we’re heirs with Christ, the victory won, what you complete is completely done”. 
– Written by Jonathan Baird, Ryan Raird, and Rich Gunderlock
– Featured on Sovereign Grace Music’s Sons and Daughters
– Download a free chord chart here
– Download a free lead sheet here
– Download the a free mp3 here

Desert Song
A song about the worthiness of God to be praised in every season of life. Halfway through hearing it the first time, it seemed like people were ready to stand up and sing it with us. That’s always a good sign. It feels good in the key of E.
– Written and recorded by Brooke Fraser on Hillsong’s This is Our God
– Purchase the music here
– Watch a video of the song here
– Download the song on iTunes here

Greater Than We Can Imagine
This song has been around since August 2008, but it took me a while to introduce it. We taught it almost exactly a year ago, and I’m really glad we did. It’s based off of Psalm 145 and is a strong, upbeat, truth-filled declaration of praise. Comfortable in the keys of G or A.
– Written by Mark Altrogge
– Featured on Sovereign Grace Music’s Psalms
– Download a free chord chart here
– Download a free lead sheet here
– Download the mp3 here

How Great is Your Faithfulness
A solid mid-tempo song about the faithfulness of God “from generation to generation”. Like many songs, it’s recorded in a key that’s unrealistic for most members of most congregations. We moved it down to the key of G and it worked well.
– Written by Matt Redman and Jonas Myrin
– Featured on Matt Redman’s We Shall Not Be Shaken
– Download a free chord chart here
– Watch a video of the song here
– Download the song on iTunes here

Revelation Song
This song has grown on me. I’ve always liked the first verse and chorus, but wondered if the second and third verses were too difficult to sing. We went ahead and tried it and I’m glad we did. Since the chorus is so singable and the verses are so rich, this song seemed to really resonate with the congregation, especially if the singers are able to lead it clearly. Feels good in the key of D.
– Written by Jennie Lee Riddle
– Featured on various CDs, my favorite version being on Kari Jobe’s self-titled CD
– Listen to the whole song here
– Purchase the music here
– Watch a video of the song here
– Download the song on iTunes here

To Him Who is Able
Once in a while your congregation surprises you when they really like a song. They surprised me on this one. Here’s the first verse: “To him who is able to save me completely / Who has poured out his blood as the offering for sin / And raised me to life by the power of the Spirit / And sealed me for heaven to reign there with him”. The chorus declares: “To him be the glory, blessing and honor and praise / All saints now adore him / Worship the glorious name of Jesus the King”. Great song. I do it in the key of A.
– Written by Lou and Nathan Fellingham and Gary Sadler
– Featured on Lou Fellingham’s Step Into the Light
– Download sheet music here
– Download the song on iTunes here

You Alone Can Rescue
The first time I heard this song, I wondered if Matt Redman had added a new chorus to an old hymn. The verses articulated the problem of our sin and the goodness of God’s grace in such a way that they must have written a hundred years ago! I was wrong about that. It’s a great new song proclaiming a timeless truth.
– Written by Matt Redman and Jonas Myrin
– Featured on Matt Redman’s We Shall Not Be Shaken
– Download a free chord chart here
– Watch a video of the song here
– Download the song on iTunes here

Say No to Woah

Imagine with me that King David had decided to write Psalm 103 this way:

Verse 1:
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits,
who forgives all your iniquity,
who heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit,
who crowns you with steadfast love
and mercy,
who satisfies you with good
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Pre-chorus:
Woah, oh oh. Woah woah woah oh oh.
Woah oh woah. Woah oh oh woah, yeah.

Chorus:
The Lord works righteousness
 and justice
for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses,
his acts to the people of Israel.
The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Bridge:
Woah, oh oh. Woah woah woah oh oh.
Woah oh woah. Woah oh oh woah, yeah.

Thankfully, and Holy Spirit inspired-ly, David left out the woahs.

What am I supposed to be thinking when I’m singing “woah”? To whom am I singing? Is this like a high school cheer or something? Am I telling a horse to slow down? I’m confused.

And my guess is that most (all?) of the people in the congregation are confused when a worship song breaks into a section of repeated woahs. For this reason, I tend to say no to woah.

In other words, woe be to woah. Or, woahs are a no-go.

In 1 Corinthians 14:15 Paul says,

What am I to do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will pray with my mind also; I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also.

It’s for this reason that as worship leaders, we should be leery of asking people to stop using their minds for a little while and just sing words that have no meaning. The melody might be creative and the recording might sound cool, but very little is being sung in those moments that will feed anyone or help anyone exalt God’s greatness.

Psalm 103 doesn’t need a section of “woahs” to give it a “lift” or a “hook”. It stands on its own. While worship songs are certainly not holy and inspired Scripture, I don’t think it’s unrealistic to have an expectation that they’ll be able to stand on their own as well, without the woahs.

The Difference a Few Words Can Make

What’s the difference between saying “let’s clap our hands” and “let’s celebrate God’s greatness by clapping our hands together”?

Just a few words.

And a big distinction.

In the first case, I’m asking people to respond to my desire for them to clap – by clapping.

In the second case, I’m asking people to respond to the greatness and glory of God by clapping.

Would most people notice the difference? Maybe not. Is it a huge difference? No. But do those few words make any difference? I would argue that they do.

The scary reality is that if a worship leader asks a congregation to do something, a good majority of people will do it. For example, if I got up on Sunday morning and said “let’s kneel as we sing this song”, then most people will kneel. Will they know why I’m asking them to kneel? No. They’re mainly kneeling because I asked them to.

Some worship leaders get used to this power, and get in the habit of giving short posture instructions every know and then. If you’re really brave you’ll say something like “let’s lift up a shout!” and maybe some brave people will.

We don’t often get the opportunity to give lengthy exhortations and/or teachings on the topic of physical expressiveness in worship. Sometimes (most of the time?) all we get is those five seconds in between a chorus and a verse. If we beef up those few-seconds-long exhortations with a bit more God-centered truth, the cumulative effect over a year could be substantial.

I encourage all of us to look for ways to add context to our brief exhortations, if and when they occur. Instead of “let’s lift our hands” try “let’s exalt our Savior with our bodies and lift our hands in praise”. Instead of “clap your hands everybody!” try “In Psalm 47 we’re encouraged to ‘clap your hands, all peoples! Shout to God with loud songs of joy!’ let’s respond to God’s glory by clapping our hands together.”

It might feel clunky and unnatural at first. You’ll definitely revert backwards once in a while. But stretch yourself and feed your congregation, a few words at a time.

Here’s an example of how I did this a few Sunday mornings ago at my church while leading Matt Redman’s “The Glory of Our King”.

Using a Capo Isn’t a Sign of Weakness (British Version)

My friend Matt Blick recently shared my video from last week about how “using a capo isn’t a sign of weakness” with the readers of his blog. Matt happens to live in England, so this means two things: First, it’s probably raining. Second, he pronounces capo differently than I do. Apparently in England, the “cap” in “capo” rhymes with “map”. So we pronounce it “cay-po” and they pronounce it “cap-oh”.

So he asked if I would “re-dub a version for the UK market”. I wouldn’t want to leave all of my UK friends out in the cold (literally), so here is a British version of the video that they will hopefully understand.