He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the LORD
and put their trust in him.
I’m big on new songs. Old songs too, but there’s nothin’ like a great new song. New song illustrates new life, new birth, new wine in and among the children of light.
What are the great news songs you introduced to your church in 2008? And what makes them great?
Okay. I’ll start. This year, I like Brooke Fraser’s Hosanna. “Hosanna” means save us. Throughout my growing up years, I thought the word meant “praise you.” It means “Save us,” and salvation is what we need– every day.
What great song/s have you introduced lately? What makes them great?
While some of these may not be “new” songs, they are for our church:
God of this City (Bluetree / Tomlin)
Love Came Down (Cantelon)
What Can I Do (Baloche)
What Can I Do is by far my favorite. It’s a song that reminds me that my worship is not limited to Sunday morning: “What can I do but praise you? Every day, make everything I do a hallelujah…”
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01.05.09 at 12:51 pm
I prefer to write my prayers so I can slowly pray the prayer before it’s public. Spontaneous public praying is fun and I do it regularly. But when I have the privilege of praying in a public setting, I like having the time to sit and reflect with God for the right words.
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01.08.09 at 11:14 am
Thanks for this topic. Always nice to hear what others are doing.
Here are a few of the songs we’ve introduced lately, anywhere from two weeks ago to about 1 year.
You Never Let Go (matt redman)
Living For Your Glory (tim hughes)
Mighty to Save (hillsong united)
Shine Your Light On Us (robbie seay band)
The Stand (hillsong united)
Worship the Lord (al gordon)
You Gave Your Life Away (paul baloche)
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01.12.09 at 11:56 am
Sing to the King (Billy Foote)
Take My Life (Brian Daniel)
I Believe (Eric Stark)
Sing, Sing, Sing (Chris Tomlin)
Surrender (Jami Smith)
Knees to the Earth (Nathan Knockles)
Our God Saves (Paul Baloche)
Hear Me (Henry Cross)
Today Is The Day (Lincoln Brewster)
The Lord’s Prayer (Eric Stark)
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01.12.09 at 1:46 pm
A splattering of new things we are doing
The Stand (hillsong united)
How He Loves (John Mark McMillian) with a slight word change
Hear Our Prayers (The Glorious Unseen)
Hosanna (brooke fraser)
You’ll Come (brooke fraser)
Love is Here (tenth ave north)
Andy if you check back and look at this… The Stand and Mighty to Save use the same chord structure. put them both in A and go from the bridge of the Stand right into the bridge of Mighty to Save, makes an awesome transition. I can’t stop praising my piano player for coming up with it
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02.12.09 at 3:36 pm
Hi Tim. Did we meet last week? Thanks for this post. I’m thinking Mighty to Save might be our central worship anthem at Annual Meeting in Portland. The theme of the conference is “The necessity of New Birth.” So… the salvation/evangelism piece is certainly sub theme. I like Mighty to Save because it coheres the all nations with personal components of salvation. Plus JEsus is the supreme focus of the song– including resurrection. I hope Andy does check back. He’s one of the worship leaders for Annual Meeting in Portland.:)
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02.12.09 at 4:06 pm
Hi Katie
Yes, Jeff Olson introduced us, I am at Salem Cov in Minnesota. It would be a great song for the Annual Meeting, everyone in the Covenant should know this one.
Tim
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02.12.09 at 4:42 pm
Hi Tim. Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll have to give it a try. I have connected the chorus of “The Stand” with other tunes, as a tag, but never with “Mighty to Save”. Looking at your song list I really like “You’ll Come”. Has that been a pretty usable song for you guys, as far as the congregation being able to connect to it?
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02.12.09 at 4:56 pm
I have to admit that I have a bit of a crush on Brooke Fraser. We introduced You’ll Come during Advent and it seemed to really click with the congregation. It played in really nicely with some of the waiting themes we were working with. Our congregation seems to handle learning new songs well and the picked it up pretty quick. Thinking about it today made me make a late addition to the set for this sunday.
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02.12.09 at 5:00 pm
We’re doing “you’ll come” at Crossroads. People love it, I’m picky about the language. It has God responding to us, rather than initiating the interaction. Classically pentecostal, which is good by me… But. I wondered if folks might prickle against that language at Midwinter, so I avoided using it there. Thoughts on this?
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02.12.09 at 5:04 pm
Tim. I was waiting for someone to admit that. She is hot– in the sense her songs are very popular.:)
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02.12.09 at 5:06 pm
i also have a crush on Matt Lundgren…is that so wrong?
Katie, I had thought about your concern as well. But I felt the song spoke to both, us going to God and God coming to us. “Surely as the Sun will rise, You’ll come to us.” We do nothing to initiate the sun rising, we can only respond to it. I like the both/and of this song, it also combines the personal and the corporate (I and we).
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02.12.09 at 5:13 pm
My wife went through a pretty big Brooke Fraser phase… completely obsessed with everything she did. Kind of a cyber-stocker.
As for the language: I can see where we might take notice of that statement as it brushes up against our theology. I suppose it could turn into one of those circular conversations, but God did respond to Moses when he asked the Lord to reveal his glory(ex33). Or even Jacob wrestling with God, asking with such ‘resolve’ to be blessed… in either example God responded to someone by showing his glory or giving blessing.
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02.12.09 at 5:27 pm
I agree, Andy. God does respond to us, and it’s good/important to sing about that reality. I’ve noticed people can be pretty protective about the God calls, we respond uber-view, and so I limited the “we call” language at Midwinter, so as not to prickle. Of course, the gospels tell stories of people who reached out to Jesus, then Jesus reached back. And Jesus commended them for reaching.
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02.12.09 at 5:55 pm
Probably a wise choice not to prickle.
I hadn’t thought about the gospel examples, but the woman in the crowd absolutely initiated ‘connection’ with Jesus. This has got me thinking about how I call people into worship week after week. I tend to focus on our responding to God, but I might try coming at it from a different perspective in the coming weeks. At the very least it’s an opportunity to present a fuller theology (as in content not seminary) for our worship/prayer/interactions with God.
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02.12.09 at 6:08 pm
Hmm. Sounds like this conversation is leading us to adjust our sensitivity about call and response. In a good way. As with anything, when we become doctrinaire, we miss the point. Hmm.
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02.12.09 at 7:00 pm