In a previous post I wrote about the importance of familiar songs (you can check that post out here).  Those familiar songs are accessible, they are made fresh by the moment, and serve as signposts on our faith journey.  But fresh songs are valuable to our churches as well.  After all, the Bible says multiple times that we are to sing a NEW song.

In our current song pool at 12Stone Church we have a group of songs that are set apart as songs that are fresh and have an excitement attached to them.  You can see the congregation lean in with just the first few notes of the song.  You can see people get excited because these songs are bringing new life to them as they sing.  These songs play an important role in worship services and have some incredible value in the life of the church.

The fresh nature of a new song evokes the evidence of God’s current work.  It’s one thing to sing about what God has done in the past and as believers we celebrate great works of God throughout the ages, but celebrating what God is currently doing in us and around us is very powerful.  New songs are often the result of God’s current work in the church and his people.  Sometimes they are songs written from stories and testimonies within the body of Christ.  Sometimes they are songs that speak to the current season of the church or the world for that matter.  Sometimes they are songs that we discover that speak right to a specific moment or topic we are teaching on.

I love when people in our congregation come up and share with us what a new song is stirring in them.  It’s always amazing how fresh songs prayerfully selected will connect with the heart of the church.

We want to select fresh songs that connect with and perpetuate God’s current work within the church.  A fresh move of God should have fresh songs connected with it.  These fresh songs remind us that God hasn’t just done great things, but he is doing great things.

These fresh songs have an evangelical power to invite those exploring faith in Jesus into the family of God. As we worship and celebrate what God is doing people see that celebration and Psalm 40:3 says it can cause them to put their trust in Jesus.

Psalm 40:3

They will put their trust in the Lord.” (NLT)

I think this also connects deeply to our first point.  For someone exploring faith in Jesus, experiencing and hearing about God’s current work is powerful.  Hearing what God did long ago is amazing, but for those exploring the faith hearing that God is actively working in us and around is very powerful.  When those who have yet to believe in Jesus see the church worshipping God in a way that expresses that he is living, active, and present in the NOW it is powerful.  People see the testimonies of worshippers declaring what God has done in their personal lives and that is a worship testimony.  It’s amazing and hopefully leads people to put their trust in the Lord.

In this Psalm, David said that he had a “new song to sing”.  I believe this is because God had done a fresh work in his life and this fresh work led to a fresh song which led to the amazement and ultimately trust in God for those in attendance.  Worshipping through fresh songs has a unique power to connect to the heart of the lost.

Fresh songs stir new emotions and thoughts and propel us into new seasons.  They bring new revelations or at least refresh our neglected revelations.  It may be something we know about God, but wrapped in an emotion or poetry we’ve never heard before.

This is why we can sing about the same gospel in a million different ways.  There are endless ways to celebrate the truth of what Jesus did on the cross and though we may have our favorites, new expressions push deeper into our hearts, challenge our thoughts in new ways, and excite us about the never ending reasons to worship God.  I’ve seen more than once a song become the title of a sermon or sermon series or a lyric from a song become a theme for a season in the life of the church.  Songs and movements are often close friends.

Fresh songs are important to the church and the mix or balance of fresh and familiar will likely be different for every congregation, but it’s important that we find the value in both.  Remember worship isn’t about our preference it’s about glorifying God and that means bringing him glory in familiar and timeless ways while also bringing him glory in fresh and innovative ways.  The church needs to worship in remembrance, but we also need to worship in the present movements of God and the future he has promised us through his son Jesus.