Part 1 – The New Song
Darcy Watkins – July 16, 2024
This is a question that comes up on occasion. My first response is “why not”? If you are a song writer, why not use your craft in worship? One characteristic of your song, once you complete writing it is, it is a new song.
Sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples.
Psalm 96
In the Psalms we are encouraged to sing a new song, a song of praise, glorifying the Lord. You can’t sing a new song unless someone first writes it. A church culture that embraces writing new songs is a church culture of growth, impact and innovation.
A worship leader can be thought of as a warrior. Each warrior has their weapons and armour they are used to. When David had his show-down with Goliath, the Philistine giant, his army initially fitted him with the king’s armour. (I Sam 17:38-40) He wasn’t used to this armour, so he took it off and faced Goliath in plain clothes, with a sling and some stones (and of course, the Name of the Lord).
So, one worship leader may be an awesome singer. Another can play a guitar and lead worship at the same time. Yet another worship leader writes songs of praise. We wouldn’t expect the awesome singer to step back and play the trumpet. We wouldn’t expect the guitar playing worship leader to put down the guitar. So why would we stifle the song writing worship leader from using their own songs? God has graced us with strengths, why would we disregard such and go into battle using the wrong armour?
I used to have a rant back when I was in my 30’s. It went something like, “Why do we care so much about the songs from way over there or from way back when, when our God is speaking to us in new songs here and now?”
On the other hand, there could be reasons to not use your songs. Maybe they aren’t that great in terms of songwriting as a craft. Maybe the lyrics are laced with regurgitated trite expressions using church speak cliches that rhyme. Maybe the songs just don’t fit your church culture, kind of the wrong style. Maybe they are more suited for the youth group. Maybe the lyrics have bad theology. Maybe they just sound too King James for today.
There could be resistance to using your songs, maybe even envy. There was a time when I prolifically wrote new songs birthed of the Spirit almost on a weekly basis. People were saying, “We have our own Graham Kendrick.” I sensed something amiss as I heard these comments. I heard something deep down in my heart saying, “Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands.” (I Sam 18:7). Oh no! I’ll be dodging spears soon. And sure enough, out of the blue came a decision to prune the worship rotation roster of one worship leader. I was the one impacted by this. I didn’t really care about leading the worship or playing an instrument or mixing sound, but I didn’t like the effect that decision had of cancelling my songs, not just from me using them, but pretty much all the worship leaders stopped using them.
Later, at a different church, a woman came up to me saying that I shouldn’t use my songs at our church in worship. Her stated reason was that it was self-promotion. I would just be promoting myself. With indignation, in a very Winston Churchill style, I retorted, “When the pastor stops seeking the Lord in prayer to write his sermons and resorts to pulling them out of a book of prepared sermons, I will be happy to do the same with worship songs!” She was stunned and immediately apologized. She made the connection. I don’t think I had observed a faster turnaround before or since.
So, we’ve discussed some reasons to use your own songs in worship. We have also discussed some real and bogus reasons to not use your own songs in worship. I have also mentioned that it isn’t necessarily a free ride. The first thing you need is a mandate to do it. So, let’s assume that you have the green light on this, and you are committed, what’s next?
And that is to be continued with part two of this article.