Signposts №1 on the Eurasian Road

As a pastor I had heard it many times from elderly people. I liked to introduce new songs and find the less known hymns. And even if they said it in a nice way, I could hear they didn’t always appreciate it. “We never sang that song before.”

But I was stunned when I had taken an extra job as a music teacher, and chose a new song. “We never sang that song before.” The exact same words, only not pronounced with the politeness of the elderly people. They were teenagers, just 13-15 years old, and they were not willing to sing a new song! “If you can’t sing a new song, how did you learn the songs you know now? Were they not all new the first time you sang them?” I tried, but it didn’t help.

The same thing happens easily when something new is introduced in the church. The pastor and a couple of other leaders have been to a seminar, and come back with new ideas. Some get caught by the enthusiasm, but some don’t see any reason to change anything. Some just want to sing the old songs and continue to do everything the same way they always have done. It may even happen in a church that is only 13-15 years old.

King David tells us, “The Lord put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.” And this didn’t happen once. Over and over again, God touched David’s heart, and we have several of these songs and psalms in the Bible! Like David we have a story to tell, and we are not supposed to sing it only once or in only one way. It is God’s will that “many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.” (Psalm 40:3)
Let us pray that God gives us many new songs and many new ways to do things in the churches.

Let us turn our Eurasian Road Map into a huge collection of new ideas, fresh initiatives to reach out to people who have not found Jesus Christ yet. They have not heard that song before, but we will certainly sing it for them.