Worship…but not as you know it. ‘This is the day’ is a new song for a new era

It sounds like the setup for a bad joke. “How do you get 20 worship leaders to share a stage?”

Well I don’t quite know how it happened, but it did. The sense of unity, the mild trampling of ego and the diffusion of celebrity was really quite beautiful! 

For almost 2000 years, songs and hymns have shaped and informed our understanding of God and the Gospel. Today hundreds of songs continue to be written each year that help us to express our praise, gratitude and devotion. But few speak to God’s interest in our everyday lives and activities in his world, and his desire to work through us in those places. 

For a few years, a small clan has been working on something behind the scenes.

The vision

The words we sing as the Church have become a primary form of spiritual formation, yet rather than curating this culture-forming space, we have largely outsourced that responsibility to the wilderness of the marketplace. Out there, often whatever is newest, shiniest and best promoted tends to grab the attention. We believe it’s time to call those who curate what we sing to let our hymnody catch up with our theology! 

The first fruits of this partnership were the new hymn ‘We Seek Your Kingdom’ which went viral as we emerged from lockdown, with the call to “transform, revive and heal society”. 

Now, Integrity Music have joined forces with the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC) and myself to create ‘Boundless’. It has been formed by the organic coming together of some of the UK’s most gifted songwriters with razor-sharp theologians. A camp took place in 2024 where songwriters collaborated with three or four others in a room combined with a theologian, who was there to ensure theological depth, consistency and throw in concepts and thoughts.  

Before we wrote, we received great theological input from Mark Greene. He shared some incredibly potent insights about the life of David. For example, we like the idea of the guitar-strumming shepherd boy who became King, but conveniently ignore the thing that David was actually best at. He was an incredible soldier. 71 of the Psalms he wrote were battle psalms. They were crying out for help in the context in which God had put him. They are ‘work psalms’. We have spiritualised them to be about spiritual battles, but he was talking about actual enemies and actual danger. I suspect David might step into a church building in 2025 and say “I’m touched that you are still using my metaphors, but why aren’t you writing about what is in front of you every day. That’s what I did. Don’t just cut and paste my words. Follow my lead!” 

I remember using a song of confession called ‘Hear our song’ at a service at Labour Party Conference many years ago. Present was then Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and all were happily singing along to the chorus which very much employs familiar ‘sanctuary language’ – “Forgive us Lord for what we’ve done, and what we’ve left undone”. Then we sang a verse that included the line “We will not leave you on your own, at the market’s mercy”. I will never forget the impact that verse seemed to have on the PM. His famous chin lurched upwards and he whispered to his colleague who scribbled attentively. Language speaking of the realities of our world had come crashing into our safe sanctuary language. 

Another example was the National Prayer Breakfast of 2022. I had the privilege of leading worship at that now infamous event, which it would seem was partially to blame for collapsing a cabinet and bringing down a Prime Minister. It was the largest number of parliamentarians (190) that we’ve ever had at the breakfast. During the hymn, “We seek your kingdom”, they sang, “Peace, truth and justice reigning everywhere / With us be present in our public square / Fill all who lead with your integrity / Transform, revive and heal society.” Not many hymns have previously said “Fill all who lead with your integrity” or “Inspiring culture, media and trade”. Yet it was those words that seemed to have specifically challenged Sajid Javid when that evening he resigned from the government because he could no longer serve with that integrity. The next morning in the House of Commons he started his speech by specifically referencing his experience at the breakfast. 

The song

The response from the writers to these prompts was jaw-dropping. Eight songs quickly emerged, and over the course of the next few months these songs were trialled, re-worked and honed in contexts all over the UK. This led to the finished versions being recorded at St Johns Hoxton earlier this year. 

“This is the day” is the firstfruits of the project. Here it is: 

Imagine thousands of Christians all over the UK starting their day by singing the words “This is the day you have made, may the work of my hands be your praise”. What difference might that make to the motivation, attitude and invisible dynamics of all those days? That is the intriguing potential of this new song. It is a joyous explosion of energy that declares some serious truth to the world and ourselves. 

As worship leader Philippa Hanna herself said, “There’s something about committing our day to the Lord each morning that helps invite his peace into all we do. We’re used to welcoming God’s presence in the church building, but it’s just as important to welcome him onto the school run, the bus route and into the work place!”

During the premiere of this song at St John’s, Hoxton, the impact in the room was memorable, leading to an extended time of spontaneous song and celebration. 

In a musical world often dominated by ego and celebrity, it was truly inspiring to see writers and artists travel hundreds of miles to simply sing one verse or sing backing vocals for their fellow writers. This project has obviously grabbed the hearts of those involved.

To launch this powerful song into the conscious and subconscious of Christians all over the UK, churches are being encouraged to learn then sing this song on Pentecost Sunday – 8 June, as part of Thy Kingdom Come, the global prayer movement which runs from Ascension to Pentecost.  

This is a new way to pray ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ not merely into the abstract of our world or nation, but the exact specifics of where you will spend the next ten hours or so. That his will would be done and his kingdom would come in the accountancy firms, the schools, the parks, the care homes and hotels of our world.  

‘This is the day’ by Boundless is available to watch now on YouTube, and to stream from next Friday