One of my favourite songs of all time, made famous by the Michael Tait fronted Newsboys, ironically wasn’t written by them (instead written by worship leader Travis Ryan and Matt Hooper of LIFE Worship). Recorded especially for both Restart and My Hope: Songs Inspired by the Message and Mission of Billy Graham; this is a song that is certain to be a classic Newsboys melody (in spite of them not writing it). Any fan of the Newsboys, or even any fan of Michael’s singing style, ought to check out the song- with the music videos of the melody shown below.

You know when you hear a song and you immediately think this song is going to be a classic? From ‘I Can Only Imagine’ and ‘Above All’, to ‘Blessed Be Your Name’, ‘God of Wonders’, ‘History Maker’ and ‘I Am Free’; songs that have managed to impact hundreds of thousands of people around the world tend to have an anthemic feeling about them, and this time, ‘We Believe’ is no different. A song that is basically the believer’s creed, we are able to witness light acoustics and Michael’s big resounding voice proclaim out biblical truths of how as Christians, we declare collectively that ‘…we believe in God the Father, we believe in Jesus Christ, we believe in the Holy Spirit, and He’s given us new life…’ Thematically reminding me of Rich Mullin’s ‘Creed’, famously redone into a rock anthem by quartet Third Day (and currently a song that many listeners of their music enjoy at live concerts); it is in the lyrics of the melody that encourage us to take a bold step of faith and declare who we believe in and what we indeed believe about life, death and everything else.

Now I know that here in Australia where I live, there is pretty much freedom of speech to say what we want, within reason of course. But there are so many countries, in Africa and Asia, where freedom of speech, especially the freedom to speak religiously; is outlawed. Now I know that I’ll say that I’ll profess Christ, even if I am in a situation or state where freedoms are squashed beyond recognition, but to actually do it and take a stand in these situations require faith and guts- because if faced with something that I’m sure people in Africa are faced with every day, I’m not sure if I can declare out my faith with the same assurance and comfort that people in oppressed countries have. This is what ‘We Believe’ ought to conjure up- a sense of security, comfort and a knowledge to solidify what we believe so that we can proclaim it in whatever situation without any shakiness, uncertainty or worry.

While I hope that I’m not faced with a situation where I have to declare out my faith or risk an early trip home to heaven, what Michael and the rest of the band have shown us is that in order for us to truly live a life without regrets, we must first look inside ourselves and see if we truly indeed believe the words declared in the song- do we really believe it when Michael says ‘…we believe in the crucifixion, we believe that He’s conquered death, we believe in the resurrection, and He’s coming back again, we believe…’ without any hint of doubt? We can say ‘we believe’ all we want, but are we really living out the change that has occurred inside of us? A song that ought to give us comfort and encouragement, ‘We Believe’ is the anthem of the generation, and hopefully, one song that’ll be a life changing moment for whomever listens to the track.