What "All Things New" means
The phrase sits inside one of the most consequential sentences in the Bible. At the end of Revelation, after all the images of judgment and renewal, the one seated on the throne says: "Behold, I am making all things new." Not all new things. All things, new. The renewal is not addition. It is transformation. Everything that existed before is being reconstituted from the inside out.
Mark Schultz carries this phrase in a song that keeps the contemporary register while holding the eschatological weight. The word all is the operative one. The song does not promise that some things, eventually, for some people, might get better. It names a scope that includes everything. That is either the most comforting sentence in the world or an incomprehensible one, depending on where you are standing.
What the song does well is ground the eschatological claim in the present moment. The renewal is not only coming. It is already at work. The tags, renewal, hope, redemption, life-transitions, tell you the song has pastoral legs across a wide range of congregational situations. Job loss, grief, relational breakdown, illness, the ordinary erosion of a hard year. The claim speaks into all of it without collapsing into vagueness.
At 80 BPM in G, the song has a midtempo warmth that keeps it accessible without diminishing the weight of the theme.
What this song does in a room
The room receives this song differently depending on what the congregation is walking through. In a season when the church has been through collective loss, the song tends to produce a kind of exhale. The declaration that God is making all things new meets people who have been holding their breath.
In a season when the congregation is doing well, the song functions as an anchor. It reminds the room that the goodness of the present is not the final word any more than the difficulty of a hard season is.
The song does not peak early. It builds by accumulation. Each verse adds a dimension to the claim, and the chorus keeps landing on the same ground: all things, new. By the bridge, the room has usually arrived somewhere quieter and more certain than where it started. That movement from uncertainty to quiet certainty is the song's pastoral gift.
Watch for people who seem to be singing with particular focus. They are usually holding something specific. Let the song carry them. Don't interrupt with excessive stage direction.
What this song is saying about God
The song is saying that God is a re-maker, not just a restorer. The distinction matters. Restoration implies that the original state is the goal. Re-making implies that something better than what was is the destination. The New Jerusalem in Revelation is not the Garden of Eden returned. It is something that surpasses it.
God in this song is the one who enters the ruins and declares renovation, not demolition. The things that have broken, the patterns that have failed, the losses that have not been recovered, the song holds all of it under the claim that the maker of all things has not been stopped by any of it.
This is important for a congregation that has been told, explicitly or implicitly, that suffering means God has turned away. The song denies that. The renewal God is working is not conditional on circumstances remaining comfortable. It works through them.
Scriptural backbone
The foundation text is Revelation 21:5: "And he who was seated on the throne said, 'Behold, I am making all things new.' Also he said, 'Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.'"
The Greek kainos is the word translated new. It means new in quality, not new in time (that would be neos). The things being made new are not being replaced with entirely different things. They are being renewed in their essential quality. The same people. The same world. Made truly, finally, incorruptibly new.
2 Corinthians 5:17 carries the same word into the individual: "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come." The renewal is not waiting for Revelation 21. It has already begun in every person who belongs to Christ.
Isaiah 43:19 is the Old Testament root: "Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert." The question "do you not perceive it?" is the pastoral invitation the song carries. The newness is present. The question is whether the congregation has eyes for it.
How to use it in a service
This song works in life-transition moments. A church planting Sunday. A building dedication. A congregational anniversary. A service following a season of collective loss. The song is not built for stable, comfortable seasons where nothing is changing. It is built for the in-between, when something has ended and the new thing has not fully arrived.
In a set that moves from lament to hope, this song belongs near the turn. After the confession, after the acknowledgment of what is broken, before the final declaration. The congregation has named the reality. Now they need to hear what God says about it.
For a sermon series on renewal or redemption, this song is a natural companion. Use it on the week the series names the scope of what God is doing. Not just in your personal life. Not just in this church. All things.
As a bridge from one section of a service to another, this song can carry the room from the teaching portion into the response. The theological clarity of the lyric makes the transition feel like it belongs to the same conversation as the sermon.
Things to watch for as the worship leader
The temptation with a renewal song is to over-brighten it, to perform the hope rather than carry it. The people in the room who most need this song are usually the ones who cannot yet see the new thing coming. If you sing it too triumphantly, they feel the gap between your certainty and their current reality.
Lead the first verse as if you're speaking to someone in the room who has been in a long winter. Not defeated. Not falsely cheerful. Present. Honest. Certain. The difference is in whether you're performing renewal or testifying to it.
At 80 BPM, the song has room to breathe. Don't crowd the space between phrases. Let the word new land before the band moves to the next line. The space is part of what makes the claim feel substantial rather than rushed.
Watch the congregation during the bridge. That's where the defenses are lowest. If you see someone with their head bowed or their eyes closed, leave them alone. The song is working.
A note for the team behind you (techs, vocalists, band)
Band: midtempo at 80 BPM means the groove needs character, not just rhythm. Drums, give the song a feel that is warm and steady, not mechanical. Brushes on the snare in the verses if you're acoustic. Guitar, a clean or lightly driven tone works best. The song doesn't benefit from heavy distortion. Resist. Bass: stay in the pocket, leave space in the verses, support the swell at the chorus without overplaying the fills.
Keys: warm pad and a piano approach that is more impressionistic than rhythmic. The song does not need rhythmic keyboard comping. It needs harmonic color and support. If you're running soft synths, a warm string patch or a slow-attack electric piano will serve the song better than a bright synth pad.
Vocalists: the BGV comes in at the chorus. Keep the harmonies close, thirds rather than wide stacks, and let the room hear the words. This is a lyric-forward song. The harmonies should support the lyric, not compete with it. Vowel matching between the lead and BGVs matters here.
Techs: lighting warm and slow-moving. No chases. A gradual build from the verse to the chorus in both brightness and color temperature, slightly cooler at the start, warmer by the chorus, warmest at the bridge. This is a song that benefits from a good mid-service lighting transition, not a drop-in effect. ProPresenter operators: the text blocks on this song may be longer than average. Build the slides for readability, don't crowd more than two lines per slide. Audio: watch the piano in the mix. On a song this midtempo, the piano can easily dominate. Pull it back just slightly in the monitors and in the house. The vocals are the story. Click track: yes.