What "This I Believe (The Creed)" means
Hillsong Worship released this song in 2014 as a contemporary setting of the Apostles' Creed, one of the oldest communal confessions of faith in Christian history. The original Creed, used since at least the second century, was not written as a song. It was written as a statement, a boundary marker that defined what the Christian community believed against the doctrinal drift of its surrounding culture. Setting it to music does not change that function. It extends it into the emotional register.
The word "creed" comes from the Latin credo, meaning "I believe." What the song does is convert a third-person doctrinal statement into a first-person vocal act. When a congregation sings this song, they are not reciting theology at a distance. They are making the confession personal and corporate at the same time, standing together and saying: this is what we actually hold. The song's genius is in treating each clause of the Creed not as a checkpoint but as a declaration worth singing at full voice. The music creates space for the congregation to feel the weight of what they are claiming, not just list its contents.
The Hillsong arrangement updates the language while maintaining the structural movement of the original Creed: creation, incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, the Spirit, the church, the hope of resurrection. Nothing is left out. Every major claim of historic Christianity is present and accounted for.
What this song does in a room
At 76 BPM in D major, this song has more forward motion than a ballad but is not in uptempo territory. It builds. The verse is relatively sparse and intimate, the chorus opens wider, and the bridge, where the congregation declares the hope of resurrection, typically creates the most emotionally unified moment of the song. People who would never describe themselves as theological are often surprised to find themselves moved during this one. The reason is that the creed language, when sung, is not abstract. It is personal. "This is my hope, my righteousness" lands differently than a recitation of "the forgiveness of sins."
The song tends to produce a particular kind of unity in rooms with theological diversity. People who hold different secondary convictions can stand together and confess the Creed. That shared ground is not a lowest common denominator. It is the actual center of the faith. When a congregation experiences that unity, even briefly, it often surfaces as something identifiable on people's faces.
What this song is saying about God
The song is saying that God is not a concept under perpetual revision. It is anchoring the congregation in the particularity of Christian confession: a Father who created, a Son who was born, died, and rose, a Spirit who is at work in the church and in the world. It refuses to let God be a generic spiritual presence. It insists on the scandal of specificity: this God, this story, this sequence of historical events, this hope.
The resurrection language in the bridge is the theological summit of the song. Everything in the Creed moves toward bodily resurrection as its endpoint. The song does not allow resurrection to be spiritualized into mere metaphor. It is the hope of life everlasting, which means the hope of embodied life with God after death. In a culture that is generally comfortable with vague spirituality but uncomfortable with the particularity of resurrection, this song is doing something countercultural every time it is sung.
Scriptural backbone
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 is the foundational text: "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures." Paul's summary of the gospel in these verses maps almost exactly onto the structure of the Apostles' Creed, and by extension onto the structure of this song. The Creed is not a human invention layered on top of Scripture. It is a compression of what Scripture says.
Romans 10:9 also undergirds the song's logic: "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." The act of corporate confession the song enables is not ceremonial. It is the kind of speech act Romans 10 describes, where the declaration and the belief are bound together.
How to use it in a service
This song works at multiple points in a service, which makes it flexible in a way that many songs are not. It can open a service as a declaration of who has gathered and why. It can close a service as a commissioning, here is what we are going out into the world holding. It can function as a response to a teaching about the historic faith, the reliability of Scripture, or the unique claims of Christianity in a pluralistic culture.
It is particularly useful during seasons when your congregation is navigating doubt, deconstruction conversations, or cultural pressure to relativize their beliefs. The Creed sung corporately is not defensive. It is grounding. It locates the congregation in a 2,000-year stream of people who have stood in the same place and said the same things.
In liturgical contexts or on Sundays where you are emphasizing church history, you can pair the sung version with a spoken recitation of the Apostles' Creed before or after. The juxtaposition reinforces the continuity between ancient confession and contemporary worship.
Things to watch for as the worship leader
Do not rush the buildup. The temptation with this song is to go wide and loud too quickly because the content is declarative and the urge is to match the content with maximum energy. But the verses need to breathe. The congregation needs to hear themselves before they are asked to shout together.
Watch for people who are moving through seasons of doubt and may feel they cannot sing "this I believe" without lying. You do not need to address this from the stage every time you sing the song. But if your congregation includes people who are publicly processing deconstruction, a single sentence of pastoral acknowledgment, something like "even singing toward belief counts," can lower the barrier without undermining the declaration.
The bridge can be repeated. When the room locks in on "this is my hope, my righteousness," it is worth staying there. Do not move through that moment out of habit. Let the declaration accumulate.
A note for the team behind you (techs, vocalists, band)
Drums: the groove matters here. This is not a ballad, and the rhythmic feel should communicate that something is happening, that the declaration has weight and movement. A solid, confident backbeat on the chorus. Not heavy, but grounded. The bridge can open up slightly.
Keys and acoustic guitar: the harmonic support in D needs to feel sturdy. This is a confessional song. Thin, tentative chord playing undercuts the theological confidence of the lyric. Full voicings. Committed.
Vocalists: harmonies on the chorus are appropriate and add to the corporate feel. Keep them clean and blend-focused. The goal is a sound that feels like many people saying the same thing, not a showcase.
Techs: this song benefits from a clean, present mix. Avoid muddiness in the low-mids, particularly if you have multiple instruments contributing to that range. The congregation's voices should be audible in the room during the bridge. If your in-room SPL is pushing the congregation out of the mix, pull back the stage and let the room breathe. The song is most powerful when the congregation hears themselves singing it together.
For transitions: if you are reciting the spoken Creed immediately before or after, coordinate with your tech director ahead of time on mic routing so the transition is seamless.