Reed Light Books · Apps

Changelog

What's new in Clear Worship.

A reverse-chronological log of what's shipped to Clear Worship and the Worship Trend Map. The substance is what you can now do that you couldn't before — whoever you are: a worship leader, a singer, or simply someone who thinks carefully about what they sing.

June 6, 2026

A lens for weeks like this one.

  • "In the News Right Now" — some weeks a line lands heavier than the writer ever meant. A war dominates the headlines, and "marching as to war" stops being an abstraction for the family three pews back. The new optional lens (+1 coin; included for Pro) reads your song or sermon against a short brief of what people are carrying into worship this week — where it may minister with unusual power right now, and where a phrase deserves a framing sentence before it's sung or said.
  • Every brief is read by a person before it reaches you — the AI drafts a weekly world brief, but nothing goes live until it has been reviewed and approved by hand. Briefs name griefs and anxieties, never positions: no sides, no parties, no verdicts on the news. And briefs expire — stale news context is worse than none, so the lens quietly steps aside when its brief ages out.
  • In both tools — Clear Worship gains a "Consider what people are carrying from this week's news" toggle and a new report section; Sermon Lens gains it as an additional lens card that runs even in Fast scan. Same rule as every lens in the suite: awareness, not avoidance. It will never tell you to drop the song or soften the sermon — it helps you lead it.
June 6, 2026

Two debated hymns join the sample shelf.

  • "In the Garden" (1912) — perhaps the most argued-about hymn in the American songbook joins the free sample reports. The report shows how Clear Worship handles a genuinely contested song: the individualism critique is taken seriously, and so is the story underneath it — Mary Magdalene, Easter morning, John 20.
  • "Onward, Christian Soldiers" (1865) — the hymn a Methodist hymnal committee tried to retire in 1986, analyzed in full: what the military imagery actually says, which enemy the text names, and why peace-church congregations who set it aside are making a faithful call too.
  • A new verdict color — these are the first samples that don't come back green. Both land at "Sing with awareness," shown with the amber verdict badge real reports use — because a sample shelf where everything passes wouldn't show you what discernment looks like.
June 6, 2026

Paste-only, on purpose.

  • URL fetch and Title search retired — Clear Worship no longer retrieves lyrics from the web on your behalf, whether from a pasted URL or a title lookup. The analyzer is now paste-only: you bring the lyrics you're licensed or otherwise permitted to use, and the tool does what it has always done best — analyze, never distribute.
  • Why we removed a feature — fetching lyrics from third-party pages put the tool in the position of obtaining copyrighted work for you. That sits poorly with how we want to treat songwriters, publishers, and the licensing bodies (CCLI, SongSelect) your church already honors. Your license should be the source of your lyrics; we'd rather lose a convenience than borrow what isn't ours to take.
  • A gentle reminder at the paste box — a short note under the lyrics field now states what the updated terms say: paste lyrics you're permitted to use; Clear Worship analyzes the text to produce commentary and doesn't store the lyrics or provide them to others.
  • Legal pages aligned — the EULA, privacy policy, and data-handling explainer all updated to reflect the paste-only design (and one less third party touches your requests, since title lookups no longer query Hymnary.org).
  • Sample analyses, before any account — Clear Worship now has free pre-prepared sample reports, just like Sermon Lens: a contemporary song and Isaac Watts's "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," each shown as a complete report with the Pro sections visible. Linked from the sample viewer, the sign-in page, and clearworship.org. See what the tool produces before you create an account or paste a single lyric.
  • Starter coins, rebalanced for a real tour — new free accounts start with 4 coins, and a free account's first two Sermon Lens runs (up to 6,000 words) are intro-priced at 2 coins instead of 8 and up. The old five coins couldn't touch a sermon; the new four cover a song analysis and a full sermon run — or two of either — before you decide whether the tools earn their keep.
  • Author is now optional — paste a title and lyrics and Clear Worship identifies the song itself. If more than one known song matches your title and lyric portions, the tool stops and asks which one you mean — listing each candidate's title, author, and year — at no coin cost, then runs the one you pick.
  • For anyone who sings, and anyone who speaks — a copy sweep across the suite removes language implying these tools are only for pastors and worship leaders. Clear Worship is for anyone who wants to review songs and think carefully about what they sing. Sermon Lens and Sermon Trends are for any communicator — preacher, teacher, or speaker — who wants to ponder their words and the implications of their thoughts. The pastoral care in the analysis hasn't changed; the front door is just wider.
June 5, 2026

Honoring the people who write the songs.

  • Updated terms of use — the EULA now says plainly what has always been true of how Clear Worship works: this is a commentary and analysis tool, not a lyric library. We don't store, reproduce, or redistribute the songs you submit; your lyrics are processed only to produce the analysis you asked for, and they aren't retained afterward.
  • Your license, your responsibility, clearly stated — the terms now spell out that the lyrics you bring should be ones you're permitted to use: public domain, covered by your church's CCLI or SongSelect subscription, or otherwise authorized. Clear Worship never expands or substitutes for the licenses you hold with rights organizations.
  • Brief quotation only — any lyric excerpts that appear in an analysis or exported report are limited to short quotations in service of commentary, criticism, and theological evaluation. The tool doesn't provide complete lyrics and shouldn't be used to obtain them.
  • Independence made explicit — Clear Worship and Reed Light Books are not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by CCLI, SongSelect, SESAC, or any music publisher. We name those services only to describe how the tool fits alongside the subscriptions your church already holds.
  • Why this matters to us: worship songwriters are laborers worthy of their wages. A tool built to help churches weigh songs carefully should be just as careful with the rights of the people who wrote them.
May 21, 2026

Public landing page.

  • clearworship.org goes live as the friendly front door for the analyzer. One-page, fast, no account needed to read.
  • Trend Over Time lands in the Worship Trend Map: tag the Sundays each song played, and the map computes a weighted center per month so you can see, in plain language, where your library is actually drifting.
  • Ten-slide overview deck of Clear Worship and the Worship Trend Map — for sharing with elder boards, worship teams, and collaborators.
May 20, 2026

Comprehension, voice, and breadth.

  • Hmong Traditional added to the tradition picker. The full traditions list now spans Reformed, Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox, Pentecostal, Lutheran, Methodist, Hmong Traditional, and more — each with its own pastoral notes the analyzer consults.
  • Generation Resonance — pick a primary generation (Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z, Alpha) and the analyzer adds a short note on how the song's imagery and language tend to land for that cohort.
  • Language Accessibility — choose your congregation's language context (predominantly English, mixed-language, ESL-heavy, etc.) and Clear Worship adds notes on which phrases may need framing for non-native English speakers.
  • Comprehension Profile — when a song's reading level or concept density is far from the middle of the bell curve, Clear Worship surfaces a short profile with plain-language notes for pastors of children's services or plain-speech congregations.
  • Plain pastoral voice — a sweep through the prompts to remove seminary jargon. The summary now reads like a thoughtful colleague's note, not a journal article.
  • Stepped progress bar during analysis so you know which stage Clear Worship is on (rather than a single spinner).
  • Noticeably faster analyses — the tradition reference notes were restructured so only the relevant tradition is consulted per song.
  • Fast Mode for Pro users — a checkbox above Analyze that returns just verdict + tradition + doctrine + worship guidance, noticeably faster, for triaging a stack of songs.
  • Single-pick primary-generation dropdown (replaced the older multi-select) so the analyzer can focus.
  • Bigger Clear Worship brand in the app header — the icon mark and wordmark are now primary, with Reed Light Books in supporting attribution. Print headers redesigned to match.
May 19, 2026

Pastoral Lens and the Worship Trend Map.

  • Pastoral Lens launches — eight optional lenses you can apply to a song after the primary analysis: Trauma, Children, Financially struggling, Recovery, Wealthy & influential, Grieving & bereaved, Out of work, Newcomers & seekers. Each surfaces how a song's loaded imagery may land for that group, and how a pastor might frame it. Awareness, never avoidance — Clear Worship won't recommend removing songs; the pastoral decision stays yours.
  • Worship Trend Map launches at /tools/worship-trend-map/. A new way to see your whole library at once — every song plotted across doctrinal weight and scripture density, color-coded by dominant theme, with hover-able pastoral summaries.
  • App-wide text-size control — four sizes (small / standard / large / huge) selectable from a pill in every page header. Your choice syncs across devices when you're signed in, and the Trend Map's canvas labels honor it too. Driven by feedback from worship pastors who don't read at small sizes any more.
  • Trend Map help modal with full pastoral framing for what the map is and isn't.
  • Upload format modal with a CSV template and export instructions for Planning Center, ProPresenter, and Faithlife — for when bring-your-own-library uploads land.
  • Drift interpretation — when you turn on Show Drift Line, the bottom-right overlay names the direction in pastoral language ("your library is leaning more declarative; the watch-out is losing the language of confession"), not just an arrow.
  • Auto-refund / clawback if a song fails to analyze — coins return to your balance automatically.
May 18, 2026

Accounts, billing, and security.

  • Stripe billing goes live — three coin packs (50 / 200 / 500) plus Pro Monthly and Pro Annual subscriptions. Customer Portal for managing payment methods and cancelling.
  • Email verification required for new accounts (hard block until verified).
  • Password strength feedback and bot protection on signup.
  • Modern security practices — defense-in-depth response headers and a separate audit log for all sensitive account events.
  • Nightly off-site backups with multi-week rotation.
May 17, 2026

Coin economy and reliability.

  • Coin economy ships — five starter coins, two per pasted analysis, three per URL or title fetch. Pro users analyze unlimited.
  • Password reset flow with email verification.
  • Clear Worship branding finalized — favicon, print header, and logo placement across the app.
  • Email reliability improvements for verification, password-reset, and receipt emails.