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Songwriting in Worship
Posted on October 7th, 2008 in Church Life, TWC, Worship Leadership by Fred McKinnon
Hey Everybody -
Today I’d like to discuss songwriting in the church. Bobby Gilles of Sojourn Music has been writing an incredible series on Developing Songwriting over at TheWorshipCommunity.Com. I’d encourage anyone who is interested to check those articles out:
I’m ashamed to admit that it’s been a few years since I was writing songs. I’ve written some songs that I’ve been blessed to see used throughout the world in churches. I could throw out a laundry list of excuses of why I’m not writing or recording any more these days, but when the dust settles – it’s still just a long list of excuses and choices that I’m making to do certain things instead of other things.
I believe there are many new songs to be written. There are some incredible songwriters out there who bless us immensely with their material. Then there are the thousands of songs that are undiscovered by the mainstream worshiping community, or worse – that aren’t written at all.
I’m going to let you in on a little secret. My site, HighestPraise.Com, was once a forerunner in publishing and promoting original worship material online. It’s been around for nearly 15 years in one “form” or another. It’s been pretty static lately. But the sleeping giant is restless and I’m working on some ideas that will revive the site, the purpose, and it will be an incredible opportunity for those of you who are writing corporate worship material. So stay tuned.
In the meantime, I’d like to hear about your songwriting. Do you do it? What’s your take on using original material in the local church. What inspires you to write? What distracts you from writing?
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17 Responses to “Songwriting in Worship”
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I do write but it is sporatic at best. I am not disciplined about it at all. I guess I write when there is something to be said rather than for the sake writing itself. Most of my songs are “journeyman” songs, songs of passage, I guess. That may be a limitation when it comes to corporate worship but I’d like to do more.
As to how I write? It used to be that the lyrics and music came simultaneously. Of late, the lyrics have come and then the music. As of now, I have a set of lyrics with no music and a piece of music with no lyrics – they just don’t work together. A few months ago, a friend from my former church contacted me with lyrics she wanted put to music. That was my first real collaboration but I loved it, and look forward to other opportunities.
Like you, it’s been a while for me. I think that using original material in churches is the way to go most of the time. The reason I believe this is because even though each individual body of believers are part of the “One Church” and body of Christ, they are also individual and have personal moods, directions and moves happening within the walls of that particular body.
Having said that, who better to “craft”, “tailor” (I hope that wording doesn’t offend some) songs that will speak more directly to the body there than the person(s) who are leading them? Sure, there are songs that speak to almost every “move of God” that could or is taking place, but when an individual in the midst of what’s happening RIGHT NOW within a body releases a song that was inspired from that move, I believe from personal experience that song will speak more powerfully than “just another song” from the endless montage of selections out there.
What inspires? To me, nothing inspires me more than “free worship”. The best songs I’ve ever written were songs that simply flowed out of my heart while worshipping without lead sheets, words in front of me or any other pre-meditated methods.
Robert McKinnons last blog post..A Poem By a Friend of Mine: Kudos Reid Craft!
hi fred. like many others, i do write songs of praise and personal topics. but most times, it never come out of the house, so to speak. i don’t know why, maybe because i’m afraid of criticism. i recently wrote a song (posted on my site http://odnalor.org, “we believe”) that I have already completed. i didn’t get the chance to work with our worship team yet though.
my inspiration comes from anything, last night i was playing with some riff and as soon as i loaded a drum track, it just inspired me to compose. it could also be grief for loss or a happy moment with my son. but i’m not the type of person who can sit down and write jingles for a certain type of product or something i’ve been asked to write about. that’s a little hard for me.
anyhow, i hope you will be inspired to write more and can find inspirations in your daily blessings or trials. God bless!
I agree with Robert. What better than a song that captures a moment, or helps it flower, or even creates it? Everyone has a song that is inextricably tied with a moment in their life, but when a song ties a moment (or a season) together for a whole congregation, that’s good stuff. And Robert’s right; who better to write it than someone who’s right there?
Ed Schiefs last blog post..Dying onstage
I’ve been in a slump lately too–mostly because I don’t have a lot of interaction with my band. I have found that my band gives me a tremendous sense of urgency to write; for whatever reason, our collaboration really forces me to create.
Jeremy Killians last blog post..Worship Outside of the Bubble
It seems like for me when the songs come, they come in droves. And if I don’t write them down or work them out immediately as they come, they spin around my head all night long until I have it set on paper. LOL. Inspiration usually comes out of an experience or conversation I’ve had with the Lord.
Mostly I use the songs God gives me as “special music” opportunities or to share in concert. However, lately I’ve had the opportunity to share them while leading worship at different events, and it’s really incredible to hear others sing along. It seems like when the Spirit leads…and then as we follow….incredible comfort and revival occurs. So, I would say using original music anywhere has great potential to make impact when the heart is focused aright.
Funny, I was writing about this a bit today myself.
My songwriting process is long and painful. I generally take quite a while to get comfortable enough to share with someone. I do have two songs written that I have shared – one with the worship team, one with the choir. We might do them soon enough.
One of my (major) struggles is that I CAN’T SING to save my life. So it becomes difficult to share a song with someone else and get them to really hear it (and like it,) when I sing it so terribly.
Mike Mahoneys last blog post..Sing a New Song
I have been much more disciplined about songwriting this year than ever before and that has paid off. Co-writing has totally changed the process before and has also resulted in some great stuff.
My main focus for songwriting now is to write songs that speak specifically to the situation of my own church. I think that is part of the pastoral role and duty that we have.
Chris from Canadas last blog post..Free tickets – Vicky Beeching & Bluetree
My songwriting is still very “event”-driven…a certain sermon series or topic will spring me off. I don’t do what I SHOULD do, which is set aside time every day or every week to write, to develop those muscles.
For me, lyric and music come together about 30% of the time…70% of the time, lyric comes first. Rarely if ever does music come first.
Paul J.s last blog post..The Dark Toy
I’ve written songs over the years, done lots of other creative-type stuff, and I’m always amazed that the quality of my song-writing or arranging or whatever is almost always the same whether I’m in the mood or not. I wrote 7 or 8 songs for an original Christmas musical (at the Big Church) several years ago, under the gun, no time to look back, and they came out great, or at least workman-like. I say don’t wait for inspiration, just sit and write–it’ll come.
Ed Schiefs last blog post..Dying onstage
I have a love/hate relationship with my songwriting. I call myself a songwriter in the very loosest of terms as I really struggle with it or it just comes. There is no in between for me. I started writing years ago because I got frustrated with the lack of worshipful Christmas songs and wrote a piece we used for years called “God With Us”. (no, not the Moen tune) Then I did nothing for years. I started writing again but never would share my songs with anyone else until a band member encouraged me to. We use maybe two of my songs in worship semi-regularly and have used several others as specials.
I tend to write out of my own personal experiences, songs I write almost always come out of times of prayer. I’ve written in other ways, but this is how songs flow most freely for me. I write music and lyrics at the same time. I don’t know any other way to do it. That’s just how I think.
I would love to write more. Sometimes I will go through an experience and I just long to set it to music but I am not good at just coming up with something. I did just write a song that my son and I are working on recording right now. I’ve used it two times in worship services and it’s been well received.
I’m a baby songwriter who longs to do more. There is nothing like seeing people worshiping to a song that I wrote in a time of prayer. It’s surreal.
I’ve been in a writing slump for about 6 months. I’ve been really busy and stressed. My head is filled with too many other things to let the creative juices flow.
I had set a goal of writing one song a month this year, but I think I only wrote three or so.
I think songwriting is a great opportunity to bring home important messages that speak to where your/our church currently IS. For instance, my last few songs, which we’ve introduced at Inside Out, have almost all been inspire initially by messages or series’ either given at Inside Out, or conferences we’ve been to as a group. The songs then connect because they speak to where we are, and help unify the body, and ruminate over a theme which is already important to us.
Shannon Lewiss last blog post..I once held a hummingbird…
btw – I’ve always gotten some INCREDIBLE stuff as-of-late during spontaneous moments during worship – sadly, they’re often SO ‘in-the-moment’ that, though other folks come up and ask me about the songs, I can rarely remember anything about them other than that it was a powerful moment in the service. Maybe we need to start recording Inside Out every wednesday, just in case?
Shannon Lewiss last blog post..I once held a hummingbird…
When I got to the end of your post, Shannon, I was thinking ‘turn the recorder on!’. I read an interview with a famous record producer a while back, and he said he tells the engineer to push ‘record’ every single time the band plays, even if it’s just a run-through. You never know when the perfect little thing will happen.
Ed Schiefs last blog post..Dying onstage
Thanks for the shout-out, Fred!
I think (and hope) that the “next big thing” in worship music is an increased attention to grassroots worship songs, written for the songwriter’s local congregation. This doesn’t mean that the songs won’t be a blessing to anyone else. But think of it as like a sermon: a good pastor preaches the eternal truth of scripture, but his primary application is to his local assembly — the church family that he knows and loves, prays with and for, worships with, counsels, etc. If the sermons are available online or in some printed form, or radio, etc., then they may very well be a blessing to many others, but they were still primarily preached for a local body of believers.
The one example I always cite is one of the Sojourn songwriters, Jeremy Quillo. We had been in a period, as a church body, of lament, confession, and searching. It served its purpose and helped us grow, but Jeremy began to sense that we really needed to celebrate the victory we have in Christ and acknowledge that “the joy of the Lord is our strength.”
He wrote a song called “Mourning into Dancing” that helped us do just that. Now, there are certainly many other worship songs, written elsewhere, that carry the same theme. But it meant more to us that one of our own songwriters, who was on the journey with us, had written this song to help us celebrate the hope and peace that Christ brings.
Bobby Gilless last blog post..Tales From An Indie Band’s First Tour/CD: Interstate’s Alex O’Nan Talks To Sojournmusic.com On Eve Of Opening For Wovenhand
Bobby, you’re dead on. I’ve been thinking for about three years that the praise and worship movement is on the downhill side, and that the next great worship song has already been written. That was the thrust of my Drum Screen Rant post a few weeks ago–that we’re not promoting our local scenes. Preach it!
(Link to my drum rant)http://www.thesundaymusician.com/journal/2008/9/9/drum-shield-rant.html)
Ed Schiefs last blog post..Dying onstage