IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PROCESS
Songwriting is not just about a flash in the pan idea that becomes a song in 10min. Now dont get me wrong, the Lord sometimes drops a thought or lyric on our laps in a moment, but most of the time there has been a process leading up until that time, whether we acknowledge it or not. Songwriting is a process to be in for the long haul. We are forming the theology of the people who sing these songs. And they will remember what they sing.
AVOID THE PRAISE OF MEN
AW Tozer said What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. We have to be very careful with the cool phrases that we throw around just to get the credit for crafting a song. We must understand our great responsibility but not let that make us fearful of writing what God really wants to say inside of our church communities. It may not be the most popular lyric but something in our flesh wants to be praised and credited with the glory, and this is our battle. We have to be bold in what the Lord speaks to us, so that our communities can unite under the glory of God and His work. Duncan Corby, the academic dean of Hillsong college said it this way:we generally forget the stuff that we read, but we knew that we always remember the stuff that we sing. There is something about a song that puts an expression to.. it enables me to say what i can’t say in just saying it. So this was the goal of the humor of the great writers of the past was to take great truth and package them and express them in memorable songs, so that the people of God would not just be captivated in worship but also instructed in their faith. Every pew of Christian history has had its moves of God and very often those moves of God were when the church dynamically connected with what God was doing within their generation, it errupted also in worship. the salvation army, they took the songs that were being sung in pubs and put Christian lyrics to them so that the people that they were winning off the streets of London would find their souls at home amongst the people of God. They marched together, sung together, they’d be stirred together, but they’d be united together, so as we gather together to worship God, it’s not just a nice sing a long. when we gather together as God’s people we have this opportunity to put to voice not just our own longing for God, but the longings for all of humanity, the longings of the poor, the longings of the suffering, the longings of a fallen creation that is crying out for its Maker. And that’s been going on with the people of God of every generation, through every age, for century.
COLLABORATION IS KEY
Let’s take the pressure off and work together.
You will be surprised how different our perspectives are. Our musical influences, our personal testimonies, and our ages can shape the ideas that we craft as a team. It is always neat to gather together and share the scriptures and ideas that the Lord has been showing us and see the similarities and phrases that intersect. These are the WORDS that he wants to speak to us as a body. Spend some time praying together and asking the Lord for what He wants to say. I am meeting with a few college students each week this summer and this is what our time looks like. We just get in a room and put it on a dry erase board and begin to put some melodies behind those main ideas.
BE A GOOD STEWARD, CREATE A DISCIPLINE
Listen and record those ideas that the Lord speaks to you in the middle of the day. When you begin to pray for those Words from the Lord, He will speak them and sometimes in odd moments or hours of the night, or when you are doing something completely different.
This is a habit and discipline that you have to work into your life. Keep a journal or a note in your cell phone. I use my voice memos in my iPhone, Evernote app, DayOne app, and Moleskine journal. If I am surrounded by ways to record it is much more of an organic practice in my life. Luke 19:11-27 parable of the ten minas. Make sure you are found faithful with what is entrusted to you, don’t hide it and keep it to yourself. Be a good steward.
Seth Price 