Life Lessons from the Congregational Songwriting Process
3 things I've learned from the process of writing congregational music...I love that I get to do this!
Go with the FlowNew things arrive unexpectedly… go with the flow and powerful stuff will come forth.Two of my best congregational songs in 2018 came when I wasn’t intending on writing. The first was when one of my co-writers and I came to songwriting session tired and worn. So instead of pushing through, we acknowledged our weakness, and spent the time in prayer. “Creator God” was birthed out of that time. The topic was not one consciously brainstormed, but came forth out of a time of simply being with God. This is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever written, as it flowed from my soul’s interaction with the incredible images shared in Scripture.The second came when I told God I planned to just support my co-writers for a while, rather than writing new material. I thought I needed a break. But what I needed was a reminder of why I’m doing this. I went to our church website and read through our culture code and our Pastor’s blog posts attached. I began to grasp a value I never understood before: “Risk the Ocean.” I started to take it to heart… and I started to write. I poured out based on my lived experience of risking the ocean, connecting it with powerful Scriptural stories. This was a song expressing my learned journey in recent years… and a song that I believe our people need to sing. “On the Water” grew from this.My words of 2019 are “surrender” and “explore.” I am learning to go with the flow of the Spirit, surrender to God’s will, and explore new things… because life is an adventure!
Always GrowI’ve written probably around 100 songs by now, have developed my craft for over half my life, and have studied under some award-winning songwriters. But I’ve grown SO much over the past year through writing with other people, for our congregation! Critiques on “Be at Rest” helped me consider the balance between creative expression and helping a congregation easily understand a concept. Critiques on “Even Now” helped me see varied chords I could choose from in songwriting. Critiques on “You Led Me” helped me learn how to shift my singer-songwriter melodies to be more singable. I love that I am seeing obvious growth through this process, and I am committed to continuous growth as a songwriter and as a person. Like the songs we're writing, I want to be a better version of myself than I was the last time we met.
Don’t Just Tell, Show ItWhen I joined a musicians’ academy, Daniel Ornellas said I am a story-teller. I found that funny at first because I’m not great at verbally sharing stories! But since then, I’ve really stepped into that identity, as I feel like it flows naturally in my songwriting.My Worship Pastor, Andrew, recently chatted with a well-known worship music producer. He asked direction worship music is going and what songs the church needs. The producer said story-telling songs: testimonies of where God has brought us. Well… as Andrew alluded, this is a perfect fit for me!As I’ve listened to a wide variety of songs, I’ve noticed the best ones to me tend to be where God is displaying His power through interactions between His story and our stories. I feel like this is a metaphor for life… that rather than just talking about who God is, people will be set free when we allow God to display His power (made perfect in weakness) in our lives.As St. Francis of Assisi put it, “Preach the gospel always; when necessary, use words.”I just started an Instagram account where I’m sharing my music journey and stories/testimonies within. One thing that’s been on my heart is to “live my lyrics.” My lyrics tell a story, and I want it to be a true story of my life.What do you want your story to be? Let’s encourage each other to live it out!