Twitter
Email Subscribe
Greetings fellow worshipers!
I wanted to take this opportunity to share with you how amazing God has been in the area of working on songwriting lately with His people. Being a part of The Worship Community Songwriters Group has been a huge blessing and encouragement to me. Let me provide a little background for you.
It all started around age 10 or so for me. I began playing “Father I Adore You” by ear at my family piano. By family piano, I mean, it was a family heirloom or sorts. Slowly, as years went by, I started to learn some of the songs my church would sing back in the day and plunk them out to the best of my ability. My parents felt I had some creative potential so they enrolled me in some lessons. I slowly began to play for small bible studies and also help out on the church worship team from time to time. One thing bothered me though… I didn’t seem to possess the ability to write songs. I envied everyone that could. I always asked God why I couldn’t write songs. I was very frustrated by it.
Fast forward several years to 2004. My wife and I gave birth to a beautiful son. When he turned 6 months old, he was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. This brought about the most devastating time in our life! Talk about a dry time with the Lord. The last thing I wanted to hear was “oh just trust in God!” Little did I know at the time, but that is exactly what God wanted from me. I’m happy to report that he is, as of the writing of this article, six years old and cancer free!!! Praise God from whom all blessings flow!
It was during this dry time that I believe the Lord worked something in me. James 4 says “come near to God and He will come near to you”. Psalm 61 also spoke volumes to me during this very difficult time in my life. I was reminded that God is to be my Rock, my Fortress and my Strength. Before I knew it, I was spending more time in God’s Word than I ever had before. Shortly after that, I felt the inner-workings of my first real song, Lead Me To The Rock. Praise God!
Somewhere in the midst of all of this, I stumbled upon The Worship Community via a search engine result. As I began to read through the pages on the site, I found myself interested and started offering input on various topics. It was odd, but I found myself developing “friendships” with people I didn’t even know. I found it a very inviting place to come and ask for feedback on song ideas, etc.
In February 2010, one of the moderators (Russ) started an official monthly songwriting challenge. The object was to take a pre-defined passage of scripture and seek God’s wisdom on it and to work on writing an original song based on the scripture. This intrigued me, because I found myself being purposely directed to a specific passage of scripture rather than waiting on God to just reveal a passage to me, not that there’s anything wrong with that either. It was during this challenge however, that I found myself led to another TWC member’s (Wanna Be A Worshiper) lyrics. They deeply inspired me and I reached out to collaborate with him on the song. He penned the lyrics and I provided the musical recording, arrangement, etc. The end result was a pretty decent song titled, Lord I Come.
Since February’s challenge, I have not been able to stop seeking God’s word. I have never before been able to see all of the gems that the Lord blesses us with in the writings of His Word as clearly as I do today. Not every song idea that comes is a keeper! Not every song is going to be that next “big hit”. Honestly, that is not the point at all. I do know one thing for sure though… I’m more engaged in reading my Bible as a result of these challenges. I find myself drawing close to Him and He in turn draws close to me and speaks volumes to my heart. I find myself taking delight in meditating on and pondering the teachings of God. Praise the Lord oh my soul!
I write all of this to say something plain and simple. God is moving in His people. God is giving us new songs to praise and worship Him with. These songs are based on His Holy Word! To date, we have roughly 30 original songs posted in the forums. There is a wide variety of works ranging the spectrum from a calypso kind of feel to driving rock tunes to mellow folk styles, etc. Very exciting stuff!
How To Join In With Us On This Awesome Journey:
http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/forums/worship-arts-songwriting/
If you are interested in actively collaborating with others on this site, consider reading my article on collaboration to get started. The article can be found at:
http://www.theworshipcommunity.com/forums/song-center-share-originals-collaborate/4815-how-collaborate-other-twc-songwriters.html
Related posts:
Pingback: theworshipcommunity
Pingback: theworshipcommunity
Pingback: theworshipcommunity