No secret formula

I won't be giving you reams and reams of scriptures to back up what I am saying, I am not going to be giving you a secret formula - like "the 7 habits of highly successful songwriters" - and I'm not going to be telling you that I have all the answers.

This parable of the talents is taken from Matthew 25:25 and tells the story about 3 servants who each receive talents.

"God expects a return on His investment in you! A part of fulfilling your calling means taking appropriate risks to maximize the opportunities with which you've been entrusted. Playing at faith is not commendable, avoiding risks is not to be rewarded, and living out of fear of what others will think should not be what motivates us."

Why does Jesus come down so hard on this issue? It's because our loss isn't the only one suffered. Our loved ones also lose out when we don't pursue our dreams. There's a domino effect; others get cheated out of the greatness lying dormant within us. But it's not too late. Like Lazarus being called out of the grave, Jesus calls each of us today to step over our fear, take risks in obedience to faith, and experience the fullness of who God made us to be.

Chosen for purpose

We are all to have a heart that says, "Wherever you may lead I will go" when it comes to serving God. This is a great song I learned in the late 80's called Shepherd of my soul by Marty Nystrom:

SHEPHERD OF MY SOUL, I GIVE YOU FULL CONTROL
WHEREVER YOU MAY LEAD I WILL FOLLOW
I HAVE MADE THE CHOICE, TO LISTEN TO YOUR VOICE
WHEREVER YOU MAY LEAD, I WILL GO

I can mark the beginning of my own songwriting journey as the moment I set foot on English soil. How many of you have found that your most meaningful songs have been written during adversity?

During the 1st 11 months in this country, my wife and I learned how to cry, how to pour out our hearts to Father, to reach out to each other and draw strength from our limited understanding of what we were experiencing and what we knew of God's ways. I had left South Africa with a heart burning bright with the promise of God's miraculous provision of work, home and church life. Instead I found misery, incredible doubt and frustration at my inability to find suitable employment and no "church" to call home! Surely God, You made a mistake in calling me to this country? Surely I had heard You wrong? Surely God I had missed Your timing completely? Surely I had missed the plot!

Now your songs aren't all going to be written in a time of pain and suffering. God will also lead you through times of refreshing, times of rejoicing, times of rest, times of abundance, etc

However, a word of caution from Deuteronomy 8:10-18 which says this:

10 When you have eaten your fill, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.
11 "But that is the time to be careful! Beware that in your plenty you do not forget the LORD your God and disobey His commands, regulations, and laws.
12 For when you have become full and prosperous and have built fine homes to live in,
13 and when your flocks and herds have become very large and your silver and gold have multiplied along with everything else,
14 that is the time to be careful. Do not become proud at that time and forget the LORD your God, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt.
15 Do not forget that he led you through the great and terrifying wilderness with poisonous snakes and scorpions, where it was so hot and dry. He gave you water from the rock!
16 He fed you with manna in the wilderness, a food unknown to your ancestors. He did this to humble you and test you for your own good.
17 He did it so you would never think that it was your own strength and energy that made you wealthy.
18 Always remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you power to become rich, and he does it to fulfill the covenant He made with your ancestors.

Character

Do not expect to take people where you haven't been yourself. Picture a young shepherd boy, running from a mad king, hiding in the caves of Adullam. His psalms, wrenched from a heart perfected in tears and written during 14 years on the run, have provided more inspiration to lyricists and singers than any other source in history.

CHARACTER IS CONCEIVED IN ADVERSITY, BIRTHED IN SUFFERING AND MATURED IN THE FURNACE OF GOD'S LOVING PURPOSE

So, is there an outcome to be expected from the trials we go through or do they just go on and on and on until we cave in? YES there is an outcome, an expected end (Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you," says the LORD. "They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.")

Some practical aspects

If we were to sit down now and begin to write a song, we could choose any scriptural theme and at least one person will have an opinion about it, or have read someone's opinion about it. We could put together a few lines of verse like this,

get it to rhyme at the end of the line
Lord Your love is sweeter than wine

and set it to the cleverest chord patterns we know but without personal, experiential life flowing through it, it is just another song - it may even become a popular one.

I believe the primary purpose / calling / mission we have as songwriters, to the local church in particular and the body of Christ in general, is to bring people to an understanding of what God has said or done, is saying or doing and is going to say. You may have a vision for the greater influence of your songs in the body - national or international - but they should be birthed and tested in your local church first.

So what types of songs are there?

Three different directions for ministry in song

• Directed toward God (Praise and worship, thanksgiving etc - MY JESUS, MY SAVIOUR)

  MY JESUS, MY SAVIOUR
  LORD THERE IS NONE LIKE YOU
  ALL OF MY DAYS, I WANT TO PRAISE
  THE WONDERS OF YOUR MIGHTY LOVE

• Directed toward one another (Healing, Prophecy and exhortation to rise up in battle etc - THE BATTLE BELONGS TO THE LORD)

  IN HEAVENLY ARMOUR WE'LL ENTER THE LAND
  THE BATTLE BELONGS TO THE LORD
  NO WEAPON THAT'S FASHIONED AGAINST US SHALL STAND
  THE BATTLE BELONGS TO THE LORD

• Directed to the not-yet-saved (Salvation songs - I'M FOREVER GRATEFUL)

  YOU DID NOT WAIT FOR ME TO DRAW NEAR TO YOU
  BUT YOU CLOTHED YOURSELF WITH FRAIL HUMANITY
  YOU DID NOT WAIT FOR ME TO CRY OUT TO YOU
  BUT YOU LET ME HEAR YOUR VOICE, CALLING ME

Understand this - there is a place for the ministry song and there's a place for the congregational song of praise and worship. What we have need of today is the HEARTSONG; a song of deliverance, a song of hope and a song of repentance; songs to lift up and songs to break through; songs of war and songs of peace; battle songs and love songs but most of all - songs from the heart.

* This how a songwriter, Kim McMechan, describes the history of her song, "Into Your presence" that featured on the Vineyard Canada album "All I need":

Our church was in a very dry time spiritually. There seemed to be a united cry going up in our intercession meetings that corporately said "We cannot be satisfied saying the same prayers, and singing the same songs, without touching something deeper of God." We felt united in a frustrated, desperate way, and yet there seemed to be a lack of words to express our hearts. I began to write a new song for our church in an attempt to give this ache a melody that we could all sing together, lifting it up to Heaven.

While this song was very much the cry of Kim's own heart, it came out of a shared experience with others in her local church. Local church communities need worship songs that release their corporate cry to God. Here are three thoughts to consider as you write worship songs from the Church, for the Church:

Know your church through your participation

For songwriters to write about their local church life, they will have to be in a local church. Kim knew what was going on in her church because she was in the intercession meetings. Because she was connected to the life of her community, she was able to find a worship expression and vocabulary that benefited everyone.
*(Excerpt from an article by Marc Pusch - Vineyard)

Build your church with your Pastor

Many churches have a mission statement - a summary of their purpose and how they hope to fulfil the great commission. Do you know yours?
I often sit in a meeting when my Pastor is preaching, just jotting down ideas I hear the Holy Spirit saying to me about the message. Sometimes, whole chunks of songs come pouring out, other times it may be just a word or a phrase.
Once, during a 24 hour prayer evening in 2003, he cried out to God in intercession, 'O God, let the next one be yes!' I immediately had a witness in my heart, picked up the cry, wrote a few verses and a chorus during the 10 minute interval and came back in and sang it.
This is a verse from the song:

LORD YOU KNOW I'VE TESTIFIED OF YOUR AMAZING GRACE
OF HOW YOU CAME TO RESCUE ME AND MEET ME FACE TO FACE
OF HOW YOUR WORD OF LOVE AND PEACE CALMED MY TROUBLED SEA
GRANT ME NOW THE LIBERTY TO HELP THE BLIND TO SEE

LET THE NEXT ONE BE YES! WITH SALVATION BE DRESSED
CLOTHED IN YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS, WITH ETERNAL LIFE BE BLESSED
AS ALL MEN ARE DRAWN WHEN WE LIFT THE NAME OF JESUS
O GOD, LET THE NEXT ONE BE YES!

That was a turning point for me and marked the start of an incredible run of inspiration from God on my song writing journey.

Serve your church with your creativity

I am all for songwriters and musicians exploring their creativity and self-expression; it is essential to the Church. However, this must not be done at the expense of serving your local church worship experience. I write songs to encourage and build up my local church. If they end up with a wider appeal, that's great but not essential. First step - local church then let God take them where He wants them to go.

If you want a theme for your next song, take a pen and paper to your next church meeting!

I recently read an article on the internet by Bruce Ellis about Song Vision. Having read this, I now examine ALL my songs in the light of a new revelation about and dimension to song writing.

Do we have a well-defined song vision. It's been called many things; "the core", "the message", "the through-line", the central theme", but regardless of how it's termed, song vision comes down to one issue - What is the song about? Take a song that you've written or that you like (they can even be the same one) and try to describe in one short sentence, what the song is about. We call this the one-liner. If you're having trouble articulating a clear one-liner, then perhaps the song vision needs to be redefined.
If my one liner for a new song was, "a boy and his dog", it would be relatively simple to stay focused on the song vision. I could write about times they spend together, trips to the vet, fetching a stick and then sum it all up with a chorus about how the boy loves his dog. My song vision would be intact and all who participate in or listen to the song would be on the same page. If however, my second verse veered off on a tangent and began to talk about the boy's first day of high school; my song vision might be in question. Here's where the craft comes in.
I could quickly correct my course by penning something about the dog walking the boy to the bus stop and sadly watching him board the school bus knowing full well that their summer of fun and games had come to an end. You see, while the context has changed the song vision hasn't. Sometimes it's helpful to think of song vision like a prism. As you hold it up and it slowly spins, you're treated to new perspectives that remain fresh yet they never abandon the essence of the prism's shape. Put another way, all roads must lead or point back to the song vision.
I know you're saying right now, "My creativity mustn't be hampered by such narrow thinking". So why do we need a clear song vision? Well, if your creative impetuous is simply self-expression, then carry on, let the tap run and by all means enjoy the resulting cocktail of thoughts. But if you sincerely desire to serve the church by writing congregational worship songs, establishing a concise song vision must sit very high on your list of creative disciplines. Remember, we serve a higher mandate as servants and as facilitators than we do as performers with talent.
While the above example of the boy and his dog is reasonably black and white, keeping a song vision focused in a worship song can sometimes be a lot more challenging. It's not necessarily the best approach to resolve that your song vision is "God". While you could make a case for such a song vision, you're probably better off to zero in on one attribute of God even if it is as expansive as something like His omnipotence.
Let's look at an example of clear song vision in a worship song. Take for instance the song Humble King by Brenton Brown.

OH KNEEL ME DOWN AGAIN, HERE AT YOUR FEET
SHOW ME HOW MUCH YOU LOVE HUMILITY
OH SPIRIT BE THE STAR THAT LEADS ME TO
THE HUMBLE HEART OF LOVE I SEE IN YOU
YOU ARE THE GOD OF THE BROKEN THE FRIEND OF THE WEAK
YOU WASH THE FEET OF THE WEARY EMBRACE THE ONES IN NEED
I WANT TO BE LIKE YOU, JESUS TO HAVE THIS HEART IN ME
YOU ARE THE GOD OF THE HUMBLE YOU ARE THE HUMBLE KING
Brenton Brown Vineyard Songs (UK/Eire)

This well-written song never strays from it's clearly define course. The song vision is something like, "I want to be humble like Jesus". While he uses the term King, never does he follow the path of what makes a king a king or You are king because…. Rather, he contrasts the words "humble" and "king" and resolves, "that's how I want to be". Again, while the reference and terminology varies and the perspective shifts subtly, all roads lead back to the song vision. (Copyright Bruce Ellis - Vineyard Music)

As an exercise, take a song you have written and write down the one-liner song vision. With a highlighter, go through and highlight every phrase that has some relationship to what you perceive the song vision to be. Then look at the remaining items and determine what value they bring to the song if any. Another good exercise is to ask others for their interpretation of your song vision.

Summary

These may not be the "7 habits" I spoke about at first, but they do summarise how I write a song and what I keep in mind:

• Songs must come from the heart - Father's and yours
• 3 targets for songs - God, the Church and the lost
• Songs must have a theme or purpose Isong vision)
• K.T.M.T.M.T - Keep the main thing the main thing
• Be both hungry for and passionate towards God, the Church and the not yet saved
• Have personal devotion time - prayer and the word are your greatest source of inspiration
• Serve your local church
• Do not get discouraged - keep on going because breakthrough comes