How To Begin Encouraging & Mentoring Songwriters

Let Twain be Twain and Shakespeare be Shakespeare

When a songwriter mentors or encourage another, the temptation is to remake them in our image, or the image of someone else in our ministry, band or organization. Whatever else you do, remember to treat each artist as an  individual, with individual skills, desires and experiences. Encourage them to write songs that honor God and serve the congregation, but inspire them to find their own voice, too.

Some of us will write long hymns and some will write short choruses. The legendary book editor Maxwell Perkins once said,

“If you have a Mark Twain, don’t try to make him into a Shakespeare or make a Shakespeare into a Mark Twain.”

A few months after joining Sojourn Church in 2004, I gave several song demos to Worship Pastor Mike Cosper. Mike invited me to lunch a short time later, where we discussed my songs, worship, music and Sojourn’s vision. Mike thought the songs I’d sent him were okay but sensed something was missing.

Although the lyrics reflected my heart and — to the best of my ability at the time – strong theology, they were my attempt at the Sojourn “sound” of 2004, which largely meant the songwriting style of our first worship writer, Jeremy Quillo. Jeremy’s style is simple and accessible. His lyrics are typically unmetered but tightly structured inside catchy chord progressions.

I knew how to mimic Jeremy’s style but couldn’t really

When Worship Leaders Receive Praise

“Beginning in 1985 I was invited to lead worship at some of John Wimber’s equipping conferences in the United States, Canada and other countries. All of a sudden I was launched into a much greater level of visibility, which carried with it a spiritual test. John Wimber used to say that tough times are not the greatest test of a leader — the times of exaltation and success are. The big question is, ‘What are you going to do when everything is going right?’ One of my favorite proverbs says, ‘The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives” (Proverbs 27:21).”

— Andy Park, To Know You More: Cultivating the Heart of the Worship Leader

What are you doing to keep yourself from developing an unhealthy taste for compliments? It’s a tough matter because it is good and right to encourage our brothers and sisters who labor well for Christ, whether they are worship leaders or not. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16:17-18

Three False Reasons To Label Your Song A Hymn

Inversion

Inversion happens when you invert the natural grammatical order of a phrase or sentence (subject-verb-object). The Stars Wars character Yoda does this, as do many poets and hymn writers. It’s an accepted poetic construct, and when used in moderation it can give your lyrics a timeless, classic, beautiful feel. But it’s ridiculous when overused.

Don’t use inversion merely to serve a rhyme. You’ve probably seen or heard lots of amateur lyrics like:

Oh God, I love you so
To you, my all I owe

The writer of lines like these often doesn’t think in terms of the total structure of a song or verse. He writes one line, then thinks of little else but “How do I make the next line rhyme with this one?”

Lots Of Words

Sorry, but a hymn isn’t just a wordier praise song.

Is It Okay For The Congregation To Clap After A Worship Song?

Have you ever given thought to why we clap our hands during or after we sing a song of praise in our gathered congregation? Have you ever wondered why some congregations are eager to clap their hands while others are reluctant during worship services?

I’ve thought much about this in the last few weeks and months, leading worship at my church. A recent conversation with Sojourn New Albany Worship Director Justin Shaffer encouraged me to ponder these things even more deeply. He and I were observing how at some service times, the congregation is exuberant and often claps their hands after we finish singing our praises and prayers to the Lord. And then there are other times when there’s hardly a peep of excitement after we just finished belting out our praises and acknowledgments of God’s extreme goodness and kindness to us in Christ.

It’s hard for us leaders not to attempt to measure our worth by the responsiveness of our congregation to each song. We should not be measuring “our” success as worship leaders in this way, but it’s a temptation every worship leader must confront. May the Lord help us keep our eyes fixed upon Him and our hearts fully in awe of HIS perfect success in making our praise beautiful and acceptable.

But is there a legitimate reason for encouraging a congregation to clap?

Yes, if we teach that clapping is our applause of His great name, done eagerly in celebration of the salvation we have received by grace through faith in Christ’s redemptive work on our behalf. They shouldn’t clap to applaud and honor the musicians and singers, but they should not fear or hesitate when it comes to applauding our great God.

Where clapping in our worship services is concerned, you may have experienced a conflict in your own heart similar to the one I’m about to describe. There have been times when I — as a worshiper in the congregation — hesitated to clap after a song because I wasn’t sure exactly why I should be clapping, and I didn’t want to do it without conviction. As excellent as the musicians and singers who led the song may have been, I knew it wasn’t really appropriate in the context of our gathered worship of God to applaud the efforts of the worship team. But, neither was my heart fully engaged in awe of God’s splendorous grace that we’d just sung about. I wasn’t considering HIS applause-worthiness and therefore my heart was not convinced to compel my hands to clap.

I’m sure that there are many in our congregations who are experiencing a similar conflict of interests in their own hearts. We have the opportunity to lead them by our example and through exhortations that encourage them to understand why it’s appropriate for us to eagerly applaud our Lord. When we sincerely contemplate who He is and what He’s done for us as we’re singing about who He is and what He’s done for us (because, let’s admit it, there are times when our lips are moving, but our hearts are dull and unresponsive to the grace we’re singing about), our hearts should desire to applaud the great name of the Lord—the name by which we are saved!

Convinced of His worthiness of all praise, we should desire to openly and exuberantly celebrate His great grace and love demonstrated to us in sending His only Son to suffer and die in our place. These appropriate heart responses, if we allow them to, may compel us to respond with our whole bodies in sincere worship of the Lord, who is entirely and eternally most worthy of all praise, glory and honor.

Together, let’s freely applaud His great name and celebrate His great love when we gather in worship.

Psalm 47:1-2—Come, everyone! Clap your hands! Shout to God with joyful praise! For the Lord Most High is awesome. He is the great King of all the earth.

Top photo courtesy Sojourn church deacon of photography Chuck Heeke

7 Reasons People Won’t Follow You On Twitter

Occasionally I hear from Twitter users who wish more people would follow them. Of course, many other users could care less about their follower count — they either don’t want to join the conversation, or they only want to follow a small group of people. But if you’re among those who either want to grow your Twitter audience or at least increase the percentage of people who return your follow, examine these seven reasons why I (and probably many others) are less likely to follow you:

No Bio, or No Photo

It is lazy to leave your bio/profile blank. If you want people who don’t know you to follow you, then give them a reason. If you’re a worship leader who wants to follow and be followed by other worship leaders online, then write “I’m a worship leader at ______ church” in your bio. If you’re a stay-at-home mom who blogs about topics that you believe would be of interest to other stay-at-home moms, then include this information in your bio.

On top of that, not having a profile photograph makes you look like a spammer. If you’re not including your photo for a safety reason, at least upload some kind of picture. If nothing else, draw a stickman, take a photo of it on your phone, and upload that to your profile. Even that would be better than the generic Twitter “egg.”

You Tweet About Yourself Too Much

As I said in my Social Media Marketing for Independent Music Bands & Artists, there is nothing wrong with tweeting links to your music, or blog posts, sermons, or whatever else you have. But don’t do it all the time. Don’t even do it the majority of the time. And use common sense when it comes to tweeting personal info and observances. It’s fine to tweet about a great restaurant meal, especially if you want local followers to visit the restaurant. But few people want details and photos of every meal you eat, or your running commentary on your favorite TV shows.

You Use A Validation Service

Occasionally I attempt to follow someone who is using a validation service. I get an email asking me

All About Worship: Wisdom Moon Talks AAW, Songwriter’s Cafe, & more

One of the best developments for worship leaders, songwriters and ministries in the past several years has been the growth of All About Worship, a resource that exists to equip, encourage and inspire worship leaders and their teams. Kristen and I are thankful for these AAW ressources — a website, podcast, and a series of free compilation records, featuring the music of worship leaders from here, there and everywhere. And for songwriters, AAW has launched the Songwriter’s Cafe and the Worship Writers Network.

You’d think that all of this must be the product of a major media company, but it started as the grassroots effort of one worship leader named Wisdom Moon. It now includes a team of leaders who have caught the vision and are taking it to new places, most recently with the launch of a digital magazine. I caught up with Wisdom for this installment of the My Song In The Night interview series, about how AAW got started, how he keeps it going, and how each of the features and web properties benefit worship leaders and songwriters from churches around the world.

Bobby Gilles: Why did you found All About Worship?

Wisdom Moon: I love sharing this story. Over seven years ago I received an iPod as a Christmas present. As a result, I discovered the world of podcasts. Naturally, as a worship leader, I searched for podcasts that specifically focused on worship ministry. At that time there weren’t that many podcasts out there in general. I found a couple of worship podcasts, but decided to give it a try myself…not just because I love playing with new technology, but because I wanted to help equip, encourage, and inspire other worship leaders.

I had some recording gear, so I taught myself how to podcast and the first month we had over 100 listeners! It is amazing to see something I started as a little “hobby” grow into a ministry that reaches folks across the globe.

Bobby Gilles: All About Worship has so many helpful features and properties – from website to podcast, compilation records, a digital magazine and more. What came first? And how do you decide when to branch out into a new format or medium?

Wisdom Moon: It was originally just a monthly podcast. I didn’t even have a website until later on. Eventually, I launched the website and we started adding more and more resources to the site.

Last Fall we released the AAW Collective, Volume 1. We released the first issue of our digital magazine last month (August 2012).

We also launched TheSongwritersCafe.com last January, so almost 2 years ago now.

It’s often hard for me to know when it’s the right time to launch something new. I tend to have a ton of ideas all the time (I’m an entrepreneur, can you tell?) and I’ve had to learn to set aside new ideas at times because it wasn’t the right timing, and sometimes just let new ideas die because it didn’t line up with what God’s called me to do.

Usually, it comes down to 3 things:

1. Is God calling me to do this?
2. Do I have time to devote to this?
3. Do I have the resources to pull it off?

Obviously, if I am 100% convinced that #1 is a yes, then I don’t really worry about #2 and #3 because I know God will take care of that.

Bobby Gilles: How do you decide which artists to include on the All About Worship Collective compilations? How do you put them together?

Wisdom Moon: The AAW Collective is something we started more recently. It’s a free worship album that we hope is a great resource to local churches around the world.

I have a good relationship with all the major “worship” labels, so I typically work with them to feature a few songs from their artists. I also have a big heart for indie artists and songwriters, so up until the current volume, I’ve featured songs by indie artist friends of mine. To me, relationship is key. It’s not just about great songs, but I want to know that the person who wrote it has godly character.

We’ve received countless emails from indie artists about getting their songs on the Collective, but we just don’t have the manpower to be able to make it an open submission. So, we launched WorshipWritersNetwork.com to give indie artists a way to submit their songs for the Collective. Every indie artist you see on the current volume (4) is a part of WWN.

Bobby Gilles: Why did you decide to launch The Songwriter’s Café, rather than just keep “songwriting” as a forum on All About Worship?

Be A Sojourn Church Communications Intern!

Band of Bloggers seminar photo from 2012 Together for the Gospel Conference, taken by Sojourn Communications Intern Chelsey Scott

My church Sojourn has a robust internship ministry, headed by Pastor Jeremy Lineman. Interns learn through our theology/discipleship classes. They also serve the church through the specific ministry areas they choose. If this sounds good to you and if you have a background or interest in church communications, then apply by October 31 for the internships beginning February 1, 2013.

You’ll work with me (the Director of Communications) as well as Director of Media Chris Bennett, other interns, and the Sojourn communications team led by Lead/Founding Pastor Daniel Montgomery. Current interns include Chelsey Scott (photography, print layout/design) and Shepherd Ahlers (video/filmmaking). We’d be happy to have more interns in these areas. We’re also looking for interns in Web Maintenance (may include light web design work) and Social Media. Other possibilities include:

• Writing & editing
• Graphic design
• Administration/clerical

Pastor Jeremy advises interns on how to raise the necessary financial support, and he and works to see that we holistically develop leaders for the church and the world through shepherding and practical ministry experience.

• For more details on the internship program and application information, please download the intern packet here.
• Apply Online Here
• Recommendation Form

If you have any questions related to internships at Sojourn Church, please email us at internships@sojournchurch.com.

When Your Own Writing Disappoints You

It’s happened to all of us.  We have an idea that seems grand — even transcendent — in the mind. But once it is on paper, we feel like telling anyone who might read it, “I guess you had to be there.” There, meaning “the spot in my mind.”

Author/songwriter/Sovereign Grace pastor Stephen Altrogge says,

“One of my big principles is that I’m okay with writing trash. To be good at writing anything, you need to do it a lot. In the process of doing it a lot, you’re bound to write a lot of total garbage. So I’ve written lots of lame songs, sentences, and blog posts. And that’s okay. I think I’ve written some decent ones too. Some people get so hung up on being perfect that they never finish anything.”

I can identify. Whenever I write a song I think, “This is my best ever.” That’s just the euphoria talking. It might last a day; it might last a week. I obsessively read and listen to my new song, far beyond that which is helpful. Inevitably within a week, a reverse-euphoria sets in. I think “This is the worst song I’ve ever written. This is horrible. Maybe I’ve lost it. Maybe I’ll never write a good song again.”

A day or two later I realize I’ve read, listened and edited my demo so many times that I can’t see the forest for the trees. At this point I simply have to trust outside opinion, because I have no idea if the song is my best, my worst, or something in between.

And what if outside opinion confirms that my latest effort is middling or worse? In times like these I remind myself of a G.K. Chesterton quote:

“You could compile the worst book in the world entirely out of selected passages from the best writers in the world.”

Some of your songs will be better than others. This is true of everyone. Charles Wesley wrote 6500, most of which time has forgotten. And Fanny Crosby wrote 8000, the bulk of which even serious hymnologists never read or sing.

No one bats 1.000. Just keep trying. Meanwhile, ask yourself if you’re “filling your palette.” Good writers are good readers. Good songwriters are good listeners. And all good creatives have abundant curiosity.  Singer-songwriter/worship leader Allie Lapointe says,

“Fill your word palette by reading great prose and poetry. Fill your theological palette by studying the Word and listening to sermons. Fill your emotional palette by living life fully, listening to people’s stories, and fully engaging in your own. Fill your artistic palette by engaging in culture – attend concerts, art shows, and community events. Keep your idea radar up at all times – songs are hiding in people’s prayers, newspaper headlines, and Bible pages.”

Writer’s Block 2 photo, top, by Drew Coffman. Used via creative commons license.

Improve Your Lyrics By Watching This Free Songwriting Instructional Video

Watch this video on “Creative Writing,” part of the Berklee Music Open House video series. Caroline Harvey, an assistant professor in Berklee’s liberal arts program and a professional poet and performer, teaches about rhyme, metaphor, finding your voice, whether or not “obscure” lyrics are profound, and much more:

Why Sing Harmony?

More often than not, when we worship through singing in our gathered congregations we are accompanied by musicians that are playing chords—harmonies—on their instruments. This makes for a fuller, more enjoyable sound (as opposed to one instrument banging out a simple melody line for every song—think of a toy piano).  Our voices are instruments too. We have the potential and the opportunity to witness our harmony — our agreement in Christ to each other — as we blend differing vocal tones in beautiful harmonies that resonate in our ears and hearts.

When we sing harmonies together as we gather to worship our saving God, we’re not just filling out sound space, but we’re lending our voices in agreement with what we’re singing.  The word harmony means agreement and accord; harmonious relations. It signifies that we are united in our purpose and thought. We aren’t just singing mindlessly; we’re thoughtfully agreeing with each other regarding the words we’re singing.

It may seem that we’d be in greater agreement if we just sang one melodious note in unison. However,