Want to Be a Better Worship Songwriter?

Zac HicksSongwriting, Worship Leading Tips, Worship ResourcesLeave a Comment

I love it when I find a good online destination that “free-sources” quality material to the public.  Last week, I highlighted Fernando Ortega’s post calling out modern worship to embrace a more lofty vision for songwriting.  If you are or aspire to be a songwriter, and if you agree with Ortega’s assessment and admonition, I can think of no better site that will serve as a resource for you than My Song in the Night.

Its masterminds are Bobby & Kristen Gilles, a husband-wife, songwriter-singer combo, who know well the sometimes disconnected worlds of songwriting, recording, writing, and church music.  It’s not easy to find individuals so evenly informed in all these areas.  Bobby & Kristen are part of Sojourn Community Church’s dynamic arts team in Louisville, KY.

BUT…the site is actually much more robust.  Bobby describes its goal as six-fold:

1.  Teach people how to write and share their testimony. I’ve also included Sojourn’s guidelines for writing the salvation testimonies that we share at our baptism services. 

2.  Show the ways in which I work with Sojourn Pastor Daniel Montgomery and his pulpit team to encourage interaction among our members with our sermon series, vision campaigns, scripture memory challenges and more.

3.  How we use social media, the arts and amateur photography at Sojourn to tell the story of our community, as a small part of God’s story.

4.  How your church members can use the Psalms as models for telling the story of God at work in their life, and express their longings, questions, and pain. 

5.  Show the ways in which I work with Sojourn Worship Pastor Mike Cosper to help our people see the full gospel in our weekly worship service liturgy, and their place in the gospel story.

6.  Songwriting instruction, from how to write simple scripture memory songs to the poetry mechanics behind hymn-writing, and how I’ve worked as a songwriting workshop coordinator to foster collaboration & community and train songwriters in the Sojourn Music community. 

Finally, the site has a theme song, recorded by the Sojourn band, based on a sermon by Charles Spurgeon and centered around Psalm 42:8, which says: “By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life” (niv).  You can get it for free through NoiseTrade.

 

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