Worship Leader Blog

Today was the first full day of workshops and stuff, and for me, it was songwriting day. I wasn't writing songs (though that would have been enormously cool, too)--I was attending workshops about songwriting. The first was a workshop on writing modern hymns by Keith Getty (who wrote "In Christ Alone" with Stuart Townend). I was very impressed with his heart for the church and for people in general. One Getty nugget (paraphrased): "Put words of substance in their (the worshipers') minds. And help them sing."

He also gave us a copy of a beautiful communion hymn that he co-wrote with his wife, Kristyn and Stuart Townend, titled "Behold the Lamb (Communion Hymn)." He played as the workshop attendees sight-read and sang (except for me, of course, because I'm a lame non-music-reader)--it was beautiful--spine-tinglingly so (if that's a word).

After that came a songwriting workshop with Laura Story (who wrote "Indescribable," made huge by Chris Tomlin. I actually had a few minutes to chat with Laura--she saw my name tag and noticed I was from Lawrence, KS, and she had played there with Andrew Peterson years ago. Cool. She was humble and real, and extremely encouraging to those of us who wonder whether we have anything of value to offer our congregations by writing songs. She had a lot of practical advice about collaboration and co-writing and such, too.

Finally, there was yet another songwriting workshop with Matt Redman ("Blessed Be Your Name," "Heart of Worship," "You Never Let Go" and many others). Redman is always funny, and he was generous and practical, and I'm very much looking forward to hearing him play tonight--in about 45 minutes he'll be doing the Night of Worship concert with Tenth Avenue North and One Sonic Society.

If I've got any gas left in my tank after the concert tonight, I'll recap later.

Keep it real.