Songs of the People

As I mentioned Sunday, if we are not abiding in God (John 15:5), even in the songs we sing, our worship misses the mark. But we can also miss the mark when the songs don't sing the heart of our congregation.

Songwriting is an interesting pursuit. I have a friend in Nashville who described the process of writing a song like this: 1. This is hard. 2. This is awesome. 3. This is terrible. 4. I am terrible. 5. This is okay. 6. This is awesome. As with other art, the best songs are real, honest, and personal. They touch the hearts of others because they come from the heart of the songwriter. Often they are inspired, an expression of a response to something. For a follower of Christ, songwriting is often a response to God, whether it be a prayer, a lament, a praise, a petition, or simply a meditation or story of the world God has created. Songs are also an exercise in vulnerability. Art is subjective: it can be interpreted differently be different audiences, and you might have as many critics as fans of the song.

Writing worship songs (which for our purposes here we can define as songs meant to be sung corporately) adds another element into the songwriting process: the heart of a church. Worship songs aren't songs we simply like to sing: they serve a purpose. We gather to pray, lament, praise, petition, meditate, confess, worship. We select songs specifically for Sunday morning, and place them in the service specifically. Most importantly, we choose songs that we think our congregation needs to sing. There are many great worship songs out there, from yesterday and today. But our congregation, located in Lincoln, NE, made up of the people that call New Cov home right now, don't need to sing a majority of the songs available. We try select songs that fit our expression best, based on interactions we (the pastoral staff and worship ministry volunteers) have with our congregation, our own heart and prayers, and how God is speaking to us.

One of the songs we are introducing right now is called "In The River." I chose to introduce this song to the congregation because it speaks of finding life from the wellspring of the Holy Spirit living within us. It has themes of joy, goodness, and overcoming fear. What I learned yesterday is that, just as we try to pick songs that express our congregation's heart, one of the songwriters (Chris Quilala) polled many pastors to find out what songs their congregations needed to sing. The pastors responded that they needed songs of joy. You can watch Kim Walker-Smith, another singer-songwriter behind "In The River," talk about the origin of the song here.

What are the songs our congregation need to sing? What is God speaking to you, and what is your heart longing to sing to God?