July 17 2008
Congregational Songwriting: the submissions are here
Tagged Under : church, lyrics, songwriting, worship
A few weeks back I wrote a post here about an idea I had for our church and that was to let our congregation write a worship song, literally. This was sort of a group songwriting exercise taken to the extreme. I value worship songs that exposit biblical truth and also draw upon life experience to bring it into context. I see value in both and try not to use one to the exclusion of the other. The problem is that when I’m the only one writing songs for the church the life experience that I write through might not be relateable for others or might not necessarily impact others in the way it impacts me. This is why biblical truth in worship songs should be paramount and not the other way around because the only thing we find true unity in is the Holy Spirit.
So I wanted to give the church a chance to give testimony to the mighty works he’s accomplished in each person’s life that others might not know about. Thus giving glory to God and magnifying Him for the great works right before our eyes. I asked the church a question and requested responses from the congregation. The question was, “How has God’s grace changed your life specifically?” and here are some of the amazing responses I received:
- Hearing the cry from the depths of my soul, God met me in my dark place and He saved me with His most honest embrace.
- I lived a life full of shame, now God is using me to bring others out of a life of shame through His grace.
- God saved me from my self destructive ways and is showing me His way.
- I lay weak in the hands of grace and receive His strength.
- God showed me His heart and healed a life full of pain, tears and fears.
- Shame welcomed my sin, but it was God’s grace that lifted me up.
- In my self hate I gave myself away, but God’s grace came softly to me and drew me by love and set me free.
- God’s grace for me has drowned out the religious view I had of Him.
- A life of mistakes and pain dramatically transformed by a hand of grace, too big to understand, that’s my Jesus that’s my King.
- God’s grace has spared my life, literally.
Amen.
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I’m so excited to see how you shape all of these amazing testimonies of grace into a worship song! It’s going to be so powerful when we, as the body of Christ, get to worship Him through our own personal experiences of His grace. love it!
Here’s my submission for the bridge:
Throw your hands in the air
And worship like you just don’t care
and say “yeah yaaa”….now screammmmm!
Can I throw mine out here? I’ll summarize my life experience in one, lyrical sentence =):
You’re the love of my life, the only way. Jesus, you’ve forgiven my faulty ways, through night and day. Never will I literally live without you, for You alone are my God, merciful and true.