Sojourn Worship Songwriting Community, pt. 2

At a Mindy Smith concert in Headliners, I met a couple people who had participated on that old songwriting thread. From there I ended up meeting several others, including two of Sojourn's main songwriters, Jeremy Quillo and Rebecca Dennison.

Everyone I talked to remembered the thread and was still favorably disposed to the idea of a forum or regular series of meetings. No one wanted to facilitate, however. In general, everyone was already spread too thin, either having recently gotten married, started a family, gone back to school, or any number of responsibilities. A couple people even said, informally, "Why don't you start something up?"

I was loathe to jump right in, though. My own personality has been slightly distrustful of, and cautious around, newcomers who immediately swoop into a business, church, or social group and start changing things around. I believe in "look before you leap." A person should quietly lay the groundwork, forge relationships, and prove himself. At the very least he should prove he isn't going to be a flash in the pan; here today, gone tomorrow.

Also, my marriage had just ended a few months previous. I was still reeling from that, and I was hesitant to overextend myself or even to put myself forward as a model/ leader of anything. I needed to ground myself in solid Biblical teaching and relationships like never before, and pray for the Lord to lead me in whatever way I should go. Shortly before the divorce, I had started attending a Bible college with hopes of eventually entering into the preaching ministry. After the divorce I clearly heard God say, "I'm not going to let you go that route, but I have other ways in which I would like you to impact the Church and the culture if you'll humble yourself, let Me renew and restore you, and not run ahead of My plans."

So with these things in mind I put the idea of an official songwriting community on the backburner. I did pitch the idea to a couple more people at Sojourn, always hoping that someone else would say, "That's a great idea. I'll take control." What I always heard was, "That's a great idea. You should do something about it."

I continued to work on my own songs. I'd grown up in church, but we never did what you'd call "worship songs" or "praise choruses." Not even psalms set to new music. We did hymns, gospel standards, and newer examples of what Harold Best calls "witness music," music designed to talk about what God has done in the singer's personal life. Think about the kind of music you hear on Christian radio (although much of it is substandard) and you'll get the idea. It's not exactly the same lyric style as worship writing, so I had to struggle to understand what makes a good worship song. Jeremy Quillo was especially helpful to me in this regard.

I eventually met with Mike Cosper, Worship Arts Director at Sojourn, to play some of my songs for him and get an idea of where I stood developmentally, and where I might fit in as a songwriter. I didn't really want to be a worship leader, in front of people -- again, partly because of having recently gone through a divorce, but also in large part because Sojourn already has so many singers -- great singers, at that. I believe in the saying, "If you've got two people doing the exact same thing, then one of them isn't necessary." So I told Mike that, although I have led worship before, I'm really most interested in working behind the scenes as a writer.

He listened to several songs, had some comments. He liked some better than others. Didn't think any of them were bad, but a couple stood out as being more "ready" than the rest. And actually, the last song I played him turned out to be the one that got him excited.

I almost didn't share it, because it was a bluegrass-infused tune. Everyone knows that bluegrass isn't a very popular sound in the modern Church. I just took a chance in playing it because Sojourn has a reputation for musical pluralism and eclecticism, which I'm sure is due in part to Mike's leadership -- or is at least encouraged in this regard through Mike's leadership. Plus, I liked the lyrics, which are based in large part on the Athanasian Creed -- a forceful statement of the doctrine of the trinity. And I figured, "What the heck. I'll just throw everything on the wall and see what sticks." The song was called "One Almighty God." Mike asked me to develop the verses a little more, which I did, and then he asked for a copy of it so one of his worship leaders could learn it for performance at a later time.

Jeremy helped me develop some other songs a few months later. I was still writing -- some worship songs, some ... not. I never know what to call it. I know the easiest way is to say "secular songs," but the whole sacred/ secular dichotomy has become ridiculous. Anyway, I was still writing, but still yearning for a close-knit community of writers who would share, collaborate, encourage, and advise. One of Sojourn's essential beliefs is that we were created for community. I believe artists should be in community with other artists. This is, in general, the feeling among the artists I've talked with at Sojourn, but again, no one felt the specific call to spearhead a songwriting fellowship at this time.

TO BE CONTINUED