Why Won't Churches Use More In-family Music, Part Two

Yesterday in the comments section of my original post on this subject, Milli said that perhaps more churches would allow their members to compose songs if they had the vision for it.

This is a hope and a long-range goal of Sojourn Community (we're SBC, by the way). Our overall desire for the capital "c" Church is a reformation and reinvigorated emphasis on church music -- not a return to older styles necessarily, but a return to the importance in which church music was held and the role that the Church, even going back to the New Testament, held regarding music being used to glorify God, to sing a new song, to tell forth, edify, instruct, etc.

What the worship arts pastor of Sojourn and I have talked about is the hope that it would be a place where people could learn by its example -- even other communities, as well as our own church plants, would learn the value of nurturing and raising up songwriters and musicians to create music indigenous to their own communities, that glorifies God directly in addition to speaking to the needs of the individual, local congregation. To that end we try to develop and nurture as many songwriters as we can, some of whom will end up leaving Sojourn to start local plants, be part of foreign missions, or (since many of our people are from other parts of the country, here in Louisville for awhile to attend university or Southern Seminary) back to their home towns or to whatever part of the country God leads them to, and will take their songs and talents with them.

Showcases will eventually be a big part of that -- quality showcases that could be promoted to other churches as "new music for the Church" nights -- again, not just so that some worship minister in another church would say, "those Sojourners write good songs. I'll use some of them," which is fine, but a much larger, "look what God can and will do through local congregations to create vital, localized songs," and to cause them to place a similar emphasis on music in their congregations, and to look to us for guidance if need be.

Right now our local emphasis is on training and workshops (the next workshop occurs this Saturday). And we have the beta version of our Worship Songwriting Webpage, which provides links to many internet articles and home pages covering every aspect of songwriting.

This of course is a huge personal goal of mine -- not only to get my own music out, but to encourage writers everywhere to create art for the universal Church, for the glory of God and for the admonition, instruction, and edification of its members.