Songwriters’ Forum

Today was tons of fun. We had practice this morning to get ready for our services tomorrow and this afternoon I hosted a forum for people in our church who are interested in songwriting. Craig Douglas, worship pastor at The Meeting House in Oakville, and Joel Auge, an incredible songwriter and worship leader that you will be hearing about later this year, came to co-host the day with me.

We had about 20 people altogether and covered some really good material. This was very much a “Songwriting 101″ type of an event and the main purpose was really just to gauge the interest level with people in our congregation.

Here’s some of the topics we covered today:

• Song structures – Verse/Chorus, AABA, AAA
• Taking songs from inspiration to completion
• Importance and value of co-writing
• Writing while living “in the valley”

All in all it was a great day. We had an awesome range of people there – jr. and sr. high students, adults, worship team members, people who are creative but not musical – and I think we’ve begun moving down a road that is going to bring some musical blessings to our congregation. I’m excited about that!!

A couple of resources I used to put the content together were “God Songs” by Paul Baloche and Jimmy & Carol Owens and a DVD from Vineyard Worship called “Songwriting For Worship.” If you’ve got people in your congregation who are interested in learning more about songwriting for congregational worship, these two spots are good places to start.

How are you developing songwriters in your church?