Strength, Depth, and Transformation

I’ve seen how songs can move people’s hearts in ways that words alone don’t. We’ve all experienced transcendence, awe, immanence, or repentance in a worship service or while hearing a song.

Here’s Bono’s experience:

“Words and music did for me what solid, even rigorous, religious argument could never do: they introduced me to God. Not belief in God, more an experiential sense of God.” (The Book of Psalms -Bono)

To see that kind of effect through your songs, I want my ministry to help you grow in three ways: strength, depth, and transformation.

• Strength: to strengthen your skills. The more skilled you are, the better your songs will be and the clearer they will communicate. And the more strength you have, the higher you’ll lift that quality and effectiveness.

• Depth: to teach what has been well thought through. I love to study and explore what a thing is really about -what makes it tick. I love discovering and distilling the effect and application of particular techniques.

AND, I want to help songwriters write songs of depth -songs of substance. To be freed and empowered to move beyond imitation, and write songs that will do what those songs did for Bono.

Strength and depth are so important, but what’s most crucial is…

• Transformation: to transform hearts. We all need our heart and character transformed by Jesus. Well, I know I do -the older I get the more I realise how frustratingly/humiliatingly hidden my sins and motivations are. Yet our Good Shepherd cares for us and He and knows what we need. Let us entrust ourselves to the great surgeon of our hearts: the Holy Spirit.

This is the first of my weekly newsletters exploring the intersections of worship, art, songwriting, leadership, and the Bible.

I invite you to join me on this journey of strengthening, deepening and transformation.