To Worship Leaders

The other day I was fortunate enough to attend SongDiscovery in the Round in Nashville, TN, a songwriting conference for worship leaders. I didn't know exactly what to expect. The line up of artists and speakers was incredible, so I knew that whatever it was like it'd be good. Jennie Lee Riddle (the lady that penned Revelation Song) was one of the teachers. I was in her workshop on writing songs for the church. She told us that our calling as song writers is to serve the church, the Bride of Christ. I'm sure most of us in the room had walked in thinking something different about ourselves from that. She made the statement that, "the Bride of Christ is not a walking billboard for our creativity." This laid me low. She wasn't only talking about the songs we write for our church's to sing. She was talking about everything we lead our congregations to say and do. As worship leaders we're putting words in their mouths. Those words better be good, and true. Glenn Packiam asked us the question in one of the early sessions, "if your church based their theology on the songs you sing on Sunday morning, what would that theology look like?" The fact is, most of us do base our theology on the songs we sing. Do you see the weight of responsibility on our shoulders? We're not playing games, trying to pick songs that elicit the greatest response, or worse, our desired response. We're giving the the church the words to sing to the God who has redeemed them, and called them by name. Kyrie eleison.