In this video, Jimi Williams shares his thoughts on writing songs for your church.
Here are a few main points from Jimi’s explanation:
Jimi Williams: I’m a big fan of churches writing for their communities, but there are things that you need to be concerned about and pay careful attention to if you choose that you want to write songs for your church.
First, make sure there is a gifting there. Share your music with people and ask for objective feedback on your songs. Don’t plan for your mom. She’s always going to tell you that you’re great. Plan for people you’re friends with, other band members, etc. Ask them for honest feedback. Do you think this is something the church would engage with? Plan to share your songs with your pastor. Ask him to look over the lyrics. Is there anything in here that would be confusing to people or is theologically incorrect?
Make sure you’re presenting quality songs. If you’re writing for your church, you don’t have to write the next “10,000 Reasons” to be valuable in writing for your church. I believe there are songs that are written for a specific community. I believe there are songs that are written for cities or regions. I believe there are songs that are written that God takes and spreads all over the world. All of those songs have value and purpose. I encourage you to write for your church. Find that song, that voice from your church, maybe something specifically that’s going on in your community. Maybe there’s a message series your pastor’s preaching that you could write a special song around.
We want to make sure the songs we’re leading our church in are true about God, who Jesus is and very clear in the gospel. They are musically uplifting and allow us to get our hearts around and sing them in a way that has emotion in it. As you’re writing, craft and work hard at writing those great songs. Don’t be afraid to introduce those songs to your church.
