Worship is not music, but music can be worship. God must love music, because the Bible says there’s a lot of it in heaven and invites us to
come before His presence with singing (Psalm 100:2.) If we use music as an expression of our love to the Lord, He is pleased, and we’re refreshed. God made us that way. Music feeds the soul as food feeds the body. Combining the power of the Word, the Holy Spirit and music is like a three-fold cord that is not easily broken. That’s why the worship movement today is so explosive; it feeds both spirit and soul. It fills a longing many of us didn’t even realize we had.

The Mystery of Music
To most people music is a mysterious thing and so are musicians. If you’re serious about your ministry as a musician, serious to the point that
you sometimes space out or forget to eat, you’ve probably discovered that your friends and folks worry about you. They don’t understand exactly what it is you do. As a Christian songwriter, especially a worship songwriter, what you do is lead people in expressing their love and worship to the Lord—honoring, adoring and venerating Him. You have the holy privilege of putting words into the mouths of God’s people—wonderful words that they might not have thought of saying to the Lord before. Or perhaps saying ancient words in a new way. It’s a precious privilege, to be valued and taken seriously. A songwriter can be a soul doctor, a healer. We’re handling nuclear, life-impacting material. So let’s handle it with awe, with reverence, with care, with thankfulness, with humility, and with joy. As we write, let’s hope among other things that our songs will:
Magnify the worth of God and bring Him pleasure. Teach the doctrinal truths of Scripture. Evoke a whole-hearted response to the revelation of God’s love and character. Inspire others to live their lives for the glory of God. Motivate others to know Him and enjoy Him.
Help others become more aware of His presence in their lives. If we’re going to suggest that the church, with its rich heritage of great
music, should use our songs in its holy mission, we had better make sure ours are as empowered as those we would have them replace.

Lord make us a holy people
Turn our hearts to righteousness again
Take away our sin
Fill our thirsty souls again

Visit us with the Holy Spirit
In the beauty of holiness descend
Like a mighty wind
Fill our thirsty souls again

Come like fire
Or come like the gentle rain
But fill our thirsty souls again

As we wait in the stillness
Come, Holy Spirit
Oh come

And fill our thirsty souls again
Fill our thirsty souls again
(Fill Our Thirsty Souls Again, from Heal Our
Land, by Jimmy and Carol Owens)

Shop Talk
Before we move on, let’s define a couple of terms we’ll be using:

1. What do we mean by a worship song? A song doesn’t have to be
congregational to be a worship song, but for the purposes of this discussion,
we’re defining a worship song as a song to be sung together
by a group of worshipers, or congregation.

2. In worship music lingo, a worship song is often referred to as a chorus,
regardless of how many sections it has. But since chorus can also mean
a repeated section of a song, we’ll try to use the term chorus only for
that. We’ll call a “worship chorus” a worship song. In conversation
you’ll probably continue to use the terms interchangeably.

Capture the Moment
Many of the most prolific worship song writers are worship leaders. But you don’t have to be a lead worshiper to write good worship songs, you
just need to be a worshiper. The best worship songs usually are not crafted for commercial purposes. Some of them, or at least the beginning “nuggets,” come when you’re not even trying to write a song.

Many of the best are born in church. The presence of the Holy Spirit is like oil, lubricating our spirits, causing music to flow. Maybe something in the worship— a word, a phrase, a line—sparks off something in you, and you continue singing your own worship phrases in your heart, spinning off into your own melody. When that happens, write it down! Write it down! Write it down! No, you won’t remember it, so use the back of the bulletin or your PDA or the trusty notepad that you always carry for such occasions. Later, you can take your inspired idea out and worship with it until more of it falls into place. Or sometimes the sermon sparks an idea. You think, ‘We need a song that says that. Even the title would make a good hook!’ It’s rare that you get more than about 15% of a song that way, but you may have enough for a great start. Thank the Lord for the nugget, save it and put it away for later.

Tuning In
Always have your antennae up. A large part of a songwriter’s job is to find and retrieve inspiration. Notice the way words are put together,
Darlene Zschech put it so well when someone asked what sparks a song in her. She said you read, or hear, or see something that causes passion and you go,“Hey!” That says it, Darlene. You go,“Hey!” You’re looking for that “Hey!”—that spark—that something, that gives birth to an idea that ignites the process of writing a song. The strength of that “Hey!” may well determine the strength of the song.

How Worship Songs Are Born, How They Sound, How They Will Sing.
Capture little phrases that will become hooks. You hear a good one and say to yourself,  “Hey, that could make a good song.” Then be a doodler; remember, write it down.  Get the heart, the human emotion from the nugget; that’s what makes the song work. Listen to what the people of God are saying when they pray or praise. It shows you what they need and how they feel. Try to incorporate these into your songs. Go ahead and open your eyes and jot down what somebody is praying. If you feel odd about doing that, be at peace. Somebody wrote
down what Moses prayed and Hannah prophesied. During some of our workshops Jimmy went through a stage when he felt he was getting too analytical, writing notes during worship times. He was concerned that he was missing out on the feeling of worship. But the Lord helped him to see that that was his calling, to study and be able to teach others, and that while he might miss out on some of the feelings of worship because of the busyness of his mind, what he was doing was an act of worship in itself.

Paul: Revival Fire Fall
Paul was at a Youth With A Mission meeting when people were shouting out prayers: “Pour out your Spirit, Lord!” “We lift up your name!” “Send your fire, Lord!” “Send revival!” “Fall on us, Holy Spirit!” And he heard in his mind the phrase, Revival fire fall! “Hey, that feels good in the mouth. It will sing great and it says something vital.” Paul wrote that song during the service and taught it to the people at the end. It capsulized what they had been praying. It became a theme song each night at the Brownsville Revival and spread from there all over the world. You’re writing for the moment. Capture a moment that gives you a subject and an emotion. Pull down something from Jesus. If nothing else it’s a good spiritual exercise. Find that nugget, pull it down. It’s like a little gift from heaven. It’s all from God, and it all goes back to God.