Sojourn Music

It is no exaggeration to say that if Sojourn did not encourage and nourish songwriters to develop new psalms, hymns and spiritual songs this website would have little reason for existence. The music contained in the five albums we’ve produced so far would be enough for one EP, perhaps, and there would be a hole in the music repertoire of Sojourn’s corporate worship gatherings.

So yes, Sojourn falls in the small but growing group of churches that encourages the development of new music indiginous to local communities and prays that God will raise up songwriters from within their midst, just as He will raise up faithful Christians to lead children’s classes, serve in mercy ministries, commit to overseas missionary opportunities and to serve as community group leaders, deacons and elders.

How does one become a “worship songwriter?” There are many views. On the one hand, there are groups like the “Enter The Worship Circle” musicians, who say “Anyone can write a worship song” and encourage a “just do it” method that begins with studying the Psalms, asking the Lord to show you His heart as you meditate on the passages, then picking up an instrument, strumming chords as you sing the words of psalms. You keep repeating them until new thoughts come to you. You then sing these new thoughts and phrases and “let your worship carry you” into a new song.

Then there are those in modern hymnody who advocate for extensive training and awareness in poetry, music and theology, such as Timothy Dudley-Smith, who tells Paul Westermeyer in “Tongues of Fire: Profiles in 20th Century Hymn Writing,” that what he finds alarming in modern worship songwriting is “The apparent belief that anyone with a guitar can dash off a ‘worship song’ fit to be sung by a congregation to almighty God, without effort, consultation, or revision — and often without grammar, syntax, meter, or rhythm either!”

Now, the sides are not polar opposites — no one would accuse the artists in the Enter The Worship Circle series of composing without effort or rhythm, for instance. But they do point to different ways of going about the business of “singing a new song” to the Lord, just as you see differences in the methodologies of Keith Getty and Stuart Townend as opposed to Matt Redman, or Caedmon’s Call as opposed to many songs that have come from the “Passion” movement.

There is plenty of room for differences in style as long as we keep in mind that worship songs are in part exercises at spiritual formation — what we sing is what we believe, and as such, worship songwriting should contain both objective truth about God and subjective response from our own hearts towards his holiness, his justice, his love and mercy.

It has been said that hymns often lean towards “objective truth” and away from “subjective response,” whereas modern worship songs and praise choruses are nearly all “subjective response” with little “objective truth.” And like stereotypes often are, there is an element of truth there. We could discuss many songs that fit these profiles.

But modern hymns like Getty and Townend’s “In Christ Alone,” and praise songs like Redman’s “Blessed Be Your Name,” show that truth and response work hand-in-hand regardless of the structural design the writers used to compose their songs. This then is the first order of business for a songwriter — to immerse yourself in the objective truth of scripture, the gospel message that God is holy, we are sinners, and Jesus is our salvation, and to respond to this message in song just as we must respond in every area of our lives: with thankfulness, praise and desire to serve alongside our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.

When this foundation is in place, questions of style and structure will not loom larger than they should (and can thus be explored in proper context) and we are free to use the artistic strengths that God has blessed us with to compose the kinds of songs that we are uniquely suited to compose. We are passionate in our subjective responses but we are careful to present the objective truth of scripture in a way that neither adds to — nor takes away from — God’s Word.