Show notes
So welcome to the remnant revolution. I call it the circle of worship. And I don't know if there's a real meaning to it, but I just envision God imparting to you, you write it down, you come together with maybe a couple people or yourself, you put it together, you perform it. I join in on that. And we all praise back to God. So it's like, he's, he's like, here, Greg, I've got something I want you to sing to me. And when you do that, everybody joins in, and it's just a circle of His love to you. To us back to him.
That's one of the best teaching points about worship songwriting that I've ever heard. So at our next songwriting seminar, Gary, could you come speak?
Yeah, that'd be glad to
know. You'd only speak for three minutes unless you have other great. No, but no, seriously, the the circle that you described, that really is how you have to think of it now. There is where's my notes here? You know, there is, you know, there's songwriting craft involved, and not anybody can write a song
yourselves, so I shouldn't send you what I've written down then.
Well, no, it's not that. But my reading glasses on because I am of an unknown age, over 40 unknown age. Alright, so here, here's an example. You know, during this time of Coronavirus, and all of the shutdowns, you know, all of my all of my touring income, which is a substantial part of how I take care of my family, all of that those shows are on hold, all of that income is gone. And I don't know when it will come back. And, you know, this presents a sudden, difficulty. And at first, I was afraid, but not in a way where I would go, Oh, I'm afraid, you know, let's look up three scriptures against fear. It was more like, what am I going to do? You know, but behind all that was fear? Well, you know, some, you know, some, yes, some 34. You know, I saw the Lord, I believe this is verse four, Psalm 34, I sought the Lord, and He answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. And that song begins, I will bless the Lord at all times, his praise will continually be in my mouth. And it's like, Okay, wow, how do I bless the Lord at all times, because that's what the Word says to do. And God is worthy of praise at all times. He has done so much good in our life, that when you're faced with something that suddenly bad, you can't. You can't forget that God has been good to you, and He will be good to you because he is good. So I had to kind of just over a period of days, just keep bringing this to the Lord, looking for answers. But mostly just like the psalm I sought the Lord and He answered me and he delivered me from all my fears. And so I took Psalm 91, which would be familiar to you know, people who studied about fear, you know, it would be familiar, and I just felt like I needed to sing it. And it ended up becoming a song because I brought it to two other writers that I've written with a lot, I brought it to the brought what I had to them, and together, we made it a full song. But really, I didn't start out saying, I want to write a worship song. For people to sing. I was simply saying, I need to sing Psalm 91, he that dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. And I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge. He is my refuge in Him, I will trust and the song goes on, and basically talks about every kind of danger you would ever face and just let you know that God will protect you. And so I just wrote a melody to it. I just took the actual words of Scripture and wrote a melody to it and I sang it over And over and over again. And I came back to it, you know, every day, for a period of days, and after a few days, I felt like the Lord said, you know, play this for this other songwriter in our church. And I did. And he said, Yeah, I think, I think I may have an idea for chorus for that. And then I got, I got with a third writer, and we all got together, and we wrote it. And it became a song called under the shadow of you. And it's beautiful song. It's gonna be great when we get to have our choir on it. But, you know, I it just it sounded something like this. I'll just play a brief bit of if that's all right.
I completed the circle, but because I got with other writers, in that case, and collaborated. But um, it just started as something that I needed. And so what the way he described that, that's a great way to describe it. And along the way, you have to, you know, have that songwriting gift from the Lord, you have to have developed your songwriting craft, then you have to have a commitment to collaboration. Because, you know, there's, there are things that God wants to speak through us individually. But usually, there's someone we're supposed to collaborate with, because God is speaking to his people. And if you notice, like a lot of the hit worship songs. They've got two and three, four riders on that. So
yeah, and I don't know. I mean, we're in Music City, we're in Nashville. So this is the place for the I've lived here all my life. But it looks like to me, it's turned into the millennial capital of the world. And all the churches that gravitate towards that audience. Nothing wrong with that, but I mean, very vibrant, young groups. And there was the song, you know, the song The Blessing by Coby Cody Barnes. And that's a song that, you know, you just look and they talk about how it started and all that. But it's gone worldwide, which is amazing, because other churches have picked it up those they're blessing UK, there's blessing South Africa, blessing Pittsburgh, and they're all you know, in this time that we're in, you know, we haven't lost the car, because now the car's gone into multiple phases singing on a computer screen, which I think is pretty cool. How do you see that? That way that now, churches have come together, they're worshiping, they're, they're feeding off of one another, you know, somebody writes a song, like a pick it up. And it just, it seems like some anointed movement of whether it's a song or, you know, a couple of different songs or whatever. But, you know, I guess, looking at that we would we tend to get pigeon framed and saying, well, that's worship, you know, look at that worship. Well, in a way it is because we're all singing to God, if it's scripturally based, and so how does that how do you think church or worship is going to change or is it going to change because of the way we're doing things now? I don't know. I don't
Greg Hagan 10:02 feel like I have a good sense of, I'm still, I'm still trying to understand how God wants to use me with where things are at. So I don't really have a good sense of necessarily where it's going. But I know that what's amazing about God is the 1000s and 1000s. And that just in the English language alone, think about how many 1000s and 1000s of good and useful songs have been written through the centuries. It's amazing. And it seems like in every awakening, every revival, every significant gospel movement, the people that really believe that movement, usually write hymns as well along with their messages and things like that. And you know that the hands that really stand the test of time, usually are songs that come out of revivals or awakenings, or, you know, gospel, gospel movements. And so I think that in our day, we just have to look at, you know, not just what is a good worship song? But what is God doing or desiring to do through our generation? And when I say generation, I'm Generation X. I don't mean just Generation X, I mean, all of us alive at the same time, this generation of generations. You know, what is God doing right now, because it's not, you know, the last great awakening that I believe the scripture prophesies before the end. It's, it's not going to be just young people, you know, it's not going to be just millennials. It's not going to be just the old the wise, you know, it's going to be much like you saw on the day of Pentecost, and where the Apostle Peter is explaining to the crowd, this is what the prophet Joel prophesied old, young men, women, servants, you know, not just not just the wealthy and the elites, but even down to the serving classes, everybody. This is what was prophesied by the prophet Joel, and what happened on the day of Pentecost, as big as that was the prophecy of Joel, of an outpouring of the spirit in the latter days, there's another one yet to come before the very end. And because Jesus said, this gospel will be preached in the whole world as a witness, and then the end will come. And we're not there yet. We're not at a point where, where we really have, you know, preach the gospel to the whole world. The early disciples, they certainly reached their known world in their day, and saw amazing results. But that's been 2000 years, man. So what is what is Jesus doing through our generation? And what are the songs that need to come out of it? So if you're, if you're trying to find out, where's worship going, I would ask, What is God desiring to do in this generation? Is there a great awakening? Is there a great outpouring of a spirit? Is there a great gospel publication that is going to go worldwide, and the songs are going to flow out of that there's always songs written kinda like, you know, that that warrant attached to big movements, that always happens, but but really look at the movement of the spirit in the earth and and know that that's where the worship.
It's good, it's good. Well, that's, I was listening to the pasture pastor in the UK that organized the blessing UK, which is 65 churches came together. And he was just talking about, he heard of it from the saint, I think it's the Pittsburgh blessing where they just went on, created it and, I mean, it was organized so quickly because it spoke to just God blessing his people. And it was interesting to hear his story, you know, on the other side of the pond, as they say, to hear that, that, you know, that side of the world is catching is got some of the same sentiments and thoughts of where we're at church was essentially in the here. Or Greg, I think it's about wraps up our Tom here in a, you know, is there any last word you can give us with just looking at worship and how we are to carry on what what? Something that might help us to kind of keep that in frame. When you were talking one quick question, though. You were talking about hymns and worships our homes a little different than what? Because I'm thinking in my mind a worship song. Well, that's uh huh. You know, you got the guitar, you got the piano, that's worship. But when we sing, you know, some of the hymns that we've done, that just that just brings back some, some good old feelings, too. Are we writing hams today? Yes, are we are I'm just missing where the hymns are being written.
We are writing hymns today. And I think, to define what is a hymn, it's kind of like you either need to go real specific or very broad. And I can do both of him quite simply, and very specifically, is just a poem set to music. So a hymn is a poem about God set to music. But if you kind of go with Ephesians, chapter five, verse 18, to 20, give us a really well-rounded prescription for New Testament worship. It says, number one, don't be drunk with wine, I think that's, that's a great place to start worship. So it starts, you know, don't be drunk with wine, because that is wasteful, or uses a fancy word dissipation, but it just means you're wasting your time. God has something better, instead of being drunk, be filled with the Spirit, singing or speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, making melody in your heart to God, and giving thanks always at all times, for in every situation, to God in the name of Jesus. So psalms means the actual, scriptural songs. So worship, dive into the songs, read them, speak them, sing them, set them to music, use them as part of your worship, and then hymns. hymns, I think, are songs that are written that are theologically accurate, that can stand the test of time, even when musical styles change. musical styles change quickly. And then spiritual songs to me mean two things. Number one, it means songs that are very fresh and current, like, bless the blessing, like a raise a Hallelujah, things that are very fresh and current, because they speak by the Spirit to something that's right now, you may not sing them want to sing them every day for six years, you may wear that out because they're kind of turns a corner and the spirit is speaking, some new things. So spiritual songs are our fresh, current songs that speak to immediate situations. But spiritual songs are also songs, that as we're baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit, He gives us a vocabulary of praise that is unique. And that is very specific. So we can sing whether in the secret place or if properly LED, we can sing in the gathering place spontaneous songs. So you see, with multiple different churches that do recordings, you know, they'll have their prepared song, right, and then they'll have a spontaneous after that. And so, you know, I think Ephesians tells us psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, and that keeps us well rounded. And so I would just say, kind of as a parting thought. A lot of people seem like they know a lot about worship, and they have a lot to say about worship. Then you can get bogged down in all the details of how much there is to know. But just remember this. Worship is loving God, with your whole life, in everything you do. The Bible can tell you ways to do that. ways that are pleasing and honorable to God. But don't make worship more complicated than it is. It simply is my life, Romans 12 123 surrendered to God as a living sacrifice. Everything I have belongs to him, although I belong to him. My future belongs to him, my life and my time is in his hands. So he's the Lord. And I'm glad and blessed to be part of his people. He is my father. I'm glad I'm blessed to be this child. And Jesus is my Lord and King and I am honored to follow in everything. So don't make it more complicated.
Amen. All right. Well, Greg, I appreciate you really taking the time to talk to me about worship. It's been wonderful. We appreciate it. Thank you, Greg. And that'll do it for this episode. Until next time. Thanks again for listening. And if you liked what you heard, please leave a comment or rating on iTunes. This helps us get heard by more people. Don't forget to share it with your friends and family. Check out the show notes for more information. If you have a question or want to be a part of the show, leave a message at WWE dot remnant revolution.org. Until next time,
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
Our TOPPODCAST Picks 
Stay Connected
