Next weekend (October 16-17), Global Tabernacle of David and Voice of the Bride will be holding a worship weekend here in NC. We have some opportunities to bless the community here, including a special night of worship and intercession at Center City church on Oct 16. Please be praying that all will go as the Lord desires, and that He will receive the glory due His Name. And if you are local and would like to be involved please reach out to us.
In preparing for the weekend, I, Carol, thought I might share with you a few of my thoughts concerning how I write worship songs, and how you, yourself, can participate more ‘thoroughly’ during times of worship. So here goes:
When I write, I usually start with a theme that has been touching my heart, almost always derived from the Bible. I love writing songs with words from the Word! I will get a general theme, or a specific line, then build the song ‘tone’ around that theme. If the song is a joyful song, the chords I choose will be happy and full of life! If the song is pensive, I will choose more ‘moody’ and thought provoking chords, as well as slow down the tempo of the song. There are different sounds for writing about faithfulness, hope, intercession, sadness, thankfulness, etc. One of my absolute favorite subjects to write about, is the holiness of GOD!!! This requires a very powerful chord progression that somehow conveys the concept of GOD’s holiness and how awesome and magnificent He truly is. Sometimes, I will write lyrics that aren’t from the Bible, but carry Biblical concepts. More often, I like to utilize verses about a concept, and go from there.
Sometimes the chorus will be written first, and sometimes the verses will come first. It’s always a little different. I find this initial writing to be easy. But filling out the entire song, beginning to end, and making everything work just right, takes more labor. On rare occasions, I will wake up singing a song phrase. I have finally learned to quickly sing the phrase into a voice recorder. This actually just happened to me this week, so I’m working on that particular song, as we speak! Sometimes, in my personal time of worship, a theme will emerge, and a phrase or verse along with it, and ‘voila’-we have a good start!
I bring this up because often, when we are in church or listening to music outside of church, we will find songs that we don’t know, or have never heard. Sometimes people are bothered by this, because they like singing only familiar songs. My word of encouragement to you is this; that song was new to everyone once upon a time….and you have to hear it to learn it. But even more than that, even if you don’t know the song or words, consider looking in your Bible at that very moment, and finding the Scripture that the song is based on. Read the passage while the song is going on. For sure, this will enrich your appreciation of the song. But more importantly, it will enrich your focus on the Lord—which is what worship is all about!
Lastly, something I frequently tell people, when I’m leading, is that, while you may not know the song initially, you can just look at the words and/or listen to the song, and agree with what it’s saying! Unknown song about the love of GOD, or the blood of Jesus? For sure, I can agree in my heart and honor and thank Him, even if I don’t know the song. Finally, you can always pray during the song. Pray for the lyrics of the song to be applied to those who don’t know the Lord, or those who may need comfort or encouragement, or to understand just Who the Lord is!!
So there ya go! I hope this encourages you the next time you are in worship, whether you are listening to hymns, or current worship songs. And may your times of worship unto the Lord, be enriched and full of His presence, as you step out and try to add to your own personal participation!
GOD BLESS YOU!!!
Love Wayne and Carol.
We have Carol’s past three albums, “Sovereign Lion”, “The Document”, and “Deep Blue Seed” digitally available online now. You can find them wherever you stream music (Apple Music, Amazon Music, Spotify, You Tube) under album titles or her name Carol Kiger-Rice. We hope to get her newer songs recorded and distributed in the near future.
