with Him . And then to bless the one we ’ re worshiping . It ’ s so interesting how sometimes a musician , or anybody for that matter , can be carrying that heart that ushers everybody into His presence .
[ WM ] That ’ s right ! Within many churches so much has changed over the past ten years . The pull of the world and culture often may constrict real worship from happening . What do you consider the basics that all worship leaders should adhere to every week in their preparation and act of leading worship ?
[ Meredith ] I think that ’ s a great question . And I feel like it ’ s so true because there is such a pull to be worship stars , like you said , with the quotes . When , really , the heart of it has nothing to do with any of those things . So , for me , I ’ m often telling the worship leaders themselves , what are the songs in your own personal time that make your heart come alive ? Are you having personal time with Him ? What is He saying to you ? What is moving your heart towards to connecting with Him ? And you ’ re filtering that on the stage .
It ’ s never about the stage . In fact , I asked the Lord a long time ago , I asked him , I said , “ Lord , I don ’ t ever want my worship times on stage to be more powerful than my worship times alone . Because I don ’ t want to crave the stage more than I want to crave my time with You .” And it has changed the way that I worship and what I long for , because I feel like He ’ s answered that . He ’ s like , “ Nope , I ’ m not going to let you crave that ”. And yes , there ’ s a power in us all coming together , but it can never replace the time alone with Him .
[ WM ] It ’ s been said that real worship is simply sung prayer . You released a tune about a year ago called “ Sail Away ’. It ’ s a beautiful and artistic prayer set to music , and it ’ s part of your SongLab ministry . Please tell us some background on the song and SongLab itself .
at UPPERROOM in Dallas . I was a worship director there for seven years . And , really , we learned how to write songs there and steward the moments the Lord was doing in our community through our prayer room and through our worship . And so , we started writing songs . So , when the Lord pulled me out of that and said , “ I want you to …”. It was one of my laying down moments . It was one of the hardest things I ’ ve ever done to lay something down that I loved so much .
And so later on the Lord asked me to start this thing called SongLabs and invite other worship leaders to come , and for me to just pour out all that I had learned over worship and songwriting in one weekend . And so , worship leaders come from all over the country together to do a weekend and just like song write , worship together , and just talk about the heart of songwriting in the first place .
And it ’ s been an amazing thing . We wrote that song at a SongLab . And we always start the writing session with , “ What ’ s the Lord doing in you ?”
What is He doing currently , right now , in this moment ? And we wrote that one because there ’ s those times when you are truly just like , I know there ’ s something that the Lord wants to do , and I don ’ t know how He ’ s going to do it . But He is the journey , He is the prize . And so , I ’ m just going to have my hands open in worship waiting for him to blow me wherever I ’ m going to go , like blow that wind to lead us where I ’ m supposed to go .
My life first , my husband and my life first , has been you hear the sound , you don ’ t know
where it ’ s coming from , you just wonder where it ’ s going , like the wind . And I ’ m butchering this scripture right now . But so is everyone born of the spirit .
And so it ’ s just that longing to follow the spirit wherever He needs . Even if it ’ s not easy , and even if it doesn ’ t make sense at the moment .
[ WM ] Meredith , you ’ ve been a part of so many great songs , but I want to focus on your new release . Tell us about the project and the song , “ You Remain ”.
[ Meredith ] “ You Remain ” is from the album The Turning . And so , The Turning album , ah , there ’ s so many reasons that I labeled it The Turning , but I ’ ll go into “ You Remain ”, the song . Ellysa and I wrote that one together , she ’ s one of the main worship leaders at The UPPERROOM . And she came with part of the song to me . She was making a transition , again , laying something down to go somewhere that didn ’ t make sense at the time . One of her songs was blowing up and our church was starting to blow up in Dallas , in the sense of like it ’ s just the spotlight was on it , and she was one of the main worship leaders . And the Lord asked her to go to this little bitty startup church in Denver . And we thought , “ That doesn ’ t make sense at all ”, but she was like , “ But I ’ m going to follow , regardless ”.
And so she started writing that . She brought it to me . We started writing it together . We wrote that bridge , ( sings ) “ When I see your face , I ’ ll wish I ’ d given more away . It ’ s that same , I ’ ll never , Lord don ’ t let me waste a trial , don ’ t let me miss the chance to praise .” And so that became kind of an anthem . Little did I know that not too much long after , that the Lord was going to ask me to lay down The UPPERROOM . So that song became my anthem , over and over I sang that , “ When I see your face , I ’ ll wish I ’ d given more away . It ’ s that I won ’ t regret the things I lay down for you Lord ”.
[ Meredith ] Yeah , for sure . Well , SongLab kind of started when I led the worship ministry
You Remain
And so that song got me through that season that has just been like my prayer room , my