ridiculously amazing podcasts and sermons that are readily available to us . Whatever you need to do to help you win this war against the entropy of not creating … do that .
[ Chris ] Don ’ t be afraid to be absurd . Most of the good ideas are right on the other edge of absurdity , so you kind of go through this weird section once you get there .
[ Brenton ] I like the idea of co-writing . Sometimes I get sent to co-write and then it puts you in another frame of mind . You ’ re like , well , what would this person want to sing about ? My buddy Paul Baloche and I were raised on Ron Kenoly . I call him Ron the Don Kenoly . And he was like the “ dude .” And he is the dude , no auto tune , no lyric projection , just let ’ s record this and go . But Paul wrote for Ron . He was like , “ Imagine Ron . What would Ron be doing ? He ’ d be walking around singing , “ Lift Him Up !””
I was co-writing with Lindy Coffer from the Circuit Riders last week . And these guys are in the throne room , they ’ re spending a lot of time in prayer . And I ’ m like , okay , “ Where is Jesus meeting these people ? How can I help and support and serve them in that ?” And that was helpful for me and maybe it was helpful for them . Only time will tell .
[ Frank ] So I ’ m going to give each of you one minute to say your final thoughts on songwriting . All these people watching this or reading this are going to write songs . The whole world sings . What ’ s your advice ?
[ Brenton ] It has been said to write a bunch of bad songs . Everybody ’ s like , the church needs a lot of good songs . Just write a lot of bad songs . Just write a lot of songs . Make it your goal this year to write at least four bad songs a month .
[ Leeland ] And just see what happens . Yeah , it ’ s very true . To add to that , I don ’ t know that I ’ ll always be , and I won ’ t always be an artist on a record label or probably touring around and playing music all the time . But I know that for the rest of my life , I will never stop writing and making music . That ’ ll always be a part of my life until the day that I can ’ t play guitar anymore . That ’ ll always be the part of my life … making music . It ’ s become a part of my walk with Jesus . It is a part of the way that I discover God and know more about him and all the good things he ’ s made … it has been through music . So make it a part of your secret history with God . Make it something deeper than just a career .
[ Chris ] I was going to say the same thing Brenton said , which was write bad songs literally all day . And it ’ s so cute now because my kids do it , but we just sing about what we ’ re doing . It ’ s fun . The kids love it . And from the backseat , when you hear them singing “ Pass me a skittle ,” you ’ re like , yes !
Editor ’ s Note : To wrap up this workshop Frank turned to the conference attendees in the audience and said , “ Hey friends , would you just pray with me and let ’ s pray for these guys ? Would you stretch your hands for these guys ? They ’ re in the trenches making it happen , and let ’ s just pray blessing and favor on them . Closing prayer … “ God , we thank you , for Chris , for Brenton , for Leeland . Thank you for the platform that they have , the influence they have that is influencing other artists .. that are influencing churches … literally hundreds , thousands of churches , tens of thousands of people all over the world . And we just pray that their impact and influence would increase their songs , their abilities . We pray that they would be financially blessed , that they ’ d be blessed in their marriages , with their children , in their churches , in their relationships , in their health . We pray they would prosper and be in good health even as their soul prospers . God , thank you . You ’ re blessing them . In Jesus ’ name , Amen ”.
Editor ’ s note : Remember you can watch this full workshop here .
December 2023 Subscribe for Free ... 19