At the 21 st Christian Musician Summit in Tacoma , Washington , in November , we gathered three remarkable worship songwriters with the goal of having them collectively lead the conference in an evening worship concert . We had a solid house band and a 12-song set planned . By the fourth song , the setlist was thrown out and a 38-minute spontaneous time of worship emerged … ebbing and flowing with each worship leader – Brenton Brown , Leeland Mooring , and Chris McClarney – being led by the spirit to start or finish one song and then flow right into another one … all being followed seamlessly by the house band . It was an amazing time of worshipping the Lord .
In the afternoon session earlier that day , we placed these three worship songwriters on a panel led by one of our conference keynote speakers , Pastor Frank Montgomery from Kings Circle in Corvalis , Oregon . This turned out to be quite an entertaining discussion on songwriting influences , inspirations and insights . It was filled with humor , wisdom , and wonderful stories .
You can watch the workshop in its entirety here .
For now , here is a part of that conversation …
Brenton Brown
[ Frank Montgomery ] So I think what we ’ re going to do , we ’ re going to save the practical nitty gritty , nuts and bolts stuff towards the last part and maybe just before that talking a bit more about the contemplative or head space , the heart space , the theological God space to be in when we ’ re writing .
But first , can we just start as a general introduction and Chris , maybe I ’ ll start with you . Chris , give us a story , just a short one … a fun , memorable , just an important or silly songwriting story … off the cuff and leave out all the details . Just give us the headlines and then we ’ re going to get into some details .
[ Chris McClarney ] The headlines ? One time I wrote a song , and some guys recorded it . ( laughing )
[ Frank ] Nice . I ’ ll buy that . Did you leave out the , “ And I got paid part ”?
[ Chris ] Oh , yeah . Well , that didn ’ t happen for a while .
[ Frank ] Do you guys remember the first time somebody else recorded one of your songs ?
[ Chris ] Oh yeah . That was the coolest thing that had ever happened at that point in my life !
[ Frank ] Nice . Okay , Brenton , tell us a story of one of your songs ?
[ Brenton Brown ] Well , sometimes it ’ s a lot of work and sometimes it ’ s fun .
One time Chris and I wrote a song he sent me .
He was like , “ Here ’ s a song ”. He was laughing . Then he sang the part and then I laughed . I was in my car on my way somewhere and I sang another part . Then we got together , and we sang it during the filming of something else .
They recorded the filming of the something else and then sent that little piece to somebody called Chris Tomlin . There ’ s no other way to say it . And he went , “ I like that . We ’ ll do it ”. And I wish they were all exactly the same as that . ( laughing )
That was the most fun ever . I still can ’ t believe this is a real job . Like someone ’ s going to bust through and kick me out ! ( laughing )
[ Chris ] Yeah , we basically hang out with our friends and make jokes and occasionally we
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