considerations . In addition to melody and lyrical rhyme , corporate singability , memorability , and theology must be addressed . How do you personally approach a new song idea ?
[ Cory ] That ' s a beautifully stated question . Yes , writing songs for the church is a massive privilege and I think it ' s also a really weighty thing as well . Like you said , we are teaching people , we are discipling them in a way through the songs and through , like you said , the theology of the songs . I try not to get too caught up in the scientific nature of that part of the songwriting . And I try to come from the heart things that are real , things that I ' ve experienced , things that I ' ve talked to God about and we ' ve gotten breakthrough or revelation or whatever you want to call it in a certain arena . I try to bring that to the songwriting table rather than , okay , well , theologically , it ' s got to say A , B and C and melodically , it ' s got to be A , B and C . I appreciate that part of songwriting . And obviously it ' s really important to the craft , but at the same time , what I ' ve found is if you ' re not writing this song from a place of experience and from a place of your actual relationship with God it ’ s just going to fall flat anyway . So , you may as well just go home .
To me , it ' s all about honesty . It ' s about real-life experience with God , which is what I would call revelation . Paul talks about wisdom and revelation in the book of Ephesians , taking that and going , how do I encapsulate that revelation in a three and a half , four , five-minute song ? If it ' s worship , maybe it ' s 10 minutes .
If it ' s radio , it ' s probably more like three and a half . How do I take that and make it palatable to people to where they can understand and experience the same things that I have ? Those are the biggest things that I ' m thinking about when I ' m approaching a song .
[ WM ] Yes . And just as an aside , I remember reading back in the nineties , and living here in Nashville , a well-known country songwriter who said that a good country song is always written from experience . The same thing goes for worship .
[ Cory ] Yeah . I love that .
[ WM ] Jonathan , any thoughts on that question ?
[ Jonathan ] Yeah . I love the moment in the gospels where Jesus … the boys have been with Him for some time and He pulls them aside and He says , " Who do the people say , I am ?" And they ' re like , some John the Baptist , some Elijah . And He ' s like , but you , but I want to know what you say . Who do you say I am ? And the moment Peter steps up , it ' s just a few simple words . But it ' s a revelation that didn ' t come to him through flesh and blood . The