Hillsong Worship

[Derrick Scott III]

So Tony Morgan just did a blog about Hillsong's worship music being sung in many churches in the United States. He raises the question of why more churches seem to prefer singing other people's songs versus writing original tunes. Check out the blog here: http://tonymorganlive.com/2009/08/10/aussie-worship-all-the-time/. Would love to see what you all think...

Derrick

[Grace Eitzenberger]

I have wondered why folks at Access haven't been encouraged or invited to write songs for the community. If there has been something said, maybe I just wasn't there for it - I think the problem is that songwriting appears to be acceptable/allowed only if you are Nelson, Dave Rowan, Derrick, or any main member of the A218 band. Maybe a lot of folks don't feel their writing is up to par, maybe it's too much of a hassle to have a leader look over songs (really look them over) and decide whether or not they're something reflective of A218 culture. Either way, I think this is a problem that needs to be fixed - I'm willing to do something about it. I'll email Nelson and CC you.

[Nick Baker]

I think there is an American trait I see in many instance of us liking the easy way out, and copying someone's music is much easier than making your own. As Grace mentioned making a songs is very hard, I know personally being me and some friends have tried. I also know that it may seem easy to copy music in places like Access worship or in big church but it makes our job in children's ministry really hard. I think if there was a call to people within the community to just try and make something we would get something. It may take a while but eventually we could have an entire set of Access original music. Another plus for writer our own music is it makes it more personal to what we are going through. Personally when I am praising God I have a hard time getting into the worship when I am singing words written by someone else, I feel it is no different then in a Catholic Church praying the rosery, it just takes the personal touch out of it for me. There are many things that can be said on this topic but I will stop here before I start making less sense.

[Kadi Drennon]

LOVE the idea Grace brought up about encouraging each other in our A218 community to pursue this creative expression of worship through songwriting. How awesome would it be to take what God has been doing in our lives to the next level by sharing those stories with the community in such a creative way (original worship songs)? And what a neat opportunity for the rest of us to show support and encouragement to those wanting to do this by singing them at gatherings. Definitely a lot of work goes into this, and a lot of that would probably have to come from leaders taking the time to invest and look over and make decisions about the songs being presented, but I think this is definitely something worth considering. Maybe even have a different night out of the month or every few weeks to gather and share these songs and stories and encourage each other in an almost "jam session" free-flowing worship kind of way. Who knows? Endless possibilities!