Greg's notes from Stuart Townend Workshop

Stuart Townend (co-writer of In Christ Alone) was in Australia recently and came to speak at Moore College on 15 October. Greg was there and took these notes:

Role of songs

When selecting or writing songs, it is helpful to bear in mind the role of songs in church:

• Serving the local church (not about self-expression). Think about what your local church needs. Church songs have a life outside of the writer. Have to be accessible to ordinary church-goers. Whether song works is determined by whether people can sing it easily, and not be confused by the lyrics.

• Teaching. People often remember more theology from songs than from sermons. Songs put words in people’s mouths – a huge responsibility for songwriters and those selecting songs. What sort of a picture of God are we painting through our songs? (eg. Currently we’re not talking much about his justice or his compassion.)

• Bringing together the objective and subjective. Objective songs make statements about God and his character. Subjective songs are our response to God. Some songs do both – eg. ‘Here I Am to Worship’ (verse makes objective statements, chorus is a subjective response). But in the last 20 years we may have erred too far towards the subjective. We need songs that explore who God is.

• Reminding and remembering. Songs are a great way of us taking truth with us into daily life. Not just about our experience on Sundays. Songs need to help us to live during the week.

• Understanding Scripture. Most worship songs are consistent with Scripture, but many of the lyrics can be vaguely biblical (sloppy and don’t really say anything). We need to work hard to explore all aspects of God’s character. Some Scriptural lines are so familiar to us they have lost meaning – we can use our poetic creativity to rephrase these truths (still remaining biblical). Our songs should be helping people to understand the Bible.

• Perspective. Part of us gathering together in church is seeking God’s perspective on the lives we live. If we look at the Psalms (the hymn book of the Old Testament), they have a breadth of perspectives on life. We need greater breadth in our songs – perhaps more ‘angry’ songs (eg ‘God, why aren’t you intervening here? But I know God that you are faithful.’).

• Artistic expression. God is so far beyond our descriptions of him. Sometimes poetry and the arts can speak to us at an extraordinary level, beyond what we can understand. We need to trust God that he is speaking to us on levels that we can’t understand.

The first rant

Our first EP, recorded in 2005 under the name 'Sydney Uni Evangelical Union Annual Conference Band 2004', included this rant about emotion and music. It's interesting (to me at least) to reflect back on how much things have or haven't changed. Here it is, from the liner notes of GH1:

Why are we so afraid of emotion in our worship music? Well produced but unbiblical music can give us a "spiritual experience" without spiritual reality: we feel close to God without the need for the accessories (like God's word and obedience). But given those dangers we good evangelicals seem to have decided, recently I think, to ration out our emotion in conservatively levelled teaspoons rather than risk losing our hold on the word. This makes sense, given that words are immune from abuse, whereas emotion is strange and usually bad.

Except we know the ‘given’ is rubbish. The pulpit can also easily lull us into error, be it idle complacency or even wholesale false belief. Compared to the minefield of oral theology with its tactful qualifications and reassuring retranslations of the NIV, the hazards of emotion seem easily navigable. It's hard to think of a case where a person who has passed from death to life can go wrong with Joy. If we are happy, then we should sing songs of praise (Jas 5:13). Done. We can be serious about the word, and excited beyond verbal expression about it’s consequences at the same time.

Songs are not memory aids. Nor are they declaratory statements of truth put to music. They certainly are meant to edify us, but unlike anthems and war cries they are sung to a true and living God. Likewise thankfulness is not the only reason we sing. In the first place we sing because God is God, and is worthy of our worship and praise even before we get to the specifics. Singing is a very important way we worship God. Hebrews 13:15 exhorts us to “through Jesus… continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise–the fruit of lips that confess his name”. Not that praise or sacrifices of any kind can make us right with God, but that being made right with God we can happily fulfil our purpose in creation: to bring glory to God, and to honour Him in everything.

Songs teach us, but they teach us best when they speak to our hearts. It is the language of feelings, yes, but feelings with the depth which only comes from the solid grounding of truth. Very often songs tell us what we have known since Sunday school, but with a freshness and immediacy that cuts straight to our hearts. “Rock of Ages cleft for me" is impossible to sing without someone crying. The melody is pretty. It is poetry, by which I mean it opens up meaning with an elegant few words. But it’s the truth which brings the tears. Good songs should be written as songs. Everyone knows the difference between prose and poetry, song lyrics and deductive reasoning. We often look to the epistles for verbatim musical texts. It's not wrong. But it often makes weird songs (‘therefore’ is not a musical word). Your love Oh Lord almost didn't make the Ancon bus because we worried about lines like "shadow of Your wings". God doesn't have wings, we reasoned, and the symbolism just pushed too many "pentie" buttons for a meaty evangelical conference. Then we realised that line appears in every second psalm, felt a bit silly, and decided our buttons might need repositioning.

Finally, good worship music should be as singable as the best hymns. Who wants to sing at church like a self conscious teeny-bopper might sing to the radio? Musically it is a completely different kettle of worms. Behold the Lamb of God is still alive and rocking EU camps 15 years on because it's not written as a pop song, it's written as a church song. And that means rock solid melody. Love it or hate it, you can’t forget it…

Andy finishing up with Garage Hymnal

Rich and I started Garage Hymnal in January 2005 when we hired a $50 microphone and recorded the arrangements we had worked out for the Sydney Uni Evangelical Union's Annual Conference. On the inside cover was an almost illegible rant, beginning with the question "why are we so afraid of emotion in our worship music?" Seven years later, with our sixth release due to be launched on 9 November, our production values (and arguable our musical taste) has improved substantially, but we are still just as passionate about not having to choose between great music and great words.

It's been an amazing ride. We've played some fantastic venues and worked with some incredible people. Most of all, we've sung with believers in all sorts of places, from Withcott to the Mornington Peninsula and been so encouraged by what we share in Christ. Bands have their ups and downs. We've cried with each other at bad news, and rejoiced with each other in new exciting changes (and yelled at each other occasionally too!) I've learned so much from being in this band. It's been one of the biggest challenges, privileges and joys of my life.

But circumstances and roles change. From next year I'm going to be taking on a new challenge as an assistant minister at St Barnabas Broadway, working primarily with the evening congregation and campus ministries. My wife and I have decided we can't give Garage Hymnal the time and focus it deserves while diving headlong into parish ministry.

My last gig with Garage Hymnal will be the EP launch on 9 November. This will be the last GH gig with this current lineup, so make sure you come along.

I am hugely grateful to so many people for so much. For Rich, Greg, Sass, Trent, Alanna and Steph in the band. For everyone who has ever played or written with us (Cedric, Biscuit, Beth, Murray, Mike, Mark, Lissa, Joe, Lynda, Steve, Pete, Luke, Clare, Chris, Belly, Evan, Dave, Jonny, Dorny, Nic, Jerry, Ludo, Andy, Rach, Dave, Pete, Jeremy, Ty, Damien, Tim, Hans, Dave, Tom, Kenny, Alex, Kester, Mike, Tom, Rosie, and countless others). For the behind the scenes people like Duncan our soundie, David Nicholas our amazing producer, Paul, Willow, Jimmy and Josh our tech partners, Zenon our incredible bookings agent, Dave Parker, Nicky, Rob, Cathlin, Jane, Kristi, Steph and Philip Percival at Emu, Jodie, Katie, Goldy,  Felix, James, Corienne, John, Lisa, Steve, Nath, Dave Mac, James, Tom, and many more who make each and every gig and record possible. For all my bosses for giving me stupid amounts of time off to pursue this ministry. For my family and friends and my incredible wife Steph for making enormous sacrifices to support an unpaid ministry as time and energy consuming as GH.

But the biggest thanks of all has to be to Jesus, who did something worth singing about 2000 years later, and which I'll still be singing about 10,000 years from now. 

Col 3:16