Write About Jesus

I got back this last Saturday night from a weekend retreat called Write About Jesus. Sue Smith, the woman I wrote "Everything to Me" with started this retreat about 8 years ago up in St Louis and I have been up there as a "Clinician"(teacher) 3 out of the past 8 years. It is a weekend for people who love songwriting to gather together and connect with each other and learn about the craft of songwriting and some of the life-stuff that goes along with being creative. There is a competition during the weekend and the 120 or so registrants enter it and there is one winner at the end of the weekend. I kind of feel like it's purpose is less about winning and more about asking each person to write the best song they know how and to come and learn how to make it better and themselves better in the process. The way that gets played out is that people submit the song and then everyone gets split up into groups of about ten. Then two of us teachers will listen and critique each song in front of the group so that everyone can learn from each other's critique.

I was talking to someone before this trip about not caring so much about the song they were handing me to critique but more so about how it would affect the next 30 songs that would come out of them. When I mentioned this to Sue she liked the idea of communicating about expectations. She came up with a title of a class for me to teach called Holy Tension: Your Ambition and God's Sovereignty. When she sent me that title, I thought, "what a great name" and then the next thought was, "oh crap...how do I teach that??!!".

Sue had the wisdom to pair me up with Dave Clark, a guy I have so much respect for. He has been writing songs professionally for over 30 years and is truly gifted at it. The lens that God has given him to look through is really inspiring.

When the class came along, the room we were having it in filled quickly and fit more people than I thought it would. When we started, I told the class that I was scared to death because of that title and was nervous about what to say but once we settled in, truth started coming out in a really organic way.

We talked about the good and bad sides of ambition and that God truly has a plan for each of us and for our songs. Looking back, the hour seemed Holy to me. Truth was communicated in love. The Lord guided what we said in an organic way that seemed to be encouraging even to me. Dave told stories about the faithfulness of God that brought tears to my eyes.

If you love God and are an aspiring writer, Write About Jesus is a great weekend to put on your calendar.

Great job Sue!