For: The Institute Of Contemporary And Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Red Online Worship History Course with Dan Wilt
One of the main things that has stood out to me this week in the course material and media was the question of what type of legacy will we leave, in our worship, for the generations to come?? Will my children and grandchildren find as much meat and substance in the worship of today as I have seen and felt in the worship songs of my past? I look at the old hymnals written long, long ago of worshipers who I believe KNEW God and who KNEW truth. Take “Come Thou Fount” or “How Great Thou Art” for example. I used to shy away from hymns like these, because I just felt like hymnals were religious! But as God has opened my eyes and helped me to see the solid truth that these songs contain, I’ve really fallen in love with them. “Come though fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy praise… prone to wander, Lord i feel it. Prone to leave the God i love…take my heart, Lord, take and seal it…seal it for thy courts above. I love these songs! I love these words!!!! I want to write songs like these that just move people with the truth. Truth of our sin and truth of God’s beauty and grace, and cause you to just stand in awe of the awesomeness of God. All this to say, I don’t believe that you can write songs like these unless you KNOW God. I feel like these people wrote these songs out of knowing God, being with Him often, soaking in the truth. I would like to spend more time in my daily life meditating on scripture, REMEMBERING daily what He has done and soaking in His truth and I want the songs that I write for worship to just flow out of a heart that knows God more and more in the everyday. I want to leave a legacy of worship songs to the future generations that have impacted me like these songs have.
Kelsey
