Hopefully, they’re inspired by God, because I don’t know where else they could be coming from.
Sure, I am a classically trained musician, as they say, with a Bachelor of Music degree and twenty hours of graduate study. But that’s not enough to make you a good composer—believe me.
I learned guitar as a teenager by playing songs by the Beatles, the Beach Boys, and other bands. I also started trying to write my own love songs, but the early ones were pretty bad. Over the years, I improved, and the formal music training was helpful. But really, the most important element was experience. Once you have a decent musical foundation, you just have to keep writing until you get better.
But that only gets you to the point where you can write a good song. When it comes to writing music that offers spiritual inspiration, you first need to get that inspiration from the Bible. From God.
After I accepted the call to become a music minister, I began thinking about writing sacred music. But I didn’t know if I could actually do it. All the music we had sung in youth choir was accompanied by piano, and even though I had taken some piano lessons as a teenager, I was terrible at it.
A major turning point came during the summer of 1968, just as I was about to enter college. We learned that a new, “first of its kind” piece of music was going to be performed by the young people from our church and other churches in the area. It was a youth musical called Good News—A Christian Folk-Musical, and it was to be accompanied by guitars and drums.
I was ready to whip out my guitar for that.
I was very excited. After several joint rehearsals, we performed Good News at First Baptist Church in Orange, Texas. I learned later that many other performances were happening around the country at about the same time. I’m not sure how many kids were in our combined choir—probably somewhere between 100 and 150—but it was a huge success!
After that, I realized I could write songs on my guitar and actually perform them in church with a guitar—although it took a while for some congregations to get comfortable with that. One time in 1975, at a church where I was serving as part-time music minister, the pastor said to me, “What are you—a dignified hippie?”
And he wasn’t trying to be funny.
I can do some things at the piano, and I’ve written many piano accompaniments for choral music. But the truth is, I still do my best songwriting while playing guitar—just as a piano player would probably do their best songwriting sitting at the piano. With a guitar in my hands, I’m able to let my imagination run free because I don’t have to concentrate on the instrument.
Even my a cappella compositions start on guitar, with a melody and lyrics over chords. The melody and chords usually come easily for me. It’s the lyrics that are the real work.
I usually start with a question. For example: How can people not believe in God when they know about things that only an omnipotent deity could do? Scientists tell us that the observable universe contains an estimated two trillion galaxies—and that’s just the observable universe. There are also some eight billion people on planet Earth, yet every single one has unique DNA. How can these things be true without an almighty Creator?
That question got me going, and I ended up writing “Mighty God of the Universe.”
Of course, creating rhyming lyrics that are also singable is tricky, but it’s something I really enjoy. Then there’s the challenge of turning the song into an a cappella piece. It’s a fun puzzle because I want each of the SATB parts to be interesting. I want every part to have its own bits of beautiful melody.
So I combine a strong melody with interesting rhythms, harmony, and dissonance, working within the strengths and vocal range of each section to produce a dramatic result.
That’s how my songs come together. The musical training helps. Experience helps. The guitar helps. But the inspiration? I believe that comes from God.