Songwriting is always a journey. Here are a few foundational truths I have learned along the way that shape any song idea that hits our team table.
I create because I’m connected to The Creator. All of the songs I write come from a deep place in my heart and from what I’ve experienced with God.
When we are connected to God, we can become His messengers. His vessels. It’s not about me and my story. It’s all about God and His story. What is He saying? What is He doing? What do we need to be saying and doing as a church? Each lyric and melody must flow from these questions because it is truly not about us. Through our connection with our Creator, our songs will naturally extend beyond our personal preferences and thoughts while uniting us to His global church. What a beautiful thing.
I write songs and lead people out of a growing relationship with God. Songs and leadership come out of the overflow of ongoing conversations with Him — the One who created me and shapes me into HIS likeness.
In our community, we are continually cheering one another on in our growth and connectedness to God. We know that without a healthy and thriving relationship with Him, we will eventually burn out. Only God knows exactly what we need and when we need it. And only His strength will sustain us through each season of life and ministry. Through our connection with God, we will hear His voice and know His heart. That is what will show up in our songs and our leadership.
Everything I create is for The Creator. I live my life out of a deep conviction that the gifts given to me are solely given to me to give glory back to The Creator.
As worship leaders, we want to make His name famous. Not our own. When our daily posture is “…search me and know me” we won’t get very far in the fame game trap before He’s got us on our faces and calling out our ugliness. He is so kind, and the ocean of His love that flows from His heart to ours does not stop. He continually draws us to Himself. Through our connection with God, we are committing to his covering and the accountability of His Spirit. Without that, we become susceptible to getting caught up in advancing our name and agenda.
I believe God is calling us as songwriters to uphold a culture of dependence on Him as we write and create.
On our team, we talk a lot about holding loosely to our ideas. Everything we are and have first came from Him. He can use the melodies and lyrics we humbly hold to speak life, declare truth, and pray prayers that need to be said into the atmosphere of our hearts, our church, our communities, and our world. But this requires dependence on Him — and dependence equals connection.
Apart from Him, we can do nothing. Apart from Him, we don’t have anything worth creating. May what we write and what we create tell a story that is all about God in a culture of creatives and artists who aim to do the opposite. And may we never forget: we can create only because we are connected to The Creator.
-- Temree Abajian
