“And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me, until I declare Your strength to this generation, Your power to all who are to come.”
I’ve always been an old soul. Old enough to know that generations before me held countless treasures worth seeking. In 1996 I began to pray that just one of them would see my heart as worth the investment. Another female who had balanced family, industry, and community. Someone who could shepherd and shape me toward the right path. I longed for deep wisdom, but realistic views. I longed for conversation soaked in experience and Jesus. Many times, questions I wanted to ask would bubble to the surface. But year after year, my prayer went unanswered. Fifteen years after I first began praying, I finally asked the Lord why He chose not to answer my prayer. I heard His answer clearly,
“Be what you need.”
That brought about a shift in my Spirit. Instead of me thinking about what all I would like to “get” from a mentor, I began to think about what I had to “give.” It was humble beginnings in my living room, to say the least, but I did somewhat understand what others may need. I began to realize that the Lord not answering that prayer the way I had hoped was the only way I was able to learn what that void felt like. It also became clear that He had to be the one to help me fill it.
The Bible says that life is like a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. The older I get, the heavier my heart gets with an unmistakable desire to give Jesus to others and help to make Him KNOWN with every breath that I have.
Making Him KNOWN can look a lot of different ways. Many days for me, it has been hours of crafting songs in a small room with a couple of others. Pouring over lyrics and raking through melodies until His spirit brings revelation. Through this revelation, He becomes KNOWN in a new way. There have been a few days where that KNOWING gets shared, and others that were not in that room feel Him fresh too. This process of song and KNOWING seems like a miracle to me.
But what is even more miraculous is this. I’m pretty sure that being what I needed includes passing on all the tools I’ve learned about writing worship to the generation behind me. Not just the tools, but also all I’ve learned about listening to His voice and how important posture of heart is when approaching worship.
This spring, I took a crack at it! I put into words all I’ve learned about songwriting and the posture of heart required to write worship. We gathered 12 writers. We spent a few months working through a course, experimenting with teaching and deep discussion. We laughed, we cried, we grew. It was beautiful. Now, we are ready to share it.
This course will be open to anyone! It is my prayer that it will help equip the next generation of worship songwriters and give them a head start…sort of like a Cliff Notes version of a book that took me 25 years to read. It is designed to serve people right where they are, in their local church, so that they can help to express the voice of their congregation. But there will also be an opportunity to connect with other writers around the world. Long term, we hope to establish local communities of writers wherever there is need or interest.
The course will be launching in early August. The videos are ready, and we are editing now. Preorders are available NOW at www.krissynordhoff.com/course. I absolutely cannot wait to share this course with you.
If you’d like a little sample of the course, something you can do right now, check out the Songwriter Personality Test I created at www.krissynordhoff.com/test. It’s a good starting place…a good first taste. You will receive more info on the course via email once you complete the test.
See you there!
Writer
For real, some days, we just wanna run away and hide…