Just hours ago we completed the first leg of the journey towards a brand new Sojourn CD, using a process similar to the early stages of 2007’s Before the Throne. 

Occasionally someone asks how Sojourn gets original material for our CDs from songwriters within the congregation.  Here is how it works:  Sojourn Worship Arts Pastor Mike Cosper sends me an email outlining his vision for a recording project, along with the deadline. I forward it to our songwriting group.

Between then and the deadline, I encourage the writers and make myself available to anyone who wants criticism and direction.  Then when the deadline arrives, the writers send mp3 demos and chord sheets to me.  I burn the mp3s to discs and then put them, along with the chord sheets, in a binder.  I turn the binder in to Mike, who then decides which songs will be chosen.  He seeks counsel from some of the other pastor-elders, musicians and people in the community as well.

On November 1 of last year I emailed our group of songwriters a message that included details about the vision for Sojourn’s next CD from Mike.  Since that time we’ve all been busy writing.  Our guidelines were tight because this CD will have a very specific, yet very expansive, theme.  We’ll have lots of details about that when the recording process begins and as we head towards the CD release (of course it will also be available on iTunes and other digital providers as well as on CD, like Before the Throne). 

The last couple weeks brought a flurry of activity, as everyone tried to beat the deadline.  Of course, life being what it is, there were last minute illnesses, problems with equipment and all sorts of issues that made it a challenge for everyone to submit their songs on time and for me to prepare the packet for Mike, as well as one for Neil (of Dirt Poor Robins, who is also a Sojourn worship leader involved in several stages of the creation of Before the Throne and Advent Songs).  Mike and Neil will be co-producing this new worship record.

I gave Mike and Neil their packets this morning, containing fifty-nine demos by twenty-eight Sojourn songwriters, including fourteen songs by nine different collaborative teams of two or three writers each.  Over the next few weeks they will narrow the field down to a smaller group of songs and, as necessary, let writers know of any edits they’d like to see.  I don’t envy them in this task — the material is so strong that it will be difficult to make cuts.

I have a lot of mixed emotions when turning in a binder of material.  Even though I didn’t write or co-write the majority of the songs, I’ve lived with this project for over two months, sending weekly group emails, conversing with individual writers through email, phone, get-togethers at church, coffee shops — whatever I could do and whatever each writer wanted.  And of course I did some writing of my own, and worked on collaborations with other writers. 

Some of these guys and gals have been writing a long time; some are brand new.  Some turned in multiple songs; some, just one.  Some made elaborate demos; some, bare-bones.  For some of them, this will be the only recording they might be involved in this year; others are constantly writing, recording and performing their songs in public venues.  Some are very nervous about turning in material; for others, this is a process they’ve been through many times.

I’ve spent time in this last week trying to walk some of the newer writers through the finalization process: how to convert their WAV files to mp3 so they can email me an attachment, how to be prepared for whatever happens next for their particular song(s), how to develop a mindset, as a Christian and as a writer, that accepts criticism, learns from trial-and-error, and keeps plugging away.  I’ve run out to meet writers at Starbucks, The 930 and Sunergos Coffee so they could give me their demos on CD.  I’ve conversed with them about what we’ve learned from this process and how God has dealt with us.

It is bittersweet and exciting that this stage has reached an end.  I don’t lead worship at Sojourn’s services or sing on recordings, and I feel a great deal of gravity, and even some emptiness, when I hand over the binders of chord sheets and demos.  I don’t play on recordings or arrange, produce, mix or engineer them, and I sure can’t contribute visual artwork for the cover and liner notes.  This — writing songs and facilitating the writing process with others — is my contribution to the creative side of Sojourn CDs.  And so for me, in some ways this new CD is done. 

What that mostly means is, I want it to be done!  I can’t wait to hear which songs are chosen, how they’re arranged, who sings and plays in the studio, and what the CD sounds like.  I can’t wait to share more details with you all, to put up some mp3s on this site, on our Myspace, Facebook and Virb pages, to add the CD to the “Store” section of this website, to sing these songs as part of the congregation in church, to put the CD into my car stereo ….

But alas.  And so now I wait, like everyone else, praying for God to grant our worship pastor and the producers wisdom, praying for God’s hand on the recording sessions.  This isn’t going to be a “rush job.”  Everyone involved in the project from now on will exercise the care that the writers have taken since November.  We all want to do the best we can, working for God, out of love and appreciation for all He has given us. 

That’s all I can say for now.  The concept of this album is unique and ambitious.  The songs express a deep care for theological depth and a love for the truth of the gospel.  I am sure that when the curtain closes on this project, I will feel even more honored to have been allowed to be a part of it than I do now.  And even more anxious to share it with you.

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