Does anyone write christian based songs?

  • Thread starter Thread starter George Parler
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Hey George......Thanks for starting this thread. I have been quiet for some time but have been following the thread . Thanks to all who have shared their Faith and experiences as songwriers with something to write about. This continues to be the most interesting thread of the lot, with the most thoughful and insightful contributions..
writeon...chazba
 
Hello Chazba,

Yes its been awhile since I've seen your screen name. Good to hear from you.

I'd rattle a little longer but I'm hearing the faint suttle call of my pillow. Catch you later. :)

No slip in His grip,

<><
George
 
Yes, well my first post was rather antogonistic. I should refrain from those outbursts. You are welcome to preach whatever religion you like. I despise all religions pretty much equally, however I have many friends that are of a religious nature.

You must understand that it's hard for me to approve of something that I see as a work of fiction (the bible). You see I feel it's like spreading dis-information or propaganda.

I'm sure you think I'm the devil or something, truth is, I think the ten commandments are a pretty good set of values (with the exception of not being able to shag your neighbour)!

But still, to me it's a work of fiction and I cannot condone grown men or women telling cheir children that the Bible is a factual document.
 
Royston,

Thanks for responding and I do understand. You are far too human and down right cordial to be the devil himself.

I appreciate your honesty and directness and I was not antagonized becuase I share you frustrations with religion.

I have seen christian famlies and places of worship torn in two because of religion rearing its ugly head in disguise of the truth.

I also share your frustration as fictional things being taught as the truth! Personally I believe it takes far more faith to believe in evolution than God or the Bible. There are so many holes in the theory of evolution but yet in nearly every public school, university, television show, text book ...... it is stated as proven fact. Not open to question.

Last time I checked; theory never passes the point of being a theory unless it is reproducible, documented and observed multiple times by more than one group of individuals and publicly scrutinized. We both know the creation of our universe and life as we know it can not meet the scientific test of being reproduced in order to graduate from a theory level. There is no evidence anywhere in the fossil record that proves any species ever evolved from one species to another.

Nature does demonstrate the ability to adapt to its environment and thosr that don't do become extinct but why would a lizard species continue to grow feathers that it will never use for another million years untill wings develop and their body size and bone structure also evolves untill everything is just right for the first flight? This my friend requires much more faith than I will ever have and it goes against the the original tenants of evolution that unless some development was of significant imediate use it would fail to be reproduced in following generations. There are so many more contradictions and violations of proven scientific principles it is just delusional that we as a society allow it to be taught as a fact. But it is taught everyday in nearly every school, television program and textbook. If they want to teach it as a theory I have no problem with that. When they teach it as fact they shut down the scientific process of public scrutiny and lose touch with reality.

Royston, I encourage you to do everything you can to disprove the the bible (with an honest mind of course) and you strike me as an honest person who is not afraid to say what you think.

It is not my goal to single you out and convince you to believe something different but that you arrive at your conclusion armed with as much information as you can find. Josh McDowell is a christian theologan who grew up an athiest and made his lifes goal to prove to world that God did not exist. You might thinj that he failed or sucumbed to feeble minedness but he came to his conclusions after and exhaustive search and is a very happy, informed and inteligent man.

If you are interested in critiquing his work his book that chronicles his search isEvidence that Demands a Verdict.
 
I used to think that our educational system worked in my best interest, I was wrong. I used to believe the bible was fiction, I was wrong. I researched its claims for more than 4 years and saw it to contain information that took scientists decade to understand. For a person with an open mind and an honest heart there is an over abundance of information. I have spent a good portion of the last 8 years researching Evolution, if that is where You base your faith or justification for condemning the bible I urge you to read some books that are fairly recent. I challenge you to read these books, to debunk them so to speak. The first book would be "the Biotic Message" by Walter Remine, the second would be "Darwins Black Box" by Michael Behe. once completing these books I would like to then see you defend evolution. One thing I know is that evolution has been candy coated and party packaged such most people hear cute analogies on how it all happed and how its so factual. The bible is taught as fiction by alot of colleges because in the 50's evolutionists had no one challenging them in their curriculum, thats all changing, slowly, but it is changing. I don't know if this forum should be used for this discussion, if you would like I would be willing to do an email corrispondance on this subject for anyone interested, being someone who used to believe evolution was true Ill even play the devils advocate....

Dennis
 
Royston,

Your opinions are shared by many many of the people here, that is a fact....however, you hardly ever see a Christian jump on an atheist for not believing.....you hardly ever see Christians preaching here....

I think maybe your view of "Christians" comes from judgements made by observing "so-called" Christians....people that will judge you and think they are better than you and think they are as holy as Christ are not the real Christians....Jimmy Swaggart isnt a real Christian (my opinion only)....

what is so wrong for a person to believe in God and follow the 10 commandments...wouldnt the world be a betterplace if we all did?....if everyone followed the 10 commandments, there would not be Aids, there would not be murder, there would be no crime....we'd all live in peace amongst each other regardless of race, religion, etc....

and can you show me proof that the Bible is NOT a factual document....if so, ill stop telling my kid about it immediately.....even if it wasnt, would it be so bad to follow its teachings?.....i guess she shouldnt believe there is a Santa Claus either....i think when a kid stops believing in Santa, theres a certain innocense that is lost....one that you dont discover again until you have kids....once i do decide to tell my kid there is no Santa, Ill tell here that Santa no longer comes around, but the spirit of St.Nick is always there......

you know, I hold nothing against the atheists that frequent the BBS...alot of them are friends of mine....i do not think i am better than them...i do not consider them bad people.....i believe we all all God's children.....i believe anyone that has a conscience has God in them whether they know it or not......

there are those that are so anti-Christian that sometimes it does hurt a little to see some comments, but for the most part I dont let it get to me...basically, they dont understand what a Christian is.....its just someone who believes that Jesus is their Lord and Savior and they try to live their life accordingly.....those guys that call people sinners and tell you that you are going to hell and are so hypocritical that it is disgusting (Swaggart) should not be the basis for putting down Christians and Christianity.....

if I walk around all day saying "Im a strawberry, Im a strawberry" and you take a bite of me and it tastes like a sweaty caucasian, this should not be the basis for you to hate strawberries, because I am not one...this would be the basis for you hating people that pose as strawberries.....

sorry for the long rant but it was your choice to join in......
 
Hi Atomic Toyz,

I would also like to add The Collapse of Evolution. I can look up the author if anyone wants. It is time that evolution be recognized for what it is - a vey flawed theory. what evolution is not - scientific.

Evolution only pretends to be scientific becuase it assumes God was not involved in creation but there is no evidence of course that proves this assumption. Not very scientific.
 
Royston.....Your fear and distrust of religeon is well founded and has a long and distinguished history full of names like Martin Luther and John Calvin who also rejected established religion in favor of Faith and a personal relationship with GOD.
No religion can offer that. It's an individual thing, and no matter what any denomination says, no organization has exclusive claim to GOD, or to HIS love , grace and compassion for the flawed humans he has created. When I figured that out I was free from a lot of legalistic and dogmatic dross that only exists to extend the control that organizations want to have over peoples lives. Know this...that GOD is real, HE knows your real name and will call you by it some day. Maybe, like me and many others, you will be lucky and HE will call your name while you are still alive but HE will call, none the less. It's the most powerful thing that can happen to a person and that's why we are kinda' crazy in this area. I hope this helps you understand some of our fervor which used to mystify me too. I didn't intend to preach and I hope I haven't been offensive , but like I said, we're kinda' crazy in this area.
writeon...chazba
 
Hello Songwriters Christian and not.

Well I had not heard anything from this thread in a while. I hope the side track with our discussion with Royston did not kill the exchange of ideas here. Maybe it had more to do with the terrorism news weighing heavy on our hearts ... I don't know.

There seemed to be alot of exchange of information and edification along with identification with other Christians on this thread so I thought I would check back in. Forgive me if I killed the flow of the original thought. I was frustrated with the misunderstandings about Christianity and then inspired to seperate the religeous spirit from Gods Spirit of abundant Life
through the Holy Spirit. I don't know if any of it opened any eyes that were not already open but I had to get it out and inprint at least for myself.

Scott
 
Hello Scott,

If there is still a need to discuss or exchange ideas in christian songwriting, I'm game.

<><
George
 
Demo advice?

It HAS been a while since I've seen this thread. So...

We're looking to do another demo for our band. Three to five songs, with minimal overdubs to get as much of a "live" feel as possible. We may rent an ADAT and have a DIY session or we may pay for the studio and engineer. Either way we're prepared.

Does anybody have nuggets of wisdom to share to keep us from making the same mistakes they did? Something you did that really made a difference? Thanks.

Peace <><
 
memphissound,

We're into our third CD project. In the beginning, the tendency was because we were recording we could add what ever we wanted into the mix. But we later decided that wasn't a good idea and have agreed that we would not put anything on the CD that we could not produce live. And it has paid off, according to the feedback we have received. Have you ever bought a CD that you really liked and then went to hear the group live and it didn't sound anything like the CD? If your live sound is great then capture that sound when you record. If your recording is better than you are live, then you need to step up your live performance.

But that just my two cents.

<><
George :cool:
 
Depending on what you call demo....if it is a tape used to get gigs, you'll want it to sound like you actually do live, so no overdubs.......you dont wanna give the club owner a demo of this fabulous band, then show up and suck......
 
Memphissound,

My experiences with doing a demo live with limited recording gear were disapointing in the sound quality and mix of the final result and we ended up going into the studio anyway.

This probably had to do more with not having an experienced engineer, using a four track with a Peavy board for mixing into the four track and little or no outboard gear.

What I would look at is do you have access to the outboard gear you may need and someone experienced with ADAT? Just because you have a good sound live does not (in my experience)
mean it is easy to get it on tape sounding the way it does live.

If your demo for getting gigs etc is all someone knows about you it should be of the highest quality you can afford. Not over produced; just a well mixed good clean sound that does not detract from your your real sound live. If you can get that sound live with an ADAT great! But your set up, miking technique and even playing technique are very different for recording than for playing live even when you want the same sound.

Scott
 
Hi guys,

George, I just found this thread and wanted to be a part. I am a Worship Leader in Houston, Texas. I have been writing since 85 or so, christian music specifically since 88 and songs for worship worship exclusively since 1990.

I have written many styles and types of songs but feel compelled to use this gift for Praise and Worship only, right now. Influences are Hillsongs, various Vineyard writers like Brian Doerksen and Kevin Prosch, and the new British Invasion stuff like Delirious, Matt Redman, and others coming across on the Worship Together label.

I have recorded on CD in the past, which was a financial gift...GOD IS GOOD!... and am working on my next at home with a DIGI001 system on PC. The funny thing about recording is that anyone can record a project. The hard part is selling CD's.

I mention this just to be available. I think we should encourage each other and share some material for inspiration and proding the creative process. If anyone is interested in sharing material, let me know and I will post some tunes.

At your service...Robert:D
 
Hi guys,

George, I just found this thread and wanted to be a part. I am a Worship Leader in Houston, Texas. I have been writing since 85 or so, christian music specifically since 88 and songs for praise and worship exclusively since 1990.

I have written many styles and types of songs but feel compelled to use this gift for Praise and Worship only, right now. Influences are Hillsongs, various Vineyard writers like Brian Doerksen and Kevin Prosch, and the new British Invasion stuff like Delirious, Matt Redman, and others coming across on the Worship Together label.

I have recorded on CD in the past, which was a financial gift...GOD IS GOOD!... and am working on my next at home with a DIGI001 system on PC. The funny thing about recording is that anyone can record a project. The hard part is selling CD's.

I mention this just to be available. I think we should encourage each other and share some material for inspiration and proding the creative process. If anyone is interested in sharing material, let me know and I will post some tunes.

At your service...Robert:D
 
RSMITH123,

Welcome to the thread.

I am truely a beast of worship. I'd like to hear your music. Haven't posted any of mine yet. Although you can go to Amazon.Com and seach for a CD title of "Answered Prayer Band". There are clips of about five of the first song on the CD that you can listen to. Not very good sound though. Best I can do right now.

Looking forward to your input.

<><
George :cool:
 
Christian Blues Rock

I have a Christian Power Trio in Southern California. We play about 1/2 secular and 1/2 Christian shows. My attitude is to just play wherever God opens up an opportunity. If people dig it cool, if not, fine. All you can do is do your thing. I wrestle all the time with whether I should write more ambiguous lyrics to not frighten people off, etc. But what keeps coming back to me is that people respect you being real about what you believe in. Not phony, not trying to trick them and slip em some Gospel in their soup, etc. I want to make the music so good that even if they don't like the message they go "Wow, that was cool!" At least that's what I'm shooting for. As far as reaching people goes you may play somewhere and only one person in the place has had his/her heart prepared by God to accept the message. That's fine. I'm not a Pastor trying to convert people. I'm just trying to live on fire for God and make cool music, if God uses me that's cool, but I can't change someone's heart, only God can do that. So I just remember my role. Remember Christian music or not, no musician has EVERYONE like what they do.

I have gotten into home recording over the past few years, and am slowly assembling a decent setup. On my band's website I have a few MP3s of songs we did there. They could be much better but I am picking this up slowly and have a long way to go. Anyway the goal is to self produce our own CD this year and we are getting close to being able to do it. Just a few more pieces of equipment.......

my band's website
www.mercyst.com

P.S. email me and let me know what you think of the songs.
 
Let Your Love Lead On

Every path I take, to another
Everytime I reach out, to my brother
Everytime I follow, after love
It always leads me, to You

Everytime my heart beats, with compassion
For every weary soul, in tribulation
Everytime I love, with more than words
It always leads me, to You

(Chorus)
So let your love lead on
Help me find someone
Who needs your tender love, and Your mercy
Show me the way
That I might share Your love today
Lord hear my prayer and let Your love lead on

Everytime I look beyond myself
Past the bircks and stone to someone else
Everytime I tear down my walls
It always leads me to You

(Chorus)

(Break / Modulate Chorus)

(Lead Break Fade)


Copyright Sept. 2001


This is lastest song I've completed. We've just finished laying it down on our new CD project.

This song, in essence, is what kind of came to the surface after WTC. I realized that regardless of what my problems are, there's always somebody somewhere alot worse off than George. Its a funny thing how when I concentrate on helping someone else, my dilemmas seem to always work themselves out.

<><
George
 
Christian Instrumental.....

I posted this already in the MP3 forum so please let me this once double post. I started this project a
year or so ago on doing a instrumental/concept CD on the bible. I finished it, I didn't spend alot of time mixing it because I lack decent monitors ans so I was forced to use headphones. Its not mastered or anything fancy, some of the songs need some arrangement but the concept and main point should come across. I would appreciate your thoughts and comments on this project, if people like enough I will probably remix and master it, maybe even have some CD's duped.
http://artists.mp3s.com/artists/314/dennis_d_whitney.html



Thanks:0)

Peace,
Dennis
 
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