Beyond Sunday Worship

Worship Podcast & Blog

Awaken the Artist Within: Overcome What Holds You Back and Create Your Best Work

Before you read this post, I want you to say something out loud. Ready?

Say: “I am an artist.”

If you don’t believe yourself, say it until you do. Because it’s true. And today, I want to invite you to join with other artists and make something.

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On the heels of my new Ebook, The Worship Songwriter, I thought it was fitting for us to do a blog series on creating.

The whole premise of the book is about overcoming your fear and writing your best songs – making something. But making something goes far beyond songwriting. You don’t need to be a songwriter in order to create.

  • If you lead worship, you create worship experiences for people.
  • If you preach, you create sermons to reach people.
  • If you cook, you make experiences surrounding food.
  • If you are hospitable, you make others feel comfortable.

Making is all around us. Creating is part of who we are. We are made in the image of our creator – we are artists.

We create in order to reflect our Maker. We have been gifted, blessed, commissioned to go forth and create songs, sculptures, structures, canvases, and experiences for the glory of God.

But more often than not, we don’t.

Why?

That’s exactly what we’re going to tackle in this 5-part series – overcoming your hindrances to creating.

5 Hindrances To Creating

Hindrance #1 – What if I don’t know what to make? (ideas)

Hindrance #2 – What if no one knows I exist? (marketing)

Hindrance #3 – What if I fail? (failure)

Hindrance #4 – What if I don’t have time? (excuses)

Hindrance #5 – What if I succeed? (success)

In the end, I would rather try and fail for the rest of my life than offer God my good intentions. It’s time to zero in. It’s time to decide. It’s time to confront the monsters.

It’s time to clarify what we’re living for – what we’re actually doing with our lives.

So through this 5 part series I want to challenge you – make something. Get started.

No idea is too small. No failure is final. No excuse too overwhelming. You can do this.

Yes, There’s a Giveaway

Simply for participating in this challenge, you will be entered to win a couple sweet prizes (I’m giving away 5):

1. A FREE copy of my book, “The Worship Songwriter“

2. A FREE copy of my worship album, “Near.”

More importantly, you’ll receive some fresh accountability for your art.

How This Will Work

Are you in? All you have to do to qualify is:

1. Leave a comment below. Let us know what you’re going to make (accountability is wonderful).

2. Follow along with the blog series for updates/challenges. You can subscribe to posts HERE (select the “daily” option).

3. Make something. Just get started.

I need your feedback. What are you going to start over the next couple weeks? I’m here to help you. Leave a comment!

Comments

  1. Rafael (Kloudsmonk) says

    I simply laughed when I saw this title. This past week I feel like God has been constantly slapping me in the face telling me “DO IT ALREADY!!!!”. Friends have been encouraging. Bible verses I’ve read have tugged at my heart. And now my favorite blogger jumps on the bandwagon (lol). I’ve been a singer/songwriter for a few years now. I’ve had an urge to finally record an EP. I’m going to do it over this fall and winter. I’ve already begun writing songs for it. SO what am I going to make??? A 6 song EP titled “Reality of The Cross”. Don’t really have a release date yet but I will soon…. Thanks David

  2. Tom Mertes says

    Okay. I’m in. I’ve got song fragments I’ve been working on and a play that is starting to take shape. I’d commit to more but I’m afraid that I’ll fall into the “overachiever” habit of setting myself up to fail. So for the time being it’ll be two new songs and one play. Should be within reach. After all, I am an artist! ;0)

      • Tom Mertes says

        Okay, I”m going to commit to the songs. For song #1 the chords and melody have mostly taken shape. I’ve got the general theme/message of the song. I’ve got the first verse and the chorus. Now all I need is to write a few more verses and we’ll be good.

        I’m leading worship on 11/11 so I hope to introduce it to the church on that date!

        Song #2 is on hold until I get #1 in workable order.

        Thanks, David, for the structure of this blog and helping us to bring forth the treasures of our hearts!

  3. Mike Graff says

    Challenged by overcoming these 5 hindrances… thanks for crystallizing something I’ve been dealing with for a while! Greatly appreciated.

  4. BobbyG says

    Well, this is an interesting challenge.

    So, what am I going to make? Hmmm, well there’s been this series of training videos that I’ve been impressed to do over the years… Interestingly enough, I also shared a link to the content that Gateway Worship has produced which reminded me of that tap on the should that I’ve felt God doing in the past.

    So I suppose that’s what I’ll be making. A series of training vids for worship leaders with a slant toward Biblical foundations for what are typically seen as “good” musician- or bandmanship.

    Thanks David for doing this. 🙂

      • BobbyG says

        David, My first step would be break the project down to a smaller focus. I believe “Biblical Principles for Effective Rehearsals” is where I’ll begin. Then to study generally accepted “best practices” and perspectives from my experience to see what to focus on. Finally, to study to see what Biblical principles would or could inform them.

        How would you like to be brought into the process? I’m sure I would benefit from your experience and perspective.

  5. Ami says

    Love this challenge – the choice now becomes which of the many creative ventures I want to focus on, as so many ideas have been clogged with brain dust during this crazy time in my life.

    I want to start writing again – I’ve had multiple books on my heart for years, and I feel like it’s time I finally get these written on paper.

    So my personal goal – at least one page a day, every day, throughout the month of November :).

  6. Michael Schlatt says

    How funny! My wife Katie and I have just been talking over the last couple weeks and decided to start a project to collect songs we’ve written over the years, collaborate and record a demo in the next couple months. I’ve also desired to start blogging about the process. A lot of the topics you plan on covering in the next few weeks are some of the very things I was expecting would come up for us and wanted to explore. And I literally posted the first entry earlier this week. 🙂 Thanks for this challenge and encouragement!

    So, my goal is to collaborate with Katie to put together a demo of our old songs and to blog weekly about the process.

    Check us out at http://livingunexplored.blogspot.com

      • Michael Schlatt says

        Thanks for the encouragement! We haven’t started recording quite yet. The first goal over the next two weeks is to collaborate on improving each of the songs by analyzing words, melodies, chord progressions, arrangements, etc. After that once-through, I think we’ll start recording some stripped-down versions of the tunes (i.e. just guitar and voice) and then start building from there.

  7. Lourdes Perez says

    Hello David, I want to say thank you for this blog. I have written over 30 songs, and recorded 5 in a demo about 4 years ago. The job was incomplete, I wanted to add more instruments to the songs, and there was going to be a release date, and everything was stopped. Now I only have my demo witn 5 songs, I have in myspace and Reverbnation sites, But I don’t know what would be my next step. Any ideas? I would really appreciated. And I’m in for the challenge.

    • David Santistevan says

      I would work on finishing the project and sharing it with the world. Put a launch plan together and get your music out there! That’s a lot of work in a nutshell 🙂

  8. Tim Hageland says

    I’m recording and writing for my new worship project. That’s what I’m creating. Songs for the House!

  9. Justice Devon says

    I’m going to write a minimum of 12000 words per day throughout the month of November, towards an end goal of creating a short novel. I’m also interest in writing music. I have a recording studio in my house, so it’s really just a matter of my own laziness that I haven’t recorded anything yet. I’d like to write a song per week, regardless of how ‘perfect’ it is and, at the end of the month, have my dad help me record them in an epic fashion. (:

  10. Jehn Hovsepian says

    Hi David,
    In the next two weeks, I will continue to write my simple songs and record simple piano/vocal arrangements. I’ve realized that simple is better. I like to think in terms not of my “lyrical prowess” but rather, what can those around me, who aren’t musicians, easily embrace and sing.
    Thank you for meeting me right where I am. We need you!

  11. Rob Still says

    Hey buddy, this is cool. The timing’s not good for me right now, I leave for Sri Lanka next week and I’ve got a full plate till then. No new projects right now.

    For this challenge though, when I do it, I’m going to write a song worship song or two following the process in your book.

  13. shawn smith says

    I have had the idea of collecting a book of poetry that I have written and maybe writing/adding some more poetry to it. Right now I have poems written in several different places. On napkins. On my laptop, Etc. The idea of putting this together is scary for me and that is why I haven’t done it yet. So I really need the accountability.

    shawn

    • Michael Schlatt says

      shawn–I totally get that! And funny enough, I just posted a blog entry this morning talking about that very thing. What we found was just adding a little formality and organization to the work is a simple (yet still scary!) step that will provide a great emotional boost as you move forward. I encourage you to go for it!

      • shawn smith says

        I wrote one poem about fall to be added to what I already have written. I have gathered everything to one location. The next step would be to weed through everything I have written and type the good ones into a document on my computer grouped by theme. Then take ones that could be tweeked or aren’t done and work on those to see if they could be included.

  14. Armando Morales says

    Love this challenge! It kinda helps me get from point A to B instead of attempting A to Z and get frustrated. Right now our worship team is in the middle of a recording (side) project which seems to get shelved frequently since we are all dads, busy with work, and have more than one role when it comes to serving the church. We started this project 2 yrs ago and it seems like we are at turtle speed progress. So to kind of give this turtle a little boost I’d like to finish a song arrangement our bassist put together and present to the church! Thanks for this! 🙂

  15. AndrewF says

    I’ve got a handful of songs I’ve written, a couple of which we’ve been singing in small-group & church, and I’d like to put together a decent quality demo EP of them. It’s a bit of a longer-term creation – I’m thinking it will take until the summer to get completed as I’ll do most of the tracking at home when I can.

  16. Lindel Anderson says

    Thanks for your leadership in the area of inspiring others to be creative. We have a new Live Recording every year at Indiana Bible College. We always include some original material on the projects, but I would like to record more original material. For this to happen, I personally need to write and inspire our students to write also.

  17. Tinashe says

    This piece of wrk rely revived m. I used to write poems and plays but have since lost intrest in writting because i never believed i was good at it. I would hide them away from people. Close friends who had a chance to read them said they were great and i ve since lost all of my work. I would like to go back to writting but just seem not to rediscover t and have lost th passion of something i love most thats writting

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