Nashville-based Krissy Nordhoff is a professional songwriter and author.
Krissy is the creator of The Writing Worship Course and the Worship Songwriter Mentorship. Her songs have been recorded by a variety of artists including Natalie Grant, Jenn Johnson (Bethel Music), Darlene Zschech and many more! Passionate about training and encouraging the next generation of songwriters, Krissy now mentors, teaches and creates resources, including informative podcasts and her popular 'Songwriter Personality Test'. She has also penned a new book, Writing Worship: How To Craft Heartfelt Songs for the Church that offers spiritual and practical insights for aspiring songwriters and worship teams that want to write original songs for their congregations.
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The 5 Purposes of Worship Songs
I want to share with you the five purposes of writing worship songs. A lot of times, we'll get questions from people saying, 'I've written my songs, and now I'm not sure what purpose they're serving, how to get them out there, or which avenue I should be sharing them'. I think it'll help you just to have these five things in mind , because there's a wide scope of how God can use our songs. Many people think it's just the worldwide platform. Honestly, I've never tried to write for the world platform and hit that target - that's never once happened for me! Although I have had a couple of songs that have done that, I was writing them from a different place. So let me share some of those other places with you.
1. For the sake of blessing God alone
The first reason why we might write a worship song is just for the sake of blessing God alone. I can't tell you how many days I've sat here at my piano and written things, little songs that no one will ever hear that were just really intended to praise God. I know that those are cherished by him, and that is enough reason in itself to write a song.
2. To hear directly from God
A lot of times, I have sat at the piano and written a song that was just expressing my heart, and He spoke back to me in that moment through that song. I know it blessed him, but it also was for me personally, and it made an impact on me. Some of those songs I've written have made an impact on me in life changing ways, because I heard directly from the Lord through that song.
3. To bless someone else
We can write these songs to bless God, but also to bless somebody else and their relationship with him. I can't tell you how many songs I've written for weddings, funerals, baby dedications, for somebody that was sick. And are those things that will ever be shared beyond those people? I don't know. Do I believe it blesses the church or blesses hearts? Absolutely! In ways we'll probably never see until we get to heaven.
4. To praise God corporately
We write worship songs to praise God corporately - that means with our church body, those that are in our congregation, and people in our life. It edifies those individual bodies and it gives them their song to sing: for their time, for their purpose, for their town, and their individual context.
5. They give us a corporate way to worship God around the world
There are very few songs that fit into this category, but these are the songs that when we gather in arenas, it gives us that common union, that common thread, that runs through all of us. It's a beautiful way to worship from a worldwide perspective. Again, I want to reiterate not all of the songs that we write are a number five! In fact, although I have had a couple of number fives, I thought they were number ones when I was writing them!
I really think if our hearts are in the right place as we're writing these songs, God will then lead the songs where they need to go. I really believe that if we just stay where we're planted, work from where we are, give what we have and what we know, He'll do the rest. I hope this helps you as you're writing your worship songs! You can share any song you've written by uploading it to SongShare to share with your church, with your city and with your world.
If you don't know where to start with writing songs, or if you're an old hand in need of some fresh new tips then Krissy has some amazing resources on her site writingworship.co. A great place to start is by taking the Songwriter Personality Test, which will help you to understand where your personal strengths are with songwriting, and who you need to team up with! If you want to dig deeper with others in your church then have a look at Krissy's book Writing Worship, and her online course.
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