This weekend I was honored to be invited to speak at a SAM Retreat (Songwriters, Artists and Musicians) at Deer Run Retreat Center (pictured here) in Franklin, TN. Sponsored by Indieheaven.com, there were the maximum 40 artists - many of them indie artists who are members of Indieheaven.com. Deer Run is a beautiful facility, managed by Rick and Angel Bowles who are really developing this place into a premier camp and retreat facility.

After an amazing dinner last night, I gave a talk entitled “Aren’t We All Worshippers?” - where I unpacked passionately staying alive to God’s glory. What a great audience to speak to since everyone there was at the very least a passionate musician and most are passionate about their calling to exalt the glory of God through their music. A LOT of talent was packed in that room! I focused on keeping our ears and eyes open to the glory of God in all that He has made, having a BIG view of who God is. If we see God as the great, transcendent and awesome God that He is, it can’t help but spill out of us in our life-response of worship and influence others to see God in this way as well. I shared a couple of Clyde Kilby’s resolutions for staying alive to God’s glory…

Following a short time of Q&A, Rick introduced Shaun Groves who spoke on songwriting…although definitely not the stereotypical songwriting talk. Most recognize Groves as a great songwriter… but Shaun is a GREAT speaker… and obviously well-read and studied, especially in God’s word. He talked about having the perspective of being “Kingdom People” in our songwriting. Understanding that God, through Christ, has ushered in the Kingdom of God and its our job to lift this good news in our music. Shaun did a masterful job expositing from the beatitudes in Matthew 6. I won’t attempt to expound on it, but he said he’s writing a book on it, so I’d recommend getting his book when it comes out!

Following the song critique session, we had a great time listening to Brent Lamb in concert. He’s a hilarious guy and had us laughing a lot of the time… but he’s also a great songwriter and has penned good ole’ CCM favorites of the past like Steven Curtis Chapman’s “My Turn Now”, Harvest’s “Army of the Lord”, Steve Green’s “Household of Faith” and others. He also had a bunch of success as the lead singer of Grammy Award-winning Shenandoah a few years back. Brent did a kind of career highlight revue of many of his songs and concluded with what he called his legacy - “The Booger Song.” We were rolling on the ground. Here are the lyrics.

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