A Curriculum for Teaching Collaborative Worship Songwriting Inspired by Village Hymns

The scriptural injunction to “sing to the Lord a new song” motivates the church to create new worship songs that are Biblically based, musically excellent, and reflective of God’s unique gifting and purpose for the church in its time. Village Hymns, a collective of worship leaders and songwriters serving in South Florida churches, has developed a platform for building skill in collaborative worship songwriting through their CREATE events. Through the experience of hosting over 50 CREATE events and recording three EP CDs, Village Hymns has developed best practices for collaborative worship songwriting. The aim of the case study research was to identify these best practices and incorporate them into a twelve-week curriculum for teaching collaborative worship songwriting. The curriculum is informed by perspectives from Biblical and theological scholarship and church history. Additionally, social learning constructs including communities of practice and structural folding inform the curriculum.