A Critic for My Song

By Tim Swanson

When I first began my job as Music Director at Moon Valley Bible Church, our Senior Pastor, Bob Kerrey, interviewed me during our services one Sunday as way to help people get to know me. During that interview I was so excited to tell everybody about how it would be our Music Ministry's initiative to find songwriters from within our own congregation, and begin singing locally written praise music regularly in our services.

However, I tend to put the cart before the horse at times. Sometimes, when it might be wiser to wait and think about the best way to begin a songwriter's circle, I just come out and invite everyone instead. Repercussions can be worse when they're an afterthought.

During the following week emails began to roll in from songwriters around the community. Some of the music was really good. In fact, some of those songwriters I met are in our songwriter's circle today. I have written and recorded with many of them. But that week, there was one lady who sent me a song that she had written and it was - truly awful. Nonsensical words were forced into phrases in order to make them rhyme. Biblical ideals were used in incorrect context. The chorus made a different and unrelated point than the verses, which each made a different point. The whole thing was pretty rough.

When I finished reading her lyrics, I pushed my chair back from my desk and I closed my eyes. I was afraid of having to tell this woman that there was no way we would do her song on a Sunday morning. I imagined the possible results - her going around telling everyone what a horrible person I am. What I was experiencing was a moment of cowardice. I was more concerned with what people were going to think of me than I was with the fact that keeping bad content out of Sunday services is, in part, what I was hired to do. But that's not the point. God worked through my chicken hearted moment to give me some insight into one of the best ministry ideas that I've ever had. What if I created a team of the most critical people I could find to do the judging for me. And for that matter, what if they judged my music too.

So I picked up the phone and started calling some strongly opinionated people. The result was a team that named themselves The Critic’s Corner. They review all locally written music before we hear it in a Sunday morning service. They judge songs according to a set criteria. In order for a song to be approved it has to be true (aligned with Scripture), accessible (able to be played by our musicians and sung by our church family) and it has to be good (so good that people will want to share it with their friends). This team safeguards our church from bad music. They use these criteria to review all local music (even mine), then they vote on whether or not to include the song in MVBC’s repertoire. With a majority vote, they are able to allow the song or not allow it.

To a lot of songwriters this process probably sounds clunky and taxing, and it is. But I have come to love the Critic’s Corner, and not because they keep me from having to tell people their music isn’t good. In fact, I’ve been practicing telling our songwriters where their songs need work because I want them to pass the Critic’s Corner review when it comes. I have come to love this team because it does a whole bunch of good stuff. The critics provide accountability to our songwriters;  they challenge the songwriter’s process and force us to write better music; they safeguard our congregation from bad music; the team provides an opportunity for people in our church to serve God by being a critic on the team; and the list goes on.

Initially, the idea came out of my fear and weakness as I worried about the negative consequences of being honest with someone I had never met. But just like Paul says in 2 Corinthians 12:19, “But (God) said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.” When I reacted in fear, God gave me inspiration.  When I was weak, He was strong. He showed me a vision for something that He is using for a lot of good. Now, I don’t worry about giving criticism, or receiving it for that matter. The Critic Corner’s deep level of commitment to the excellence of our music has given me a lot of confidence. And I’m reassured that songwriters and critics alike are in this to see the music at MVBC become the best it can be.