Dr. Frank Baker calculated that Charles Wesley wrote an average of 10 lines of verse every day for 50 years. Over his lifetime, he wrote over 6,500 hymns and yet almost every single one of them carries so much lyrical weight and richness that a number of contemporary songs struggle to match.
How? How did one man produce so much and yet so deep?
Here’s something every gospel artist needs to settle: the Holy Spirit is still the primary author of great Christian music. He hasn’t retired. He hasn’t run out of songs. That has always been true.
But here’s another thing that is equally important.
We still have a responsibility.
The Holy Spirit works through prepared vessels. He flows most freely through hearts that are deeply rooted in Scripture, saturated in prayer, and spiritually attentive. In Wesley’s day, almost every early Methodist possessed two books: a Bible and a hymn book. These volumes proved bosom companions, and the Methodist was daily reading his Bible and daily singing from his hymn book.
Wesley was steeped in Scripture. The latest critical edition of his hymn collection contains references to every book of the Bible except Nahum and Philemon. That kind of biblical saturation doesn’t happen accidentally. It’s the fruit of sustained, disciplined time in God’s Word.
The problem with the age we’re in is that we live in a fast-paced generation. The pressure to keep turning out content is relentless.
Because depth cannot be manufactured on a content calendar. Theological richness cannot be rushed. Some songs need time — time in prayer, time in the Word, time sitting with an idea until the Holy Spirit breathes life into it and it becomes something that will last beyond a trending moment.
None of this means every song needs years to write. The Holy Spirit can give a complete, powerful song in minutes. But it does mean that gospel artists carry a responsibility that goes beyond meeting a release schedule.
Stay in the Word. Stay in prayer. Stay sensitive to the Spirit. Resist the pressure to produce for production’s sake. Don’t be lazy when it comes to writing. Sit down and develop that song well.
