Todd Agnew

Well, yesterday was my first unsuccessful day. Of songwriting that is. It was my first day home so, I spent it with my wife, my kids, and my church. Church was incredible yesterday morning. We talked about the sin that we go to such great lengths to hide, but that God is actively working to expose our sin. He knows that it is best for us to live in the light. We were in Genesis 20, such as strange story of Abraham pretending Sarah is his sister, and preserving his life while losing his wife. Sorry for the rhyme there.

Anyway, great day with the family. But as we moved into bookreading time, which is right before the kids’ bedtime, I started falling asleep in my chair. The exhaustion from the past few days was sinking in. After the kids were in bed, my lovely wife stepped in as my caretaker and said no late night work, it was time for bed. So I didn’t get to finish what I had started that morning.

But I got some more lyrics done on the Villain song (as it’s already come to be known in my brain). And I got started on a new worship song about being satisfied in Christ. Looking forward to trying to finish that today.

Todd

Yesterday was a day of finishing and beginning. I finished two songs that had their birth in prior days. And started a new one. First up was finishing the House of Boxes song from Day one. Then was the major work of the day. Finishing up a song that for now is called Don’t You Think. It’s about Jesus calling his disciples to follow. First verse is about Peter. Second verse is about the rich young ruler. Lots of people don’t realize that, but the rich young ruler received the same “Follow Me” invitation that the rest of the guys did. He was invited to be a disciple. Which makes his walking away even more tragic. And of course, the bridge is about me receiving the same invitation. To follow Him and find more in this life that I had ever imagined.

Then I got about 2/3 of another song knocked out. Right now, it’s called “Faith vs. Works” but I have a feeling someone will eventually make me change the title to “Someone You Love”. It’s looking at the idea of faith and works found in Galatians 2, but setting it in a human relationship. I found it makes it much more clear. For me at least. The first lines are:

I could bring you flowers
That might make you happy
But it doesn’t change the fact that I broke your heart

Basically, just looking into the idea that while I can tip the scales of good vs bad, all the good I do can’t erase one bad thing I’ve done. I have to have faith that she can love me anyway. Her love changes the price of my past, not mine. The same is true with God but to the infinite degree. One mistake keeps me away from Him, and it is His sacrifice, not mine, that can change all of that. The chorus says this:

Nothing I can do can erase what I have done
Nothing I can say could take any pain away
I just have to believe
You look at the villain in me
And you still see someone you love

And it’s a rocker. Which is always fun. Hope your songs are going well. Till tomorrow.

Todd

Totally finished two songs, one great, one still being evaluated, and got all but the bridge on another.  So I count that as 2 & 3/4.  Which brings my two day total to about 4 & 5/12 songs.  Pretty good.  

Started today with the Big Boy Breakfast from Athens Restaurant in Nashville.  Then headed to write with Jason Ingram.  Love that guy.  Really enjoyed working with him today.  We wrote a song called “The One You Want”.  It’s about feeling undeserving of God’s love.  Which I am.  Undeserving, that is.  First line of the chorus is: “It’s hard for me to believe, I could be lovely in Your eyes.”  (The comma was there so you could feel the break in the melody.  I realize that it is grammatically incorrect.  Just in case, I have any red ink English teachers among my blog community.)

Second session today was with Chad Cates and Tony Wood.  Great guys.  We went a completely different direction.  Actually it was even a different direction from where I started the song.  I learn so much from these guys.  They know so much about songwriting.  About melodies, about structure, about lyric choices.  I just sing whatever comes out.  But I’m learning a ton from them.  We wrote a song called “I Need You”.  It’s about how the difficult times remind me that I really need God every moment of every day, not just the tough ones.  I really loved the bridge, as we turned from my need to how He supplies out of His character: “You are my Creator, You are my Redeemer, You are my Sustainer, O God”.  Very worshipful.  I worshipped at least.

Hope your songs went well today.  And by the way, if you’re a part of #7in7, I’ve totally been cheating.  I’ve been writing with the pros in Nashville for two days.  But tomorrow I have to pay my dues and write one new songs while driving the van back to Austin.  

If you’re not doing #7in7, then do something creative today anyway.  Write a story.  Take a picture.  Make a diorama in a shoebox.

Todd

Well, day one is over and I’m exhausted.  I don’t know if i can take a week of this.  But I have two mostly completed songs and one great guitar part to write over.  I’m really grateful for Andrew Osenga today.  He’s a new friend and incredible musician who really pulled a difficult song out of me today.  Right now it’s called “House of Boxes”.  It starts with packing the truck to move back to Texas, to get married, to become a father.  Andy said he was really interested in what makes people move.  Not necessarily move to a new house, but to move their live into action.  Cool thought.

Second song today was much more planned and purposeful.  Its called “Loved”.  It starts with the idea of breakups and what they do to our idea of ourselves as lovable.  Then we spend the rest of our lives, often in relationships where true love exists, and we are trying to believe someone could love us.  We are trying to break the chains of hopelessness that cause us to be self-destructive and self-defeating. We are learning how to be loved.

Okay, I have to go to sleep.  Or there will be no songs tomorrow.  

Todd

Well, here we go. Most of you have never heard of 7in7 and that’s completely understandable. It is a week for songwriters, many of us friends from here in Austin, where everyone writes one song a day for seven days. So, that’s 7 songs in 7 days. 7in7. Today is day one. I’m really looking forward to it. I don’t do a lot of writing on a schedule, so this is going to be a different experience for me. I plan on posting pieces of what I’m working on throughout the week, so stay tuned. You can keep up with some of what is going on through Twitter using the hash tag #7in7. And if there are any songwriters out there, you’re welcome to jump into the journey with us. I’m looking forward to hearing new songs from Aaron Ivey, Miranda Dodson, Chris Collins, and even Chris Martin! (I didn’t even know Coldplay’s singer was from Denver. Okay, so maybe it’s a different Chris Martin, but we can pretend.)

So I’d appreciate your prayers over the next week. Well, I always appreciate your prayers, but over the next week, you can pray specifically for this. We’re about to start work on the next record, so some of these songs could even end up there. Either way, it’s definitely going to be a challenge. I’m looking forward to it. Stay tuned.

Todd

P.S. If anyone has any great song ideas, you can let me know. Just don’t tell the other guys!

My wife and I went to see a new movie the other night called Get Low. Robert Duvall plays a hermit who everyone in town knows about and tells stories about, but no one really knows. Everyone is scared of him and most think he is just short of evil. But nobody actually knows him. Until he throws a funeral party. While he’s still alive. Originally he wants to hear everyone’s stories about him, but eventually he decides to tell one of his own.

I’m also reading “In The Sanctuary of Outcasts” by …, which is about a man who goes to a prison which is also a federal medical center where people with Hansen’s disease are quarantined. Hansen’s disease is what used to be known as leprosy. He is so judgmental towards them when he arrives. He avoids them, thinking that he and his family can survive a year of prison but not a lifetime of illness if he gets sick. Throughout the book, he begins to get to know them as individuals, as people, rather than defining them by their disease.

So between the two, I’ve really had my attention focused on the story behind what’s obvious. Each person we look at we try to put in a box quickly, grouping them with other people we’ve known like them. We define them by their looks, their color, their interests, their talents, their job, their denomination, their beliefs, their place in life. But rarely do we take the time to see the whole story of who they are. We live at too fast a pace to hear someone’s whole story.

My wife has an amazing gift of drawing out people’s stories. People just talk to her. I don’t have that gift. But I’m learning. I’m starting to recognize that the hateful person with the vicious tongue has a story in which they’ve been hurt deeply and it’s much safer for them to strike first. I’m realizing that there are deeper, more important questions about the homeless beggar on the corner other than whether or not he’s going to spend the money I give him on alcohol. He has a story, a life. I’m seeing that the 85-year-old lady next door has more stories than I could possibly imagine and has lived long enough that now she has no one to tell them to.

“But the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” – 1 Samuel 16:7 (ESV)

I hope I can start looking on the heart. I pray you can too.

Thoughts?

Todd

I listened to a report on a social networking fast the other day. It was public radio so they didn’t call it a fast of course. But Eric Darr, the provost of Harrisburg University, had the school’s internet service block all social networking for a week. He isn’t against it; he just wanted students to recognize how they spent their time. At the end of the week, each student had to write a paper on what they did with the time they usually would have been on facebook, or myspace, or twitter, or the time drain of your choice. He didn’t just want them to stop; he wanted them to see what they were missing. Some students were just annoyed. Others realized how much they were enmeshed by this when they caught themselves having to borrow a friend’s iPhone in order to check their facebook.

Jeron Lanier, author of You Are Not A Gadget, suggested rather than a fast, that each time you Facebook, Tweet, etc. that you put a dime towards a charity. Every time you want to check your Facebook you have to weigh that versus the cost. That way you see the effect and it actually costs you something measureable. Plus it benefits someone.

I don’t know what a good answer is, but I hope we can find a way to see the cost of how we spend our time. It’s funny to think time spent in social networking is actually taking away time we could spend with people. And sometimes those people are our spouses, our children. I’m definitely not saying all social networking is wrong. How ironic would it be to write a blog about the evils of social networking. Especially since you probably found out about it from my Twitter.

I do think that anything in which we invest a great deal of time, we should stand back from that and weigh the cost. We should know it’s value and therefore be able to recognize when we are out of whack. Just a thought.

Your thoughts?

Todd

I have been deeply impacted by this fall tour with Pocket Full of Rocks already. We have done two weekends, but one night each week has really devastated me. The other nights were wonderful as well, but these two really challenged me, so I wanted to share them with you.

The second night of the tour we were in Wilmington OH at Joe’s Java. We were walking in expecting a small possibly trendy coffeehouse and were quite surprised to find a full venue actually housing the best sound system we’ve had on the tour so far. But much more surprising was that the coffeehouse is really just the front for a soup kitchen. That is really who they are and what they do. They feed 200 people a day in a town that lost 8,000 jobs last year. And even more impressive is that they can really cook. They don’t just open a Sam’s size can of Campbell’s soup for some homeless people; they actually cook. They treat these people with respect and truly value them, giving them the best they have to offer. I swiped a recipe for Italian chicken soup and couldn’t quite talk my way into the recipe for the meatloaf. Seriously, it was incredible. One of their cooks, Frank, told me a story of a lady who called one day trying to reserve a table, not realizing it was a soup kitchen, because she had seen that it was the 3rd highest rated food in town. Last year Rachael Ray heard about this place, came to town, shut them down for 9 days, and completely renovated their kitchen. I think she should have stolen their meatloaf recipe. And many of the people serving came off the streets through this ministry. They understand the lives of the people they are serving and truly love them.

Then this last weekend we visited Henning TN. Henning is the poorest county in the state of Tennessee and yet they fed us like kings. We drove way out into the country and finally found Victory Baptist Church up on a hill. We pulled around back, and as I got out of the van, I smelled the most wonderful aroma coming from a huge grill. I quickly made friends with Eddie, and got to taste a rib before they were done. He had worked on them for two days. Amazing. My favorite rib place in Memphis has nothing on this guy. It was incredible. But before we could get to that food, they fed us lunch of incredible soups. Then the ribs were for dinner. And banana pudding. But more importantly as I talked to their pastor, he started sharing with me stories of the needs in their community. They believed God had put them their to love and invest in their people but they had no money. So they asked themselves, “What do we have?” And the answer was land. 19 acres of land. So they planted a 7 acre garden. To help feed their community. Incredible. So humbling. We were honored to be a part of their worship that night, just to be a bit of encouragement to them. Not nearly the encouragement they were to us.

I can’t wait until the day when Jesus looks at these people and says, “I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” And they will answer, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you?” And Jesus will say, “Truly I say to you, the meals you prepared, the respect you showed, the food you grew for the least of these, you did it for me.”

Todd

Most of us who have spent any time in church have heard the verse James 1:27: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” We preach on it. We agree with it. We make banners and t-shirts. But I went to an adoption conference this weekend and it opened my eyes and my heart. Dave Gibbons asked us the question: if you were the devil and needed a plan to paralyze the church, what would it be? Maybe it’s not a huge direct opposition. Maybe it’s not a war. Maybe it’s simply sowing the illusion that we’re doing something when we’re actually doing nothing.

Is this what we’re doing with the orphan crisis? We talk about it. We agree with the scripture. All the while a half a million American churches leave a half a million kids in the fostercare program in the US. One kid per church would wipe out the need for fostercare. One family willing to love a child. What if one family adopted a child and 10 other families committed to be a part of the process? Maybe some families committed to giving an amount` of money each month to that family to help them with their bills, but also with the extra things like counseling that may come with a child from a difficult background. What if a few people committed to babysitting for that family a couple of times a month, so the parents could have time to still work on their marriage? What if a carpenter in the church came over and built bunk beds? What if we as the church invested in the raising of a child more than just providing childcare on Sundays?

19,000 kids age out of the foster care system every year with no place to call home. They hit the adult world with no family to go home to on holidays. What if we changed that? What if we used some of the energy we spend picketing abortion clinics, and took care of the kids we DO have? Dr. Karyn Purvis said that the first thing we can do for a child from a difficult background is to give them a voice. To let them know we hear them. To let them know we care. The first two years of a child’s life, all they hear is “Yes, I hear you crying and I’m going to take care of your need.” What about the kids who grew up and stopped crying because no one ever met their needs? I believe God heard every one of those cries, but I believe He may be answering those cries with us. We are how He is meeting their needs.

“Father of the fatherless and protector of widows is God in his holy habitation,” Psalm 68:5. If God is a father to the fatherless and the church is His bride, then we are their mother. Every one of them in need is noticed and mourned by the King of kings, by our bridegroom. Every one. What will we do?

Your thoughts?

Todd

The much anticipated album Rehab by Lecrae hits the street today. If you don’t know, my wife and I are part of a Recovery ministry at our church. I was so excited by the content that at first I didn’t realize how great the album was musically and lyrically. But it is truly a great record. I’ve listened to it all day.

The first track is called Check In, as in check in to rehab. It’s just about recognizing our weakness and being willing to walk through the process of God healing you. Except it has that low monotone vocal underneath the main vocal reminiscent of Timbaland’s best tracks. And it’s way cooler than when I introduce the idea of God healing.

I loved so much of this record. Killa is a great song, so much of the vocab is straight from our Recovery experience. Buying into the ‘honey-dipped lies’, feasting on our ‘secret sins’. It’s just about being tempted by something that will kill us. In other words, it’s about all of us.

Divine Intervention has a great rap for the verse, but then elevates into this killer swing vocal for the chorus. It has a great line about God speaking the earth into existence with no autotune. And of course in the background of those words is a tightly autotuned vocal. Brilliant.

If you’ll listen casually to Just Like You, you will love the cool vibe to the song. But if you listen closely, you may weep. It’s talking about young men following the men who have fallen before us. The lyric, the timing, the insight are phenomenal in this track.

Children of the Light is bold and aggressive. I can’t wait to see some of this stuff live. I can see the church lifting this up together, preparing for the battle we call life. “We are children of the light, royal rulers of the day.”

Walking On Water is another great tune. I love the lines that talk about how it’s not will power, it’s God at the wheel, that’s the real power. We don’t walk on water because we decide to. We do it because He gives us the grace to. All our success depends intimately on Him.

God Is Enough lays out all the things that the world is trying to sell us as fulfillment. And then arrives at the chorus, which simply says, “God is enough.”

And then Boasting starts with this amazing vocal, and of course, it’s Anthony Evans. Not fair. There are guests throughout this project. It’s the result of true community.

I can’t recommend this highly enough. Love the music, but also open your heart to what God has for you. God wants to heal you. You have been hurt, you are hurting yourself, you are hurting others. It’s a natural result of the fall. But God has a greater plan. It doesn’t start when we get to heaven. Life is Rehab.

Hope you take a listen. I’ve got to go listen some more. Later.

Todd