SONGWRITING INTENSIVE 2017 (Recap)
by Gloria Gaither

It is Tuesday morning.  It has taken me two days to check the pantry and refrigerator for needed groceries, water the geraniums, and check on the black swans that are about to hatch two nests full of eggs. 

I’m just saying that these regular routines of our lives were needed to give us time to absorb and process the amazing week-end of the Songwriting Intensive.  Yes, it was a jam-packed three days of learning and trying out the tools of songwriting.  But any experience is worth our time only if there is a “breaking through” to something “eternal,” something more.

I have a feeling that all 65 of us (the limit of our capacity at Gaither Family Resources campus) are trying this morning to stretch tall enough to write and BE a little more able to wear the crown of that “something more” we experienced together.  Here are just a few of the comments I received before I left to come home:

This Songwriting Workshop…is teaching us how to work the soil so that we may grow the fruits and vegetables of music for decades to come. Or maybe, as for me, it is simply a retreat to “be still and know”—to know and remember how blessed I am to hear and enjoy and just how powerful words and music can be.                                                                      –Tenn.

It was a beautiful experience!                                        –Ohio

What a unique venue to bring together faith alongside writing and creativity—a place to glean from those who are already using their craft for God’s glory!           I have a greater understanding of the skill and art of songwriting and am inspired by the profound influence a can have.                                                                                                                                                                                    –Florida

Writing a song is not as important as making a life.    —Indiana  

Rory Feek, Dony and Reba McGuire, Buddy Greene, Ken Medema and Bill and I all taught what we have learned over decades of writing, but the rich hours of being in a community of songwriters, sharing stories, eating and laughing together with those who came from so many states and countries to be here was way more than the sum of the parts. The week-end seemed to speak to all of us: 

WRITE WHAT IS TRUE, 

            MAKE IT REAL,

AND GET SO GOOD AT USING EVERY TOOL OF THE CRAFT THAT GOD HIMSELF CAN SPEAK THROUGH THE WORDS AND THE MUSIC!

Pictures from this year’s event (below).  If you missed out this year or you want to sign up again for another year of learning and fellowship, click here for more information or to register.