How To Write A Worship Song: 7 Essential Steps for Beginners

Have you had a desire to write worship songs for your church? Or have felt called to write a powerful worship song that reaches people all over the world?

Writing a great worship song can feel like such a daunting feat, but there are some simple steps you can take to help you get started. 

Before we go through these steps, let’s first establish some ground rules that should be understood.

First off, these steps are not the definitive guide on how to write a worship song.  Songwriting is an art and at the end of the day, it has no rules. 

Everyone has their own process, but the point of these steps is to give you a basic foundation to lift you off the ground.

Second, these steps approach the songwriting process from a lyrical approach. 

Another way is to approach the song from a musical approach, where you may start with a melody or chord progression.  Either way can be done just depends on where your idea is sparked from.

So that being said, let’s get started…

7 Essential Steps to Writing A Worship Song

1. Make Your Song an Altar

An altar is a place where God meets us.

That place where we can have intimate, honest, and vulnerable moments with our Creator. Where we come to God with our darkest, deepest fears and desires, and lay them at His feet. 

So make your songs that altar. Write it with the intention of coming to meet God and letting Him live and breathe on it.

God can turn that song, that altar, into a table for people who hear it to be invited into His presence. Where He can bring peace. hope, and healing over those situations that your song has put before Him. 

So don’t be afraid to write from and share those moments. 

You never know who is going through the same situation or how your unique perspective to that struggle can relate to someone else. 

2. Find One Great Idea and Stick to it

Every great worship song starts with a great idea. A great idea takes a universal struggle or problem and approaches it from a fresh, unique angle. 

Once you find a great idea this becomes your hook, or also called the “North Star” of your song. It should be the brightest light in your song that every part leads the listener to.

Your hook is usually the title of the song, but can also be a creative, engaging melody, a musical line or motif, or a fun rhythmical idea that enhances the lyrics.

So where can you find inspiration for a great hook? You can find a great hook through various places:

• Books & Book Titles
• Scriptures
• Conversations
• Sermons
• Inspiration from pieces of songs

The world is your oyster. Keep a lookout for inspiration. Pull from your personal experiences and testimonies and let them lead your song creation process.

3. Write Down Words, Phrases and Questions Related to Your Hook (Song Mapping)

Once you’ve found your hook you can begin writing down words phrases, questions that come to mind related to your hook. This technique is called song mapping. 

It’s a great way to keep flow when writing a song by organizing your ideas and helping you find new ones when you’re stuck. You can find new angles and approaches to a theme and use each one in different sections of the song. Or you can use it to light up your chorus.

4. Decide On A Structure For Your Worship Song

Now that you have a great hook and (hopefully) a ton of ideas and approaches to it, you can start figuring out how you want to structure your song. 

The structure of your song is how it is organized between the various sections of the song. 

Having a solid song structure is a critical piece to the song. It helps you visualize how you’re going to lead people to the hook. 

If you are new to song structure, a song will typically have 3 sections:

• A = Verse

• B = Chorus

• C = Bridge/Vamp

You’ll also find other sections such as a pre-chorus, post-chorus, or interlude.

Popular songs tend to follow a certain structure because it is something that has been proven to work time and time again. 

Listeners subconsciously recognize these structures and become familiar with them. It makes for easy listening when their ears have a familiarity and know what to expect to come next.

When it comes to worship songs, they also tend to follow a certain structure. 

The structure is built to help map out how you’ll pull the listener into the story of the song and lead them to the hook. The hook is often times the response or the solution to the problem the song presents. 

Typically this is done by building up the anticipation in the verses and leading them to the great payoff in the chorus.

Here are some common structures found in popular worship songs:

ABABAB

(Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus)

Revelation Song – Kari Jobe

ABABCB

(Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Bridge/Chorus)

My Worship – Phil Thompson  

Goodness of God – Bethel Music

AABABCB Structure

(Verse/Verse/Chorus/Verse/Chorus/Bridge/Chorus)

Fires – Jordan St. Cyr

5. Start with the Chorus as the Foundation

When writing a song, it’s best to start with the chorus of the song. 

This is typically the strongest part of your song, so it’s much easier to build the other sections of your song once you start from here. 

There are many ways you can start developing a chorus, but most times an idea will be there once you have a hook idea. 

Think of what melodies, what sounds, what emotions come to mind when you think of your hook. Is it hopeful, peaceful, upset, sad, etc? 

After you’ve solidified your chorus, it’s time to develop the rest of the song. 

Since your chorus is the hook or North star of your song, the verses should lead you up to it. 

This is where your song mapping comes in handy, you can use the different topics and unique angles related to your hook to create your verses. 

Make sure to create contrast before the verse and chorus. This can be done with changes to the melody or pace of the song.

Finish up the song with a strong vamp or the bridge.

Typically a bridge will bring something fresh to the song musically and lyrically. 

In worship songs, you’ll usually find a vamp. 

A vamp tends to have one or two phrases that are repeated or can be a response to what has happened in the song thus far. 

Vamps also allow for improvisation or adlibs, which is what makes them so powerful in the hands of a gifted and well-connected worship leader or artist.

6. Make a Scratch Recording

Once the first draft of the song is done, make a scratch or “demo” recording of the song. This type of recording can be a simple voice memo with vocals or with a piano/guitar and vocals. 

Having a scratch recording helps you:

• Remember the form, sound and feel of the song
• Get a basic feel for how the lyrics flow and sing-ability of the song
• Be able to listen back and critique days after recording

With a scratch recording, you’re able to fully analyze your song and get a less biased viewpoint.

 It’s also good to step away from the song for a couple of days and listen back later to see if it still gives you the same feeling it did when you first wrote it. 

If not then that’s a good sign your song isn’t quite done yet.

7. Review, Revise, Rewrite

Once you’ve taken a step back and listened and reviewed your song, it’s time to revise and rewrite. 

Great songs aren’t written, they’re re-written. 

Just because a song comes from your heart, doesn’t mean it can’t be improved upon. As songwriters, we need to be good stewards of the gifts God gave us. If God gave you a song, then it’s your job to make sure it’s at its best.

Take time to go back and fix sections of the song that feel clunky or awkward when singing it. 

Get constructive feedback from friends, family, and other songwriters. Try to seek professional feedback as well, if possible. 

If you feel like your song needs something you can’t give, or you get stuck in the process, you may need to find a co-writer to help you write the song.

You want your song to be at its best, put it through the test. Let others give their honest opinions and advice. The more ears on your song the better.

Remember no matter what ANYONE says, at the end of the day it’s your song, your message, your heart. You have the final say on what it becomes and what you want to make of it. 

Your worship song can be used for your personal worship moments, or become that song that reaches people all around the world. 

Whichever it is, let God help you find the place for it, be a good steward of your song and getting it out into the world, and be open to wherever He leads.