Brian Doerksen Songwriting
Brian Doerksen Songwriting
WORSHIP SONGWRITING
Running Your Own Course or Retreat in Your Church - Quick Start Guide
This is your quick start guide to help you run the Worship Songwriting study curriculum live at your church.
Print it off, and refer to it as you plan your Course or Retreat. The Course is divided into 10 SESSIONS. You
may choose to do one session at a time, or you may want to combine a couple of sessions together,
depending on how much time you have.
Course Description
Worship Songwriting is an extensive 10 hour video course put together by veteran worship songwriter Brian
Doerksen (Come Now Is The Time, You Shine, Refiners Fire). Drawn from Brians university teaching, this
Master Class course is designed to strengthen every songwriter with the foundational tools necessary to
write strong, memorable, transformational songs for the Body Of Christ. A must-do for every songwriter of
faith at some point in their creative journey.
How to Run This as s Course
Have a quick look at the Media listed on site for this Course, and at the Sessions below. Determine how many
weeks youd like to spread the course over. If youre not sure, go with 10 weeks, and 1 Session per week.
For each Session, we suggest that you begin with a time of worship together. Then, watch the Media for the
Session. Finally, spend some time discussing what youve seen. Included below are sample questions to get
you started feel free to add your own as things progress. Each Session will run for 1-1.5 hours, depending
on the level of interaction and the size of your group. You could run this course in evenings, or on Sunday
mornings or afternoons.
How to Run This as a Retreat
The material also works great as a worship team retreat. Everything is ready for you to use so you can focus
on logistics of pulling the retreat together your content is now ready to go. For detailed suggestions on how
to run a great worship retreat, flip to the last section of this document.
Note: This particular course is considerably more time intensive than most and will require several additional
sessions to be completed in a retreat format.
Where Do I Start?
1. Choose the Course youd like to do as a Retreat, and download the media content.
Odds are, if youve ever been to a retreat before in your life, youve had either a great experience or a mediocre
experience. Weve had both, and hope we know our way around a bit when it comes to planning an effective
retreat. For that reason, well give you a ready-made, high quality retreat via download, and a schedule template
that has been tried and tested in many settings.
If youre pretty sure you know what youre doing, you can ignore the schedule below and just use the Media as you
see fit. Click on the Courses Tab, find the course youd like to do as a Retreat, and click the Retreat link if you
havent already.
2. Choose a great environment for both laughter and learning.
That big, cold, cavernous sanctuary may be convenient and cheap, but it may not be the best atmosphere for
enjoying one another and learning together. We encourage you to find a space with a comfortable temperature,
relaxing chairs, plenty of food, away from the environment in which the work is done and in a beautiful location.
You wont regret investing in atmosphere go over the top if you can.
3. Bring gifts and plenty of affirmation.
The best retreats in our memory, and hopefully yours, are filled with a spirit of generosity and playfulness. If youre
not the best at organizing those things for your team, find someone who is. Give away gifts (we gave away a guitar
once to someone everyone thought deserved it), and watch a powerful dynamic of friendship grow in the group.
Find little and big ways to bless from baskets to gift certificates. Smile a lot, too.
4. Remember that a great retreat can last for years literally.
The more energy you put into making your retreat amazing, the more you may see lasting impact in how your team
relates to one another, cares for one another, and works together to serve the worship needs of your community.
Your investment will pay off people who feel valued tend to stay and serve for a long time.