You may not know Phil Wickham by name. However, there’s a pretty good chance you’ve sung one of his Top Ten chart songs. From “Living Hope” to “This is Amazing Grace,” the many modern-day Christmas songs he’s written place him alongside the likes of Chris Tomlin, whose songs churches will be singing for years to come.
Wickham grew up the son of a minister of music. Both his dad and mom were praise and worship leaders.
“My dad and my mom were both worship leaders my whole life. When I was 12, my dad said, ‘Hey, I’ll give you one of my guitars if you learn how to play it.’ It was like that’s what you do with the guitar. You play worship songs.”
Wickham, who finds himself still using a guitar to lead thousands in praise and worship songs, says he has a mandate from God to make sure he is not presenting songs to himself or even the audience. His calling is to present songs only to God, he said.
He’s currently on a sold-out concert tour tied to the release of a new worship album titled Believe. This isn’t Wickham’s first album. He’s been doing worship ministry for the last 18 years. He still enjoys the craftsmanship God has given him while also knowing it requires great responsibility.
“It’s not easy to write a song, and it’s not easy to sing a vocal, and it’s not easy to arrange a song,” he said. “It rarely feels like it all falls into place for me. I know it’s a different thing for every artist, but what I have found is that for me, and the giftings God has given me, God honors the digging, and God honors the work. Some worship leaders wake up from a dream, and they have a whole list of songs God gave them. That’s just not me. I have to keep digging and working to make it work.”
His process in songwriting starts with an idea or a concept.
“What really starts with every song is like that initial concept idea where God will switch something on in my heart and give me a new idea about his holiness, or a new idea about my relationship with him, and it’ll spark my heart with a concept for a song that I know has to exist,” he explained.
Once Wickham has felt comfortable with the digging and working, he then shares what he feels like God has given him with a team of accountability partners, one of those being his dad. Wickham does this not just to hold himself accountable but to also make sure what he produces meets the standards and quality he says God has placed on him as a worship leader.
Wickham is friends with worship leader Matt Redman, who also speaks into his life.
“Matt says, ‘Do you want a hamster, or do you want an elephant of a song? The gestation period for a mother to give birth to the hamster is very short. Elephants, it’s almost two years the mother has to carry until the elephant is born. And so, let God shape a theme in your heart, and let God give you the time. Give God the time and the experience and the thoughtfulness, and give him the meditation of your heart to pour into you enough on that theme so that you can write from more than one angle, so that you’re not just trying to finish a song, but you’re trying to write something that you believe in so much that you feel like it’s worthy presenting to someone else.’”
Wickham seeks more than fleeting fame or quickly forgotten songs.
“This is not a fun season,” he said. “The weird thing about this season is that we see everything 15 seconds after it happened. We’re seeing this person say this, this politician yelling at this politician. And then we flip the feed, and then we’re seeing a car accident, or the latest crisis of the day that seems to need our attention. I want to encourage worship leaders that what you hold in your heart and what you’re singing about is true.”
After 18 years, “God still continues to grow me and my ministry, and I want to be responsible in what he allows me to do,” he said. “I want to write songs that speak truth. I wanted to sing it in a way that also lifts my heart up. The more I sing and give him my gift, the more I feel like my spirit is agreeing with the Holy Spirit. “
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