You Can Write a Song

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

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Series Code: YCWS

Program Code: YCWS190001S


00:20 Hello and welcome to 3ABN's Praise Him Music Channel.
00:24 And today, we're starting a new series and it's called,
00:27 you can write a song.
00:30 And I can't think of anyone
00:32 that I would rather have to teach me
00:34 how to write a song than Mr. Lanny Wolfe.
00:37 Lanny, it's good to have you here today.
00:38 It's good to be here, Danny. Thank you.
00:40 And you come all the way from...
00:42 Houston, Texas. Houston, Texas.
00:43 There you go. Okay.
00:45 I know you spent many years in Jackson, Mississippi.
00:47 And we'll probably hear
00:48 a little bit more about your life,
00:50 but I'm excited about this new series.
00:54 So you're going to actually be...
00:56 Today, the first program,
00:58 we're kind of introducing you and what we want to do,
01:01 and what our goal is.
01:02 And 3ABN is always,
01:04 we try to strive for excellence.
01:05 Sure.
01:07 Whatever we do, whether we're preaching prophecies
01:09 of Daniel and Revelation,
01:11 you know, whether we're doing vegetarian cooking classes,
01:14 or, you know, doing Today programs,
01:16 whatever we try to do,
01:18 you know, strive for excellence.
01:19 So as when you're thinking about you can write a song,
01:24 who could I get that I really I think could teach?
01:27 Well, how about someone, first of all,
01:29 who has taught young people
01:30 and taught music for 20 plus years
01:33 and might even,
01:35 wouldn't hurt to have a master's degree
01:36 or two in music.
01:38 But all of that's not necessarily,
01:41 necessary to write a song,
01:43 but this is going to be a fun time.
01:45 It's a great time.
01:46 And so I want to talk to you a little bit.
01:48 First of all, you and I met some years ago
01:51 at, actually, Lari Goss's funeral.
01:54 Of course, I've heard of Lanny Wolfe
01:56 for many, many years.
01:58 About four years ago we met personally.
02:00 At Larry Goss's funeral.
02:03 And so, Melody saw you there.
02:06 My daughter and she's like, "Daddy, that's Lanny Wolfe.
02:08 We got to go talk to him."
02:10 And, of course, Melody loved your,
02:13 we loved your music too,
02:14 but ever since she was a little girl,
02:16 she had it playing all the time.
02:17 So she knows, as you found out,
02:19 she knows almost all your songs.
02:21 Better than I do.
02:22 I think so.
02:24 She tells me when I'm playing it wrong.
02:25 I think so after all these years.
02:27 But we've done a number of projects together
02:30 in the last four years,
02:31 and even co-written a number of songs together,
02:34 which I'm deeply honored by that.
02:36 And 'cause I never really considered myself a songwriter.
02:40 He's still modest.
02:41 No, no.
02:43 I've written a number of songs, but if someone says...
02:44 He's a great songwriter.
02:45 If someone says, "What do you do?"
02:47 It's never entered my mind
02:48 as one of the things that I do is...
02:50 On the resume. That I'm a songwriter.
02:52 Yeah.
02:53 I just don't, you know, that's something I just...
02:55 Every now and then, you feel like
02:56 the Lord gives you songs and you write it.
02:58 But talking to you and you been,
03:02 you know, teaching music for so long.
03:04 You came up with the idea and said,
03:06 why don't we do a program on...
03:07 You can write a song.
03:09 The viewers at home, right?
03:11 Where we're looking at the camera,
03:12 you can write a song.
03:14 Absolutely. Absolutely.
03:15 So why do you want to do this?
03:16 You're busy and you're still writing music.
03:18 I mean, you're cranking it out.
03:19 You haven't slowed down at all over the years.
03:22 Why do you want to take the time
03:23 and work with our viewers?
03:25 Well, to me, in my DNA,
03:29 God gifted me with this songwriting
03:32 ability to put words and music together
03:35 that bless people.
03:37 So for 20 some years I've taught young people
03:40 who have written wonderful songs.
03:43 And I feel like that
03:47 so many people out there have a song,
03:50 they just don't know it yet.
03:52 And so, when we talk about these first few sessions,
03:55 it's like you may have never thought
03:57 that you were a songwriter or could be a songwriter.
04:00 Maybe you don't play an instrument.
04:02 You don't have to, you can be the lyrics side of it.
04:04 So, you, yes, you out there, you can write a song
04:08 and I'm going to show you how simple.
04:10 I don't mean for this to sound wrong,
04:12 but how simple it is.
04:14 And basically, you're going to be so amazed
04:16 at how much is in you
04:20 that you've never thought about in terms of being a songwriter.
04:25 People that are watching
04:26 or listening to this on 3ABN Radio
04:29 apparently already like music.
04:31 And if you like music,
04:32 you probably at some point in your life,
04:35 some words have come to you or a tune.
04:37 You've said, "Wow,
04:39 this little tune popped in my mind."
04:41 You know, but you never really, you never acted on it.
04:46 You are saying, "Well, somebody...
04:47 There's Lanny Wolfes
04:48 and Bill Gaithers and all the writers,
04:50 you know, I don't really need to do it."
04:51 But Jesus says, "Go ye into all the world."
04:54 And there are many ways that we can go.
04:56 Some preachers preach the gospel,
04:59 you know, artists sing and do music.
05:02 And songwriting is just a, it's a huge part
05:06 because sometimes we don't think of it
05:07 in that sense.
05:09 But we'll talk later in one of your programs
05:11 about Fanny Crosby.
05:12 What if there had been no Fanny Crosby in?
05:15 No 8,000 hymns.
05:16 Eight thousand hymns whatsoever.
05:18 What if Lanny Wolfe had decided to be,
05:21 we'll talk about it, something else?
05:23 Maybe an architect, for instance,
05:25 and didn't write hundreds and hundreds of songs
05:29 like Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this Place
05:31 or More than Wonderful and all of that.
05:33 It could have happened. It could have happened.
05:34 It could have happened.
05:36 So today we want to encourage you.
05:38 So what I'd like to do,
05:40 this is just to get to know Lanny Wolfe.
05:42 He'll be the instructor for this.
05:44 And we want you to get your pencil and paper,
05:46 or nowadays your iPad,
05:47 whatever you want to make notes of this.
05:50 And we'll make these programs available to you
05:53 if you want to get them at home in CD or DVD or whatever else.
05:58 All these new technology we have,
06:00 you know, however is best for you
06:02 we want you to have it.
06:03 But today, I want to talk a little bit about you, Lanny.
06:07 Instead of starting at the beginning,
06:09 let's start more later on in life.
06:12 You have many awards.
06:14 And today when we're talking about awards and gifts
06:18 that we have,
06:19 this is not talking about the individual.
06:21 We give God the credit for every bit of this.
06:23 I know Lanny does too.
06:25 So it's...
06:27 Yet I want to talk about it just for people maybe
06:29 who don't know you and don't know your background.
06:31 You've been up for songwriter of the year how many times?
06:34 Numerous times.
06:36 Eight times.
06:37 Eight times.
06:38 Did you ever become songwriter of the year?
06:40 I almost wonder like, will this ever happen?
06:43 Don't nominate me again.
06:45 It just makes me feel bad one more year.
06:48 And, actually, the eighth time was the charm.
06:51 Not the third or the seventh, it was the eighth time.
06:54 And I did get a Dove Award for songwriter of the year,
06:58 the same year that
07:00 More than Wonderful got song of the year.
07:01 So the bottom line of that is don't ever give up.
07:04 All right.
07:06 Don't ever give up.
07:07 So Sandi Patty and Larnelle Harris
07:09 really made that song.
07:10 Absolutely.
07:12 In a world, it's saying about the world.
07:13 And it came out of a Christmas musical.
07:14 Okay. Really?
07:16 Yes.
07:17 Thou shall call His name Jesus.
07:18 And it almost didn't even make the Christmas musical.
07:21 Is that amazing how God works?
07:22 That is, that is amazing.
07:25 So it almost didn't get in.
07:26 Wow.
07:28 And now, of course, it's a staple,
07:31 I mean, in gospel music.
07:32 People around the world...
07:33 As I said, I've been to many countries
07:35 and songs like
07:36 Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this Place.
07:39 I've sang that song numerous times.
07:41 I never get tired of it.
07:43 When I sing it,
07:44 it's like I'm singing it for the first time.
07:46 And you know what's amazing about that, Danny?
07:48 So I was playing for a funeral just this week, just this week.
07:51 And the night before the funeral,
07:53 God gave me a new verse to Surely the Presence.
07:56 No, I don't need your verses.
07:58 God gave me a new verse that would be apropos
08:01 and very fitting for funerals.
08:03 Isn't that amazing?
08:04 So He originally gave me the song in 1974,
08:07 and this week God gives me a new verse
08:10 that's very fitting for funerals.
08:13 So you're not going to let us help
08:14 write you another verse?
08:16 No.
08:17 If you need any more, you'll do it.
08:18 Please, people.
08:20 Well, we get to write our own song
08:21 because you can write a song.
08:22 I'm going to teach you how to write a song.
08:24 You can write a song, right?
08:25 That's what we're going to do.
08:27 Okay, let's go back and talk a little bit
08:28 about your background?
08:30 Okay.
08:31 Okay. You were born and raised where?
08:32 Columbus, Ohio.
08:34 Okay, tell us about your early life a little?
08:36 My father was a railroad engineer.
08:38 Mother was just a homemaker.
08:41 I graduated from Linden McKinley
08:43 high school, got a scholarship to Ohio State University.
08:47 I thought I was going to become an architect.
08:52 I say a little bit good.
08:54 I was good at math and good at art,
08:55 so I thought, or so the grade said.
08:57 And so I thought maybe I should be an architect.
08:59 And after my first quarter at Ohio State University,
09:02 I decided that I felt like I didn't want my life
09:05 to be consumed with that project.
09:09 And so God just kind of worked the way He does.
09:14 Somebody from a Bible college
09:15 on the West Coast came to me and said,
09:17 "We're going to become missionaries to France
09:20 and they need a minister
09:21 or they need a dean at the School of Music."
09:23 Well, number one,
09:25 I didn't really know that much about music.
09:27 I played.
09:28 I had written my first song at 15, God is Wonderful.
09:32 The song wasn't as wonderful as the title.
09:36 But what's amazing about this folks is 27 years later
09:40 after the first song, God is Wonderful,
09:42 God gave me a song called More than Wonderful.
09:45 And it somehow was something that the first song wasn't.
09:50 So I went to the West Coast.
09:52 I taught there for a year and realized
09:55 that as much as I enjoy
09:56 what I was doing and teaching young people,
09:58 I really didn't have the knowledge
10:01 that I needed to be fair,
10:02 to instruct people at college level.
10:04 So I worked on my first degree in music.
10:08 So I'd already had two degrees, one in math and business,
10:12 and a master's degree in business administration.
10:14 So now I'm working on a second BA degree,
10:16 this time in music education.
10:19 I got that from San Jose State University.
10:22 Went to a Bible college that was opening up in 1968
10:27 in St. Louis, Missouri.
10:29 So I was there for six years,
10:31 and that's where Dave Petersen became a student.
10:35 We formed the Lanny Wolfe Trio.
10:37 We got associated with the Benson Company.
10:39 But all those six years, I remember
10:43 every Monday night driving 27 miles
10:45 to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville,
10:48 working on my master's degree in music.
10:51 And so got that.
10:53 And then in 1974
10:57 felt that God wanted us to go to a Bible college
11:00 that was moving from Tupelo to Jackson, Mississippi,
11:03 Jackson College of Ministries, where I was for 18 years.
11:07 So I ended up with two degrees in business,
11:11 two degrees in music, and an honorary doctorate.
11:13 That's called five degrees, 14 years, slow student.
11:19 Wonderful background though.
11:20 Oh, yes.
11:22 And growing up as you would have never dreamed
11:24 where God would have taken you.
11:25 Never would have had the vaguest idea
11:28 of what God was going to do in my life.
11:32 It's so...
11:33 You know, when you are young, I'm 18,
11:38 you want to do what God wants you to do.
11:41 But sometimes we have the hardest time
11:43 weeding through all the stuff around us
11:46 to finally find out what God really wants us to do.
11:49 I'm so glad that I finally found out
11:52 what God really wanted me to do.
11:53 And it's been a joy to be a teacher
11:55 to young people at college level.
11:57 But my greatest joy is writing songs
12:00 that will bless the body of Christ
12:02 long after I'm past.
12:05 And, you know, it's true.
12:07 I can't imagine
12:09 some of these songs that you've written
12:10 never just disappearing in the Christian realm,
12:14 because these songs are going to be sung
12:16 because they minister to us.
12:19 Again, I can talk personally about this
12:21 because I've been so blessed,
12:23 so affected by your music
12:26 that, actually, it encouraged me.
12:28 I'll give you a little bit of background.
12:30 Sure.
12:32 In 1970s, in '75, I went to Michigan for four years
12:36 from Southern Illinois.
12:38 I managed the lumberyard up in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
12:41 And so while I was there, it was a great time.
12:44 Is that the Danny Shelton Home Depot lumberyard?
12:46 Well, not quite.
12:48 They didn't have Home Depots back then.
12:50 But while I was there,
12:51 I was building some houses on the side.
12:54 And I remember going over.
12:55 I worked there and then I'd work weekends
12:57 and sometime nights on a house,
12:59 like I'd build a spec house to sell it.
13:01 And I remember actually over there
13:03 listening to Lanny Wolfe Trio.
13:06 And so I had, I think it was cassettes then.
13:09 Or 8-tracks.
13:10 Yeah, 8-tracks or cassettes.
13:12 And I remember that in the house
13:14 and I listened to your chords.
13:16 I'm not a great musician,
13:17 but I know a few chords and learned,
13:19 kind of self-learned.
13:20 And so I learned some chords and then one day
13:23 I would have been at work and it'd been a terrible day.
13:27 It was really raining.
13:28 And so I ended up going to the house,
13:30 there's thunderstorm.
13:31 But then right before the sun went down,
13:35 I noticed through the clouds there was this great,
13:37 beautiful golden sunset and a rainbow.
13:42 And so that prompted me to write a song.
13:45 Now I'd written a few little songs,
13:47 but that it really was an influence of Lanny Wolfe
13:50 because I'd been listening to your music.
13:52 And here I have the time off
13:54 and I'm listening to your chords.
13:55 And so if you'll probably,
13:57 if you listened to a few of my songs,
13:59 you might hear some of Lanny Wolfe chords in it.
14:01 Not everybody uses 13s
14:03 and things like if you're doing say undeserving.
14:06 And I'm like, "Wow, what is that chord?
14:08 That's pretty neat." So I get my guitar.
14:10 So I actually learned from you so way back before we ever met.
14:12 And before you learned any chords from Lanny Wolfe,
14:16 I took lessons from Frank Meier, God bless,
14:20 when I was nine for two years.
14:22 And then he said he was moving away.
14:23 I don't think he moved away.
14:25 I'm a pretty bad student.
14:27 John Thompson's book 1,
14:29 all I did was read the numbers like any smart kid would do.
14:32 So when I got to the end of book
14:33 1 and I'm going into book 2,
14:35 oh my word, I don't know how to read notes.
14:37 Anyway, I learned
14:38 from that point on as a teenager.
14:40 I actually learned chords from John W. Peterson
14:44 and all those books that he put out.
14:47 He augmented 11th and there were the notes.
14:50 And so I learned chords from John W. Peterson.
14:52 And in turn, you picked up some Lanny Wolfe chords.
14:55 Sure, I augmented, I don't deserve...
14:57 When you go and do little augmentative stuff.
14:59 You know, yeah, and all of that I listened.
15:02 My brother Tommy played and I'd hear him some,
15:05 but never took formal training.
15:07 And that's what's great about this new program,
15:10 you can write a song.
15:11 You don't... Lanny's got numerous degrees.
15:14 I'm too old.
15:15 If I started school today, I'd never...
15:17 I'd be 110 before I got all those.
15:19 You don't need it.
15:21 What you need is, first of all, is your commitment to the Lord,
15:24 to say, "Lord, please use me in ways that I never dreamed."
15:27 Now we have people who send us songs all the time and say,
15:30 "Here, you're welcome to use this."
15:32 Yes, we do. Yeah.
15:33 I'm sure you get more than we do.
15:35 But people say, "Here, you can use this."
15:37 They really maybe don't understand
15:39 all that's involved in using a song or getting songs,
15:42 or maybe the song doesn't fit what you're doing.
15:45 But so what we want to do is help people
15:48 in order to construct a song,
15:50 to put it together in a way that anybody can do it.
15:54 You love the Lord.
15:55 You like music.
15:57 And maybe as Lanny said,
15:58 you don't know much about music,
16:00 but you can write words.
16:01 You can write the words.
16:03 That's right.
16:04 And so a lot of times that happens on numbers.
16:06 I think Fanny Crosby was one of those
16:08 that really didn't write the music.
16:10 She never wrote music to one song.
16:11 Wow.
16:12 She wrote words to 8,000 hymns.
16:14 Yeah, ain't that amazing, 8,000.
16:16 Eight thousand hymns.
16:17 And she didn't write her first hymn
16:20 until she was 44 years old.
16:22 Wow.
16:23 Do the math.
16:24 That is amazing.
16:26 Eight thousand. She lived to be 95.
16:27 So for 51 years, she wrote 8,000 hymns.
16:31 But not one of those did she write a note of music.
16:33 So a lot of you folks out there just be reminded that like,
16:37 don't be afraid about this whole idea
16:39 that you don't play the piano, you don't play the guitar.
16:41 No, no, no.
16:42 Hey, you've got a Bible.
16:45 Read the Bible where there's a scripture says,
16:47 "Greater is He that is in me than he is in the world."
16:50 One of the songs that has probably been most impactive
16:54 in the Lanny Wolfe portfolio
16:56 is, Greater is He that is in me
16:59 Greater is He that is in me
17:01 Greater is He that's in me Than he that is in...
17:04 Excuse me, it was already there.
17:07 And I took it and I made it a song.
17:10 So if I did that, I just pulled it from the Bible.
17:13 You can do that too.
17:14 Absolutely.
17:15 It's so much easier than a lot of people admit.
17:18 And I want to design this program in this scenario
17:22 so that even if you don't write a song,
17:25 that it will be inspirational to you.
17:27 If you just like gospel music,
17:28 you're going to like this series.
17:30 Okay.
17:31 Let's talk a little bit about some of the folk
17:33 that maybe some of your students
17:34 or some of the songs I think of Geron Davis
17:37 writing Holy Ground...
17:39 Of course, one of my students.
17:40 From the beginning of 3ABN,
17:42 we used to go out to the Uplink,
17:43 our first little building before it was even built.
17:46 Just shelling it up
17:47 and we'd stand there joining hands together and sing,
17:50 "We are standing on holy ground."
17:53 And just, you know, but I found out later
17:55 that he was a student of yours.
17:57 Absolutely.
17:58 And to write incredible songs, great musician.
18:01 Who are some of the other folk?
18:02 Dan Dean of Phillips, Craig, and Dean was a student of mine.
18:05 Actually, played keyboard for the Lanny Wolfe Trio.
18:07 Okay.
18:09 The song, the Beauty of the Name.
18:11 That was co-written by a student and a teacher.
18:14 The teacher was Lanny Wolfe.
18:16 The student was Tony Roberts who took songwriting.
18:20 Okay.
18:21 And so, that's a co-write
18:23 between one of my students and the teacher.
18:27 We have Jeannie Tenney who wrote the song,
18:30 One Night with the King.
18:32 And her husband, Tommy Tenney of God Chasers,
18:34 he actually wrote the movie, you know?
18:36 Oh, I see.
18:38 I just have so many wonderful songwriters.
18:40 I mean, Wayne Goodine and his wife,
18:42 Elizabeth Goodine.
18:43 They've written songs that Brooklyn Tab has recorded.
18:46 The list just goes on and on and on.
18:48 But the bottom line
18:49 is even if no one ever sings your song or publishes it,
18:53 I believe that God gives songs
18:55 to some of us just to bless us.
18:58 Maybe God will give you a song just to bless you.
19:01 Well, then let it bless you.
19:03 Or maybe to bless your family, or your local church,
19:06 or your local camp meeting,
19:07 or your local church organization.
19:09 And I believe God gives songs to some to bless the world.
19:12 A song will find a way to go wherever it needs to go
19:16 if it blesses.
19:17 You won't remember this.
19:19 And I don't think we've ever talked about it,
19:21 but I think it was here in Illinois.
19:23 You were at church there Lanny Wolfe Trio
19:27 probably in the 70s.
19:28 And Melody and her mother that was later killed
19:31 in an automobile accident case.
19:33 She loved your music also.
19:34 We were there listening and afterwards,
19:38 I don't know if you were at a record table.
19:39 Back then there were records, record table.
19:42 There were real records.
19:43 But I said something to you.
19:44 I talked and I said something about writing
19:47 because I was interested in writing music.
19:49 I don't remember this day.
19:51 You don't.
19:52 And I just thought about it
19:54 for the other day when it hit me,
19:55 because when you said that sometimes
19:57 the song will bless you, sometimes the world.
20:00 So I said something, "How did you get into this?
20:02 Like, I have some music.
20:04 You're with what company?" You said, "Benson."
20:06 And I said something.
20:07 Now I'm paraphrasing because I don't remember.
20:09 Sure.
20:10 But basically, you said to me, what you said to me was,
20:13 and now it brought it back to me
20:15 after so many years.
20:16 You said, "Maybe the song
20:19 that God gave you is just for you.
20:20 Maybe it's something you need.
20:22 So don't think every song you write,
20:24 the whole world is going to love it."
20:26 And, you know... Or has to hear it.
20:27 Publishing companies,
20:29 yeah, are going to want it or have to hear it.
20:31 And you said some may just be to bless the city,
20:33 or some a nation, and some the world.
20:37 And that really helped me later as I was writing
20:39 because some of the songs that so blessed me
20:42 when I sang them didn't seem to catch on
20:44 as much as other songs,
20:46 that I thought, "Well,
20:47 you know, this one, I didn't expect this much response.
20:50 And on this one, I just thought..."
20:52 But as I looked back, you were right.
20:54 It blessed me.
20:55 So God sometimes gives us songs to bless us.
20:59 A song...
21:01 I want to use the word a great song,
21:02 but I hate to use the word great in that sense.
21:04 A great song will rise.
21:06 Okay? Okay.
21:08 Dallas Holm wrote a song called Rise Again.
21:11 Had a different camera angle.
21:12 So here is Christ talking,
21:14 Jesus talking, "I'll rise again."
21:17 Okay?
21:18 It was number one
21:19 on gospel music charts for two years.
21:22 Wow.
21:23 And do you know the original recording
21:25 was just in a live concert?
21:28 His original recording with a little string machine.
21:31 He had Elkas back there.
21:33 But it wasn't a big studio production.
21:35 Can you imagine?
21:37 So if a song has it,
21:39 it will find a way to bless people.
21:41 And his song blessed people on gospel music charts,
21:44 number one for two years.
21:45 It's amazing.
21:47 Well, it is amazing.
21:48 Yeah, absolutely.
21:49 Now we've got about five minutes left.
21:51 I want to talk about next program.
21:53 The very first...
21:55 Tell us a little how this is going to work.
21:56 We're going to come out.
21:57 Maybe myself or Yvonne
22:00 or somebody will be here to kind of co-host.
22:01 We'll get you started, but you're going to go over.
22:04 We have a piano over there,
22:05 a microphone, little podium.
22:06 So you're going to become Lanny the teacher again,
22:09 the instructor, right?
22:10 You're going to let me do this?
22:11 And so what can we expect?
22:14 Hopefully, what are we going to get at home?
22:16 Okay.
22:17 The first session
22:19 is going to address simplicity and repetition.
22:22 The second session is going to be talking about
22:24 the power of repetition.
22:26 Then I've got a session coming up called,
22:28 where do I get ideas for my songs?
22:31 Then we're going to have some sessions on
22:33 co-writing, publishing.
22:35 There are so many areas of songwriting
22:39 that I am so excited to talk about.
22:41 When I got my second degree in music,
22:44 this is amazing to me.
22:46 So many times, Danny, you understand this.
22:48 People who don't have a lot of educational academic prowess
22:53 in their music background,
22:54 they think they know everything.
22:56 You've met some of those?
22:57 Are you talking about me?
22:59 Okay.
23:00 It's all right, go ahead.
23:02 So after I got my master's in music,
23:04 it was then that I realized how much I didn't know.
23:07 No.
23:08 There's so much to know.
23:09 So we're just excited
23:11 about all these different areas.
23:13 And I'm excited to just share this with people
23:15 who think they could possibly write a song,
23:18 or people who may not think,
23:21 oh, I'm going to write a song, but I just want to enjoy this.
23:24 Because I want it to be not only inspirational
23:27 from the standpoint of writing a song,
23:29 which is inspirational.
23:30 Gospel music is the good news and it's inspirational.
23:33 When we talk about these people like Fanny Crosby,
23:35 that's inspirational.
23:37 She was blind.
23:38 Yeah, amazing.
23:40 Can you imagine?
23:41 No.
23:42 She didn't write her first song until she was 44.
23:45 Amazing again.
23:46 Wow.
23:48 So and some of you are out there think, "Oh, I'm too old."
23:51 You're never too old. Hello.
23:53 I'm going to talk to you about some folks
23:55 that did some amazing things in their winter years.
23:58 No, no, no, forget age, throw out the AARP card.
24:01 Just if you like gospel music, you're going to enjoy this.
24:04 And it's possible that you could write a song
24:08 that the world is waiting to hear.
24:10 Wow, ain't that a thought?
24:12 I mean, really there are songs
24:14 that we know is going to come from somebody, right?
24:16 They come from the Lord,
24:18 but going to come from somebody and why not you?
24:20 And if your song gets to be song of the year
24:24 or it has widespread visibility,
24:27 don't forget finder's fee.
24:30 Oh, of course.
24:31 I learned that from Danny.
24:33 Oh, yeah, right.
24:34 You know what, though,
24:35 it just occurred to me one of the things that we could do.
24:37 Those that follow through,
24:39 I think, and write songs and you go through this series,
24:43 you send us some songs.
24:44 And we play it, yes.
24:45 And if they're really good songs,
24:47 we'd love to show them
24:48 or maybe get Lanny to play them or somebody to sing them.
24:51 And we'd love to do that
24:53 because we're just looking for songs
24:55 that are going to bless,
24:57 you know, people around the world.
24:59 And so, we'll let Lanny kind of be the judge here.
25:04 You'll look at the songs and we'll help you.
25:05 We'll look.
25:07 And I'm sure that there are going to be folks.
25:09 If you really...
25:10 Especially those you've never written a song before,
25:13 that maybe is going to say,
25:15 "You know, I want to follow each of these programs.
25:18 I want to learn how to do this."
25:20 And maybe God will just give them that special one
25:22 that to begin with, they won't be like Lanny Wolfe
25:25 beating the bushes for years or out, you know.
25:27 And Danny, when we used to have Danny Shelton Trio back
25:31 in the 70s going around and doing...
25:34 They have the potential now
25:35 to write a song and literally get on the air
25:37 and millions of people can see it.
25:40 So I'm excited about it for you.
25:42 I'm excited to have Lanny and we could sit here and talk.
25:44 In fact, we have and we've co-written some songs
25:47 by doing just this, but we wanted to involve you.
25:50 Jesus says, "Go ye into all the world."
25:52 So songwriting is one of those go ye into all the world.
25:55 Outreach.
25:56 When the Iron Curtain was up.
25:58 And a lot of us are old enough to remember that.
26:01 And I was around when it fell, and I praise God for that.
26:04 But I couldn't go behind,
26:06 Lanny Wolfe couldn't go behind the Iron Curtain,
26:08 but your music could.
26:09 Yes. And did.
26:10 And so, that's the amazing thing about it.
26:13 The airwaves, sheet music, whatever back then.
26:17 Just like the Bible was behind the Iron Curtain,
26:20 you can't keep the gospel out.
26:22 And so that's what's beautiful about go ye into all the world.
26:25 Some people we've seen on this network,
26:29 people come to the Lord through someone singing a song.
26:33 Absolutely.
26:34 They literally call and say,
26:36 "I gave my heart to Jesus while I was listening to...
26:38 One time years ago, Tammy Larson,
26:40 who works here in production was singing,
26:43 when He was on the cross, I was on His mind.
26:46 I think one of the Hensons maybe
26:47 or someone wrote the song and the guy...
26:50 'Cause I ended up talking to him 64 years old, said,
26:53 "I never accepted Jesus.
26:54 But when she sang that song, it ministered to me
26:57 and I gave Him my heart and life to Him."
26:58 We see that over and over and over.
27:00 So we're not just here to have fun.
27:02 We want to have fun.
27:03 We're not here just to teach you how to write a song,
27:06 but to this is our way of evangelism.
27:10 So almost everything that I've learned
27:12 in the past has gone down to one word
27:14 and the closing moments of earth's history,
27:16 Lanny, and that's evangelism,
27:18 evangelism, evangelism.
27:20 And we can do that.
27:21 And you can do that when you decide,
27:24 "Hey, I can write a song."
27:25 Now we know it's with God's help,
27:27 but this is going to be a great program
27:29 and we want you to watch.
27:30 So we're going to have a number.
27:32 We don't know how many
27:33 we're going to let the series go.
27:34 We're even looking at possibly you can play an instrument.
27:36 Like you can play a guitar and teach you
27:38 in some simple ways to do it in chords
27:41 and maybe even the little number system,
27:43 that type of thing.
27:44 So it's going to be a great series, great program.
27:46 Thank you, Mr. Lanny Wolfe,
27:47 for taking of your great time to be here with us.
27:51 And so we have to leave you now.
27:52 But until we see you next time,
27:54 remember, you can write a song.


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Revised 2021-11-08