War Of Words At Church

Have you ever been caught up in a sort of “war of words” at church? Rumors and thoughts going viral throughout the church body…Now, imagine being caught up in a war of words and then this singer and songwriter, who goes to your church, wrote a song about it because he’s convicted of what’s going on. Well, that’s exactly what Ryan Stevenson did and later TobyMac just happened to record the song “Speak Life“. Hopefully, this song and story will help us all to think twice before we open our mouths.

Understand this, my dear brothers and sisters: You must all be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry. – James 1.19 NLT

Ryan Stevenson Shares Story Behind Speak Life

I wrote Speak Life because our church was splitting and dividing, all because of gossip, rumors, and thoughts. When you think something and then start speaking things, it gives life to things. There could absolutely be nothing going on, but when you speak something out it becomes a thing. That’s literally what happened at our church.

(lyrics from Speak Life)
Some days the tongue gets twisted
Other days my thoughts just fall apart
I do, I don’t, I will, I won’t
It’s like I’m drowning in the deep

It was like a death. Like everybody over here hated everybody over there, and it was nothing but gossip, poison. Everybody that we knew and did life with was just gone. I’m not saying that I was innocent…the Lord really convicted me in that time by saying “Now don’t you see the power of your words.”.

There is life and death in what you say. There’s no neutral exchange in any interaction we have with any human being. We’re either offering life or draining it.