About David Bertram

Six years ago I was in a special season in my life where God was giving me one song inspiration after another. Each inspiration was twofold: I had a melody in my mind, and I had a thesis statement for the overall song. Some of the melodies were inspired by the great composers from the 1990’s Mississippi Mass Choir and Chicago mass choir. God left it up to me to write the chorus, verses, and bridge to each thesis statement to match the melody that was in my mind. Unfortunately, these inspirations sat untouched in my Notes app for years.

Then one day I got a conviction to finish all of the things in my life that I started. I had to finish some home projects, and finish some things with business that were undone. Completely finishing and producing the songs that God had given me years ago was also one of the things that I felt I needed to finish as a matter of principle. I am not producing this music for income. God has already provided for me and taken care of all of my needs. Producing this music was a matter of principle: finishing the things that I had started. I encourage you to finish the things that you start. Don’t leave things undone in your life. With the help of Elijah Gerak and my wife Courtney Bertram, we were able to fine-tune small and big details to the melodies and the lyrics.

Special Thanks

I want to give a special thank you to all of the musicians and singers that invested their time and skills into producing these songs. Vocalists Courtney Bertram, Lorraine Bertram, Chantel Casias, Alicia Pineda, Christina Casias, Cruz Moreno, and Maria Channell. I also want to recognize the incredible musicians who worked hard to put this together; Elijah Gerak, Isaac Williams, Colton duty, Philip Lassiter, Kevin Goward, Donny Bright, and Aaron Castrillon.

About Church Songs:

I divide church worship songs into two categories. The first category is songs to God, or “vertical” songs. Second, is songs to the congregation, which I call “horizontal“ songs. For example some of our worship songs are literally singing to God as we tell him we love him, we worship him, we and surrender to him, and this would be a “vertical” song. The best congregational worship songs for praise and worship are vertical songs because they bring the congregation together in one mind and one accord to worship God. On the other hand, horizontal songs, sung directly to the congregation, have a message to the people.

Don’t give up, have faith, and trust in God for example and as you can see, all of these are not praises to God, but a message to the people, therefore I call them horizontal songs. Most horizontal songs are performed only once or twice in a church service while vertical songs fill up the majority of the song lineup for a church service. The purpose of a worship service is just that, to worship God.

If you filled up your entire worship service with horizontal songs, the messages to the congregation would be great, however you’d miss your opportunity to bring the congregation together in direct worship to God. My desire is to write songs of worship to God, and horizontal songs to the congregation. Both are beautiful and edifying to the body of Christ. Whether you are looking for church worship songs or church choir songs, I pray trust some of our songs will fit that need a be a blessing. My biggest honor is for the church to use songs we’ve produced to bring the congregation together in worship unto our great God! God bless you!