What "Building Godly Character" means
Nicole Nordeman wrote music that always felt more like a conversation than a performance, and "Building Godly Character" sits squarely in that tradition. The song is a slow, deliberate meditation on the interior work that faith requires. It does not celebrate the moment of dramatic conversion so much as the long stretch of formation that follows, the daily, ordinary, sometimes invisible shaping of a person into someone who looks more like Christ. The word "character" in the title carries weight. It is not personality. It is not gifting. Character is what holds when the performance is over and the lights are off.
Nordeman's catalog has always spoken to people who feel the distance between who they want to be and who they actually are, and this song leans into that gap with grace rather than condemnation. The tempo at 85 BPM in a 4/4 frame feels deliberate, walking-pace. This is not a rushing song. It breathes with you. The key of F for male voices keeps the melody accessible, drawing the congregation into the lyric rather than letting them watch someone else perform it. The song lands particularly well with listeners navigating life transitions, seasons where the old identity no longer fits and the new one is not yet visible. That makes it a pastoral song in the truest sense. It meets people in the middle of a process, not at a moment of resolution.
What this song does in a room
The room slows down when this song starts. If you have been running a high-energy set or a programmatically dense service, "Building Godly Character" functions as a decompression. It invites the congregation to move from the surface level of singing into something more reflective, more interior. People who have been standing and moving will naturally settle. The song creates a kind of thoughtful stillness that is different from passive disengagement. This is active, receptive quiet.
Because of its thematic connection to children and life transitions, this song tends to land with particular power in contexts where those themes are already live. A graduation season. A new year. A confirmation Sunday. A series on spiritual formation. The congregation does not need the concept of "character formation" explained to them in that moment. The song does the explaining through feeling. You will notice people who seemed distracted a few minutes earlier becoming present as the lyric settles in. That is the song doing its work.
It will not spike energy. If that is what you need next in the service flow, build a bridge from this to a higher-tempo moment intentionally. But if what the room needs is invitation into a more honest, slower kind of worship, this song earns that space.
What this song is saying about God
At its core, this song is a confession of dependence. The petition embedded in the lyric is not "help me try harder." It is closer to "shape me, because the shaping is yours to do." That theological posture is significant. It moves the project of sanctification away from self-improvement and into the hands of a God who is actively, patiently forming his people. This is the God of the potter and the clay, not the God of the motivational poster.
The song situates God as the one doing the building. Character is not assembled from the outside in through behavior management. It is grown from the inside out through surrender, through encounter, through the kind of slow work that requires a craftsman who sees time differently than we do. Nordeman's songwriting in this piece implies a God who is not in a hurry, which is a theologically stabilizing idea for a congregation that tends to move fast and feel behind.
This is a song about sanctification without ever using the word. It speaks to God's patient, continuous, grace-filled work in a human life, and it invites the congregation to say yes to that process rather than resist it.
Scriptural backbone
The clearest scriptural anchor for this song is Philippians 1:6: "And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." The theological spine of the lyric is exactly this confidence. God is the initiator and the completer of the work of formation. The human role is cooperation and surrender, not self-manufacture.
James 1:2-4 runs underneath it as well: "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." The path to character is through perseverance, and perseverance is produced by trial. This is not a comfortable idea, but the song holds it with enough warmth that the congregation can receive it without flinching. 2 Corinthians 3:18 also resonates here, the promise that we are being transformed from one degree of glory to another.
How to use it in a service
This song works best as either an opener into a teaching series on spiritual formation or holiness, or as a congregational response to a message that pressed on the gap between aspiration and reality. If your sermon landed on the tension of who we are called to be versus who we currently are, "Building Godly Character" gives the congregation a musical space to say yes to the process.
It also works well in seasons of intentional church calendar reflection: the beginning of a new year, the beginning of Lent, a confirmation service, a parent dedication service. Anywhere the themes of formation, growth, and long-term faithfulness are front and center, the song fits.
If you are in a children's ministry context or family worship context, the tags note its relevance there too. Its accessible melody and honest lyric land with younger ears without being condescending, which is harder to pull off than it sounds.
Avoid dropping this immediately after a high-intensity praise moment without a thoughtful transition. It needs a breath of space to work. An instrumental bridge, a brief spoken word, or even a well-placed moment of silence before it begins helps the congregation shift gears.
Things to watch for as the worship leader
Resist the temptation to over-explain before you sing it. This song does not need a three-minute setup. A one-sentence framing is enough: something like "this is a song about the long work of becoming." Then let the lyric carry its own weight. Over-explaining will flatten the moment before it begins.
Watch your own posture at the mic. This is not a performance song. If you are leading with a lot of movement and energy, the congregation will receive mixed signals. Stillness and presence communicate more in this song than enthusiasm. You are inviting people inward.
Also, be careful about the tag and outro. The temptation is to push the dynamic up at the end to give people a release. Resist it. This song lives in a sustained, quiet register. Let it end the way it begins. The quiet itself is the landing.
Because of its connection to life-transition themes, be attentive to who is in the room. If you know there are people navigating significant transitions, this song will matter to them in a specific and personal way. Let the Spirit move in that.
A note for the team behind you (techs, vocalists, band)
Vocalists, keep your harmonies sparse and close to the lead melody. This is not a song for wide, lush stacks. One tight harmony part above the lead on the chorus is usually enough. Let the space breathe. If you are stacking harmonies because the arrangement feels bare, you are covering something that should stay open.
Band, the 85 BPM at 4/4 is walking tempo. The groove should feel grounded, not driven. Drums, brush kit or soft mallet work here rather than full kit attack. Let the kick be felt more than heard. Piano or acoustic guitar leads the harmonic bed. If you have keys and acoustic both in the mix, keep the keys lighter and the acoustic present.
For sound techs, the vocal needs to be clear and close. This is a lyric-dependent song. If the congregation cannot understand the words, the song is not working. Keep the room mix intimate. This is not a song that benefits from a lot of reverb on the vocal. A shorter, drier reverb keeps the intimacy intact. Stage volume should come down to let the room mix carry the congregation, not compete with it.