we value character over talent. If you’re not an
amazing guitarist you can get better at that, but
your character is who you are and you need
to develop that through faithfulness, through
commitment, through serving, and through
humility, and those things take time to work on
so we always encourage people first to start
serving and get connected. We want to get to
know you and we want you to get to know us.
[WM] There’s a lot to be said for the new
musician who doesn’t necessarily want to play
right away but is happy just to show up early to
rehearsal and bring the donuts and make the
coffee.
[Mariah] Definitely, and to piggy-back off of
what Andres said too, we both started playing
music in church, and a lot of my journey was
someone picking me out. I was fifteen years
old at the time, and saying, “Let me bring you
along and teach you what you want to learn.”
So, all of the love and the experience I have
of music is because of church, and because
of Mosaic. We really do care more about the
person and about their journey with Jesus, so
we’re happy to and love to teach people how
to be better at their instrument, or to be better
singers or songwriters. So really we look for
the best people and the kindest people for our
team before we look at what they’ve done. We
really just focus on being able to commit to that
person, and we love the people that we have
and prophesying through all of that with them.
With songs, a lot of the people who write are
people who have other jobs or work at Mosaic
full time, so we don’t have a ton of time. We
usually sit down a few times a year and pump
out a bunch of songs. Usually we try to sing
them at church at a smaller gathering first, on
a Sunday night gathering or on a Wednesday
night or any sort of smaller thing that isn’t
as embarrassing as playing it six times on a
Sunday. So we usually try to do something like
that and then work on it behind the scenes
depending on how it went. I think that’s the
best thing for any worship leader, if you’re going
to try out songs, find a group that is for you
and totally happy to be there for whatever song
you play and get honest feedback afterwards,
and don’t be hurt, just be ready for whatever is
being said. We try to have a rule that nothing
is your baby, and if somebody says that’s not
a great song then you just have to let it go
because it’s not for you, it’s for the church and
the people who walk through the door. So we
try to take the feedback and make it better or
just write a better song. It’s all about just getting
honest feedback and making sure it has the
moment that you wanted to create.
[WM] It’s been several years since Mosaic
MSC released the song, “Tremble”. That must
have been an incredible encouragement to
your worship team following it’s impact upon
the church. What can you tell us about this?
[Mariah] Talking about playing a song at a
mid week service, we did the same thing with
“Tremble”. I went to Nashville and came back
with the song. I think the great thing about
songwriting is that it really can surprise you,
and I think that there was something obviously
8 July 2020
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