LOOP COMMUNITY
RELEASING MUSIC AS A CHURCH W / JOHN DREHER OF FAITH WORSHIP ARTS | Matt McCoy
Pastor John Dreher from Faith Worship Arts joins Loop Community Founder Matt McCoy to talk about how to release music as a church, songwriting, choosing songs and more!
[ Matt ] A lot of worship leaders are at a church where they may be writing songs and playing them at their church. How did you take the next step to produce and record your music?
[ John ] A lot of trial and error. Almost all our production has been done in house. This is our fourth full length album. Thankfully our sanctuary is setup for multitrack recording, so we didn’ t have to bring in a rig to make that happen. We wrote our songs, we put out the first record, we learned a lot of lessons, wrote more songs, released a second album, and learned more.
We’ ve grown together as a team and as we’ ve grown the process has gotten much better. I’ ve always been a firm believer of maximizing what you have in your hand. Like the Moses model,
“ What do you have in your hand? A staff.” I had a keyboardist on staff who liked to produce, so we used him. Now he’ s grown to be our main producer for our projects.
I would say to any church that’ s thinking about getting into releasing your own music, don’ t be afraid to try with the tools and people that you have. Even if it’ s not what you might consider to be industry standard the first time around, you’ ll learn a lot to help you get there.
[ Matt ] That’ s great. What does songwriting look like at your church?
[ John ] We’ re really intentional about getting into groups and collaborating. We’ ll have designated nights where we bring in 15 to 20 members of our team. Then we break off into groups of about 4, and in each group, we’ ll have a producer and a lead writer. Their task is for the next four hours to come out of the room with a song written. At minimum a verse, chorus and a bridge. A lot of times we’ ll come
out with 4 or 5 songs fully written in a night.
[ Matt ] On a typical Sunday morning, how many of the songs you’ re leading are your original songs vs other songs?
[ John ] If we’ re doing four songs on a Sunday, it’ s usually one of our own songs. But if we’ re trying to introduce a new song, it could be half of the songs.
Watch the full interview!
Be sure to check out the new song by Faith Worship Arts“ Good 2 Me”. The Master Tracks are available on LoopCommunity. com.
Matt McCoy Matt is a worship leader, songwriter and Ableton Certified Trainer from Chicago, IL. He has been using Ableton and tracks in worship since 2002. He’ s passionate about creating new products and teaching worship leaders and artists how to use technology in live performance. www. LoopCommunity. com 32 April 2025 Subscribe for Free...