LOOP COMMUNITY
PREPARING FOR SUNDAY WITH STEPHEN MCWHIRTER | Matt McCoy
Stephen McWhirter sat down with Loop Community Founder Matt McCoy to share his testimony, talk about his latest music and give advice for worship leaders.
IMPROVING MUSICIANSHIP ON YOUR TEAM [ Matt ] How do you help your team improve as musicians without burning them out? You can keep doing rehearsals, but how do you motivate them to get better on their own as volunteers?
[ Stephen ] This is really about your rotation. You care about these people, and you want to get them involved. One of the biggest things is do people really want to do it or are they just helping out? If it’ s someone who really wants to, the biggest thing is giving them the time and understanding that if they have another job they’ re not going to just go home and work on it. If you can give them things to work on in advance, that’ s great.
We’ re not talking about mega churches here because they aren’ t having this problem as much. We’ re talking about the other 90 % of churches. I know the dread of,“ That was so great this Sunday, oh no there’ s another one coming.” You feel like you have to top yourself every week. I don’ t believe that’ s from the Lord. Now you’ re operating out of a performancebased situation and teaching the people that attend your church that’ s how it should be.
I always tell people, could you just do one acoustic Sunday a month. Pick the most singable songs, and got up with an acoustic, and told the church that they’ re leading worship with you today. We’ re doing this together. People will remember that Sunday, everyone will be singing, and it will probably be the one they look forward to.
[ Matt ] I love that, and you don’ t need a full band for that. Vertical, communal singing. It’ s the easiest planning.
[ Stephen ] Often as leaders, when you look at something that is getting out of hand, the question isn’ t what do you add, it’ s what do you remove, so that you can make it work? It can be really special.
ADVICE FOR WORSHIP LEADERS [ Matt ] If you were just sitting down with a worship leader over coffee, what advice would you share?
[ Stephen ] Spend so much time worshipping Jesus when nobody is watching. Don’ t just rehearse and prepare for Sunday. Don’ t hit record on a voice memo because you have a cool idea. Open your Bible and sing to Him. Worship with Him. Not for anyone to ever hear but Him. Then, when you get on a stage, it’ s an overflow of who you are all the time when nobody is watching. Spending a lot of time with Him will shape who you are. That’ s the thing that you can’ t manufacture.
CLICK HERE to listen to the full interview with Stephen McWhirter. You can get the Master Tracks for Stephen’ s latest music on LoopCommunity. com to lead the songs at your church.
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 44 February 2026 Subscribe for Free...