CCLI
CONNECTIVITY IS THE BULLSEYE W / BRETT YOUNKER | Matt McCoy
Brett Younker from Passion sat down with CCLI President Matt McCoy to discuss how we can navigate new chapters as worship leaders and how to balance production and worship.
HANDLING NEW CHAPTERS AS A WORSHIP LEADER [ Matt ] There are so many different seasons in life. I’ m 41, and I’ ve been leading worship since 2002. When I hit 40, I felt like the old guy on the worship team. How do you handle this new chapter and the questions as you get older as a worship leader?
[ Brett ] In some ways, I think the enemy can tell you best days are behind you. I can’ t buy into that. My pastor is Louie Giglio, and next week we are going to student camp. There’ s no one who talks to high school students like Louie. It is different, but you can find the joy in creating lanes of opportunity for others to find their place in the story. To help find young leaders and watch God use them and lift them up.
It’ s redefining some of the wins and realizing that it doesn’ t diminish what I can bring to the table, as someone who can steer as a worship leader. In some ways in my 40s, I feel like I’ m writing the best songs that I’ ve ever been a part of. It’ s not the same thing as my 20s and 30s, but there’ s a weightiness to it. If you’ re in that middle season of life, it’ s important to find where that experience is needed in your community, and how you can step into that.
EXCELLENCE VS. COMPLEXITY [ Matt ] Have you ever thought that we’ ve made worship more complicated than it needs to be? That we’ ve confused excellence with complexity?
[ Brett ] In some ways, you can say yes. But we want to bring our best. We honor God by bringing our best. If you’ re phoning it in or don’ t care, I don’ t think that honors God or the people you’ re trying to serve. And if production becomes the bullseye, then I do think we’ ve missed it. Connectivity is the bullseye. You know when you’ ve been in a room where we are connected in worship with God. You don’ t need production to do that.
A gifted worship leader can get up with a piano and connect any size room with God. It’ s about what tools are we leveraging right now to connect your heart with the Lord. You can have the best production in the world, but if we don’ t feel like we were all in one accord or in a moment with Jesus, then we missed it. But at the same time, you can have a setup with no production, but if it doesn’ t feel like,“ Wow, the weight of worship has fallen on this place,” I don’ t really care for that either.
Click here to watch the full interview with Brett Younker.
You can listen to Brett’ s new album, Keep the Faith, wherever you stream music, and get the resources to lead the songs at your church on SongSelect and Loop Community.
Matt McCoy Matt is the President of CCLI and the Founder of LoopCommunity. com. He’ s also a worship leader and passionate about building simple, powerful, and affordable technology for churches and worship teams. www. ccli. com 74 September 2026 Subscribe for Free...