Delegates learned from songwriter and worship leader Sidney Mohede the art of crafting songs to touch the heart of God.
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| CN PHOTO: Tan Song Kow |
If you aspire to lead a worship band or to write songs, you should attend Sidney Mohede’s class at least once in your lifetime. The youth pastor, worship leader of Jakarta Praise Community Church, and lead vocalist of the famous True Worshippers band, was sharing to a packed crowd of CGI-AC 2010 attendees on contemporary worship band and practical songwriting.
Modehe started the session speaking to aspiring and current worship leaders that they are to be worshippers first, and leaders second. Having a successful ministry is about influencing people and to do that, they need to sow time into building relationships with their team members in order to establish friendships and build trust. This way, the music will sound even more beautiful because of the bonds that exist between each other. Mohede challenged the audience to get to know their fellow musicians in a deeper way apart from meeting up during practice or for coffee sessions. “Everything you do on stage has to be a reflection of who you are off stage,” Mohede shared.
He then went on to share the secrets of building a great team. “If you want to build a great team, there has to be freedom. Don’t try to push people to like what you like,” he said. They should not restrict their worship band to liking the same thing or playing a song by Hillsong the same way Hillsong would. He said that the members in his worship band all have their own music preferences and playing styles but they always manage to come together at the end of the day to produce great music.
Next, Mohede advised aspiring songwriters to write songs not for the purpose of it being recorded but with the sole purpose to “sing unto the Lord a new song,” quoting from Psalms 96:1. Mohede then told the songwriters present to record down the melodies in their head on their cellphones’ audio recorders. He encouraged the crowd to try playing their compositions on the guitar, telling them that they do not need to know all the chords to make a good song, quoting examples such as “How Great is Our God” and “I Could Sing of Your Love Forever” that utilized four basic chords throughout the song. Before ending the session, Mohede challenged everyone not to be ‘lazy’ and to start writing songs, telling them, “I’m hoping that I will be able to sing your song in my church one day.”
Denny, a 29-year-old full-time church staff from Mawar Sharon Church, Indonesia, remarked, “Through this elective, I am able to know more about managing a praise and worship team. I also want to spend more quality time building relationships with my musicians just as Sidney did.”
Another Contemporary Worship and Practical Songwriting elective session featured Jeff Crabtree.
