Raising Voices: Leading Teams, Writing Songs, and Fulfilling your Purpose w/ Stephanie Muiña, Worship Leader

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Struggle to reconcile your desire to impact the world with your creative gift, but also stay faithful to your local church ministry or your creative circle. Have you ever wondered how in the world do you help people to see the bigness and the ability of them to go further with their gift, but at the same time, know that you've got to stay faithful to where you are? And have you wrestled with that to the point that you really don't know how to move forward in your own career, your own creative gift, or maybe even your ministry? If this resonates with you, you have to listen to this entire episode with my dear friend, coworker, colleague and fellow church member Stephanie Muna. She is going to open the door to so many things that her and I have worked through as co ministry leaders in my very own church. But not only that, it's going to impact you where you are, so that you can see that wherever you are as a creative, your gifting does have room, not only locally, but can help more people as God shows you the way and as you show the way to others? My friend, this is one of my favorite episodes ever, so I want to get right to it. But first, let me welcome those of you who are new to our show, and then we'll get right into this fascinating conversation. Artists, musicians and creatives of all kinds looking for help balancing your passion to create with your everyday life? Not sure if your faith can coexist with your profession? Welcome to a place where real artists discuss real life. You're listening to the God and gig show. Visit godandgigs.com for show notes, links and more information. Hello and welcome to our show. Thank you so much for making this podcast a part of your creative day. And if you are new to our podcast, let me tell you why you're in the right place at the right time. First of all, just to introduce myself, my name is Allen C. Paul. I'm a musician, I'm an author, I'm a podcaster, and I love to help people connect the dots between their spiritual life and their creative life so that they can solve temporary creative problems with with timeless spiritual principles. So that's why we do this show, and that's why you're in the right place as a musician, author, creative, whatever you do inside the arts and entertainment space and content creation space, but most likely with a heart or even a position in ministry, you are in the right place to help you thrive in everywhere that you create. Well, I cannot wait to share this episode with you, but let me quickly tell you why my friend, my sister, Stephanie Muna, is on the show today. It's because a few months ago, before I did this intro, we were able to sit down in the very place where we minister week by week, and where I also operate in my other role as a podcast producer. So the studio looks different if you're watching it on YouTube. But the point is, is that this is a person that literally has seen me grow as a musician and as a minister throughout my life, and I got to see her do the same thing. She is the leader of the Metro life worship team, along with her mother and my boss, Pastor Mary Alessi. And she does so week to week. But she's also been an amazing songwriter. She has worked with people from the Lakewood team. She has written in Nashville. She has actually created her own lane as a worship artist, songwriter, as a person. That's absolutely at the local church level, but also has really gotten so much respect on a national level. So I can't wait for you to hear her talk about what we deal with on a Sunday to Sunday basis. How do you actually form a career where you're trying to impact the local church, but you also want to expand on your own creative career? You work with a team. How do you work with your family when they are literally the people who you're not only serving, but also creating music and worship things with? Well, that's what you get to hear today. And I think you're going to get so much insight into not only ministry, but also creative life organizations, strategies, and everything you need to really impact the place that you are right now. My friend Stephanie and I could talk forever, but I want to make sure that you get this little clip of us discussing this in our very own podcast booth at Metrolife church. So, without any further ado, here's Stephanie Muina. Hello, and welcome to the God and gigs show. However, you may be looking around and thinking, this is not what I usually see when I hear or watch the God and gig show. That's because I get to come to you now from the other side of my God and gigs. Normally, I'm talking about gigs and how we balance the secular and the sacred, but now you get to see me in my church environment, where I am here with my coworker, my sister, my friend, and my half boss.

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It's weird. It's weird.

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This is gonna get weird now because we have to talk about how we work together in church. Stephanie Muiña, welcome to the God and Gigs show. How are you?

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Thank you for having me this is. We finally made it happen.

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Made it happen.

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I am grateful. I feel honored to be on your show. Thank you so much for even thinking that I can bring some wisdom to this. I love it. I'm very excited. I think you and I have a lot of experience that is definitely worth sharing. So I'm excited. Thank you.

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Okay, so now we have to. This is going to be tough because we're going to have to take 1516 years of history back when you were like this.

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Oh, my gosh.

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And try to explain how this relationship started. So we were giving some history. So those of you who are watching again, and this is my church, metrolight church. This is where I've served since 2009 or ten, somewhere around there. And really guiding gigs started. I was just telling Stephanie, you may have not heard all this story.

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No.

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But really God and gigs got its start because when I came to this church, I realized that it was possible for me to work as a worship musician and as a professional musician that our pastor, Steven Mary Alesi, gave us. Like that understanding that we're supposed to be ourselves. No matter where we go, we have that integrity. We don't change when we go here or there. We're the same people in the community. And as musicians and us, we're professionals as we're just talking about. So what I really want to share with this audience, with this guy in gigs audience is how does that really work? But first you're going to have to introduce yourself to them because they've never, this is a new place, so tell them who you are. And I love to start my interviews with this question because it's going to get you. If you could not tell anything else for the next 30 minutes, what do you want people to remember about you? Your 32nd elevator pitch? I know this is hard, but I have to do this. Yes. And sometimes you have to do this, you know, right. For your own professionals. So what will people need to know about you? The first three or four points just to get to know you.

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My name is Stephanie Alessi Muiña. I've been born and raised in church. I am church made, church grown. I serve with my family. I serve under my family, but with my family. And we lead with each other. But I take the responsibility for all the music. I will solely take that responsibility because it needs to be good. It needs to be perfect. So I write songs for the church community. I would like to one day write songs for the global church and I help lead a worship team for the weekly Sundays. And I work alongside you. But I'm just all things worship and music and songwriting. I love, love all of that. And to be able to bring that to a church community that needs encouragement through song, that is such a gift. I can't speak it, but I'll sing it, I'll write it. And I love to uplift people and bring the word of God to them through song. And I would like to one day do it for a lot of different people. Whether that's on a tour or whether that's just through a lot of streams on Spotify, I don't really care. I just love to write songs for people that need God. So that's my 32nd pitch. There you go.

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You did it. It was 45 something. We'll give it. Now, here's the coolest thing about what you just said. And again, it's so strange to talk to you after we work Sunday after Sunday together. Literally, not just Sunday, but all week long. Like, we are family. Your children. My children grew up with you, and now you're having children, and they're, like, running around, so there's so much history. But I think what is interesting about what you just said is how much of your life revolved around music, revolved around worship, with our pastors, your parents, and yet, I don't feel like it ever took over your identity.

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No.

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Like, you're still Stephanie to me, as you were when you were little, when you were growing up. And I'll give a little history, and then I want you to kind of explain this to people who, again, may not know how this works. Like, how do you grow up as a PK?

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Yeah.

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Become a worship leader, basically take over slowly as your mom, Pastor Mary Alessi, is a icon to me of worship, and yet you have to step into her shoes. So there's somebody watching us, listening to us, that is in a church, small, big, whatever. And is also, like, how in the world do I do this, and how do I work with a musical staff?

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Jeez.

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That in my case, and as some of our other musicians have other jobs, have do this professionally. So we're gonna try to pack that all in. But first, tell me a little bit about, like, how did it feel when you were coming up with your mom? I don't know what this is like. I don't know what it's like to have a worship leader, artist, pastor, mom. We talk about it. I'm a producer here at this podcast, but there's still stories that I hear about. So what was it like coming up with a parent that was in the recording and the music industry, well, I.

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See it as an advantage because they. It was really my mom's love for music that made me love music. Thank God my parents were not too conservative in the musical area. They. They let me listen to whatever music I wanted to listen to, and I would try different genres, and I just. Maybe I didn't tell them all the genres I really listened to. Now, looking back, it was sort of, you know, your love for music has. It's going to go down many different genres and paths. So we've all heard. I listened to Kanye west. I'd listened to let's that blend. I listened to all of the kind of stuff, and it was like, okay, I'm not gonna tell my parents I listened to this, but I love all of this so much. But thank God for my mom because she loved music as well, and she gave me that freedom to just explore in the musical world. But the challenge probably, that I'm running into now is I feel like I can't do it without her because she's so good at it, and I'm. I'm now trying to become my own leader when I've been depending on her my whole life, so. And thank God for that problem. It's a good problem.

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Oh, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah.

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It's a great problem to have.

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Most people would be wishing that they had a mentor slash parent that actually lets you have that freedom. And again, that's why I said, again, I can say this quickly, you know, about her leadership is that she leads in a way that gives you room to grow while still showing you the way to grow.

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Exactly.

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I know there were days when I can tell the story because he was actually in the book when Christian Dentley from Tate six at the time, he was worship leading, I think, in Orlando, but she brought him in. You probably won't even remember this, but she brought him in. Cause I was frozen when it comes to making changes during worship. I was overthinking, and she brought him in and said, hey, work with him. I mean, I don't know how close I was to being fired, but, like, clearly, like, I needed help. And she gave me the room to say, okay, I'm gonna bring in your mentor, someone to kinda like, you know, help you kind of see that. And this is, again, now he's producing. We've had amazing people come in throughout our people that she and Pastor Steve have relationships with.

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Same with me.

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Yeah, yeah. But they saw something in you and in me and gave us room to just grow up to figure it out. It's like, okay, if we don't know what genre we're trying to do or what kind of flow that metro's gonna have, what musical kind of style. It's gone since we've been together working. It's gone from gospel to distinct to more of a rock thing to more this sound to the. And every time, it's like, hey, we have freedom to move, but still kind of have, like, the. The boundaries, right.

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That. That's how my parents were with me. They really just let me grow, but they would introduce me to the right people. They would encourage me to write. They would encourage me. They helped me go out to Nashville and record songs. I was in Dallas once when I was only 2021, and they were helping introduce me to producers and to songwriters. They would. They flew out producers to help me. So it was. They were my biggest, biggest supporters. However, they never protected me from failure, and they never protected me from the reality of that industry, because my mom, she knew the truth about that industry. She knew about the truth of the failures of that industry, and she didn't want to shield me from it completely. She wanted me to kind of spin my wheels a little bit and get it out of my system to really learn about the reality of that world so I can find further purpose. So I'm really grateful with how they handled it. They didn't spoil me. I don't feel like I was spoiled. I don't feel like I got a leg up in any of it. I'm running the exact same race as every other girl trying to make it, and I'm. But I still. They're my number one supporters, and they still come and help center me and center what my role is at church with music, as a worship leader, even outside of church with songwriting, they're just the best at helping me with that.

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Yeah, I have to agree, because, again, I have this firsthand knowledge. But we kind of joked before we started about the whole singers versus musician dynamic, that worship teams, and let's say again. Cause we're talking to an audience of people who work in every sphere of creative life, and especially the do gigs. I mean, I've been on plenty of bands where the lead singer slash director is up front, and then the band's like, cause we live in the same world, but yet we live in two different worlds. When you prepare, like a worship, like, we were just talking about preparing for our Christmas project and getting new songs out and things like that, there's a different level of expectation and mindset. Like, I said, we're both crazy in different ways.

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Yes.

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So, I'm wondering, and this is gonna be, like, where I get to find out what you really think about me. What is the biggest challenge for you in a songwriting position and a worship leader position, working with musicians, not just me, although you can point me out. But what's the biggest challenge? Cause, again, I'm thinking of the person that's thinking, like, okay, how do I handle x? Whether it be egos, whether it be coming on time, whether it be learning music like professionalism, what's the biggest struggle you go through? Getting your vision across to either musicians or producers or whatever when you want to get the songs out.

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Man, I've learned so much. I have been working with bands since I was, like, 15 years old, and all those guys have been my best friends growing up. So I have had a lot of confrontations. I've had lots of successes and a lot of embarrassments, and there's many different things. I think one thing I had to learn was musicians. They are a little weird. And the truth is, I can't blame them. I'm the same way. And the truth is, they spend a lot of their time on their instrument, so that's taking away time from social skills.

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I'm laughing, but something just happened recently. I hate to date this podcast with something sad, but there was a musician that recently passed away that was an amazing musician. One of ushers worked with Usher in Aria de Grande, and everybody keeps saying about him that he broke the mold because they say he was amazing at his gifts. Like, a top five musician in the world. Drumming musician in the world. But he also had social skills. He also was a good person.

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Oh, my God.

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And they said what? Most people at that level don't have that. Don't have that.

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No.

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They stay focused so much on being good.

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Yeah.

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And we give them a pass at being kind of, like, a jerk or being weird or being, like, eccentric. We give them a pass. Cause. But they're so good. And what you're saying is that's just. That's the way you grew to expect that.

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I guess I do. And I've learned. Well, I have a side to that, as well. There's times that if there's music on in the background in a restaurant, I'm halfway listening to the conversation, and I'm listening to the riff. I'm listening to the chord structure. I'm listening. Or I'm singing along, and I will interrupt and go, dang, I love this song so much.

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It's a curse of musical family, man.

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Like, it follows you everywhere you go. So I had to tell myself, like, musicians are just goofy, and they're fun. And one of the lessons I learned early on was, if you're musicians, if the band is jamming out to a song in the middle of rehearsal and they're not focusing, that means that they know the song and they're confident, so back off. Let them enjoy. The only time they stress is when they don't feel confident with the blending of a song, like, and that's when you'll notice, oh, okay. They're focused right now. That's because they. They don't. They don't feel prepared. Give them time to practice. The second they start jamming out, I'm like, they're good. They're confident. They know what they're playing. I could just let them know.

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I appreciate that. There's definitely two lines, I'm gonna confess. There's the other side where it's like, if we just play whatever, maybe she'll won't pay attention to the fact that we didn't practice the song, and we just be like, I'm gonna get it when I get home. But there's so much of that. It's like, you have to be. The flexibility. I think, creatively, we come from different places, but we have to give room. And the Bible talks about this. We could talk about this very specifically in terms of our faith and our understanding that we should have a leg up on other bands where we're on band stands or any creative space where we're dealing with people that don't believe we shouldn't be able to be better at grace.

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Yeah.

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To be better at saying, yeah, let me back off in it.

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But I know. I think that's you. If you're saying what I think you're saying, that's probably one of the biggest things I've had to run into, which is, it's a lot of fun playing in a band, and you have to remember that there's a professional side to it. And if we want, and I have noticed it every single time, if we want to be good, you have to have professionalism. As much as I love the creative space in songwriting and in the musical world, as. As much as I love that it's the. It's the only profession. You could stay up till 03:00 a.m. Jamming out, and you did your work. You did your job. It's crazy.

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It's our job.

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That's our job. And it's so much fun. At the end of the day, though, I've noticed more and more that the ones that actually last are the ones that are professional, the ones that you can rely on, and if you. They have to be a prodigy and a genius at their instrument for people not to do that. But still. John Mayer is one of the best guys ever on the guitar, but he shows up and writes the songs, finishes the songs, records the song, and puts out the songs and goes on tour.

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Yeah.

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And he's responsible, and I've seen it in the Nashville world. The best songwriters, the ones that are winning the Dove awards and the Grammys, the ones that are writing for big names, they are honestly b songwriters, but they are a plus workers.

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Consistent.

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They are consistent. They send the demo, they finish the demo, and they send the demo. They show up on time, and they're focused. They know when to have fun, and they know when to turn it off. And that's something that I've constantly had to, of course, teach myself, but teach, like, a worship team and tell them, hey, if we want to be better as a team, if we want to sound like we're blending, if we want to sound like there's chemistry on the stage, then we have to be responsible, and we have to be here on time. We have to learn the parts, practice the parts. It's just like any other profession, and you have to be professional about it.

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Yeah. I love the fact that you talked about profession, because we just talked about this in our training, I think for. What was it? We were talking about professions. Ah. But we said, oh, in our ministry training. I don't.

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Yeah.

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Our ministry training, it said that a professional professes.

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Wow.

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That the whole point of a profession is, I have faith in x, a lawyer has professional. They believe in the law. Right. Or they. Or doctor believes in medicine. That was the whole point of that teaching.

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Yeah.

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And again, that's. It's why we're getting here. Here at this church, at Metro, it's what your parents, what our pastors have preached. It's like you are what you say you are when you show up. You lead by example, not by parking space. Right. So, musically speaking, just saying, oh, the holy spirit's gonna come in and, like, you know, again, I'm not picking on other churches.

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No, I know.

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But we both know, like, some people like to blame God for, oh, I'm just gonna not prepare.

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I know.

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I'm just gonna show up and God's gonna bless it. And, like, that's not how God works.

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It's not how it works.

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And again, if your doctor showed up and like, I'm just going to feel my way through this procedure, you'd be like, I'm not ever going to you again.

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No. And, you know, I watched that 70 questions, vogue, 70 questions with Taylor Swift, and they asked her, what is creativity to you? And she said, creativity is you get a spark of an idea, and you're able to sit down and put that idea to paper, put pen to paper, write that idea down, complete the idea, and then act on that creative idea. And I was like, that is so not how the church views it. Yeah, we see it more free flowing and just let it go wherever it goes. If it doesn't finish itself, it's fine. If you don't have a bridge, it's fine. But you have people that are professionals at this saying, no, you complete it, and you put pen to paper and you finish that idea. You write that extra verse, you write that bridge that you can't think of right now, and you complete it, and then you act on it. And that is. That's something that, like, even I have to constantly tell myself, if I. If I want to be, at first, an example of excellence around musicians, then I have to be completing my creative ideas always, and pursuing them.

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And from our perspective, that means that I have to be in our working relationship. There have been times that I've had ideas or had things that I kind of wanted to, like, push a certain direction, and it's. I need to give you the space to get there, to get to the complete idea, because sometimes I'm. Oh, well, if we just did this chord or we just did this. But is that working relationship that you talked about? About. Okay, I know that your sound. What? The worship team or the song, if we're gonna be putting out a song, a lot of times I love. I tell people all the time, are you a producer? Like. No, I love being in that space where we're just at the piano and Pastor Maria, you were just. And I just get to come up with chords, and I get to walk out and I let the professionals handle all that stuff.

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It's so much fun.

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But that's where I get to say, okay, am I going to be part of the completion? No, but I help you get there.

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Yes.

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Like, I hope I help them think of the completion. So I'm not so insistent.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah.

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That I need to have, like, I need to put the period on it. I need to have my idea be the completion of it, because you're getting. You're going down that path, and it'll get there. And it's like a trust thing. I think it's like a trust fall thing for musicians and creatives and singers and worship leaders. Like, you're constantly falling back. Like, okay, it's going to get done. I'm going to. And if you're the one pushing, you're.

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I'll get it there.

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You'll get it there. You'll get it there. So I'm going to, like, just help, but I'm not going to be, like, the person that's getting in the way.

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Yeah. Getting in the way of it. And, you know, my mom, she would always tell me that she was always nervous to finish the song because she never felt like it was fully completed, that there was still something to change, still something to add. And I said, well, mom, it's not done until it's out in the world. You can change it even two weeks before it's released. Just at least say, okay, draft one done.

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Yeah.

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Because we've been in the studio putting down the vocals, and then I think, nope, that doesn't feel right. That lyric, that melody doesn't feel right. Let's change it. And what's even greater, better about today, is we release the song. I could still go on YouTube and do an acoustic version of it and add something or change something. But to, like, a lot of creatives, it is totally normal to feel like it's dangerous to finish the idea because this is such a good idea. I feel like more should be added to it. Well, you can. You can still add to it. Just at least get draft one done.

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I'm gonna tell you something, that this is literally coming out of a workshop that I've been doing recently on God's creative process. So tell me if you believe this fits what you just said, okay. Cause we're talking a lot about creatives and what we do. And I said, okay, why don't we look at how God creates? And so if you look closely at that Genesis account, God says, right, I made this. Let there be. Let there be. Let there be. And every single verse, it then says, and God saw that it was good. And then you said, wait, wasn't it good the second he made it?

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Wow.

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No. Like, no, he evaluated it, and then he gets to. And this is where all the ladies are going to be like, yay. He gets the man, and he makes man, and he's, like, not good enough. So, like, God is even. Like, my work was not adequate. Like, he's willing to look back and like, nope, let's fix that again. Like, let's try it again. Potter's wheel. You name as many things God is cool with evaluating and starting over.

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Starting over.

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And so, like, I think a lot of us, we have to give ourselves, again that grace.

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Yeah.

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To say, hey, yeah, the first one wasn't good enough. Let's try it again. But at certain point, I'm going to allow it to exist.

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Yes.

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And then, like I said, I love the collaborative thing that you're talking about. Like, okay, if you didn't, like. Didn't like the first one, let me show it to somebody else. Let me get another songwriter and let me get. Let me show it to the band. Let's keep. And Sundays. Oh, my gosh. Sundays to me. I think that's one of the things that, again, we have an advantage over any other. Maybe Broadway is where they do the same group or maybe the same band. Like, we've had the same. We were just talking. Like, this is crazy. Like, we've had a relationship working for over 1015 years. You know, some of the people in our band have been their junior 20 years. 20, at least.

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Yeah.

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I mean, started with your mom back in the old building.

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Yeah.

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So talk a little bit about that. Like, what is, since we were in a church, about relationship, relationship, relationship. And again, we're talking to people that maybe don't have this.

[00:27:55 - 00:27:55]
Yeah.

[00:27:55 - 00:28:00]
So how important has that been to have relationships that long in your creative life?

[00:28:00 - 00:29:01]
Yeah. I'm glad you brought that up, because I. I really, again, it is such an advantage, and I. The. The whole creative process, I used to be a bit more stubborn about it because I did kind of. I was immature, and I wanted it to be done my way. I thought it was best if I can finish it with what was in my mind, but I wasn't creating a team by doing that. I wasn't using my. I wasn't trusting my teammates. I think your son told me that one time, Marcus told me that. He was like, trust your teammate. Trust your teammate. And I don't know what he was referring to, but I. That little, tiny phrase stuck in my head, and I was like, I need to trust my teammates. So, with you, if we're collabing about a set list, if. If we're doing. We're writing thank you for Christmas. I really trust my teammate because I'm not a piano player. I can't contribute the chords. I don't hear it. And I really believe everybody comes with, like, a made repertoire in their mind. That only. It's their flair. It's their style.

[00:29:01 - 00:29:01]
Yeah.

[00:29:01 - 00:29:14]
That only they can bring to the table. And that's the beauty of collaboration. But trusting the people you've brought into that collaboration. And it happens on song in songwriting sessions, but it also happens on Sunday mornings.

[00:29:14 - 00:29:15]
Absolutely.

[00:29:15 - 00:29:30]
And as a worship leader, you need to utilize that, and you need to let them bring their style. Let them bring their flair, because that style, with a lot of time and a lot of training, can turn into an anointing.

[00:29:30 - 00:29:31]
That's a great point. Yeah, yeah.

[00:29:32 - 00:29:32]
It turns into an anointing.

[00:29:33 - 00:29:37]
It has to be. Had to be given the verse to come. Let patience have its perfect work.

[00:29:37 - 00:29:38]
Yes.

[00:29:38 - 00:29:40]
Right. So patience with the worship team. Patience with, like.

[00:29:40 - 00:29:41]
Yes.

[00:29:41 - 00:29:51]
Like, let the people stay in the place long enough, of collaboration, of playing songs wrong, of making mistakes on Sundays where everyone's like, oh, my God, but.

[00:29:51 - 00:29:52]
How do they miss that cord?

[00:29:52 - 00:30:00]
Or whatever. If we hadn't gone through that, we wouldn't have. And I'm pivoting here. We wouldn't have, you know, how many projects have we done now as mental life warsaw?

[00:30:00 - 00:30:04]
Three. Was Christmas at church overcome and our ep, actually, it's.

[00:30:04 - 00:30:15]
Yeah, I feel like there's more even what you have. We know singles obviously don't really count, but, like, I remember when we first started recording again, and that was fair. That was a fearful moment for me.

[00:30:15 - 00:30:16]
Crazy.

[00:30:17 - 00:30:22]
I'm sure for you as well. Just, again, professionalism, saying, now it's not just Sunday mornings. Not the Sunday mornings. It's less.

[00:30:22 - 00:30:23]
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:30:23 - 00:30:40]
But it's a different mindset. Like, now we have to put out the project. Now we have to get the chords. Right now the producer needs to have this. We're bringing in people who are Grammy winners and have worked with Grammy winners, and they're expecting. And so I think the Sunday things that we've been doing, the consistency prepared us. Would you agree?

[00:30:41 - 00:32:07]
Yes. I'm glad you said that, because I was actually talking to someone who is a worship leader for a newer band, for a newer church, and they don't have musicians that are like professionals. They're just homemade musicians, and they're getting better, and they're just struggling with that whole. We have a bunch of these musicians and singers that aren't professionals. They don't do this in their private life, but they want to be songwriters, writers and singers. And I completely understand that desire that I was. I was that at one point, okay, I'm shocked anybody gave me a chance. But that is a very real feeling, and it goes back to your point about just giving it time. It's for them to become perfect through collaboration and through playing every single Sunday. And I had the gift of having all of these incredible musicians that at my disposal on a Sunday morning. And it was so easy for me to pitch it to you. So easy, because you were really incredible. It was easy for me to pitch it to junior. Yes, your amazing. But that's got to be hard if you're a worship leader for a team that still needs a lot of practice. But you've got to be grateful because that time has been ordained for you. If that means you have to wait years to train up these musicians to become better songwriters, then. And truthfully, nowadays, you might not have to wait as long as you think.

[00:32:07 - 00:32:09]
Yeah, well, yeah, it's shorter.

[00:32:09 - 00:32:10]
It's getting shorter.

[00:32:11 - 00:32:18]
The technology, the accessibility is shorter. But I think what you're saying about, like, the character and the maturity doesn't get.

[00:32:18 - 00:32:39]
You can't skip that process and you don't want to be blowing up and getting asked to go to a church to play or getting gigs. And you're not even sure if you're. You're piano player has character, or you're not even sure who's gonna stick around. That's the scariest thing during a photo shoot. You're like, who's gonna be here in a year when we're doing a photo shoot?

[00:32:39 - 00:32:41]
It's like the band, you're like cropping people out.

[00:32:43 - 00:33:20]
And that's a very scary thought to have. So if God is giving you time as a worship leader who wants to write songs? If you need time to develop your songwriting and to develop your musicianship and to develop your team, see that as a gift. You have all the time in the world. The most popular christian artists are only they're in their forties and fifties. Like Brooke Frazier, she's in her. I think she's 40 now. And Martin Smith, he's in his fifties. They've all grown, they've all gotten married, they all have their kids, they have their church leadership down paths.

[00:33:20 - 00:33:22]
Yes, yes. They're grounded.

[00:33:22 - 00:33:49]
They're grounded. So I think if you find yourself in that position where it's. It's disappointing because the quality isn't there yet, then you need to just trust God, because that's developing the character in you that you need before that whole time comes, and it'll come, it'll come, you're gonna have that song, you'll have that moment where it takes off. If you're really pursuing this world, seriously. And you gotta see if you even like that world.

[00:33:49 - 00:34:36]
Oh, yeah, yeah. Cuz it's not. I've never again this going back to where we are at. One of the reasons why I'm every Sunday musician as much as I can be, and I've never had a desire to tour. I've never had a desire to go. Cause that's not my heart. That's not your heart. You've had the opportunity to do it. You have the talent to do it. But is it your calling? Is it where you're called to? And it's like, no. Like I can say that confidently because of where we're at. Because this is my church, this is where I'm grounded, this is where I'm rooted. And then if God adds to that, we have again, we have people in this church who have been all over the world and yet they still come back. Because it's not about the awards or money or the fame. Because all that, like you said, we have our families. That's what matters at the end of the day.

[00:34:36 - 00:35:41]
And it is really the most amazing feeling to have a worship team that are your friends, that you do life with, that there's nothing better than that. There really isn't people that you sing worship with every Sunday. And you see the impact on the crowd, you see the impact during the conferences, and you get to go to each other's house for dinner that week. There's really nothing better than that. And it's a gift being a worship leader, working with musicians, even the hard days where you're like, is anybody getting it? Is anybody listening to me? Am I becoming a good leader? Am I getting any better? All of that process is such a gift from God, and it is such a fun place to be in, because what you become down the line is better than a professional musician. You become a leader in the music world, and, yeah, you. It's so much fun to write songs, it's so much fun to make music, but to lead people and to really pour into people, there's nothing better than that. There's nothing.

[00:35:41 - 00:35:53]
Okay. I knew you were gonna kill this. I was like, I feel like this has been our. It's been 15 years in the making of an interview where I get to be in the podcast, but I always had to close out with this. So, Stephanie Muna.

[00:35:53 - 00:35:54]
Yes.

[00:35:54 - 00:36:13]
Let's take you back to that 1516 year old. Let's take it back to when you were being asked to step into this world by your mom, who had already done it, and just imagine there's somebody who is where you were, okay, there's somebody that you're talking to right now who is a Stephanie who's about to go into this big world of worship, leading, and songwriting.

[00:36:14 - 00:36:23]
So basically, I'm asking you to talk to your former self. If you could say anything to that person, to you back then, what would be one thing you would say to them to encourage them?

[00:36:24 - 00:37:13]
Figure out who you are and don't get distracted by becoming somebody else. If there are too many voices trying to turn you into too many things, shut off the voices. Figure out who you are and what it is that you want to achieve. If that's being a really good guitar player, choose that. If that's being a really good songwriter, choose that. If that's being a really good photographer, choose that and stick to it. Don't get distracted. Don't get. Get off social media. And don't compare your life to other people. Don't compare your gifts to other people. Don't compare the calling to other people. Find what it is that you love to do that brings joy to your life and become the best at it. And don't get distracted.

[00:37:13 - 00:37:16]
Well, Stephanie, Wenya, my friend, my sister and my sister.

[00:37:16 - 00:37:18]
This is so funny.

[00:37:18 - 00:37:28]
Worship leader, this has been a blessing. And as I have also been privileged to be the producer of this podcast, it was really fun to actually switch roles a little bit.

[00:37:28 - 00:37:28] 
I know

[00:37:29 - 00:37:36]
Let's tell them quickly how to find our stuff. Your stuff. The Metrolife worship. Tell real quickly, how do they find those projects?

[00:37:36 - 00:37:57]
Well, Metrolife worship, it's on all streaming platforms. YouTube, Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music. You can even tell Echo or Alexa. Play Metrolife worship and we will play on your device. You can follow us on Instagram, subscribe to our YouTube, follow us on Facebook and on TikTok. But anywhere you listen to music, you can hear our worship.

00:37:57 - 00:38:01]
That's right. Go check it out. Thank you for joining the God and giggle.

[00:38:01 - 00:38:06]
Stephanie has been for real. Thank you. For real. I feel so honored to do this with you.

[00:38:13 - 00:42:14]
My friend. I wish I could take you deeper into Stephanie and I's relationship. Just the fact that we have been working together for so many years that we get to share ministry together week after week. But that was hopefully just enough to show you how you can actually connect the dots between your ministry, your songwriting, your worship team, whatever it is that you're doing, where you're trying to do the things that will impact your world, your church, and your creative career, and find a way to make those things fit and so that you can bless God and bless others. I'm sure you want to get deeper into what Stephanie has to share as well as the music that she's producing and helping to create at Metrolife church and Metrolife worship. To do that, just make sure you click the links in the show notes. You can follow her, you can stay in touch with her amazing family, and you can continue to follow what she's doing to impact the church and the world and to expand on the gift that God has given her. And maybe as you listened, you'd like to connect with a community that would help you get deeper, more connected, to be around more authentic creatives who know what you want to know and want to grow the way that you want to grow. Well, then you've got to stay connected with God and gigs. Hopefully you've already subscribed. And remember, there's an easy way for you to join our 360 membership. That's where all of us gather. We share tips, strategies and inspiration prayer requests. We stay connected daily outside of social media in our 360 membership. And now we've opened up a new way for you to join and to see what we do and even get some previews of some previously exclusive content. All you got to do is go to guidingigs.com 360 guest that's 360 guest the numbers and you can find out what we are sharing on a daily basis in our own app. It is our own app. We get to share whatever we want without algorithms stopping us. So I would invite you to go there right now and you can find out where people like Stephanie and I hang out and learn from each other. Finally, you may want to give back to the guide and gig show and help out. And we are a value for value podcast. That means you can support us in three ways, which are very familiar to many of you. You can give of your time, which simply means take a moment, share this episode via text or social media post. You can give up your talent. We would love to hear what you have to share. Maybe you've got a new jingle, maybe you're good at administration, or you have an idea for a graphic design. You can send that to allenottingigs.com dot and I would love to share it with the rest of our community. And finally, you might want to share with treasure, which could be in the form of donations, buying products, PayPal. Or you can actually support us through what we call booster Grams on podcasting 2.0 apps. This is the most exciting thing because we are one of few podcasts that already allow you to use little pieces of bitcoin called sats to support us. And trust me, I'm kind of being a prophet here. This is going to be the way much of our creative economy works in the next ten years. Just trust me. Mark it down. You might want to check out a podcasting 2.0 app and start using this to support other creators without any guardrails or guidelines or opportunity for other platforms to knock you off. But that's another podcast for another day. I invite you to go check that out links in the show notes for podcasting 2.0 apps where you can support us with treasure. Well, thank you so much listening you guys, to this amazing podcast with my sister Stephanie. Make sure you join us every single time we go into our lives on our creative checkups that's on YouTube and all the other platforms. And until next time, continue to become the creative that you were created to be. God bless and I'll see you next episode