Nothing But Worship

Matt McCoy, 23, is a recent graduate of the University of Cincinnati. Over the past four years McCoy has been the lead worship pastor at the Tri-County Vineyard Community Church in Springdale.

A San Diego, California native, he moved here right after high school because of the job opening at the Vineyard. “When I first came to Vineyard I was 18,” he said. “I graduated [from high school] on June 1st, I had no idea where I was going. I moved to Cincinnati within 15 days of graduating because I had a full time job at the Vineyard.”

McCoy says he has grown by leaps and bounds while working at Vineyard.

“Looking back… they’ve taught me how to work as a team,” he said. “Work with an organization, manage a team, and my song writing craft has grown, its been stretched a lot.”

With the growth of his song writing skills has came the opportunity to have his music out to the entire world. Vineyard’s record label, Vineyard Music, included a few songs of his on numerous releases.

“In one situation, a song I wrote was recorded by someone,” he said. “They had a girl sing my part, [which] I thought was really cool. Having someone else do my stuff and seeing how other people interpret my music.”

“For my music it’s been awesome having it crafted and recorded. I’ll be tweaking music up to the last minute while recording. I just want my music to come off polished and the way I wanted.”

McCoy’s song, “It’s Your Kindness,” was released on Vineyard Music’s compilation CD, Fascinated. But this isn’t the latest release from Matt because in March he released, Raise the Flag Again, with his band, currently going by his name. This is the first studio-recorded release for the band as it was recorded in Nashville, TN in 2007. He is proud of the CD because it is all his original music and it’s also outside of the box. “There are a few songs that aren’t what’s really in the trend right now,” he said.

Currently McCoy and his band are still unsigned. The release of Raise the Flag Again was done independently.

“No record deals, we’re still independent. I’m open to whatever God has for me and the band,” he said. “Whatever happens I want it to be a God inspired thing. I don’t want to force any doors open or anything. If God told me to quit music next week and do something else I would totally do it. I just want to be able to do whatever God wants me to.

“What’s cool is we can do it without a record deal. It would be nice but we don’t need it. [It] would help us get our music out to more people. Because that’s more and more lives that can be touched through my music.”

Yet even with the release of the CD, McCoy knows it’s not for him but for others, and most of all, God.

“The thing is with the nature of the music [we’re] playing, it’s not really about people knowing our music or becoming famous,” he said. “I feel like God has given me these songs that he wants us to use. We’re going out there to praise God and glorify Him.”

With his recent graduation from UC, McCoy hopes that he can now finally start to travel like he has always dreamed of.

“I’m hoping to travel a lot more and lead worship with people all over the world. My dream is to be able to lead worship with all kinds of people… All different church backgrounds, religions, and languages and just sing these songs for God.”

He hopes he won’t be classified with the rest of the Christian music out there right now.

“I don’t want to be another Chris Tomlin or David Crowder,” he proclaimed. “I’m at that stage in my life where I just want to be my own person.

For more information on Matt McCoy and where you can see him next, check out www.mattmccoymusic.com.

(Photo Courtesy of Matt McCoy)