Terence Scott Cooper Assistant Director of Worship North Coast Church Worship leader/songwriter – 8 years. Wife: Heather – 9 years. Four children

pdwc: Tell us about the church that you serve at, North Coast Church EV Free. What makes the worship experience there unique? 
TC: North Coast Church has been around since the early 1980s. In fact, 1980 was the year Larry Osborn took over as senior pastor. In the years since, he has honed his teaching style into something that is very practical, not mysterious. He has a gift for taking the Bible and presenting it in a way that people can grasp and apply to their lives. It's one of the main reasons people enjoy North Coast Church.

Another thing that makes the worship experience unique is what we call our growth groups. This is our small group ministry which we call the "Hub." We know that many people don't want to be caught up into something so large they disappear. Growth groups give people a sense of family and make it easier to fit into the "bigness” of a big church.

You may or may not have heard of our multiple venues approach to worship and teaching. This is another way we keep a family atmosphere. We will operate eight different venues and have 17 services each weekend, but each venue at the present doesn't have more than 600 people at a service. On our main campus, worship is a different style of music for each venue. Whether it be traditional with hymns and old choruses or the 'Edge' which uses a harder rock/alternative style, we strive to meet as many differences and demographics as possible. At our 'satellite' campuses, the worship has been allowed to develop into what ever the need is for that particular area.

pdwc: How does worship work with a church with so many places to worship? 
TC: On Saturday, we have to be very clock conscious so that each venue lines up for the teaching. The tech team is in constant contact with each other so that they can cue the switch over to "Live" which is the main auditorium where our teaching pastors, Larry and Chris Brown, deliver the message. We have a live feed to the other venues on campus from there. On Sunday, each venue and off-site campus gets a DVD of Saturday night’s message. Because we do multiple services on Sunday, timing is still important.

pdwc: How do you find musicians for all of your venues?  
TC: We develop musicians in-house, raising them up from high school and offering lessons to them, as well as doing periodical 'calls to serve' to our congregation. We ask for godly, experienced musicians to go through our audition process. It's something we have to keep on top of because of our growth. We just recently added another off-site campus to our ministry. It took more than 400 people away from our main campus and we gained that back in less than two months. The new campus meant we had to find more musicians.

pdwc: Does each venue’s team consider itself “independent,” or do you try to build all the teams together as one big team? 
TC: Each venue has certain people who play there more often than other venues, but for the most part, we try to remain connected to each other so that we are on the same page as far as how we lead. All the worship leaders meet with Andy Na (worship pastor) and myself to go over things, talk about ideas, and basically stay connected.

pdwc: I noticed that your church offers a seminar and other support information for pastors who want help starting venues. Can you tell us more about this resource? 
TC: We just recently (October) went to Naperville, Ill., and held a seminar on multiple venues where we answered questions on how effective multi-venues are and how we started ours. We will be doing another one May 8 and 9 in Charleston, S.C. Feel free to check out more info on that at www.multi-site.org for an explanation of the strategies, the how, what, and why.

pdwc: You have mentioned that you are surprised at the number of venue worship leaders from your church that are also “good leaders.” What makes up a good leader? How do you recognize a good leader in your congregation?
TC: Well, there are many different aspects to leadership: How well you manage people, yourself, and time; how well you are able to cast vision; and how good of an example you are to others as a Christian and as a musician are just a few things that make a good leader in the worship department.

pdwc: In the featured guest survey, a lot of people are asking about how different worship pastors stay connected to God as they lead, how they approach their own quiet time, and how they help their teams stay connected spiritually. Would you mind touching on that, too? 
TC: I am a worship leader/songwriter/performer who can't function in God’s presence if I don't make a daily commitment to walk with him. This is something I've had to realize over time in my walk with the Lord. I am very comfortable in front of an audience/congregation and consider myself a pretty decent musician, but there have been times in the past where I didn't connect to God before I began attempting to lead people into his presence. I forgot lyrics, I stuttered when I prayed, I missed chord changes on the piano – it's bad. I used to do a HillSong tune a lot called "I Give You My Heart" and one instance when I wasn't connected, I broke down on stage. It ended up being a powerful moment where I was able to go deeper into the song about surrender and repentance, but it really is true that you can't lead someone where you haven't been.

I find that I am able to function better in worship leading if I start each day physically on my knees laying down my crowns and my will. I spend time in thanks and praise purposely without music so that I can use my own words as best as I can to tell God how great he is in my life. Lately, I've been dwelling on how much I ask for verses how much I'm thankful for. I have a pen-pal in Africa who leads worship, sometimes with no music, and I am amazed at his faith in and total reliance on God. He is working in a country different from his own and awhile ago his visa and passport expired. He was living on pennies compared to me and needed $700 to renew both documents but knew beyond a doubt that since God had him in a place doing his work that he would make ends meet. Of course God came through, but it is things like this that drive me to my knees asking God to empty me of anything and everything that would be a distraction to his work through me. I realize that I cannot force his anointing but it comes when I remember "where my help comes from."