Hi gang!
There are many impressive things I could tell you about Mia, but the first thing I want to say is that she’s hilarious! I met her through a mutual friend, and fell in love with her down to earth Aussie humor and perspective on life.
Mia lives in Sydney Australia and is part of Hillsong where she writes and records. She’s heavily involved with both Hillsong and United, having worked on songs with Joel Houston, Marty Sampson, Darlene Zschech and Reuben Morgan. She also co-writes with worship leaders in a circles much wider than just within Hillsong….like Paul Baloche, Don Moen and Lincoln Brewster. She’s one of those humble yet powerful writers… look a bit closer at the CD sleeves of your favorite worship albums and you’ll probably see her name as a co-writer on a few of them! Some of her best known songs include “All For Love”, “Always” and “Saviour King”.
Mia often says “I never want it to be more complicated than ‘God and People’. Whatever He puts in my hand, whether it be worship or anything else, my prayer is that I would not let it become about anything less.” As you can tell, she has a heart to encourage and input into other people, so I invited her to share some thoughts with us here at WIWN!
Vicky: “How did your journey as a worship leader and worship songwriter begin?”
Mia: “I think every journey with God begins internally, and mine certainly did. I remember from a pretty young age feeling like God was going to do something different with me. I grew up in a town of only 3000 people, and a church of maybe 80? I think God uses very unlikely people, I am certainly a wildcard as far as choices go. I have the total opposite personality of every creative-worship leading person I know and my story is less about having a bunch of impressive talents and more about having a small gift and a whole lot of perseverance. I moved to Sydney and started attending Hillsong Church 10 years ago and began a long process of working hard on my craft as a writer, and building confidence as a singer. Thank God that he sends the right people to speak life into you and draw out the things that you can’t. My worship pastor, Darlene Zschech was and is such a big part of pulling out the ‘singer’ in me. She often see’s the gold in people before everyone else. I think too, that being around excellence has really been the best teacher I could ask for as far as developing as a writer- that, and just taking personal responsibility for what it is that I feel like God has put in me to do. It’s a long obedience, and if I wasn’t in the thick of grace, I would have probably disqualified myself a long time ago- scratch that- I totally would have disqualified myself”.
Vicky: “Did you have female worship leader role models when you were starting out in your ministry in leading and writing?”
Mia: “Obviously I have a real admiration and respect for someone like Darls, she has put more into me than she will ever know this side of eternity. Nichole Nordeman is the other person who has taken me by the hand so many times and lead me to truth. I’ve only ever met her through songs, but she has been a significant stranger for me and I have a lot to thank her for”.
Vicky: “What advice do you have for girls and women who lead sung worship or sing on worship teams?”
Mia: “I’m not sure what the thought is on ‘re-gifting’ when it comes to advice, but probably the best advice I have been given is ‘You have to be under people who believe in you’, and ‘We teach people how to treat us’. The only thing that I’d add, is that perseverance is the great decider in most cases”.
Vicky: “What do you do to have fun?”
Mia: “Well, I am a believer that people are 90% of a good time. I am lucky to have really amazing friends all over the world who always feel like family no matter how much time has passed. My friends Ben and Marty have particularly hilarious senses of humor so if I am with them and their wives, we always have a good time. People = Fun.”
Here is a video of Mia and Marty sharing their songwriting process.
Thanks Mia! Hope you guys enjoyed reading her words of wisdom!
Love,
Vicky
