YOUTH WORSHIP TEAM
I ’ M TIRED OF THAT SONG ! | Vance & Michelle Shepherd
If you ’ re reading this article , you may likely have the high calling of leading the next generation of youth in worship . For us , having a faith based music school has been an incredible blessing , and our belief is that teaching the youth how to become skilled musicians or vocalists is just a small portion of our calling . Teaching them how to play music , to write songs , make great arrangements , etc is important , but the largest portion of what we do in discipling and mentoring our youth is to help them maintain pure servant hearts that are soft and open to God ’ s calling on their lives .
As our students get older , gain more experience and become more skilled in their playing , they get bored easier , and want to have a very quick turn over of songs . And right now , since the youth worship band is their main outlet to play , they want to add in new songs every single time they lead worship , while not necessarily understanding how this effects the churches they serve in .
An example of this is that our school of music leads worship for four different churches around the valley on an average of one Sunday per month . This means it might be two to four months between dates at any one church . As we book the dates for them , we consider each church ’ s style of worship , popular songs in their rotation , etc . We put together a great set list that meets the needs of all the churches , and also added in a new popular song picked by the students .
We decided to keep the same worship set for every church , in order to have the students be able to really master the songs , and also to be very comfortable leading them . The students were really excited about it , but I received a call from one of their parents , with concerns over the set list being the same . She wondered why they couldn ’ t just change the set , and pick out different songs each time , or even learn new ones . She was afraid that her daughter would get bored doing the same songs over and over , and would not be challenged , which is totally understandable . But as we explained to her , repetition is definitely not a bad thing in their musical training , but is a good thing !
Repetition creates confidence and ease in leading , and also creates excellence in their playing . With them leading at a new church , we wanted them to be as rehearsed and confident as they could be . And even though the students would have to lead the same songs again , they would be leading those songs to four completely different congregations . And to keep it fresh and keep the students excited , we like to switch out musical parts so that they ’ re always doing something slightly different musically with the songs . We might switch the piano player ’ s part to the keyboard / synth player – switch the lead and rhythm guitar player roles around , change lead vocals on songs , etc .
After we had the conversation with the parent , we sat down with each of our students , and helped them see that as worship leaders , they ’ re not just learning and playing the songs for themselves , but they are serving the church and also the pastors ’ vision for his congregation . They will sometimes have to lead certain songs until they are personally sick and tired of them ( haven ’ t we all been there before !), but it ’ s important to keep in mind the congregation can only really engage and sing along when they are very familiar with the lyrics and melody .
And a current trend that most churches are experiencing right now is that people only attend church two to three times per month , which should definitely be a consideration in selecting songs that make them engage . And while we do always have our students pick new songs and have a voice with worship sets , song rotation , etc , we want to mentor them to consider that there may be a very good reason why the songs for that Sunday ’ s worship set were chosen . The pastor may want the team to lead a particular song over and over for a few months , maybe because it fits his message series . Or he might feel that a particular song is
really reaching his congregation and breaking down walls . It could be a wide variety of reasons . As a musician , especially a worship musician , you ’ ll always be serving the people you ’ re playing for . For those of us who have played professional gigs , the audience loves to hear certain songs that frankly we may never want to hear or play again in our lives . But in serving the church in worship , we have a much higher calling than just entertaining people . We are serving God and His people .
May you be blessed as you pour into or become the next generation of worship leaders and musicians !
Vance & Michelle Shepherd Founders of The Shepherd School of Music in Las Vegas , NV , where they work with youth to raise up the next generation of worship leaders and musicians . facebook . com / shepherdschoolofmusiclasvegas www . ShepherdStudiosLV . com