YOUTH WORSHIP TEAM
MAKE IT HAPPEN ! | Vance & Michelle Shepherd
We are now over half way into the new year , and some of us have been committed to our New Year ' s musical resolutions , and some of us have let them fall by the wayside . Maybe it was your hope to become a musician and play on your local church worship team , learn music theory , or a new instrument or vocal style . Whatever your goals were , looking back on the past few months , do you feel that you ’ ve set aside enough dedicated time and energy to reach that goal ? Maybe you ’ re not happy with the results of your time commitment and you see the last few months as a loss of energy . In either case , it ’ s so important that you have a plan , a goal and a time frame to reach that goal .
Here are some strategic steps you can take that will be sure to help you become successful in your musical goals .
This week , why not seek out a group of musicians and vocalists , and share with them the idea of forming a band together ? Pick three songs that you are most experienced playing or singing and schedule a jam night . Once you have your band polished up on the three songs ( however long that takes ), set a day to meet with your youth leader and let them know what you have going on . Toss them the idea that you would like to have your band volunteer to lead worship or do special music for their youth service . More than likely they will be happy to have you and your band – they ’ ve probably been hoping that somebody would step up and volunteer , even if they already have a worship team . You can ’ t ever have too many musicians , and it allows people to be able to rotate . If you put a date on the calendar , it will motivate you and your band to put more time in on your instruments or vocals to be the best you can be for the event .
Most people know about the ten-thousandhour rule : It takes at least ten thousand hours to master any skill . That ’ s a lot of hours ! This method of putting together a team of musicians and working toward the goal of leading worship with them will add to your skill level immensely and get you closer to your 10,000 hours .
If you are the youth pastor or leader at your church , can you imagine someone having the desire to play sports , then working hard to get into shape , running laps , doing push-ups , sit-ups , etc . every single day for two hours without seeing any opportunity in the future to get to play the sport ? How many football , baseball , soccer or basketball players would we have if that were the case ? When we train in something like sports or music , we need an immediate outlet and dates on the calendar to keep us encouraged and driven , and to then excel at it and reach the next goal .
As youth leaders , you have this amazing opportunity and a great platform to grow and cultivate these young future worship leaders and musicians , providing them with a goal and a vision . They simply need to know that there will be an outlet for them to play if they put the time in .
If they never have a goal to work toward , there may become a day when we look back and
say , " the day the music died ". Okay … that ’ s maybe a little dramatic , but It ' s no secret that our churches are struggling to find musicians and vocalists - even in our main houses of worship .
How many people in your congregation do you walk past every week , that used to take music lessons and never pursued it because they never saw the goal ( reward ) in sight ? When I cross paths with these people they always say , “ I wish my parents would not have let me quit music lessons ”, or “ I regret the lost hours in my youth that I didn ' t take advantage of lessons to become a musician or vocalist ”.
Help set the goal for them , give them something to work toward , and they will more than likely have their own built-in time-management and self-discipline , and you will be on your way to helping build your next generation of worship leaders in your church and city !
May you be blessed as you pour into or become the next generation of worship leaders !
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