YOUTH WORSHIP TEAM
MOVE IT ! | Vance & Michelle Shepherd
It ’ s a great thing to have a band that sounds awesome musically and vocally , but one thing we find ourselves continually coaching our youth worship team on is their stage presence . Meaning the way they present the songs to the congregation . Looking confident and having conviction in their playing , as well as having great rhythm , can be a hard thing to cultivate . With nearly every one of our students we find ourselves encouraging them in the same thing : that their visual appearance needs to match the energy and emotion of the song they ’ re playing or singing .
It ’ s a lot easier for them to just focus on the execution of musical parts , not thinking about getting their body to highlight the rhythm or emotion of the song . And while this is fine if the song is a ballad , the up-tempo songs need to be led quite differently . These are songs that rejoice and praise God for His saving grace and love for us . It ' s important that the congregation see the excitement coming from the worship musicians and vocalists on stage . The congregation needs to know that the worship team really believes in what the lyrics are saying by delivering those songs with joy and excitement .
After every worship event , we give each student a video class , so they can see on screen where they ’ re doing well , and also where they might need improvement . This is really eye opening for them ! We play the footage of the opening or closing song that musically has a lot of energy , and then we turn the volume all the way down and ask them how it looks without the audio turned up . They always say , " We look boring ,” or , “ We don ’ t look like we ’ re playing an uptempo song .” They agree that they need to bring more in their presence and execution , but when it comes time to lead worship again , they tend to freeze up .
When we first started our youth worship band , they were leading worship in the K-5 th grade ministries . During this season of the band , we had them doing simple choreography like jumping , side steps , claps on the choruses , etc , because the music in the kid ’ s environment was so high energy . It needed to be presented with a lot of movement and excitement . But now that our youth team is leading worship for adult congregations , we want them to lead from an authentic place in their heart , not like a choreographed “ performance ”. But without that choreography , sometimes there is no movement on stage . A while back , we had one of our new students join our youth worship team . For the stage plot we placed him on the back line by the drummer . But when the band kicked in he had great stage presence , rhythm and energy ! He literally owned the stage , and it just seemed to come naturally to him . Since he was such a new student , he wasn ’ t as skilled yet as our other musicians , but our team needed to have someone that visually had passion , conviction and could groove to the beat when playing .
When we did our second event with him two weeks later , we brought him out on the front line . It was awesome , because his energy was
infectious . The rest of the band had so much more energy when they saw how great he looked . And they had so much more fun . If you get someone on your team that has infectious energy , not only does it create excitement and joy for the band , but definitely for the congregation as well . This was just what the doctor ordered !
If you find that your worship team looks bored on stage or doesn ’ t look like they have much passion when they play , try coaching the band to clap together on certain sections when they ’ re not playing their instrument . You can also work with them on tapping their feet to the beat as an exercise . You may also want to consider implementing simple side steps or jumps ( depending on your type of environment ), just to get the ball rolling or until you get a player or two on your team that has natural groove and stage presence and can lead the way . 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