YOUTH WORSHIP TEAM
IT ONLY TAKES ONE SONG | Vance & Michelle Shepherd
If you’ re a leader in your next gen ministry, and you’ re lacking musicians and singers, how can you encourage others to join your worship team and be inspired to practice and show up?
If you’ re a frustrated youth worship leader because of a lack of musicians( which most next gen worship leaders are), keep in mind that there usually is no shortage of interest from students wanting to be on the worship team. You just need to be creative, tap in to their excitement and make a way for them to be on your music team, even if it’ s for just one song in the worship set.
If you look ahead and plan out your worship sets three or four weeks in advance, it gives you plenty of time to take two or three students under your wing and give them a little musical coaching( or even better: ask musicians from your main weekend team to mentor them. This is a great way for older, seasoned musicians to pour into the next generation). The goal is then getting them to learn even just a single song in an upcoming worship service. The excitement and buzz it creates for the rest of the students in your ministry to see someone new leading worship with the band creates even more interest, and soon you’ ll have a bunch of new recruits on your worship team!
There have been so many instances where a student comes to us for training that has had prior music lessons, but they wanted to change teachers because they felt stifled with their current lesson strategy. We’ ve had countless parents tell us that their kids had been taking music lessons for one or two years, but they couldn’ t even play an actual song yet. What? They felt bogged down with all the technicalities and music theory, when all they wanted to do was just play songs they love, and maybe get to play in a band.
And while music theory and technique play an essential part in a student’ s musical training to help them become well-rounded great musicians, we’ ve found that in order to inspire them and to ignite their passion for music, we need to set reasonable short term goals for them. Getting them to learn just one song as quickly as possible inspires them and providing outlets for them to play that song in a live worship set with other students … priceless!
You can play a huge role in your church’ s growth and in your next gen worship services. I’ d like to recommend thinking outside of the box the next few Sundays or mid-week services. Maybe you currently have a handful of students that serve in your youth ministry with you. They might be greeters, production assistants and team leaders. Try approaching them and ask if they want to play on the worship team next month? They might look at you like you’ re crazy and say,“ What are you talking about”?
Let them know you want to add more people to your team, and you would like to assign them a simple musical part they could play or sing, even if it’ s just the chorus of one song. Some examples of easy parts you could give them would be holding whole note piano chords on just the choruses of one song. You could have someone play 8th or 16th notes on an egg shaker or tambourine or use a synth keyboard with a tambourine or shaker percussion sound. It will add so much to your front of house mix! You could also ask if they would be willing to sing in unison on just the choruses. In the beginning, you might have to keep their mic low in the mix until they can acquire good pitch live on stage, but it’ s a starting point to create excitement and start building your team.
We’ ve seen firsthand that once these students get to play in a live worship situation, even if it’ s just for one song, or just a bridge or chorus of a song, it definitely lights a fire in them. By keeping it simple and achievable, you can start to build your own youth worship army in your church right now! 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
38 November 2025 Subscribe for Free...